Cottage Country

Just got back from a visit back home! The main reason for my trip was to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday....we had a big surprise party planned and it went off without a hitch (which is pretty amazing, seeing as how there were 60 people there!). My mom was totally surprised and i think she had a great time!
However, after the festivities were over, we took off for the cottage. Pammer came to Wpg also, as she has a bunch of family out that way too, and after she fit in her visits, she came to the cottage too. My brother and sister-in-law were also home.....which meant with 6 of us, it was time we bought the expansion pack so we could get in some good games of Settlers of Catan!!!!!

So, here are a few highlights from the week....i took a BILLION pictures, so it was hard to pick just a few to show (there will be a bigger album on facebook). Spent lots of time relaxing, canoeing, swimming and playing games and as always, time went too quickly!

The weather was a mix between good, bad and ugly and changed at a moment's notice. There was always the chance you'd get caught in a downpour if you ventured out too far. However, the up side was that there were a few amazing rainbows that appeared!! I like this shot because the rainbow seems to come right to our dock!!

Spent a lot of time in these chairs just soaking up the scenery

Pammer and I went for a couple of canoe rides, on the hunt for interesting wildlife

And we even got up early to catch the sunrise

late afternoon sky

I stalked this guy for a bit, he was pretty mellow and would look at me and then go back to eating leaves, but then the "click" from my camera finally sent him scurrying off!!

And these guys sure move quick!!

These loons were so funny! They kept looking at eachother and having some sort of conversation through head gestures, and always made sure no one straggled too far behind!! And then they got into this lovely formation to have their picture taken!

Stretching the wings

I had some fun setting up the tripod at night and experimenting with a variety of manual settings on my camera, trying to figure out exactly how to shoot photos at night. Still need to learn a lot but i am pretty happy with how a couple of shots turned out! I especially love this first one, of the cottage....click on it to see it larger....cuz if you look close enough, that's the big dipper in the sky....

Almost full moon and the evening bonfire

moon through the trees

Peaceful sunset

And finally, full moon!!

So there you have it, a few highlights of the amazing scenery I soaked in last week!!!!

Tina, Smitty and Steven

One of my dear friends came for a quick visit at the end of July. Tina and I became friends back in the late 90s when we worked together at one of the best places on earth, Red Rock Bible Camp. Tina now lives in New Zealand and has been there for a few years. She was just back in Winnipeg for a visit, and lucky for me, she planned a layover through Vancouver on her way back to NZ!! We packed as much as we could into 2 days and had a wonderful time catching up (we figured it's been at least 5 yrs since we've seen each other), sightseeing and playing photographer with our respective SLR's! (Tina's quite an amazing photographer).

Here are a few quick highlights of our time! We went and checked out Cascade Falls, near Mission BC (i stole this picture of the two of us from Tina)

And then headed up to the Monastery (in Mission) to get a view of the valley

Now, one of the highlights of MY weekend was planned way before Tina decided to come to visit. Pam, Theresa and I had tickets to the EPIC Steven Curtis Chapman/Michael W Smith concert that was coming to Abbotsford. It just so happened that Theresa couldn't shake the flu in time, so Tina joined us for the concert...while she isn't the MWS/SCC fan that I (secretly) am, I think she still had a good time!! Anyway, i was very excited because we had row 5 tickets and though the lighting made it difficult to take good pictures, i think Pammer snapped a few!
Here's Pammer and I

And Tina and I

Steven was great!But I was most excited for Smitty!!

And he looked very handsome from my row 5 seat :)

Yay! what a fun concert! and what a fun weekend!! Thanks for visiting Tina!