O.M.Geeeeeee!!!!!

Okay....

so there is absolutely no point in taking part in the fight against time.

i lose. every. time.

:)

so....i am just going to start catching up my blog for you with the end of antoher school year for the kids!

both the kids happily and successfully passed their grades and are looking forward to starting grade 4 and grade 8 in september...

this is the mini album i made for tyler's teacher at the end of june from her classroom...

...every page had each students photo i had taken and a sweet little hand-written page they each wrote for her...they loved seeing the finished project starring their classroom on the last day of school and tyler's teacher loved her special keepsake!!

...the kids each got an awesome new beach towel and their first fishing rods ( and some good ol' cashola ) for passing another school year with flying colors!!!

YAY!!!!  let the summer begin!!!

...most of you know that courtney and i traveled to Antigonish, Nova Scotia for the first week of July for her to compete at the Scotdance Canada Championship Series competition....

so, this blog post is going to be a catch up from that little trip!

(and THEN i will be doing lots more updating - hahahaha!!!!)

JULY 2

courtney and i left for our first visit to nova scotia!!!

JULY 3

after opening ceremonies, our group was off to see our first spectacular glimpse of ocean scenery, and to indulge ourselves in our first taste of the East Coast as well...

Boyd's Seafood Galley...in the harbour!

my dinner....YUMM-O!!

...our group of Manitoban dancers...

...we had an early night as the competitions started the next morning...

BREAKFAST!!!!

...stretching and warming up...

this morning's competition was Pre-championships.

...and after a very exciting and anxious morning, in a class of 23 dancers, Courtney got an awards callback!

she placed 2nd in fling, 4th in sword, and 7th in reel.

and in our surreal excitement, she also finished her morning being tied for 1st Runer-Up!!!

soooooo soooooo proud and happy!!!

...courtney also danced again in the afternoon for another Open competition.

she competed again in the restricted premier group and this afternoon had 22 dancers in her group!

( on stage, ready to do her sword dance )

......waiting for awards callbacks...

...and to our excitement again, courtney got another callback!!

she won 5th in her fling, and 1st in her sword ( and didn't place in her reel ) and also finished as 1st Runner-Up again!!!!

GAH!!!!!

...what an incredibly exciting and proud day...

...the next morning, i did some updating in my little travel journal for this trip...

SEE?  i can and will scrapbook anywhere, anytime!!!

HAHAHAHA!!!!

...a couple of the dancers from our travel group were competing this day ( july 5 ) in the Inter-Provincial Championships as Manitoba reps...but courtney was not dancing today...so after everyone came back we all went to Pomquet beach for the afternoon to have some beach fun together!

...watch out for jellyfish, even the dead ones!!!

...i was pretty excited because as we walked along the shoreline, i found for courtney a whole, in tact, sand dollar!!!!  ( ps, this is courtney's first bikini!!!!  daddy's polishing up his baseball bat...)

...in the evening, the rest of our group was going to a rep banquet and dinner...so i had made other plans for courtney and i to take a little scenic road trip up the coast for photography and to take in a couple lighthouses too!!!

...St. George Lighthouse...

...and from here we went on to the town of Arisaig to see another lighthouse...

and in my plans, i brought along courtney's highland costume to snap a little photo shoot at Arisaig...

:)

...arisaig lighthouse...

...and then we were back on our hour drive back down the coast to Antigonish...

...antigonish sunset...

'nite.

July 6

...Nationals competition day...

23 dancers in courtney's class...and antoher callback!  YAY!!!

...she placed 2nd in her awesome jig, and 8th in blue bonnets ( and didn't place in village maid ).

she also finished 1st Runner-Up again!!!

i can't tell you how great a feeling it is to have your kid win ANY medals at this huge, tough event!!!

courtney is quite proud of herself and happy to bring home some hardware!

...this afternoon was also the East Coast Hornpipe Challenge...

...and with 32 dancers in her group, and only 6 finalist opportunities to move on, she put up a good fight to enter, but maybe next year....she did a fabulous hornpipe nonetheless!!!

...now all our groups dancing has come to it's completion and we were on our way for some touring...

after packing up costumes and suitcases, we were on our way to take the ferry accross to Prince Edward Island...

...ferry harbour sunset...

...on the ferry...

...July 7...

we woke up to BEAUTIFUL HOT weather on Prince Edward Island and were anxious to start our day of touring the island...starting with a peek of the ferry we came accross on the night before...

...i had suggested a peek at Wood Islands lighthouse since our hotel was only about 10mins from it, and also since nobody else in our group had yet seen a lighthouse in the Maritimes...

...this is a mermaid SANDCASTLE that's sits beside the lighthouse...every year the artist comes to make a new design...

...fresh farm strawberries to nibble on our drive...

...after the lighthouse tour and a gas stop, we were definitely in need of some BRUNCH!

we went to Charlottetown for some grub and went to

Lobster on the Wharf to eat...

...my lunch...garlic shrimp alfredo...

OMG - so good!!!!!

...after lunch, we were off to Argyle Shore to take in some of PEI's Red Shore Sands...

"courtney. wuz. here."

...we all collected some jars of red sand and rocks to bring home...heeheehee

next stop, Anne of Green Gables National Historic Site.

...and as the evening approached, we finished our day off on PEI with some souvenier shopping & stocking up on snacks for our drive back to Nova Scotia...accross the Confederation Bridge back to New Brunswick first...( toll fee $45 per car! )

...80kms/hr, 12 min drive over the atlantic...so cool.

...July 8...

last tour day of our trip.

we spent the entire day in Halifax.

...we did the harbour hopper ( land and sea ) tour - AWESOME!!!

...and spent most of the afternoon on the harbour shopping and site seeing...

...and having lunch!  ( mine = tai chicken salad wrap! )

...for our last dinner, we went to Salty's and treated susan ( courtney's dance teacher ) to her lobster dinner - at last!!!!! 

...and a walk on the harbour in the evening brought us to a Cow's Ice Cream shop!!!

WOW.

now THAT's ice cream!!

...this one was mine - Mooey Gooey - and courtney had a cup of Birthday Cake ice cream....

what a fun and delicious place!

...we had a late night in our hotel room and were up early to finish off packing and head off to the airport.

...where courtney received THE MOST HILARIOUS 'makeover' from susan and jillian...

NO comment!!!!  Bahahahaha.....

...good bye Nova Scotia...

...hope to come back again...

...courtney's nova scotia treasures...

:)

MUCH more to catch up on so i will be back soon!!!