Returned, Restart, Review

My blogging hiatus is coming to an end after a year!  During the past year I have been living in Quebec and have traveled to BC a fair amount. Three weeks ago I moved back to BC.  I figured a good blog to welcome the restart of my blogging would be a recap of this last year.  Unfortunately since I take a million pictures and love them all, this post has a LOT of pictures.  No exaggeration there.   So, since a picture tells a thousand words, I shall let you enjoy the photos (with a few captions here and there of course). And since I couldn't actually post them in order, they are random. (You can probably figure out that the ones with snow in them are from the winter, and the ones without snow are non-winter.. :) )  Enjoy!  Hope I still have some readers out there!

So here's what I've been up to this year:

 

Celebrated national holidays, like national 'wear a hat day'

 

Saw lots of cool, beautiful churches in Quebec

Spent a lot of time at the Nordic Baths Spa fifteen minutes from my house (hot pools, cold pools, extremely cold pools, steamroom, sauna, dark room and resting spots- absolutely amazing!)

Experienced some severe cold weather

Visited an ice village and ate at a restaurant made entirely out of ice and snow! Thankfully there was fur on the ice seats to keep you a bit warm!

Stood by this display booth for many hours (in Winnipeg, Toronto and Vancouver)

Got to know and play with this little gaffer

Crossed the new bridge going into Vancouver!

Cheered on my favourite hockey team (the Canucks that is.. no converting to becoming a Canadians fan..)

Enjoyed my first burger from Five Guys

Hung out in Winnipeg with this girl A LOT. In fact, I visited Winnipeg almost as much as I visited BC this past year

Hung out with these two at multiple missionFests 

Enjoyed the snow, hated the snow, played in the snow, watched the snow, waited for the snow to melt

Plugged my car in for the first time (only took me a year to figure out it had a plug in!)

Saw Bonhomme at Carnaval in Quebec City!

Enjoyed waterfalls in all seasons

Took multiple pictures of waterfalls in all seasons

Celebrated 'Read in the bathtub day'

Went to a choir concert in a fabulous church with amazing accoustics

Marveled at icicles

Waited for my windshield to defrost on very cold days

Went on a family holiday to Arizona to escape the winter

Waited for the sap to run which meant spring had come!

Enjoyed all the cool buildings in Quebec

Hung out with my awesome Outreach team, the ABC team (which stands for Awesome British Columbia since we all came from there.. we may have caused some jealousy towards us)

Watched the snow

Celebrated 'burn a snowman day'

Ouch.

Ate paska.

Celebrated Jason and Eleasha's marriage in Winnipeg!

Road trip to Ontario for Easter!

Hung out with this crazy in many different places

Went to MissionFest Toronto with Janaya

Ate the biggest burger ever (The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from Burger Priest in Toronto). We shared of course.

Enjoyed Niagara Falls from a new angle

Hung out with this crazy.

Watched the remake of the Titanic, the Canadian version

Went to a giant apple.

Convinced Janaya to let me cut her hair. haha. She should have known better...

Saw Les Miserables

Told people to jump for photos

Celebrated national 'high five day'

Volunteered at a youth drop-in centre

Designed a bunch of shirts and sweatshirts for students

Got to know this cutie-pie

Went to the Stanley Cup Playoffs and waved a white towel fiercely in the air 

Had serious hair envy

Celebrated receptionist's day

Brought 'Love Abbotsford' to Rawdon and had 'Love Rawdon' with the students throughout the year

Went on a few photo scavenger hunts

Ate Costco hot dogs

Got creative with photo taking

Enjoyed cherry blossoms

Dressed up for many school banquet celebrations

Went to a francophone concert, 'Les Cowboys Fringant' (absolutely wonderful)

Read a lot of books

Enjoyed my favourite cemetery

Went to krispy kreme and forced people to wear their awesome hats

Explored St. Joseph's Cathedral

Ate poutine (probably far too much)

Went to my favourite cathedral in Montreal (where Celine Dion got married!)

Enjoyed the random art displays in Montreal

Hung out at the Old Port in Montreal

Swung on swings that make music when you swing

Had the best smoked meat at Schwarts'

Walked down St. Catherine's, which is a pedestrian street in summer

Went on mini weekend relaxing trips

Tried lime with corn on the cob (AMAZING)

Sat on this grass enjoying summer days

Agonized at how much rain Quebec gets when it's not snowing

Posed for photos

Found an old fortune that has become quite true (49 countries and hopefully more to come!)

Enjoyed sunsets

Ate at the first PF Chang's in Canada

Went on random adventures with Laura and enjoyed our friendship

Basked in the majesty of the mountains

Enjoyed more waterfalls

Surprised my mom for her birthday!

Made jam jam cookies

Made babies cry

Ate popcorn at a graduation ceremony

Swam with my nieces and nephew

Celebrated milestones with friends!

Met friends' new babies!

Celebrated Mark and Maia's marriage!

Made rollkuchen

Ate rollkuchen. And watermelon. And farmer sausage.

Celebrated my mom's 60th

Cheered these guys on while they did a triathlon (which has excited me to do one next year!)

Enjoyed visits in the office from this little one

Clung to God's truths

Enjoyed tasty Asian food

Laughed at random roadside decorations on farms in Quebec

Ate the best chocolate dipped cones ever

Went to Quebec City

Free Outdoor Cirque de Soleil show

Was blessed to get to know this family through working together and meals together

Was blessed to be part of this small group and get to know these amazing people

Took some kiddos on lunch and movie dates

Had a farewell poutine party before moving

Went to Talay Thai for the best peanut chicken ever

Signed my final acceptance letter as Bible School registrar

Cried as I drove out of Capernwray's driveway and waved goodbye to dear friends

Played board games

Road tripped

Packed my vehicle really really really full. 

