Thesis is Done!

I defended my this on June 3 and it went well.  I am currently in a state of exhaustion and subdued elation.  It feels good to be done even though I have some corrections and improvements that need to be completed before I can hand in the final draft to be printed and bound.  So glad to be done.  A three year and nine month journey that I did not think would take that long.  At least I loved my topic and really enjoyed the travel bloggers who participated.  I need to send them thank you emails as well as an official copy of the thesis when it is published online.  Now I am going to enjoy my summer then return to blogging myself.  But an enjoyment of summer comes first, including a trip to Europe starting next week.  A well done pat on the back from me to me.  Going with my mother and I am excited!  Congratulations to everyone graduating during this spring season.  Well done to all of us who pushed through the difficult times and joyous moments to experience the end.  Yippeeeee!

Missed a Few Months...How....

Wow. I have never missed two months of blogging since I started this blog a few years ago. It is not that I don't have things to blog about, it is about the time factor.  Now that I am in the workforce full-time again, I have a position of management, I continue to write my thesis (despite sacrifices of my recreation time and other life activities), and I moved to a new adult, grown-up, professional apartment. All of this means less time to sit and write creatively for this online space. I don't want to be the type of person that abandons one's blog so I will quickly add this update and a photo from my new balcony and say that after I defend my thesis this Fall (cross my fingers and get to work), I shall be back to blog on a regular basis.

Thanks to my mum, Aunt Arta and others who may read, I do enjoy writing this blog so I shall be back. In the interim, I shall be staring out at this view and I sit and complete my fourth rewrite for my final thesis document.

Thanks to Photosynth, I can give you an almost 180 degree view of what I see every morning and night. Lucky me!

A bien tôt!

Another Voyage

So my life is set up into different chunks of time and focus.  While I was traveling, this blog was about travel.  While in grad school, I focused on it (but I have not caught up with all that I want to say so more to come).  Now that I am a leader or boss of a small organization (I prefer leader), this blog may get a bit theoretical as I attempt to learn how to become a good leader rather than devolve into a horrible one.  This will take active practice and work and I am already staring at six book on leadership from the library taunting me from my kitchen table.  The topic?  LEADERSHIP.  This may mean I lose a few of my eleven or so readers but hey, I write for myself and the process as much as for you (but I really like you a lot so please stay!).

While attempting to finish the thesis that will never end, I read the following quote from an article about economic or extrinsic rewards in business, versus social or intrinsic rewards in business.  Essentially, should organizations create elaborate reward programs to light a fire underneath their employees butts to encourage them to share their knowledge (which apparently people don't do naturally, as we hoard knowledge, much like the show...I wonder if my brian on the inside looks like some of those living rooms...).  Well, as it turns out, people are more apt to share knowledge if they are able to identify intrinsic reasons to do so:

"Employees who think knowledge sharing would increase the scope and depth of associations among organizational members tend to have a positive attitude toward knowledge sharing.  Their positive attitudes toward knowledge sharing are formed by the expectations of reciprocation on knowledge sharing.  Moreover, employees who believe in their ability to contribute to improvements of organizational performance have a positive attitude toward knowledge sharing. Therefore, we should pay more attention to enhancing the positive mood state for social associations which precedes knowledge sharing behaviours and should provide useful feedback to improve the individual's self-efficacy instead of designing an elaborate evaluation and incentive system."
- Bock. G. W., & Kim, Y-G. (2002). Breaking the Myths of Rewards: An exploratory study of attitudes about knowledge sharing. In Information Resources Management Journal, 15(2), 14-21.

Self-efficacy in this study is defined as "people's judgments of their capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to attain designated types of performances", a definition which was stole borrowed from Bandura (1996).

Essentially what this says is that my decision to provide an employee this week, who has been invited to participant in...let's say...'turf management', was a good choice.  This may foster a greater desire to contribute to our small but impressive organization, because he will have developed social associations that will motivate him to contribute for intrinsic reasons, which always last longer than extrinsic motivations.  This is why when I was at that crazy school and the administration pretended to listen to the teachers' ideas but really didn't, they did not get feedback when they asked us questions during staff meetings because we had no intrinsic reasons to share our knowledge with them, the leaders of a school, as we knew our organization would not improve without a change in management.  Sharing would have been a waste of our marvellous contributions.  This makes sense now.

