The topic of cars came up at the dinner table today. Dad brought up that he'd had a Dodge Charger 

around the time of his days in Toronto and promptly rushed off to find a little photo album. 

I can't believe that this was the first time I'd ever seen these precious gems!

I challenge you to ask your parents, or whoever you love, to tell you stories of their youth on a regular basis.

You never know what new story they'll want to share.

sunset

over the klondyke this friday evening

hp

Went in with these ladies to see Harry Potter (FINALLY!!!) on the 23rd. We drove in just in time to make the 9:00pm showing. Waiting to see it on any day other than opening night was a mistake. The crowd's enthusiasm did not match mine and my sister's and that was unfortunate. But that did not change the fact that it was phenomenal. That lady can sure write a good story. 

Oh and since our wipers suck, here I am cleaning off the windshield for Catherine,
who amused herself by taking these pictures. After all, it was up to her drive us all back home safe again
(since she nominated ME to get up at 4am that morning to go fishing in her place--can you say tired).
She made me do an embarrassing dance to regain access to the inside of the car. 

All in good fun, right?

Thrilling. I know.

star power

Elizabeth 

showed off her excellent tossing skillz 

on one of the carnival games 

and managed to win not one, 

not two, 

but THREE star pillows.

Lucky for us she likes to share.

amusements of dear ol' thomas

The fair was in last week and a bunch of us went out on Friday night. 

I don't think I've gone in years. Oh how I'd missed the Scrambler. 

I did not dare to attempt the Starship, despite its aesthetically pleasing photographic appearance. 

Those rides are just as rough as I remember.

girl crush

I have a couple of girl crushes.
These girls are fiercely talented in their own separate ways. They are both cute little pixies yet still exude a certain allure that is both beautiful and modest. I love seeing people who are comfortable being themselves and are bold in sharing that with the world.

 

- Emma Watson - 

We've watched her grow up playing the bold, stubbornly smart Hermione in Harry Potter and in every interview I've come across Emma holds herself well and is equally as intelligent. She seems to have found a good balance between her celebrity status and her life as a normal English student at Brown. I admire anyone at this age who can keep themselves together like that within the pressure of fame, and still pursue something worthwhile. She is a classy girl and who doesn't envy her high fashion style? I always love her photoshoots.

- Sherri DuPree Bemis -

I'd heard of their music a few years back but Eisley's most recent songs have been central to my life in the last few months especially. Since finding out more of her backstory and the inspiration behind the music, I developped my 'lil crush. Maybe she makes me feel more hopeful that the best is yet to come. Anyway, Sherri's an artist not only of musical proportions, but also of paper and pen and her drawings are pretty fantastic. She changes her hair colour to suit her mood and her style is vintage, quirky and colourful.

<3

After my cousin's wedding on July 9th, I stayed in a couple of extra days so that I could see dear Robzie who was visiting from the Brook for the weekend.

We caught up over cool summery drinks at Second Cup and watched Monte Carlo! (I'm a Selena Gomez fan, not gonna lie!)

The next day we wandered around Bowring Park doing what we do best (despite the disappointingly harsh lighting conditions, but who am I to complain about the sun showing up?!), and even caught ourselves an outdoor concert for Festival 500 (This group was from St. FX)! Later, with Alex in tow, we joined Jeremy, Jeff and Steve at Sunshine Park to throw a frisbee and kick around a soccer ball. It was a pretty relaxing afternoon if I do say so myself.

But the day finished off with a supper kindly hosted by Jill (reason #2 for prolonging my stay in SJ). It was really good to have so many friendly faces back in one place again. (Afterthought: I wish we'd taken a huge group picture.) We were lucky to have everyone visiting together!

morning glory

I feel pretty confident when I say that my uncle's backyard is the best spot for roasting hot dogs over a fire. 

After bowling with YA on Saturday night we gathered around the fire pit, making s'mores, talking about old stories, plans for the future, even said a goodbye to a friend moving away for a new job the next day. It was nothing big, but for some reason the weather, the atmosphere, the company--everything--felt really good that night. I think I'll put this night up as one of the highlights of Summer 2011.

This picture of my family makes me happy. 

{Even if the parentals are squinting.}

We coordinated by accident.

Taken at Bethany and Louis' wedding July 9th.

le mariage

This was a big weekend and the main reason I wanted to stick around this summer: my cousin Bethany got to marry to her French love, Louis. As to be expected, it was a gorgeous wedding. The smell of fresh lilacs filled the air as they said their vows in St. Thomas', downtown.

It was different for me to witness an Anglican wedding. In fact, I was thinking to myself that it reminded me of a relaxed version of the Royal wedding, with some differences of course. Although the majority of the ceremony was in English, they included some French as well, and their siblings had a special role in the service. Her brother read an excerpt from her favourite book, The Little Prince/Le Petit Prince while his sister read 1 Corinthians 13 in French. Yeah, I teared up a lot.

The reception was held at the GEO Centre. We enjoyed hors d'oeuvres in the atrium, then moved on to our seats downstairs. I loved their emcee. I'm instantly smitten with anyone who speaks with an accent, so it was pretty much a guarantee that I would enjoy their French friend in charge of the evening. The speeches made me cry; Uncle Sam's emotional words, her two best friends Jana and Robyn, and in hearing the best man speeches about the groom my heart swelled for Bethany for finding herself such a good man.