Let these men fix my vehicle when it broke down in Ontario

Went swimming in Lake Superior (brrr!)

Waterfalls!

Drove through Ontario and Manitoba 

Hung out with friends

Visited Saskatchewan

Storytimes with Aunty

Dance parties in the car

Took a lot of photos of canola fields (because one is never enough)

Was reminded of how awesome the prairies are for photo opportunities

Visited Alberta

 Admired colour contrasts

Got attacked by dinosaurs and lived

Did I mention taking pictures of Canola fields?

Enjoyed visits with friends across Canada

MOUNTAINS!

MOUNTAINS!

MOUNTAINS!

drove across Canada

Sunsets

Fireworks

Re-enacted the battle for Canada on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City

Drove to Ontario to visit family on vacation

Steph and Matthias' wedding!

Defaced some statues in Boston...

Marc and Emily's wedding!

Went to New York and saw Once on Broadway

Becky and Phil's wedding

Another roadtrip to New York!

Saw Newsies (best musical- if you go, see it!!)

Saw Evita and loved Ricky Martin in it

Enjoyed playing with this kid

Went to Disneyland

Visited these precious kids

Random road trip to Vermont and New York state

Visited cemeteries in winter

Enjoyed Christmas holidays with my co-workers

Celebrated my birthday

Marvelled at upside down trees

Cuddled babies

Biggest tandem bike adventure ever

Vancouver Christmas train

Celebrated the new year in style

Toured an ice hotel

Played in the snow

Played human foosball, where you strap yourself in

Went to a Phoenix Coyotes hockey game

Hosted a photography workshop (one in English and one in French!)

More dinosaur attacks

Met amazing ladies at our ladies' retreats

Hosted a french ladies' retreat

Central Park

Bible School registration (our students are pretty young)

Got to know an amazing group of students

Enjoyed Fall colours

Yay for fall!

Conducted a choir

Enjoyed snow

Welcomed my latest niece in to the world

More snow!

Went to a cabane a sucre (sugar shack) to celebrate maple syrup

Met the closest Jesus look-alike

Went to Steinbach.

Congratulations if you made it to the end.

And that friends was a tiny glimpse into the last year.  Here's to more frequent updates!

July, Jenn, Joyous

Life has been a bit too crazy to blog lately. It is our busy time at work and there have been a lot of really long days and long stretches. But, funny enough, when I look at my photos, I've done a lot this summer so far..  Work hard. Play hard. 

That being said, here's a few highlights from July!

 My mom and aunt came to visit for four days. Explored Montreal and Quebec City and hung out at Capernwray a bit.

Became better friends with Marie-Helene as she joined my mom, aunt and I. I'm always thankful for different meetings with people that take you to a place of having deeper connections. I'm thankful for the moments and friendships that make life richer. :)

Have enjoyed many absolutely stunning sunsets. Although I am always thankful for rain. Haven't had much this summer. Has been very humid with a lot of heat. A lot of days of 32, feels like 40. 

 Went to Calgary for Dave and Jenn's wedding. I was a student at Capernwray with Jenn and Dave and so it has been so neat to watch their relationship grow and now to see them get married and celebrate their day with them.

 One bonus was all the Capernwray people at the wedding. How fun to see people I hadn't seen in about 8 years or so. Great to catch up with them and see where life has brought them. Also was priveleged to MC at the wedding. My first job as a wedding MC and I quite enjoyed it!

 Was thankful to connect with students from the past and students from this past year.

 My cousins just moved to Calgary as well, so I loved being able to see their new place and see them and their kids! :)

 My friends Tim and Cyndi were in Quebec, so I was thankful to be able to connect with them in Montreal and when they came up to Capes for the evening. I love it when friends come to visit! (hint hint..)

 I also love Montreal in the summer. It changes. (Obviously as it is difficult to be the same when it's -30 outside...)  One of my favourite things is the purple street (not called that, but I like to call it so). They close it down for the summer and it's a pedestrian only area. Fantastic!

And fireworks! I used to think I didn't like fireworks, but so far I'm loving them in Montreal. Kind of like Symphony of Fire. Montreal's fireworks are the largest pyrotechnic production in North America. They have nine fireworks nights in the summer. Been to two so far and hope to go to a couple more! They even close one of the main bridges down and you can go up on the bridge and watch from there. Incredible view!

 

 I have loved hanging out with the staff this summer as well!  So fun to get to know them all and work alongside them too.

 Discovered the most amazing glow in the dark mini golf course ever.

 My friend Carlee came to visit for three days! 

 One of my favourite parks in Montreal, Park Lafontaine. Great place to relax and people watch!

 Not totally a highlight, but part of July was my vehicle getting broken into while in montreal. boo. A large hassle with insurance but it is all being fixed so that's good and not too many things got stolen (I always wonder at the logic behind what they take and what they don't...

 Went to La Ronde, Montreal's Six Flags amusement park.

 Mount Royal has a colony of very friendly raccoons.. We counted about 10.

 Love Old Port Montreal... fun to wander around and even better to see how they are lit up at night!

 St. Joseph's Oratory, one of my favourite spots to go in Montreal.

 Lately I've been enjoying taking fun, artistic photos which i haven't done in a while. Need to carve time out to do it more often!

Below is the church where Celine Dion got married. Also a favourite spot in Montreal because it's so stunning!

So that's been July. A trip to Calgary. Family visiting. Friends visiting. Working a ridiculous amount. And not sleeping much apparently. Looking forward to my next visitor arriving tomorrow!  Stay tuned for more posts (and by more posts, I mean, wait a month and maybe I'll show you some pictures I took in August...)