Just a quick post to say buh-bye for now! M and I are taking off to warmer places for a few weeks. Rest assured I will still be checking emails when I can, but response times might be a tad slow! Thanks everyone for your patience!
Archive for January, 2011
This post is so long overdue its completely ridiculous. Get ready ya’all its a doozie!
In the spring of 2009 I was given the amazing opportunity to travel to Australia as part of the Rotary International Group Study Exchange (GSE) for our district 5060 to district 9550 Northern Australia. It was a long time dream of mine to take off to the land of OZ. But never, ever did I think it would happen like this! GSE was an life experience that was bigger and better than I could have ever imagined. Honest! We travelled from Darwin to Katherine, then through the Northern Outback areas of Tennant Creek all the way to Charters Towers, to Townsville, Magnetic Island, Innisfail, Ingham, Misson Beach, Tully, Green Island, into the tablelands of Mareeba, Atherton, Port Douglas, finally Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef! PHEW! And we made a fancy little blog to keep our family and friend back home in the loop! The journey took us 5 weeks and introduced me to 5 important people that would become my family over those 5 weeks. We laughed together over sleepless nights on the bus, first time cuddles with koalas, white water rafting trips, monsoon thunderstorms, kangaroo steaks and crocodile sausage, yacht sailing, snorkeling and scuba diving. The quality of the experience was top-notch as during our time there we job shadowed and shared with our professional colleagues from down under new ideas. We were fortunate to be paired up with host families and we were able to experience Aussie day to day life which was so enriching and so unlike anything I have ever done before! Mucho thanks to facebook, and email I still keep in touch with some of my “parents” and “siblings” that I really connected with during my stay. how cool is that?
SO here is the deal! If you are a young and FUN professional (any kind will do) between the ages of 25 and 40, you LOVE to travel…you need to do this. Every year there is an exchange that takes place between pretty much every Rotary District. I applied on a whim, thinking “no way am I ever going to get in on this” I was probably the youngest person who showed up! do it do it do it. Rotary Group Study Exchange. You will not be sorry and its not going to cost you a thing!
After GSE wrapped up in Cairns my best gal Rachelle flew in from Saskatoon. (dont you love a friend who jumps on board with you on your crazy adventures?). The two of us backpacked it down the eastern coast of Australia along the sunshine coast and the gold coast. We sailed the Whitsunday Islands, caught a couple waves in the Town of 1770, soaked up rays in Surfers Paradise, flew over the countryside in a hot air ballooooon, biked around Byron Bay in the wee early hours to see the sunrise at the famous lighthouse, ate a whole lot of seafood, and walked a bazillion steps around Sydney and Bondi Beach. Many of these gorgeous places we visited have been affected by the massive flooding in Aus in one way or another, all my thoughts and prayers go out to the families and travelers navigating the chaos. Hoping for flood waters to regress and recovery to start soon.
The photos are a smattering of highlights from the trip! enjoy!
“live in sunshine, swim in the sea, drink the wild air” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
I captured this shot on a crispy, cool morning this Sunday after a blanket of snow covered over Osoyoos (a rare treat that I very much enjoy)! Taken from the famous “lookout” enroute to a full day of snowboarding at Mt. Baldy. I played tourist and made us stop, the Ashnolas looked supreme in the early morning sun. Dont you think? Oh and in case you were curious, the conditions at Mt. Baldy were excellent. A foot of powder over night meant we were cutting fresh tracks all day long. Sweet honey nectar…it was so good. Now go, get some!
M and me. On August 14 2010 we committed to loving each other, supporting each other, holding hands and laughing together for the rest of our lives. What a perfect day it was. Surrounded by our closets friends and the people we love most we celebrated the start of a new life together. We were so lucky to be married on the property where we very first met in 2003. Bird’s Eye Cove farm. The home of our very best friend Sara. The property has always been a special place for me since I was a wee little thing. At 10 yrs old I met Sara in Disney World, Florida. randomly at a conference our parents were attending. we were inseparable. Sara and I became penpals and we were darn good pen pals too! a year later my parents tossed me on a plane to spend a week with her family. since Sara’s parents were just as awesome as my parents they threw her on a plane the following summer to come check out my home on the Manitoba flat lands. This trend continued for years…and on one fateful trip to the island to celebrate Sara’s Uni graduation I met Malcolm. And life as I know it was no longer the same. His positive energy and outlook on life was infectious, his genuine heart, love for people, his stories of island adventures, zest for the great outdoors, and an innate ability to fix everything, and hunt for anything (antlers, sunglasses, animals), that shopping isnt shopping its “gathering supplies”, not to mention his darling dimples and that he cries every time he slices an onion open.
I am a lucky lady loo.
I was always the girl who didnt bat an eye at wedding planning, never thought about it and didnt really know where to start when it was finally my turn! Luckily I have some awesome girlfriends who got me started and there was no looking back. I LOVED PLANNING OUR WEDDING! Every bit of it. From pushing M around on 4 stories of scaffolding watching him string lanterns in the barn for 4+ hours, all the DIY projects I took on, down to finalizing the stationary and all the bits between! I was (and still am) chronically addicted to a few fab wedding blogs that I share with many of my new brides and girlfriends. Our location was super inspiring and motivated me to pay attention to the little things. The special touches. oh how i love them. The small details that Jamie Delaine, our photographer captured so perfectly.
Big news! This week our wedding finished in Jamies top 3 Best of: 2010 Weddings ! How cool is that?
Check out her link to read more about it and catch a sweet little summary of our wedding slideshow there, or HERE!
And because I literally literally cannot choose a favorite, I picked a smattering of random highlights from our big day to share!
Beautiful little Bella is turing ONE this month. Amazing how the grow and how time flies! M and I cooked up a delicious breakfast my great and long-time friends Shelley, Randy and Bella when we were home for the holidays. Miss B for breakfast she preferred to eat the grapes, only grapes and lots of them. And that was fine by the rest of us she’s so darn cute she can have whatever she likes for breakfast! I had my camera with me and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to capture one of my favorite girls just before her big birthday! So here are a few impromptu snaps from the morning! Happy Birthday baby girl xo
