In the Blink of an Eye

Time has this odd way of passing me by lately, it seems I blink and so much 
has happened and here I am in September already, what happened to summer? 

The biggest event of this summer is my son got married!  
He and his new bride are so in love and it's beautiful to see! 

The first dance as husband and wife

It was wonderful how the wedding was a real family event; my oldest son was his brothers best man, my daughter was a bridesmaid and our precious Elyssa was the flower girl.  My job, to sit back and be Mom! :-)

This wedding was definitely the highlight of my summer! One of my latest ventures was a week of work in the NWT, then I was on holiday and I spent a week in Las Vegas... a place I've always wanted to experience and if time permits I'll share a bit about this later today. 

Color Me RAD

On Saturday I met up with 7 other family members and we went out on a fun run.  The run was to raise money for Santa's Anonymous and what a fun run it was.  This is a before the race with my daughter...

And this is after the race...

Now you see why this race is called Color Me Rad, we got colored all right! 

And this is family members who also participated in the race...

Even though life has been busy with work, some things will never change with me; I still make time for fun in my life and I fully intend to continue to do so! 

Cheers!

The Bridal Shower

 My son is getting married next month and the bridal shower was a success.  My daughter, who is the bridesmaid, and the maid of honor planned a backyard celebration; the weatherman cooperated and the weather was absolutely beautiful.  Below are a few of the photos I captured...

Decorating the yard

The Mimosa Bar

Left to right:  My beautiful daughter, the gorgeous bride to be and her best friend the maid of honor

 We had a photo booth set up, this is me and my princess who has grown so much and she's in the wedding party, she's going to be the flower girl

The cake made special for the shower, and what a cake it was! 

The bride and her bridal party

It's not much longer when the happy couple will be saying "I do."  Welcome to our family Sam! I wish both of you a lifetime of love, laughter and the ability to overcome any obstacles which may get in your way of genuine happiness.  

Work - Life Balance

There's so much I've been doing in life, between work and life balance the work is a bit top heavy; however, most of the time my work isn't work.  Sure I get a paycheck, yes I have to get up early in the morning Monday to Friday; yes I also trouble shoot and attend meetings and I do all work related stuff.  But, what makes my heart dance and my work turn into passion is sitting with those who come to us in search of help, those who often see no way out and are looking for responses... that's the easy part of my "job".  My philosophy is that we all have our own answers, it's often as easy as guiding those in search of a response to their own answers.  At times my work is challenging but at the end of the day when I'm driving home I feel good about what I've chosen to do with my day and the larger part of my "pay" is watching those who have no hope become hopeful either for the first time in their life, or once again. 

I work with an incredible team, I am able to participate in ceremony and seriously, check out the photo... I arrived at work one morning and this was the view.  I've often times spotted moose, deer, eagles, and it was either a large fox or a small coyote the one day, naturally when I don't have my camera in my hand! 

 As for the work/life balance, I get together with my children as often as I possibly can, I love having my granddaughter spend the night at least once a month, I went away to a conference last weekend, spent two glorious nights in a beautiful hotel and (this one surprises even me) I'm now taking yoga classes at least three times a week!   I'm starting to clue into this work/life balance, one day at a time! 

And what's a blog post without showing off my princess?  It's been far too long since I've been blogging and now that I remember I used to blog daily, you just may be seeing a bit more of me in the near future! 

Our princess is growing up far too quickly! 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone, cheers. 

Poundmaker's Annual Pow Wow

As mentioned in my last post, right after the wedding ceremony I had to go to work.  I don't normally work weekends, however, as it happened where I work hosted their annual Pow Wow.  I shot tons of photos, between helping in the canteen, paying out dancers, and pitching in where I was needed.  Now the challenge is which photos to post. 

I'll start with this photo, it's one of my favorite!  This Pow Wow was by far the biggest one in the area this year, with over 800 registered dancers on the Sunday and packed grandstands (standing room only) it was busy! 

The children always capture my heart...

