Joel
Joel lives for introducing people to new things, though he also gets pretty excited about rock climbing, photography, cycling, dancing, singing, renewable energy, and cooking delicious food (…and many more!). After University he lived and worked in India for a year and a half as a solar power engineer, followed by a few other adventures on the way home. He now works at Morgan Solar, a solar company based in Toronto and has also engineered many of the adventures we've been on, like canoe camping, winter camping, and a road trip up the California coast. He dreams, he schemes, and his family and many friends will agree that life is more exciting with him in it.
Heather
Heather grew up in Edmonton but has called Toronto home for the past ten years. During that time she's had plenty of excitement, adventures and interesting jobs. Ask her about crushing hearts (with mortar and pestle), cutting eye balls or teaching kids to code!
She is also an active member/organizer in the Toronto swing and blues dance communities (helps make the crazy ideas happen! sure 10 people can sleep on my floor!); one of her greatest passions is building communities with people who have a similar passion and exuberance for life!
She now works as a software developer at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and fills the rest of her time with friends, dancing, cycling (year round), reading, and occasionally cooking delicious food.
his family
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her family
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David, Andrew, Matthew, Joel, Anne
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Ian, Fran, Mark, Heather, and Luke in back
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The engagement story
The last weekend in September was beautiful and warm and we were headed up to Joel’s family cottage on Lake Nippissing with a couple of friends. We arrived late Friday night, soaked in the cool night air while we shared a drink, and Joel laid the groundwork: “let’s get up early and go for a paddle at dawn”. Heather was skeptical, and definitely not a morning person…
In the grey dawn before sunrise the alarm went off and Joel was up. Heather was too, though somewhat reluctantly. Soon we were bundled against the morning chill, sitting in his grandfather’s cedar-canvas canoe and paddling east across a still lake towards where the sun would soon rise. As the first rays of the sunrise turned everything golden, Joel steered towards a small island. Ten feet off-shore (in case of tipping), Joel asked Heather to turn around. Heather slowly pivoted; legs out over the water on one side, her torso out the other for balance (Joel held his breath, this would be a poor time to tip). She was facing east lit up by the sunrise, he was kneeling in the canoe: “Heather will you marry me?”… “Yes! Of course yes!” And we didn’t tip! It was a golden moment, surreal. He quickly handed her the ring and paddled away from the approaching rocky shoreline.
It was a beautiful morning. Mist was rising off the water and they were out for a paddle, why turn around just because we got engaged? Instead, we decided to paddle up a winding creek, exploring. Things couldn’t have been staged better: a flock of ducks took off as we approached, a heron rose lazily through the mist, we rounded a bend as a beaver dove and then resurfaced. Serendipity was strong this morning!
Upon returning to the dock, Heather was distracted (understandably) and didn’t immediately notice the picnic table set with a hot cooked breakfast and champagne (our friends were in on the scheme). More laughter, toasts and calls to parents and revelling in the late summer sun, a perfect day and start to our new adventure!