Happy Birthday...

.... or make that Champagne Birthday to the greatest sister alive. :)

Kailyn & Jessica

Last Monday, I offered to do a photo shoot for a good friend of mine and her friend. They are two extremely friendly beautiful girls — on the inside and out. It was a large step out of my comfort zone because I'm not used to doing a "professional" style of photo shoot. We ended up having a great time and I'm so thankful they let me use their pictures for iStock.

July 1 weekend

On the July 1st weekend, Emma came home. We were able to go sailing from Port Elgin to Southampton to watch the fireworks from the water. Despite the lack of wind, it was so much fun! I could not get over how beautiful the water was!

On Saturday, Emma and I helped our friend take pictures for the high school's prom. I had so much fun helping her and got a little insight of what being a lifestyle photographer is like. I also loved seeing everyone's beautiful dresses! I can't just post a couple of the individual shots I took, so I narrowed it down to just one of everyone.

It was a short but very sweet weekend. :)

Fam Tour

Last Wednesday (June 29) was my first day of work for the Chamber of Commerce, and it was by far the BEST first day of work anyone could have. The girl from the Port Elgin Tourist Information office and I went on a "Familiarization" tour of the northern Bruce Peninsula. We started in Wiarton and went to see caves, a beautiful garden, a lighthouse, and more on our way up to Tobermory. From there, we went on a boat cruise to see Flowerpot Island, and then to see the new yurts at the National Park. It was such a long day, but an amazing experience, and I am so thankful that I was able to go.

Vacation: Day 6

We spent the entire day in Winnipeg. We first visited the Winnipeg Art Gallery, which had some really neat work, some of which I recognized from both my high school and university classes. Pictures we not allowed, but I did get some of the Quilt of Belonging, which had squares representing each country! Then, we went to a small, independent  art gallery, which seemed like a good idea, but it turned out to have some odd things! :S

We met up again with my dad's high school friend and his fiancée, and the four of us went to a beautiful sculpture garden.

We went back to our hotel and were able to have a good night's rest before heading home the next day. It was a great week off to spend time visiting my beautiful family!

Vacation: Day 5

We started the day with a long drive to Kenora to visit my cousin, Mike, his wife, Caralyn, and their adorable 15-month-old daughter, Baylee. We had so much fun getting to know these three! We went to an amazing local art exhibit called Shoephoria, walked along the lake, and went back to visit and eat together. These three amazing people make such a cute family!

AND right after I posted this, I noticed that it is their fourth anniversary today. Congrats! :)

Vacation: Day 4

Day 4 was probably my favourite day by far! I woke up to my Oma making waffles with blueberry sauce for breakfast (I know, how can it get much better than that?), but it did!

Later, my Aunt Karen and her friend Amy picked up my mom and dad and myself and took up on a photo adventure! We went to this beautiful cottagey place by a lake where there were beautiful flowers for us to take pictures of! Then, we went to Raleigh Falls and tried to experiment with the shutter speed while taking water pictures. It was a little sunny, but we still had a lot of fun! Thanks again, Aunt Karen!

The whole gang. We were even matching! When we went back, my dad and I also went sailing, and Oma and Opa let me use them as models for iStock. It was a great end to our visit!

Vacation: Day 3

On our third day, we took another walk around town and into some shops. I love small town because they always have unique little stores that you would never find in a big city! I was able to get a lot more pictures of flowers, like these lupins and irises:

In the afternoon, I was able to go on a float plane ride to one of the outpost cabins at Irene lake. I love being on the planes and looking down to beautiful forested land below!

Vacation: Day 2

In the last week, I have been so busy that blogging about our family vacation completely slipped my mind, and now I am very behind! So now, in the next week or so I am going to try to catch up. This blog is going to cover my second day of our vacation, which was our first full day in Ignace. The day started with a walk to the Post Office and some geocaching. We walked by my Oma and Opa's old property and the creek where Emma and I would swim and watch for leeches when we stayed over. We had a lot of great memories there.

We also went on a walk to some Canada Lillies nearby, but I didn't get too many good pictures of them. I really loved the beautiful orange colour Indian Paintbrush flowers that we saw on our way from Winnipeg to Ignace. We also saw so many beautiful wild Irises scattered about the town.

On the way home from our picture taking, Ginger and Lindor (the dogs of my Oma and Opa and Aunt and Uncle) played together and fought over a stick that Lindor made for himself. These two were so much fun to watch! My dad also got to go sailing with Opa, but as you can see in the clouds, the weather was strange and the wind was so erratic that they had to return sooner than planned.