... funny things are everywhere

a beautiful Montebello wedding

Jamie and Ellyn had the most beautiful wedding yesterday. We drove up to Montebello QC and stayed the night, partying until the wee hours (or in my case, partying until one of my kids wanted to go to bed!). We had a lovely brunch in the morning, and then Mike and the boys dropped me off at work at lunchtime.

Here are a few pictures from the very special occasion:

Chateau Montebello, a beautiful place to have a wedding.

 
 James and Grandpa John

Signing the register... making it official.

Andrew, Adam, Gracie and Jill :)

 
the only picture of me... an afterthought, after the decent lighting was gone. I hate flash photography. *sigh*

Mike and Gracie at the reception.

Gracie and Thomas, the next day.

There are tonnes of other pictures too, but this sampling is enough to get an idea of how HAPPY everyone was. Gracie was THE most photogenic of all the wedding guests. She was so cute... every time, after anyone took a picture of her, she'd run over to the photographer and say, "I wanna see!"

So this post marks the end of summer vacation in our household. It's been a busy but fun summer here. It sure seems to have gone by quickly though. I can't believe it's time for the boys to start school again tomorrow. *sigh* Wish us luck!

visiting with family

Later on today, my step-sister-in-law (don't ask... it's a long, convoluted explanation) will marry someone who has been a dear friend since their childhood days. I am so happy for them and so very excited for the opportunity to gather with the extended-extended family for this occasion.

Mike's sister, Jill, is in town from Calgary with her hubby and kids. YAY!

Now that I think about it, Jill and Andrew's wedding was the last one the boys attended. That was nearly four years ago now. Thomas and James were soooooo cute all dressed up for that wedding. Here are some of the pictures from that day in 2005.

The guys won't be quite so dressed up today. I chose something a little more casual, since the bride herself said that she wouldn't be wearing full-length dress... or white, for that matter. Ooooooh, I can't wait to see what her dress will be like!

Anyway, we had dinner with Jill, Andrew, Gracie and Adam last night. And Mike's mom and brother were there too. Thomas and James played hide and seek with Gracie... it was so cute to hear her count and to see her reaction whenever she'd find one of the boys. Very cute.

Gracie really took a shining to James, and I have to say I was impressed with how he played. He's not usually interested in littler kids, but it was just like the time my cousin, Thomas, visited with his kids. James seems to understand the family connection.

Here's a fun one... Gracie is making Uncle Chris hit himself in the head. :)

And finally, a shot of Grandma and her faraway grandkids.

Okay, I need to do some laundry, cook some lunch and then get ready for the wedding. Tune in next week for wedding photos! :)

Toronto (part 2)

Okay, so we were in Toronto for less than 48 hours, but we sure managed to cram a lot of stuff into our trip. In retrospect, I am very impressed that my 7 year old managed to keep up with the pace... poor kiddo. :P

After the show and dinner on Wednesday afternoon, we took the subway and bus up north to Markham to visit my Aunt May. She had to work until 8:00 (which is James' usual bedtime!), so we timed our arrival at Pacific Mall to coincide. The three of us went to a Vietnamese place... James and I had a late night snack while she had her dinner. She got me all caught up on the family gossip (wow, my mom's siblings are an interesting lot!) while James played games on her BlackBerry. Even though we didn't get to spend a whole lot of time together, we all enjoyed the visit.

(ugh! that flash again!)

The next morning, James and I walked from our hotel to the CN Tower where we rode the super-fast elevator to the top.

...

Mike and I had been there before, but I don't think we paid the extra to go up to the second level. It was really clear that day, and we could see across Lake Ontario to the United States. We found a few landmarks while up at the top... our hotel (easy to spot, since it had "Sheraton Centre" on it!), the CNE fairgrounds, the CBC Building (right across the street)... and we found the general direction we'd travelled to see Aunt May the night before.

We stood on the glass floor...

... and then we asked some nice tourists to take a picture of the two of us together. :)

 

We shopped for some souvenirs at the gift shop (holy pricy stuff!), and then I managed to get this shot without getting too icky from lying on the ground. Not bad for a little point-and-shoot camera, eh? :P

...

After that, we headed back to the hotel, grabbed our things and caught the train back to Ottawa. James read three new books we'd bought at Indigo, and he was VERY happy to see his dad at the train station 4.5 hours later. As for me, I was glad to see Mike and Thomas... but mostly, I was happy to have taken a very special trip with my littlest guy. :)

The hills are alive...

... with the sound of music. :)

James and I are back! We went to Toronto for a whirlwind trip... took the train to Union Station, stayed at the Sheraton (oooh-la-la, very fancy!) for a couple of nights, saw The Sound of Music at The Princess of Wales Theatre and did some other touristy things.

