21st at Fort Langley

For the longest time, it had always bugged me that on birthdays, people would always ask how it feels to turn the age I'm turning. You're 21 today?! How does it feel? Do you feel any different? Well, yes, as a matter of fact,  I did turn another year older, but no, there is no marked difference between who I was before and who I was after the clock struck midnight on the 11th of November.

This year however, my response was a little less prickly. There was no massive change that delineated my earlier years from where I am now. However, rather than preoccupy myself with determining pivotal, life-altering points in my life, all I could think about was how lucky I am. 

21 years on this Earth, and I am still standing. 21 years on this Earth, and I have gotten past every problem that I thought would lead to my demise (dramatic, I know, sue me). 21 years on this Earth, and I have stumbled into some kind of wonderful. 

And on my 21st year on this Earth, I got to celebrate with some of the greatest people I have come to know. 

Never have I been one to enjoy waking up early. I am a night owl at heart and so given the chance, I will always choose to sleep in. Few things however, are the happy exception -- one of which is going on adventures. 

Finally, finally, finally, I got the chance to go on an adventure with this batch of creatives pictured above. For months, and arguably even years, we were struggling to get everyone together. The problem with growing up is that everyone's schedules become increasingly filled with responsibilities, and with a group as large as ours, it's hard to find common ground. Luckily enough though, all our timetables seemed to align perfectly on my birthday. 

Ever since I got the chance to wander Fort Langley around that area two summers ago, I have been dying to head back, and this time around, I took twelve other people with me. Packed in five cars, we headed straight for the park in the area where we walked along the Fraser river. Practically everyone had some sort of gadget to capture the moment with. Our arsenal ranged from smartphones, go-pros, disposables, analogues, and SLR's. It was quite the sight to see. 

Afterwards, we went to Lelem Arts and Cultural Cafe for brunch where the line was long (presumably due to the holiday), but the food was fantastic, and don't even get me started about how dreamy the hot drinks menu was. We were sat on a long rectangle table and so it was a bit tricky to get a good shot and so rather than awkward group photos, I got everyone to pass on my disposable camera and take a portrait of the person across from them. Needless to say I am definitely looking forward to getting the roll developed. In the end, we took one last detour towards the docks for the last few shots before heading home. 

The day ended in the same way it began, at home with my family. Earlier on, when the clock first struck midnight, I was eating cake and opening presents. In the evening, we had dinner at Milestones and took another detour to Boston Pizza for the Piescraper that I have been craving for so long. 

Ultimately, this was unarguably my most favorite birthdays. It was a welcomed change that as I headed to bed, all I could think about was how grateful I was. Anyhow, enough of my lengthy re-cap of the day. Below are some of my favorite shots that I took of our little adventure. 

Stay gold,

Kimberly