wow.

i can't believe that it's already been a whole year since our family was in Scotland.

one year ago today courtney had the experience of a lifetime to take a ferry to the Island of Dunoon to compete at Cowal Highland Gathering, World Championships!!

there were 30 kids in her Premier 10 year old class with only 6 placings being awarded in each dance. to win a medal was simply hopeful.

courtney placed 7th with a "Judges placing" in her sword dance, but no medals were awarded for these types of placings. but still, to have placed 7th out of 30 in a dance at Worlds was pretty exciting!!! these are the very swords she danced with right after her performance!!

...heeheehee...

the guarded " room of glory"!!!

( lots of giddy, hopeful competitors walking around in here!!! )

R: courtney, walking with her Scottish friend, Rachael ( she lives in West Kilbride, North Ayrshire )

these two girls met while competing last july in Victoria, B.C at the Canadians!! they are still friends and keep contact by email!! such a great kid...and always giggling!!

love her!!

~sigh~
such great memories from this trip...i REALLY need to stop stalling on scrapbooking it all!!!
i've been 'collecting' papers and embellishments, but just need the drive to take the project on!
here's some shots of our visit to the Island of Dunoon from one year ago today!!

( yep, even has it's own Castle of Dunoon!! )

( are you surprised to see overcast pictures in scotland???)

hahahaha....

great memories!!!!!!

:O)

some stuff...

TA-DAA!!!

yesterday courtney got her haircut...8 inches off to donate to Cancer Care Wigs for Kids in Manitoba!!

( this is right after the chopoff!!!)

...and this was before...

MUCH easier now to brush out after swimming!!!

...on wednesday, the kids and i made a spontaneous visit out to

TINKERTOWN

for the day!!!

new this year is a bigger, faster FERRIS WHEEL which we rode on a couple times...definitely a favorite!

we are stopped here at the top of Tinkertown world!

..also new this year is an inflatable pillow bouncer...

the kids really liked it!

...gotta check out the Super Slide!

and this was the first time Courtney was given the wheel at driving our Tin Lizzie car, while mom took the back seat!

( thank God for future driving lessons....)

...some new Viper bumper cars added this year too...

...and of course, gotta ride " the train that goes around..."

:O)

and GOTTA have a giant pickle at Tinkertown!!!

Mmmmmm...carnie food!!!

hahahaha!

...this is my first time uploading any kind of video, so i hope it works!!

i had to turn it off when we were stopped at the top b/c some girl behind us was yelling out to someone and ruined my video!!!

BUT...i know that those of you who appreciate tyler's silliness will LOVE him in this super excited video...

:O)

home again!

first of all....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

TO MY SWEET, SWEET SISTA..

TARA!!!

teehee.

hope you have a super fabulous day missy!!!!

( and you can be tara cullen JUST for today, since it's your bday and all...)

we were at the lake again this weekend...good times!

but since friday was courtney's 11th birthday, we stayed in the city running a few errands, then going to St. Vital Centre with my mom!

we paid a visit to Build a Bear Workshop ( a favorite shop for the kids ) and got a couple new outfits...a new Webkinz from Hallmark...

...and then our first 3D movie at the theater!

It was awesome!!

we also had lunch in the food court too...yep, what a fun afternoon of celebrating!

then we came back home and gave courtney her birthday gifts and then we were off to the lake for the weekend!

YES...THIS WAS A TOTAL JONAS BROTHERS WISH LIST!!

( some US dough for the long weekend )

...and my mom made courntey this awesome chipboard album too.

we threw courntey a totally cool Pirate party for her birthday 3 years ago, and GRANDMA made courtney a little keepsake album of it!!! soooo cool!!

Thank you again mom for making such a special gift for courtney!!!

...and birthday cake came out at the cabin around 10:30pm...

hahahaha....

what a busy day!!!

...saturday, we went to Lac du Bonnet for mike's uncle's 50th birthday.

