Pets :: Pioneer Park Walk With the Girls

It's not very often you get a group of girls and their dogs (or not) together... but when you do, it's always fun. This sunny Easter weekend, we opted to meet up at the local dog-friendly beach, and go for a walk around. It was a prime time to meet little Mei, and enjoy some quality time of friends together outside of class and work.

Blue running along the beach to find his friends

Two things Scrappy Doo loves - water and tennis balls. :)

Blue and Rosie running through the river

Handsome Scrappy Doo...

Rosie and Blue playing in the sand.

Life :: Paws for a Cause

So, this weekend, the BC SPCA ran one of their largest fundraisers. The Paws for a Cause - walk for the animals is an annual, province wide walk for pet owners, large and small to support the BC SPCA and the work they do. As a non-profit society, they depend on all donations and fundraising efforts to help support their cause through sheltering, humane education, and cruelty investigations.

In Kamloops, Paws for a Cause is held in Pioneer Park, where everyone meets up, and moves on to a short walk with their pets... When they got back, most migrated to the river to cool down, as it was one of the warmest days in the week, and back up to the park for the games and prizes.

And although most enjoyed the river, or at least wading in it... the river just wasn't the same as playing in the leftover ice from the concession!

Life :: Canadian National Wakeboard Championships

Well, this past weekend was the Canadian National Wakeboard Championships. Why they decided to run them in the middle of the South Thompson River is beyond me... All the water-ski events (and anything to that sort) generally happen at Shumway Lake.

The sunday we went - for the semi-finals - was unbelievablly amazing. Not a single cloud in the sky, warm weather... Not unlike typical August weather... Unlike this August. The weather this year has been very touch and go... They lucked out running the Canadian National Championships this weekend - had to be one of the most beautiful weekends all summer!

And, I couldn't take anyone but my favorite neice! :) Sofia enjoyed the sun, and relished in the chance to play in the river... Such a little water baby.... and such a ham!!

We saw some good runs... but my favorite photo has to the be following. The poor kid tried multiple times to land his jump, to no avail... until this time. I looked like he was going to biff it, and go down, but he held his ground, stuck it, and recovered... Amazingly! :)

And... like I said, Sofia played in the water, went under at one point, but that didn't faze her... She kept trying to go deeper, but still step over the waves...

Life :: Kylie, Sofia and Shane

Well... Here's a lot awaited shoot!
For nearly 8 months, Kylie and I have been talking about doing a shoot with Sofia. I'm so eager to get some photos of her, and play with my camera, that I was so excited, reguardless of it being cloudy, overcast, and threatening rain (which is did spit on us for a while). It was relatively cold and dreary for an August day around here.

My poor niece LOVED the swing. She was happy to spend hours swinging on it... rain or shine. She screamed when she was pulled out - only to find her love of the slide too...

Once she had enough of the slide, and we returned to the swing... we extracted that crazy grip of hers and wandered around a little. She went and chased the seaguls, and wandered down the pier with us... before playing in the river with Shane - against Kylie's wishes...

She was one cold little girl who was very grumpy when she left the river and went for lunch...

I love photographing her... Get her in a good mood, and Sofia is normally all smiles! She's such an easy model, she just loves to play, and as long as mom is not too far away, she'll smile for hours. I absolutely adore her smile - just lights up a room with the twinkle in her eyes...
God I heart that kid... proud aunt? I think so...

Pets :: Katy and Arthur

So, I found myself spending most of my summer with these two while their family was running around the province camping... Good for me... extra cash, and getting out of my house... sucks for them... or so you'd think.

Does he look as mischievious as he really is? I definately lost some pizza toppings, some cheese, and some tea to Arthur... I tried to teach him manners... but he's a counter surfer, and his family seems okay with that... Arthur is definitely the more outgoing of the two.

Once she warms up to you... Katy's not as quiet and innocent as she seems though. If you're going to hear the two of them running around the house, you can bet Katy is the reason for it... She's the one who started it all, and she's the one who eggs Arthur on...

And... one of my favorite features of their house...

Their balcony! It's only a short walk to the beach, of which I kinda regret not doing... But I definitely spent many nights watching the sunset on the balcony! :)

Pets :: Fizz and Scrappy Doo

So Angela and I needed a bitch session a short while ago... so we took her dogs down to the beach. I used the excuse to take some photos of them playing on the beach. Unfortunately, due to the low light and my amateur skill, and pets looking absolutely horrible under flash... not a lot of them turned out. I did manage to take some decent photos of the sunset though...

Of Angela's two beasts... Scrappy Doo is the water love, athletic, ball crazy, stress pot of a dog. Fizz is the laid back, younger (ironically) with bad knees. He tended to wander away and visit everyone else on the beach... but Scrappy definately had a lot of fun chasing the sticks we tossed into the river for him.

After we threw the sticks a few more times... we went for a walk down the River Trail... at least until it met with the roads. Explain to me how you can have a 'River Trail', that deviates from the river for an extended period of time...?