-----

Here he is, reading on the train on the way down to T.O. He reread seven of the Magic Treehouse books from his collection. It only took an hour or so... I guess we should have brought more reading material, but we were trying to travel light.

-----

We hit the shopping mall that first morning... you know, to get the buying of souvenirs out of the way. ;)

Indigo was BY FAR his favourite store at the Eaton Centre... it was there that he found this:

"I've been waiting for this Magic Treehouse Merlin Mission paperback for SO long now. I'm so excited. I can't wait to read it!" (I made him wait until our train ride back to Ottawa.)

-----

This was the highlight of our trip. We had great seats, about 20 rows from centre stage. I actually took NO pictures before or after the show (and of course, none during the show... although there were a number of cameras in the theatre, and people were being told, over and over, that cameras were not allowed inside the theatre)... this picture was taken the next day, when James was telling me that he really wanted to see the show again.

-----

Yes, it was fabulous production. The set was really well done, and the music was so... so... how can I say it? It was a real feel-good experience. They all had such strong, beautiful voices (even the five-year old who played Gretl), and the songs were all so familiar and comforting. The characters were different than they were in the movie... funnier and larger than life. I walked away from the experience, vowing to take James (and Thomas, if he's interested) to more live theatrical and musical performances.

We got to see my fellow 2peas Pubster, Lisa Kisch, perform. During the show, we spotted her as a nun and then as a party gal in a beautiful gown... and then as a nun again. She took us for a backstage tour afterwards. That was so cool... we got to see the costumes, the wigs, the scenery, the secret entrances and the hill that Maria sang on (which was also the mountain they climbed at the end).

We went for Thai food after that... mmmmmm!

(So sorry about the interesting skin tones we have, Lisa. I tried my best, but I'm no miracle worker with PSE. Have I mentioned how much I hate using the flash on that little Canon Elph point and shoot?!)

Thanks so much, Lisa, for making our Sound of Music experience even more special! :)

-----

I do have more pictures and stories to share, but I'll have to come back with another post tomorrow. It's bedtime for this tired traveller. Thanks for sticking with me 'til the end of this long-winded post. :P

wow, am I ever tired!

You know what? Nine workouts in three days is a lot, especially for someone MY age! :P

I didn't actually DO every little bit of every workshop I attended, but I'd say I did anywhere from 30-90 minutes of exercise in every single workshop I took. I snuck off to the edge of the floor to jot down a few notes from time to time, and I stood with a puzzled look on my face, staring at the feet of the REALLY nimble steppers around me when I got lost during the highly choreographed step workshops I attended. *sigh* I am SO not coordinated.

I travelled business class on the train for the first time EVER, and I loved it.

They fed us decent meals, offered us coffee and wine (many times!)... and they came around with gourmet chocolates at the end of the meal. Wow! Too bad I can't afford to travel business class on a regular basis. That 60% off post-strike sale that VIA held won't happen again, so I'm going to have to wait until someone offers to pay my travel expenses before I can experience VIA1 again.

While I was in Toronto, I stayed at the hotel right in the Rogers Centre (you know, the structure formerly known as SkyDome, home of the Toronto Blue Jays ball club). It's just around the corner from the convention centre where the conference was held... so it was super-easy to find, even for a directionally challenged gal like me. It made me giggle when my friend, Sharon, asked me on day one, "Are you sure you can find your way back to the hotel yourself?" Ummmm... I just have to find the CN Tower and I'm right there, right?

 

So tonight, I am doing laundry, listening to a new CD from yes! music and thinking about what I need to do to get ready for my next trip to Toronto on Tuesday with Jamesie. :)
 

hello. good-bye.

It's Thursday, and I'm headed into another busy time. And leading up to this, I was getting ready for my busy time. Then after this, I'll be gearing up for yet another busy time. And finally, another busy day or two until we ramp up to... you guessed it, some more busy time.

Life's like that around here.

So this is just a quick hello before I head off to Toronto for Can Fit Pro. I'll be spending some time with my girlfriends, shopping, eating and working out (and hopefully learning a thing or two). Four days and three nights away from home. I don't think I've been away for this long since January 2007. :)

When I get back, I'll have just enough time to do my laundry and pack my bags again. James and I are headed to T.O. to see The Sound of Music. My friend, Lisa, is in the show, so we're going to get a behind-the-scenes peek afterwards. James is super-excited about the trip, as am I.

(I wonder if his teeth will have grown in by then... he just lost the second of the top front teeth on Tuesday, but both permanent teeth have already broken through the gum.)

After James and I get back, we'll be attending a family wedding on Sunday, and then school starts for the boys (all three of them!) on the following Tuesday. *phew* It's busy 'round these parts!

Well, that's all I have time for. Not sure when I'll be back, but I'll be sure to update when I can. Enjoy the last bits fo summer!

If you can't laugh at yourself...

