My life is a Carnival Act!

Can anyone relate? I'm constantly juggling all these hot plates above my head! But as of next week, life really will be a Carnival, a Carnival Cruise that is. We are going on a vacation to Nova Scotia with my entire family. My amazing Mom is taking all of us! I mean all of her daughters, our spouses and kids! How cool is that! Frankly it comes at a fairly crazy time in our lives. We will return from Canada and turn right around to go up to New Hampshire, so we will be out of the office until after Labor Day. Somehow when you have kids you have to give yourself permission to stop working and enjoy life. We want to provide the most fulfilling life for our son that we can, and that means being there to experience the day to day stuff as well as a little splurge every once in a while. When I think back on my own childhood, family vacations were really special. Not because they were so extravagant or exotic in location, but because we were all experiencing something new together. The fact that my Mom wanted to do this for all of us just shows you the kind of person that she is. We are very close. In fact, my husband and I bought the house that I grew up in from her. It's sort of weird how you find yourself morphing into your parents as you get older. Maybe someday, I'll have the opportunity to do this for my son and extended family. So we will be checking emails from our private balcony in our stateroom between daily excursions around Halifax and St. John. Whooo Hooo! I can't wait to get a picture of my son as we are boarding the ship. He's about to burst with excitement. Here are a few pictures that I borrowed (sorry to the photographer who shot them) from Carnival's web site.

This is what my son is most excited about-the water works of course!

Our crash pad with a view!

Karate Summer Camp

It feels like it's been a long hard Summer with much still to accomplish. My never ending list. We're in heavy duty renovations (not so much fun), work has been busy and I have felt really disorganized since my house is under some construction. I needed some time for me.

I had the opportunity (and challenge) to attend Karate Summer Camp. I am a member of the USA Seishin Karate Club, and we had a weekend camp at Deer Lake Scout Reservation in Killingworth, CT. I knew that we would be training hard with classes scheduled all day, including free swim, gourmet meals, completely rustic housing and running at dawn. Excuse me, I said running at dawn! Hello... I don't get much done before a gentle rising and several cups of coffee. Well things have certainly changed around here. I quit smoking (part of the plan and doing great!) and even managed the run at dawn without losing the pack. I was thrilled to be somewhere in the middle. Training in the wilderness was fantastic. We met new friends who traveled long distances to be there, trained hard, ate well, slept even better and all left with a feeling of accomplishment. It was great and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I took pictures when I could between classes.

The lake is beautiful!

Our humble housing was actually quite comfortable, especially after a long day.

Our fabulous Chefs!

Games at sunset!

The next day, I realized how long it's been since I've experienced dawn. It was so peaceful and beautiful.

My Sempai, more training and even a Japanese game like our smash the pinata!

Mark and Patti Clifton, our hosts, have been rescuing orphaned deer for years, but I could not believe how tame this little female was. She actually kissed my lens!