FUN stuff!

The kids went for their first boat ride, a three seater jetski ride, fun on their water trampoline and lots of good food, drinks, and family fun!!

today we're recouping from a busy weekend and cleaning up!!

whew!!!

:O)

Today my baby girl is celebrating her

11th BIRTHDAY!!!

wow.

it seems like yesterday that i was holding her little hands and teaching her to walk!

looking forward to a fun day with you miss courtney...

happy birthday lovey!!!

:O)

OH YEAH!

...what a TOTALLY relaxing cloudy /rainy day.

i've been playing around on the new keyboard, and it's just KILLING ME

that i CANNOT read a note of music!! i wanna play!!!

( mine and tyler's piano lessons starting in a few weeks will fix that...)

anyway, i'm very proud of myself because i attempted a pretty much all afternoon task of

TEACHING MYSELF

via the internet piano tutorials

Bella's Lullaby from Twilight!!

teehee, i love it!!

...and what did YOUR mojo inspire you to do today???

:O)

busy days...

...before i get into the goings-on over the last couple days...

THE SCRAPPIN STUDIO

FALL HALL CROP DATES ARE BOOKED!

~mark your calendars~

Friday, Sept. 11

Friday, Oct.9

Friday, OCTOBER 30----HALLOWEEN CROP PARTY!!!

Friday, Nov.20

...all 6pm - midnite

if you are not already on my email list and would like more details, you can email me at

thegriffs@mts.net for more information regarding crops and classes!!

:O)

ok...

the following are some pic's from monday - tuesday 'whilst' at the cabin...again!

we were taking lori, alex and kailey out to the lake for a sleepover, but in the end, lori was unable to come....but i took her daughter alex and friend kailey just the same!

alex and kailey are courtney's friends she takes her highland dance lessons with. despite a gloomy, rainy day monday, we made the best of it with lots of fun games in the cabin, a couple quick walks and watching TWILIGHT in the evening with LOTS of junk food!!

teehee.

...tuesday was predicted to be "isolated showers" all day, which, in fact turned out to be

+26 degress and mostly sunny all day out there!! YAY!!

in the morning however, it was overcast and a little cool, so after breakfast ( pancakes with blueberries and strawberries ) the girls went for a walk, did a "photo shoot" down by the water...and then even braved a quick swim!!

( the water was actually pretty nice...it was the chill in the air that was cool )

Charlie's Angels???

BAHAHAHAHA!!!

( wink )

...oh yes, and I received another proposal from my little man...

( gotta admire his dertermination!! )

Luv you buddy!

...later in the afternoon, i took the kids for a Blue Raspberry dipped soft ice cream cone, then a drive out to Great Woods Park in Bousejour to explore...

( and yes...they all had blue tongues by the time they were done! )

...this park has a pretty cool suspension bridge hanging over Brokenhead River.

they thought it was cool!!!

...the park also has some pretty great trees to climb too...

i think they were just calling out to the kids to come and climb!

...and lest we not forget the importance of annual summer

FROG CATCHING!!

hahahaha.....

myself, kailey and tyler were the only brave ones...

...and some swinging fun too...

...the kids were all jumping off them ( and sometimes at ridiculous heights too, some near heart attacks for me...)

...yep...good times!

I hope you enjoyed yourselves girls!!!

...and of course...always keeping a watchful eye out my windows while driving..

about 30 seconds after i took this ( also while driving...heeheehee ) it was gone! a lost photo opportunity...never let anything beautiful pass you by...

capture the moments of your life in time!

:O)

...and one last thing...

i can't believe that on this day, one year ago, my family was in Scotland.

this day, one year ago, we were in Edinburgh.

It poured rain ALL DAY!

we sat in wet puddles ALL NIGHT at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo and went home to our flat,

IN THE RAIN.

Winnipeg's beginning to feel a lot like Scotland.

:O)

stay dry everyone!