I hope 'turf management' does not make anyone lazy.  :)  

Zoe at the Special Olympics

Life is really busy right now with a new job, finishing thesis, and now a flood in my hometown and I am making sure my house is not being washed away.  The good news is, my sister competing in Alberta' Special Olympics this weekend in Devon, Alberta.  Despite the flooding, the event is going on as it is further north and not in the flood zone.  Here is a blog post my mother wrote about the event.  More to come later.

Zoe at the Special Olympics

Apparently the Olympics went very well and Zoe won a silver medal and three bronze medals.  One medal for each event she entered.  Very cool Zoe!  I shall call in the next few days to hear her stories.

Zoe Wins Four Medals

Crunch Time 3

So I did it.  I handed in my thesis to my professor earlier this week.  Now begins several months of re-writes.  I wonder how sick I will be of my thesis before it even goes to my committee?  While I await the first set of re-writes I am hearing horror stories of both the length of time other grads have experienced for re-writes and how many people cry either during or after their thesis defence.  Despite some harsh criticism of two parts of my thesis, I did not cry during or after the proposal, but I was in shock for about a week.  Walking around thinking about how I could have made the proposal better to have avoided the criticism, as well, wondering where a university's responsibility begins in teaching about their students how to complete research, and where the individual grad student's responsibility begins.  Besides, open verbal group feedback is a very difficult experience and chilled me a bit to the bone.  Then again, that is the whole point of a thesis committee, the group that gives you ideas about how to improve your work, your abilities as a researcher, and your writing.  A bit of a double-edged sword, pointing out the weaknesses while at the same time helping the individual to improve through little tiny repetitive cuts to the top layer of skin.  Hopefully I can handle what comes.  The end is near, I just have to sustain my level of progress until the very end.

Towards the end I looked like every other crazy student's space: papers everywhere, books piled in each other, pens, pencils and highlighters all over the place, cups of leftover beverages strewn about, piles of dishes in the sink, semi-rotten food in the fridge, running out of clothes to wear, few clean towels left, and a dirty apartment that scared me.  The picture below is the cleaned up version of my study space (you will not be seeing the rest of the apartment).  Should have taken a shot before I organized.  It was a hilarious, academic mess.    

Worry, not, I was not bored after I handed in my thesis as my student political career winds down at the end of this month as well.  What a strange and eclectic ride that has been.  Full of the interesting, bizarre, and overwhelming experiences that can crush one's soul or bend you in ways you thought you were not flexible.  I had to have a long conversation around January with a colleague about the sacrifices I was making to complete this political work and the tole it was taking on my academic progress.  At the time I was being steam rolled by a colleague and it was exhausting and disappointing, but not worth delaying my academic progress.  From this and other experiences I have learned that democracy is illusive and hard to work through as a process.  I am willing to interpret rules in order to serve people and ensure their needs are met, but there are multiple interpretations of rules and critical thinking is always necessary.  We serve people, not words on a piece of paper, but the ideas attached to those words are important and subject to interpretation.  This makes democracy challenging and formidable.  It has been an interesting few years.  

As these two main pieces of my life come to a close, work that has occupied my life for three years, I wonder about the next steps.  I am lucky as I have already had several job interviews for work in both the tourism and recreation fields.  This weekend I am spending time thinking about what I want from life, and I wonder what the future holds for me and what choices I will be asked to make.  All unfolding uncertainties.  Exciting and a bit scary at the same time.

Off to create a poster and re-read my thesis just for improvement sake...again.
I'll keep you posted.

Born to Run

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Running is not something that I like doing unless I have a basketball, am running bases, or playing some sort of sport.  Having started running in the Running Room clinics a friend lent me this read.  After devouring this interesting novel about a tribe of people who run as their more used form of transportation, the Tarahumara, several well known American runners organize a race down in the Copper Canyons of Mexico.  A fantastic read that will make you think you too can run for miles and miles.  While I continue to plod along, I shall allow this read to motivate me as I learn to run for the sake of my body and its abilities.


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The Scarlet Contessa

The Scarlet Contessa: A Novel of the Italian Renaissance by Jeanne Kalogridis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Really like her books.  The covers make these look like romance novels but they are history lessons, stories of power and control, and reminders that women did play roles in history, we simply have lost their stories and creatively have to fill in the holes.  Great author.  Page turning books!


