Tonight, Tonight, Tonight (warning: long blog with many pictures ahead)

Yep, that's for sure. This past weekend, which is a holiday long weekend in Canada, has been a weekend of three big nights (and days). Where to begin? I suggest at the beginning.

This year was the sixth annual Norris Redpath Memorial Golf tournament. The tournament itself is on the Saturday of every Civic Holiday long weekend, but the true competition begins on the Friday night. On Friday night, I drove up with my brother Jordan, and sisters Jessica, Kari, and Laura-Jean, for the "pro-am", which is basically a family-wide night-long drinking contest. I was the defending champion because I won the pro-am last year, but I didn't repeat as the winner this year -- however, my cousin Kristen, who was my golfing partner on the Saturday, did win it. When I found her she was still sleeping by the campfire, all alone. And here are some selected photos from the pro-am:

Tent city

Brian "Curly" Lombard. He was my partner last year, and he is also quite possiblythe funniest man alive!

My Grandma and Grandpa

Kristen, Jordan, and Kari in the back

Some of my Uncle John's friends

Fallen soldier Kari (the next morning)

Fallen soldier Jen (the next morning)

And that was the pro-am! The next morning (after only 3 or 4 hours of sleep myself), we got up, hopped in the swimming pool for a quick swim (instead of a shower) and got ready to go golfing. I was partnered, as I mentioned, with cousin Kristen, and we were golfing with the pairing of my brother Jordan and my cousin Warren. Neither of us groups golfed very well, however, Jordan did manage to hit my Uncle Dale with one of his drives. It was actually a scary situation, as he could have killed him, but once we drove over and made sure he was okay we had some laughs about it. If any of you are curious, the shot hit him in a place where no man should ever have to be struck...if you are a girl, you cannot imagine the pain my Uncle Dale must have been in -- kudos for finishing the last 5 holes Uncle Dale! And while Kristen and I didn't golf well enough to earn any good placing, I was lucky in the raffle, winning a 1.75 litre bottle of Crown Royal Canadian rye whisky, which I have given to Mom and Larry as a substitute for the two months room and board that I'm not paying this summer :) Here are some selected photos from the golf tournament:

I know you can't really see us, but that's our foursome: Warren, Jordan, me, and Kristen

The beautiful Duntroon Highlands

That's Warren checking out the tee block

The front nine holes

The vista over Collingwood and Wasaga Beach

Wasaga Beach, zoomed in

Jordan, cranking a drive

Warren, cranking a drive

Me, cranking a drive

Jordan, cranking another drive (he won the junior's longest drive competition with this shot!)

Me, cranking another drive (I sprayed this one way out to the right)

Warren, cranking another drive

And Kristen was cranking the drives too ;)

Me and my prize of Crown Royal

After the golf tournament was over, and dinner eaten, and prizes claimed, Jen, Jordan, and I drove over to Gulleyfest. Gulleyfest, for those who don't know, is an annual reunion of the entire Gulley family, including all cousins, uncles, aunts, grandparents, in-laws, and of course a few friends. Each year it has about 1,500 to 2,000 people in attendance. It is so big that we have to rent out the Collingwood fairgrounds and hire private security -- I need an invitation every year to get into my own family reunion. Crazy. But every year I get to see my cousin Chris, who was my best friend growing up but I never got to see too often because he and his family have lived in the U.S.A. for my whole life. We did lots of partying and catching up, and even played a little old drinking game called flip-cup. I didn't stay up too late this night, because I was already a little bit drunk from the golf tournament during the day. Here are some selected photos from Gulleyfest:

Inside the music barn

Me and my sister Jessica

My cousin Chris and I

Cousin Wesley, cousin Josh (Chris's brother), Uncle Tim (Chris's Dad), and two of Josh's friends from the U.S.A. celebrate after a sweet victory in flip-cup

Chris and I again, a bit drunker

Chris, Jen, and Jessica, the next morning

Some cars and trailers at Gulleyfest

And finally, the last piece of the puzzle, I drove down from Gulleyfest on Sunday morning back to Barrie. I packed a new bag, and headed down to Niagara Falls for my friend Chris Sherry's bachelor party (the wedding is this Friday...pictures and stories to come later next week). Anyway, my arrival at this party was a surprise. I told Chris that I couldn't make it because of my Gulleyfest commitments, and I used that excuse to surprise Chris with a bachelor party "striptease", of which all the other guys were aware I'd be doing. Now, this whole striptease thing has a bit of a long back-story that can't be done justice on my blog (ask me in person sometime), and it involves Chris doing the exact same thing a few years ago (Koneesha was her name :P) Anyway, I don't enjoy dressing up in women's clothing, and for proof of my pure heterosexuality scroll down to two blogs ago and look at the pictures again. I think Chris was well surprised by the little feature presentation, and then I joined the party in progress. We had a pretty fun night all in all. I won't divulge all the details, but I will share two things: 1) nothing got crazy or out of hand, and 2) I won $100 on the roulette wheel at Casino Niagara....boo yah! Here are a few pictures from the bachelor party:

Mr. Bachelor himself, Chris Sherry

Kevin, Jesse, and Chris, in front of Casino Niagara

The whole group of bachelors in front of the hotel, just before we all left

Whew! Now keep in mind that all of this took place over the course of about 80 hours. I'm a trooper I tells ya! I'm sorry for the immense size of this blog, but I figured that since I don't update so much in the summer that you might appreciate a big post. Also, the August Civic Long weekend is probably the most important occasion of the year for me every year, so the size of this post represents the importance of these occasions. I hope you enjoy the pictures. I still miss you Niky, and I can't wait to see you again in less than a month now.

Till next post...