We were blessed to have dignitaries from the Northwest Territories in attendance and a few of them played a couple of songs, what an honor to hear this. 

The main event of the pow wow was Iron Man and Iron Woman competitions, the dancers danced for a new car.  This was surreal to witness, the last two women danced for 45 minutes, then the judges were brought in as neither of the women were about to relent, in total they danced 48 minutes!  This next photo is the woman who placed second, she was amazing! 

Poundmaker's Iron Woman 2016

The men didn't dance quite as long as the women did, the winner of the Iron Man contest danced for 41 minutes and he's a repeat winner, rightfully so.  He danced like there was no tomorrow and earned the car he won, now he has a new vehicle to drive back to California! 

And one final photo, as I mentioned it was challenging to pick which ones to share, but I hope you enjoyed the pictures.  If you've never been to Pow Wow, I highly recommend you take one in, it's not only something to witness, it's something to feel. 

Ooops ... Time's Run Away On Me

I just realized I haven't posted on my blog in quite some time.  My last post was my great niece's bridal shower and the wedding has now come and gone; she got married on  August 6 and what a beautiful princess bride she was! 

Dad hugging his princess before he gives her away...

Making it official...

Me and my amazing family who I am so proud of! 

Congratulations David and Ashley!  May you have a lifetime of joy, happiness and immense love for one another through all of your experiences! 

Unfortunately I was not able to attend the reception, I had to go to work...

 you'll see in my next post what work entailed. 

Something Old, Something New

This weekend was my great niece's wedding shower, she's getting married in August.  The party was a 50's housewife theme and what a fun event!  This is the bride-to-be on the right and my beautiful daughter on the left; both looked absolutely amazing! 

From the games to the decor, everything was extremely well planned, and what a ton of fun! 

A take home gift for each of the guests from the bride-to-be...

 One of the games was smell the spice and guess what it is, I didn't far well at all which surprised me, mind you my main spices are garlic and dill! :-)

So much fun! Ashley, Auntie wishes you a lifetime of joy and happiness, I'm totally looking forward to your wedding but if the shower is any indication of emotions I know I'd best be bringing a box of tissues for your Aunties!

  

It's Soccer Season!

I managed to get off work, head home to let Abbie out, and made it to watch Elyssa play soccer...what an amazing player she is! 

Nothing like a proud Grammy moment here as I was watching this young lady glide across the field, taking the soccer ball clear to the other end, nearly scoring a goal! 

Sheer determination...

  "Excuse me coach, can I please go in goal before the game is over?" 

Wise decision coach! :-) 

New Toy

For my birthday this year my children asked me what I wanted, I couldn't think of anything I need ... then a flash of brilliance popped into my mind.  I asked my middle son if it would be tacky to ask for a contribution towards a new toy... he said "Not at all,"  so that I did.  And here's my birthday present, which I'm getting accustomed to one shot at a time! 

There's some pretty neat features in this Rebel, I can not only do simple edits right in camera, I can also use my cell phone as my remote, I can send photos to my phone which allows me instant upload, it's a 24mp vs the 18mp the T5i is and there's more, as I mentioned I'm still learning. 

Thank you Shayne, Sandy, Derek, Sam, Michelle and Elyssa; 

I absolutely LOVE my new toy! 

Happy Birthday

My girl is already six years old, wow, time sure flies!  For her b'day this year she picked West Edmonton Mall Marine Life adventure.  The children, and a few of us adults, got to see a real live penguin along with a private teaching on penguin's. 

After the penguin experience the children were given a close up view of some pretty neat critters and they got to go and see the marine life which included sharks, all sorts of fish, and my favorite... a giant turtle! 

They got to feel some of the oddest looking critters, ones I passed on touching! 

And next there was the seal show.  Being the birthday girl Elyssa got a kiss from the one of the seals, then it posed for a photo with her! 

To celebrate snacks and cupcakes were served on a Captain's ship, then gifts were opened. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the day, one of the best ways I could have possibly spent my Mother's Day! 

Happy Birthday precious Elyssa, six... wow, where does the time slip away!