Okay, I have to admit, I'm a spaz. There... I said it. I am uncoordinated when it comes to trying new sports, new choreography in step classes, new video games, etc. I just can't watch once and repeat the sequence or movement. And the hand-eye coordination that's required for most video games is way above and beyond what I've got.

Take Mario Kart racing, for example.

That's me, wiping tears from my eyes as I play. No, they're not tears of joy because I came in first place in the race. And no, I'm not crying because I lost... although that would be closer to the truth most days. :P

That's me and Nathalie, racing against one another. I think I did worse than she did. I certainly laughed harder at myself.

Aaaaah, good times. I wish they lived closer and we could do stuff like this more often. :)

my boss has a new puppy

... and who doesn't love a cute puppy dog?! Everyone say it with me... "Aaaaaawwww..."

 

Seriously, after struggling through the scrapping process as I scrapped my last two pages (and yes, I know it showed!), I decided to go back to my formula for success... cardstock, irresistibly cute picture, letter stickers and a wee bit of patterned paper. Normally, I'd add some journalling, but since this isn't my story to tell, I just left it at *cute* and called it done. I'm not sure what my boss will do with this, but hopefully she'll find a place for it. No matter... it sure was fun to create it. :)

Speaking of my boss, have I ever mentioned that I work for the nicest, most professional manager I've ever known? I hear other people's stories about their bosses, and it makes me cringe. It also makes me very thankful that I work in a group with a strong leader who gets to handle some very interesting and challenging projects. (And, hey, the pay's not bad either! lol)

It's Sunday night, so I'd better get some sleep so I'll be ready to shift gears into work mode tomorrow. Have a good week, everyone!

settling back in

So life is very slowly returning to normal here. I didn't realize how tired I'd be after all that driving and visiting out east, but it sure did wear me out. Returning home on Sunday evening and getting up to go to work on Monday morning was definitely not good planning on my part, but hey, we wanted to squeeze as much fun into our trip as we could. And we did!

So now, almost a week later, we are finally getting back into the swing of things. The boys both went back to tennis camp at the Club, and it seems the two-week break did them a lot of good. They were focused and had great attitudes, and as I watched them play on Thursday night, I was truly impressed. Thomas is really starting to look like a tennis player with his stance and his strokes. Meanwhile James' coordination and concentration amaze me... he is such a quick learner!

Mike has been busy with little projects around the house... and of course, all the yard work that didn't get done during our two weeks away! I signed him up for a year at the gym so I'd have some company during my workouts while the boys are in their lessons this fall, winter and spring. With any luck, we'll find time to take tennis lessons ourselves... we fully intended to do that this summer, but the boys' lessons took up more time than we anticipated. Oh well, you're never too old to learn, right? What's another year? lol

As for me, I had a hard time getting up in the mornings... coffee never tasted better! My job is going well, but it's busy. VERY busy. I'll be taking a couple of trips to Toronto in the coming weeks (non-work related), so I need to work extra hard to keep up with my files. It's going to be an extremely busy, high-pressure autumn in our office. Yikes! I have to admit that I LOVE the fast pace and the importance of the stuff we're working on though... it definitely gives me a sense of purpose, which helps me get through the days when the To Do list seems overwhelming.

Anyway, a couple of signs that I'm settling back into the groove: I'm running and teaching on a somewhat regular basis again. Yay me! And I'm scrapping again... not 100% back on track there, but honestly, I don't think I'm ever batting more than .500 with LOs I love. Here's today's effort:

(6x6 page, all American Crafts products)

-----

And a picture of James at soccer last night. I love the carefree, fun-loving attitude he had as he walked towards the field to start the game. LOVE it. He's not always focused on the game, but he seems to be enjoying it most weeks.

Okay, it's time for me to get to bed. If you're near my part of the world, enjoy the sunny weather! I know we're making the best of it here. :)

can't love 'em all, right?!

Okay, so it's never easy for me to get back into the swing of creating when I've taken a break. I haven't scrapped in about three weeks, and honestly, I knew better than to start a page after 10:00 last night. Still, I went against my better judgement and hauled out the paper and glue... and oh my, what a fiasco!

It looked much different than this last night when I went to bed... I hated it, but it was way past my bedtime, so I left it. *sigh* I hate that.

So this morning, I woke up with my head swimming with ideas as to how to fix it. Crazy! I ended up covering up all the hand-writing I did last night (too messy!) and moving a few embellishments around... and then I gave up.

Chalk it up to lessons learned... (1) never scrap after midnight, and (2) always go with your first instinct... I knew 12x12 was going to be the wrong format for this, but I wanted to use those cute Jillibean Soup stickers for the title. Oh well...

-------

By the way, I added photos to an album here on my blog. Check out the Vacation 2009 link on my side bar. Or click here. :)