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Marco Polo Didn't Go There

Marco Polo Didn't Go There: Stories and Revelations from One Decade as a Postmodern Travel Writer by Rolf Potts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Within the context of being a post-modern traveller and writer, Potts takes the reader through chapters of stories, each dedicated to an individual experience he has had after having vagabonded about the globe for a decade.  This book provides an interesting and didactic structure through which Potts uses current academic research to affirm his narrative choices, as he shares his experiences about travel.  Most of this writing has been published elsewhere and this book is a collection of assorted stories that offers Potts to teach the reader about travel writing within the context of vagabonding, academic research, and individualized learning through experience.  A great read and one that is worth looking at again if you are a travel writer.


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Vagabonding

Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"Research your own experiences for the truth...Absorb what is useful...Add what is specifically your own...The creating individual is more than any style or system." - Bruce Lee, p. xviii

Potts introduces the reader to a travel phenomenon called vagabonding, a fun easy going word that means one is moving about the globe gathering experience, knowledge and understanding through observation and personal contact with other people, with about two dimes in their pockets.  We also learn the term anti-sabbatical - a job one acquires with the intention to stay a short time, just long enough to gather sufficient funds for the next adventure, travel based or otherwise.  I had travellers envy throughout most of this book.  Deep envy.

"Vagabonding is, was, and always will be a private undertaking - and its goal is to improve your life not in relation to your neighbours but in relation to yourself.  Thus, if your neighbours consider your travels foolish, don't waste your time trying to convince them otherwise.  Instead, the only sensitive reply is to quietly enrich your life with the myriad of opportunities that vagabonding provides." -p. 36

Potts takes this book to introduce the reader to ways one can travel on a small budget by relying on oneself, great contacts and useful websites.  You will come out ready to travel and to do it well.  Now, where are you going to go?


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Grad School Lazy = RUN

It is time to get in shape using my shapely form.  Going from teaching all day and moving around for 6 hours organizing children, teaching lectures, providing supplies, starting projects and the general mayhem of teaching elementary school, grad school has left me lazy.  Yes, I blame grad school.  Other than the research I completed this summer at festivals and interpretive centres, grad school required my brain, fingers and wrists to function on overload, but not my other body parts.  Hence I am less healthy and fit than I have ever been in my life.  A once former athlete, I have been a casual participant in sports and other activities over many years, and several years ago was so frustrated in a crazy job that I began working out 1.5 hours a day, just to deal with the daily stress and bur-ha-ha.  I was tighter after that job but the insanity lead me to other paths in my life.  I moved to London and started to travel, during which I walked and moved for hours every day, and tried every delicious looking European snack possible (have you been to an authentic patisserie lately?).  Then I transitioned to grad school and lost it all, my sleek calves, my Carnival shaped butt, my tighter abs, and my single chin.  I want these back and in order for this to happen, and under the pressure of great friends, I joined a running club.

This means I have joined the Running Room for a 10 week Learn How To Run clinic.  Now those who know me know I am an athletic person and many of the sports I participate in include running.  My shins have always cried out in pain after a long workout, so I am learning how to run properly and will ease into running with this clinic.  Perhaps I will share interesting wipe-outs and other such nonsense on this blog.  Be prepared for shenanigans!

So far one of the runners this evening told me that there is a new basketball team starting up in Manitoba for women aged 40-49.  I have not found the link yet.  I will keep looking and share because I would really like to get back into basketball.

That would be awesome....must finish thesis first!

My new New Balance shoes:

Love New Balance, always have.

My new ICEtrekkers:

So I don't fall down and go boom!

My new underoos care of Costco and Paradox:

Note: my legs are far more luscious and curvy :)

Before I Go To Sleep

Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a book I could not put down and spent several nights in a row during my Christmas holidays staying up far too late to finish it.  Every morning I would wake up and wonder what it would be like to not remember anything, the panic, the fear, the attempts at reconciling information others gave about who I might be and how I came to have no memory of such a person.  The main character suffers from such a plight as has no memory of her life or who she may be.  As the book moved on, Watson, the author, shocks the reader with a few surprises and as the reader, I could not help but try to find a part in the book when the heroine understands her life through the journal she is keeping.  Read this book for the excitement and nervousness that will seep through your imagination.


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New Places to Get Lost

Here are a few blogs and websites I have recently discovered as enjoyable or awesome.  Totally distracting myself from my actual work.  Yay for holidays!

