Summer 2024 Top Five

I am always sad to see summer come to a close.  I know many are usually ready for it, and in many ways I am too, but summer is my best season.  It's when I am 100% present in the right now, with my family and feel completely invested in myself.  I am happy, energized, and at peace.  Lets take a look at the top 5 of summer 2024.  

#1 Lake Time with Family & Friends

This is always a given, but our time with family and friends at the lake is my favorite thing.  Our oldest daughter stays in the city for the summer to work and horseback ride, but she made it out a few times and we loved having her.  Our youngest got her first job and worked 2-3/week at a clothing store at the lake.  We had my parents, aunt and uncle, cousin and his family all come to the lake for our 4th annual lake weekend.  Having little kids around who love to beach, play sand castles and craft is always fun.  And then my BBF and her family have come for our 8th annual family weekend where we do all the things; golfing, boating, beaching, catching up, playing games and enjoying evenings by the fire.  We also had a few other friends come as well and had plenty of time to catch up with our lake friends.  Surrounding yourself with people who lift, support and celebrate you is the greatest gift.

#2 Meet Buzz

At the very end of July we added Buzz to our family!  He was 8 weeks old when we surprised our girls with his arrival.  Buzz has brought us all so much joy, laughter, new energy and love.  He lives up to his name and is constantly buzzing around the house, playing, exploring, being curious and trying so hard to win his big sister Oreo over.  Life is better with two pups to love.

#3 Getting Those Goals

Although this summer I didn't train for anything in particular, and struggled with  glute/hamstring pain, I did the 62km biking portion of the Frank Dunn Triathlon with The Ladies of the 80s, and it was so fun!  Did I do as well?  Nope.   I made it just under my goal and came across the finish line smiling.  Next weekend I will do a 10 km  in support of Mental Health and I am going to do my first duathlon.  I also tried swimming in the lake this year and I really enjoyed it.  I built up some stamina and will continue to do that next summer.  

Anya, my youngest had a few opportunities this year to try out wake surfing while at camp and with some of our friends.  She desperately wanted to "drop the rope"  and she did during her last boat ride!!!!   I was so proud of her, but even better is that she was so proud of herself.

Halie, continued to compete this year in jumpers at the local horseback riding shows.  She cleaned up early in the season and then decided to move up and challenge herself and her horse.  Their season came  to the end this past weekend  and they finished strong with a 2nd and 5th placing during in .85m jumpers. It's been a season of challenges, learning and growth opportunities.  We are proud of both of them and their dedication.

#4 Enjoying Nature

Being on the water and amongst the trees are my favorite summer activities.  This summer was HOT and we spent a lot of time on the water, kayaking, swimming, beaching, wakeboarding, I even tried wake surfing, and just floating.  In July the bugs were horrendous but by August they had settled and we enjoyed several hikes, some short and some longer like the Gem Lakes.  The Gem Lakes have become a summer MUST DO for us and this year it was just Logan and I  and the pups.  Buzz did  his best to keep up with his little 10 week old legs but he did spend a bit of time being carried around.  

#5 Celebrating 21 Years of Marriage

We enjoyed a two part celebration/date for our anniversary.  First, we went to the Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan play with good friends.  This year they did a  Hamlet production and it was incredible.  I can't  believe we've never gone!!!!  If you live in Saskatchewan, this is a MUST!  We will definitely make it a priority in years to come.  We also enjoyed dressing up, and going to a local restaurant for a dinner on their patio.  Fun tidbit, I met a wonderful lady while dinning and we totally hit it off.  Afterwards I wished I had her socials, and then 4 days later I ran into her at a teacher session and we instantly picked up where we left off.  This is someone I am definitely going to be reaching out to! 

Bye, bye summer 2024.  Since being back at work the past month, I am struggling to keep afloat with work, mom life, photography, getting daily exercise, social media and blogging.  The struggle is REAL.  Give me a couple of more weeks and it'll settle, I keep telling myself, this is just by "busy" season and I need to be okay with not being about to do it all.

I will leave you with a few outfits that I've been wearing the past couple of weeks for work.  See you on Thursday for my Ageless Style monthly post where we will showcase how we are transitioning summer to fall outfits.