 I think the funnest part of the whole evening was having Mr. Vokey come in to introduce all of the foreigners to a bit of Newfoundland culture. There were a couple dozen friends that had travelled all the way from Quebec, France, Poland and Germany. We sang traditional songs, taught some key phrases and at the end screeched them all in! I learned that this very man helped invent the screech in tradition, so it was extra special to experience his entertaining stories in person. His son now carries on the tradition at Christian's Pub.   

Once again, another beautiful wedding. But I think I've had my fill for the rest of this year though! Glaaary.

happy list

Things that have made me happy this past week:

-sitting and reading in the sunshine

-eating my first popsicle of the summer

-shopping around with Ashley M 

-watching Monte Carlo with Catherine on cheap night

-spending an afternoon at my cuz, Jocelyn's house

-movie night at the park with my extended famjam

-my cousin's beautiful wedding
-having Robz and Jermz back visiting in the city
-delish suppers prepared and hosted by the awesome, Jillian
-officially getting a JOB

Yeah, this week kinda rocked.

more food experiments

I made cake balls last week. They were a bit messy but still really fun and easy to make. They disappeared fast so I'll definitely be making them again. If I get my hands on some lollipop sticks, maybe they'll be cake pops next time.

nikki and matt's wedding

 

the ceremony

 alex put together a delicious dessert table

 we were asked to write notes to the couple for them to put together a scrapbook. we had some extra paper. 'couldn't find my pants' was a joke on the guy who was supposed to be at our table, who supposedly stayed home because he had no nice pants to wear and I wouldn't be surprised if it was true.

 wedding shenanigans: the next bride to be?

 ashley and jordan

 grant and joy

 scott, me, and alex

jess!

Another set of beautiful friends got married last week, June 30th. It was a beautiful ceremony and the reception venue was classy. I'm always struck just how the little details of a wedding show off their personality so well, (like the song he wrote and played for her, the coffee beans in the flower vases, and the names of their fave places as table markers) at least that's the case for the two I've attended so far this year. I think what I took from the wedding the most was just how lovely Nicole is as a person. Hearing all of the stories of them growing up and what they've been doing lately reminded me just how much her friendship means to me. She was such an incredible encouragement when we worked together side by side as co-counselors at CWJ in 2009 and continues to be especially whenever she's been back in the province from BC and we've grabbed coffee and caught up. I'll never forget it and I wish my friends all the happiness in the world.

Canada Day

I was a little bummed about not being at camp for it this year. You feel so patriotic when in another country on this day. Last year all the staff, especially the Americans were so excited for it. We all wore red and white and many of the Canadian staff, myself included, had brought along tattoos and stickers to give out to the kids and anyone who wanted one--everyone! Some were even writing Canadian sayings all over themselves in Sharpie. We'd sing the national anthem at lunch time. Such a blast showing our Canadian pride.

But this year turned out to be incredibly fun too. Our community put off a little Canada Day event in the playground for the families to come out to play games, eat free ice cream, cake and hotdogs and it was a warm day! Catherine lead a game for the kids and I passed out cotton candy. It felt really good to be a part of something again, and hang out with family, especially since I was missing camp so much. Children bring so much life to everything. I love it.

the awesome cutout our cousin made and a few of our cute little cousins

 had to be done!

 blue teeth!

 Katie and Catherine, guarding the water balloons

Aunt Greta cutting the cake

 Happy Canada Day!

st. john's weekend - part 3 (sunday)

Sunday was a fairly relaxed day. We went to church at Elim in the morning, had a quick little lunch back at Nan's, then headed over to our aunt's house for our cousin Bethany's bridal shower! They had the 'design a wedding dress from TP' game. I'd played the mummy wrap before, but never the dress. Elizabeth and I transformed Catherine into a beautiful blushing bride as you can see, as she holds her bouquet of flowers, haha. There was also a 'guess her age' game with a ton of pictures of her childhood. I was always just one or two years off the mark! Prizes were from Davids Tea, the really cool company Bethany works for. There are plans for it to come to St. John's and I'm pretty excited about it. There were also lots of presents to open:

Can I take this moment to declare my love for Manna Bakery? I was already in love with their bread, but add that amazingness to their curry chicken as well? Delish. I love the variety of food at showers.

We went to Cape Spear afterwards with high hopes, but there was a ton of fog and misty rain that we didn't anticipate at all.

Nice out right? I suppose we should have known, but the rest of the city was just overcast. We definitely weren't dressed for a walk in that dreariness so instead, we drove back to the mall to see The Green Lantern. We wanted to see Bad Teacher but it was sold out when we got there. It worked out quite alright though. Good movie, and they kept it pretty PG considering its Gossip Girl, Blake Lively and mchottie, Ryan Reynolds. We drove home that night, rather slowly. It seems every single time I've driven home from town in the evening there's some sort of terrible weather to face, these days: unending fog.

And that concludes our June 25th weekend!