For all you design lovers and home project do-ers out there:

Design Salon

A funny look at life, work, family and sarcasm:

I Am Prepared to Give Up At Any Time

Need a t-shirt?  I have not ordered any and I am unsure of their quality but a quick gaze through these is an historical walk through modern times:

6 Dollar Shirts

Since I am in grad school, here is a person who is on her way to a tenured track professor position.  Funny and honest:

Fumbling Toward Tenure

Enjoy!

A Surprising Evening

Last year around this time, November 2011, I went to a conference and W. Brett Wilson was the keynote speaker.  He told the story of his life, including the ruination of his relationships due to the amount of work he was completing while making millions of dollars (follow link to hear this story). While rebuilding his relationships he has told his family that he will answer their calls at anytime, and then his phone rings during his keynote speaker address.  He answers it, tells his dad he is in the middle of a speech in front of 400 people, and that he will call back in ten minutes, then hangs up.  I tell this story a lot as, in our society, we are still learning how to interact with people, electronics and social media in socially appropriate ways.  Here is an example contrary to much of what I have established as socially acceptable, and yet Brett's decision to put his family first makes sense.

This evening I was asked to attend a fundraising concert at which my nephew was performing with his touring choir.  I love seeing my nieces and nephews perform and gladly agreed.  My father, sister, brother-in-law and I went to the dinner and concert and the performers were the most eclectic mix I have ever encountered.  As it turned out, this was a philanthropic evening organized by Brett Wilson and his staff in order to raise money for the Calgary Veterans Food Bank.  Here was this former Dragon's Den millionaire who had made his money in gas and oil doing more work in the community.  As I looked around I saw a former mayor of Calgary, a few CBC reporters, a Calgary Stampeder (this person was pointed out to me), and several other faces I knew from around Calgary but could not name.  This evening while listening to seven different artistic acts we raised $95,000 dollars, $20 of which was mine.  I did not expect such professional and well connected musicians or audience members, instead I was anticipating a junior high school type performance.  What a night!  This is why I write a little, read and little and get up and live a lot.  The living part is just so enjoyable and filled with surprises.

The performers are below with comments about my favourite parts of the evening.  What a joyous night to be a part of and I did enjoy rubbing elbows everyone in attendance, and I will return next year.

Boys Choir
They performed several pieces written by Benjamin Britten a challenging composer who wrote in the UK around and after World War Two.  They were delightful and Brett Wilson actually won a performance by the choir at another charity auction and used the performance he won to earn more money for even more charities.  This is a smart man.

Brett Kissel
Official website
He is a talented and young country singer who wrote a song in protest of the NHL lockout on behalf of fans, 'Hockey, Please Come Back'.  Rumour has it, it is somewhat viral at this point.  An interesting micx of songs with several poignant ones written for his grandparents.

Shane Koyczan
I had no idea who this man was but I have been exposed to modern forms of poetry, including poetry slams and the spoken word.  He performed at the Vancouver Olympic opening ceremonies with 'We Are More' a tribute to Canada, and is working hard to spread the word about clinical depression and dealing with bullying.  His love poems were equal parts hilarious, thoughtful and enchanting.

One of his funny and brief poems:



The Stellas
Official Website
A group whose name I was familiar with but whom I had never heard.  We were fortunate enough to hear both Brad and Marylynne and their two children, Lennon and Maisy, who recently made a video that went viral and earned them a spot on Good Morning America.  As two duos they are incredibly musical, gentle performers and talented people.  As a quartet, they sang a few lovely Christmas songs and brought others up on stage to share the spirit of the season.

Here is one of there most beautiful videos which Marylynne wrote after finding a book of love poems written back and forth from soldiers to loved ones back home during World War Two.  A moving piece of work:




Also performing were Christian Laurian and his sister Malia Ashely Kerr.  Lastly, we received an operatic performance by Sara Staples along with her accompanist, Nathaniel Schmidt.
Such a delightful night that surpassed my expectations.

Get out and live a lot!

How to Make $$$ During the Holidays

A few weeks ago on Facebook....

Old Jasper

This past October I took a chance to drive from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Jasper, Alberta....OK, I was headed to an academic conference and I couldn't afford to fly so 'took a chance' might be over stating a bit.  I had to drive.  While in the mountains I was reminded how much I love them and how lucky people are who live near them.  When they were in my backyard I certainly did not take advantage of them as much as I should have.

During my drive I pulled over repeatedly for about two hours on the way home, taking pictures, feeling the peace and quiet, and watching the daylight play on the scenes before my eyes.  Here are a few shots that I played with on my computer that remind me of the old postcards you can buy in tourists shops.  Pictures such at these can also be seen on the walls in the old Canadian Pacific hotels as framed tributes to the historical past.  These are new though, and mine.

An old picture in a new time

Like pictures of old with one glaring addition :)

Light and fluff on rock

Holiday Greeting Card

The president's office at the University of Manitoba sent out an email notifying all campus members that he/they were looking for a photograph of any of the University's campuses that display a winter scene that can be used for the University's holiday card.  Well, as you can tell from my blog, I really enjoy taking photographs and sharing them with others.  I took the challenge and lucky for me over the past week, 42 centimetres of snow fell, which made for better snowy scenes.

On Tuesday of last week I went out at the golden hour of which there are two, sunrise and sunset.  My night owl status definitely encourages me to lean towards the sunset side of the golden hour.  Having scoped out the campus and noticing the sun set on the opposite side of the campus from where all the historic building are found, I ran about taking about 100 shots, only one set that I really liked.  It is kind of spooky and holiday-ish as the same time.

I cropped it a little, I altered the colour as the sun had set by then and the shot was a glowing blue, but I decided to leave the balls of snow in the bottom right hand corner so that the observer who sees the details would notice that the background of the photograph is snow.  A hint as to what I shot.

The second shot I was not really happy with and would have rather have sent in a picture I took last year at Assiniboine Park, but the request for photos was specific about campus shots.  It is of a piece of artwork near the music building.  The piece include holiday red and I do like the snow resting on the top of the graded coloured pillars but not stunning in any way in my opinion.

The last pictures is why the golden hour is so important to exploit, or use, or take advantage of.  The University of Manitoba, Fort Garry campus is nestled in a curve of the Red River, at which this picture was taken.

  
While I was taking this shot and several dozen others, I noticed that I am far more physically adventurous with a camera in my hand.  I was meeting a friend of dinner on campus after I finished taking the shots so I was in jeans and healed winter boots.  The shots were down a green, snowy stretch of land, then down a slope covered with forest floor dead branches, stumps and other debris.  No matter.  I had to get down there to see what kind of picture I could get from that perspective.  Having taken many shots, I liked this one and enjoyed altering it a little, enhancing the colour, lightening some shadows, and cropping the tree stump out a bit.  I am hoping this one, although a classic shot rather than a push the envelope shot, is definitely studied by the panel as they make the final selection.

I am not holding my breath.  There is little on this campus that I have ever won, money, awards, or recognition even though I have poured my time, intelligence, heart and soul into my graduate work, but I shan't give up.  Especially when photography is involved.

Good luck to all entrants and especially to me!

Summer 2012: Pirate Invasion!

This is my sister-in-law Cheri.

These are the types of cakes Cheri dreams up and creates.

A pirate ship arriving from a water land of cupcakes to a desert land of 'sand' cupcakes on which the pirates will fight with the skeleton crew who have a treasure.  Yep.  She makes the fabulous creations and then we, her grateful family-in-law, have the audacity to eat them.  Truly they should be encased on glass and put on display in a museum.  Instead, we eat them.  We (un)grateful lot.

The pirate ship is made from rice-crispie treats wrapped in moulded tootsie roll.  The masts are cookies.  

The water and sand are cupcakes with delicious icing and candies on them.  The desert has icing which is them dipped on pulverized graham crackers.  So yummy!

In addition to the cake she made cross-bone cookies...because they are so simple to create (?).

The skeletons guarding their treasure

'Come get us and our treasure pirates!'

The pirates descend in a ship to advance towards the booty.

Prepared to fight!

Who will win?!?

This summer I confessed to Cheri that I have a fantastic business idea.  She is going to make cakes like these and I am going to sell them.  Thusly she and my brother must stay together always, and she needs to make cakes faster...or we can hire minions to create the cakes while she dreams them up.  Either way my plan will take some convincing and she just laughed every time I mentioned our new joint venture.  There is some work and convincing yet to be done.  Wish us luck with our booty!

Three Different Views

Recently I drove from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Jasper, Alberta for a recreation conference.  The event was really good and I met and re-met a number of fantastic people who appeared happy, in love with their jobs and content in their lives.  Yep, those are some of my goals too.

On the way to the conference fall had settled in nicely with its yellows, oranges and even browns, but upon my return 4 days later winter had descended and left a mystical white and green wonderland.  There will be several posts that focus on the pictures I took as I believe I added about 1.5 hours to my journey on the way home as I stopped repeatedly at designated view spots and on the shoulder of the road, as safely as possible, clicking the beauties of the mountains, 360 degrees around me.

One of the most interesting moments was stopping as I ascended into the mountains, removing myself from my vehicle, and realizing that my car and the music I was listening to inside were the only sounds to be heard.  Nature was silent.  There was not a person or vehicle around that could disturb the peace and even near by animals were docile, perhaps sensing the beginning of winter.  I leaned on my car and just observed, listened, and thought for a while.  A delightful treat in the mountains.

Here are three shots taken at the Jasper Park Lodge of a lake near the hotel.  I am having fun playing with my computer photo program.  Let me know if you have a preference.

Number one has a boost of colour and I really like the digital looking reflection of the mountains and clouds in the water.  

Number two looks like it should be in colour, but on second glance the eye notices the only colour is yellow, thus the sepia version of the picture.  Still the gradations of colour are quiet interesting.

In black and white the third shot still gives the eye a sense of the layers of tones, highlights, shadows and hues.  Looks like an old postcard with a modern twist of clear lines.

I like them all but for different reasons.  The joys of photography and computer programs!

Summer 2012: Shot from the Air

Flying from Winnipeg into Kelowna I looked out the window and spied this:

The tops of the Rocky Mountains just peeking above the low lying clouds.

A more distant view

Snow still on some of the peaks, even in August.

Summer 2012: Mermaid Camp

As some of you may know, I have 12 (going on 13) nieces and nephews.  They are a constant source of entertainment, joy and hilarity for their aunts and uncles.  One of my sisters, Marcia, was talking with her two boys at the beginning of this summer about camps they may want to join.  Their younger sister, a three year old, was listening in and piped up, "I want to go to Mermaid Camp".  Uh?  My sister did not know what to do as she had never heard of such a thing.  Upon telling us the story, we family members joked that we could tie the kids legs together and throw them in Shuswap Lake, in amongst other sassy comments.

As we gathered at Shuswap for a family gathering, Marcia decided she was going to give her daughter a Mermaid Camp.  She went to the dollar store to make a few purchased, we gathered our make-up, nail polish and other assorted elements that could be included in our first ever, Mermaid Camp.

Marcia gathered the nieces and made fin-like invitations to distribute to the family.  We were all invited to Mermaid Camp at 2:30 PM on the porch.  Be prepared to be done up!

The adults began to put make-up on the girls, paint nails, coif hair and have an all round good time.  Sadly I could not find any ocean, sear or Little Mermaid music for the event but as you can see, we were having a great time.

Audra, the little girl who started Mermaid Camp,
having her nails done by Aunt Lurene.
(One of the best pics I took.)

Not aware her hair is on end.

Strike a pose!

We kept decorating each other.  Laughing at the feather eyelashes, the sparkled rings, and the fun colours of make-up.

Audra, in the rapture of Mermaid Camp

Our neighbour, Autumn, came to join us. 

Finishing touches

A late-comer just getting started.

Three little mermaids from school are we....

...even the adults got into it...

Well hello Cheri!

Adult nail time, care of Sabrina

Funny thing happened on the way to Mermaid Camp, the nephews showed up.  With trepidation, at first, they began putting on rings....

....then they let the Aunts start doing their hair.....they did not realize that this was only the beginning....

Stunning smile

With a lovely red flower 

With lovely red lips

....next came those crazy feather eyelashes....

Then the Aunts went wild with a no-holds-bar approach to Mermaid Camp.  Anyone on the deck was either getting done-up, was doing the work of decorating another person, taking pictures (like moi), or posing for a picture. 

Work is kids!

Work it Andrew!
(One of the best pictures from Mermaid Camp.)

....then Ozzy Osbourne Mermaid Camp started....

Group shots were next on the list of things to do at Mermaid Camp.

Love the smiles and other assorted facial expressions.

Pose it children!

Then it was treat time: banana vanilla ice cream milk shakes in fancy glasses.  

Thank you to all who made the delish milkshakes!

We had a great time and it was really fun seeing my nieces and nephews participate in some gender bending and enjoying every minute of it.  I was even more impressed by my siblings who just watched it happen, provided the space for their girls and boys enjoy doing something new for fun, for family bonding and for a great time.  

This may become a tradition.

A decorated child

Phew!  Mermaid Camp is exhausting!