Graphic cake
Terri Webster Schrandt

Sunday Stills: Let’s #Celebrate Something

This week our theme for Sunday Stills is celebrations. Let’s celebrate something by capturing special moments.

“Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or appreciation.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel

So far 2023 has been a busy year! Not only have we traveled to new places, but we have also been busy planting, building, and improving our home and property and I’ve shared some of those images with you.

Celebrating on the Road

In early August, we took an overnight trip to visit Kimberley and Radium Hot Springs in British Columbia while my brother and BIL were here. We had so much fun that we stopped in Kimberely twice! Our first stop was for lunch. Then we strolled (quickly) through the Bavarian-inspired streets and had to stop at the Happy Hans Cuckoo Clock.

For a Canadian dollar, you can make Hans Happy—both of them.

Cuckoo clock
My brother on the left. Hans on the right, Happy Hans above the clock 😉

On our drive back, we stopped for wonderful take-and-bake pot pies from Bears Pie Factory. If you are in Kimberley, stop by and order these excellent pies. The Guinness Steak and Mushroom pie is very tasty as well as their mini-dessert pies. We loved both the blueberry and the strawberry rhubarb! Delicious!

“Pies mean Thanksgiving and Christmas and picnics.”
― Janet Clarkson

Janet “JJ” and I really struck a chord with each other and became fast friends as our smiling faces attest.

two women
Celebrate a new friendship!

Celebrating Milestone Wedding Anniversaries

I feel at age 63, that every day is a tiny celebration when I wake up each morning. I am very healthy as my doctor told me this week, but I feel the effects of 63 years on my physical body. Does anyone else know what I’m talking about?

“Your face is marked with lines of life, put there by love and laughter, suffering and tears. It’s beautiful.” – Lynsay Sands.

My husband really knows how to celebrate! He has got to be the happiest, most positive person I know!

man with beverage

“It’s a fine line between Saturday night and Sunday morning.”
― Jimmy Buffett

I digress.

In July, I had taken a short blog break to host my family while they visited us from Arizona and Southern California.

We had just celebrated the new deck and patio cover which were major construction projects and it was a relief to have them ready by the time the whole family showed up.

While we had the whole gang here, we christened the deck (figuratively) with bottles of bubbly and a nice toast to the three collective, milestone wedding anniversaries.

My youngest brother and his partner celebrated five years on July 15 (which is also our dad’s birthday).

two men

My brother (pictured below on the left next to me) and his wife celebrated their 20-year anniversary on July 13. Their long RV road trip from Southern California culminated in a celebration at our place with their four adopted daughters (3 teens and a toddler)!

Flanked by my brothers
Flanked by my brothers
A young mother's embrace
My SIL and one daughter

My youngest daughter married on April 1, 2023, so she will also celebrate the 5-year milestones with us!

Mom and daughters laughing
Celebrating just hours before my daughter’s wedding.

In August 2013, my windsurf gal pals threw a surprise wedding shower for me at the Sacramento Delta the week before our wedding. We all paddled on our kayaks and SUPS down the river to a spot and enjoyed champagne and goodies. Probably my first time celebrating in a wetsuit!

A surprise wedding shower
Celebrating my surprise wedding shower in 2013

We’ve been married 10 years on August 22, 2013.

Couple cutting wedding cake
Want some cake?

“Celebrate who you are in your deepest heart. Love yourself and the world will love you.”
― Amy Leigh Mercree

gold paint swatch

Tanka Tuesday Celebrates Yellow!

lazy opening of sunflower petals

Each month I have been collaborating with Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge to provide an inspirational photo for the prompt. As I read these wonderful poems inspired by images I’ve shared, I like to feature my favorite. The sunflower-inspired poetry was so gorgeous and heartfelt and I enjoyed all of them. I am proud to feature Robbie Cheadle’s poem this month as she celebrates the sunflower with this poem:

Sunflower Salvation
Sunflowers
Salve for broken hearts
Uplifting
Allowing
Spiritual convalescence
Nature’s floral smile

By Robbie Cheadle

sunflower swatch

Inspiring Photo Challenges This Week

Each week I find inspiration from my fellow bloggers’ photo challenges. I enjoy incorporating these into my Sunday Stills weekly themes.

Sunday Stills Photo Challenge Reminders

The Sunday Stills weekly-themed photo challenge is easy to join. You have all week to share and link your post.

  • Remember to title your blog post a little differently than mine.
  • Please create a new post for the theme or link a recent one.
  • Entries for this theme can be posted all week.
  • Tag your post “Sunday Stills.”
  • Don’t forget to create a pingback to this post so that other participants can read your post.
  • I also recommend adding your post’s URL to the comments.
  • You have all week to link your post!

This Week’s Featured Bloggers

Sunday Stills is a wonderful community of bloggers, poets, and photographers who desire to connect with one another. Below are this week’s links from bloggers who shared their photos of celebrations. I add these all week as new links are posted.

You kept me very busy last week with all your wonderful yellow images (38 links– a new record and another reason to celebrate)!

flower border
groom and bride celebrating

This week, show us and tell us about your past and current celebrations. Cheers!

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131 comments

  2. Such lovely memories (and pics) of you and your family’s celebrations. I love how several of the, collide making those layered memories come alive. Happy Hans is my favorite! And for anyone reading who hasn’t met Hans, he truly is a lighthearted, happy man, whom I personally enjoyed spending time with! Now I’m off to figure out what celebration photos I will share for this weeks Sunday Stills. Thanks for kicking our rainy Sunday with some joyful quotes and images, Terri.

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  19. Happy Anniversary to you and Hans!! 10 years is a wonderful milestone moment. Your 63rd year has treated you so well (so far) with reasons to celebrate health, fun, family, and friends, what more could one ask for? 🥰 I love seeing all the smiles in your photos – truly heartwarming. The photo and the poem go together so well too. Your ability to combine prompts in a post continues to inspire me! 😉 Thank you for hosting the Sunday Stills! See you back here again next week! 🥰

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    • Thank you, Shelley! For our anniversary we may just go out for a dinner locally, but it feels like we already celebrated when the family was all here. We had to cancel our “anniversary” plans to visit Banff, BC in two weeks due to some other family issues we need to be available for. All is good here, glad to provide a wee bit of inspiration in the blogosphere 🙂

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  22. Happy anniversary! I’m 67 and just in the past few months my knees complain when I squat down to do something and suddenly it’s harder to get up off the floor. Otherwise I, too, am very healthy. Gee…I thought I’d be able to do everything forever…my aunt, who just died last October did everything pretty much fine until suddenly she didn’t. I expect to be the same. We’ll see.

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    • Thank you, Dawn! So you got me by 4 years. …pretty good that your knees are just beginning to bother you. I was a runner/jogger for 40+ years starting at age 15, so my knees have been toast since my late 40s. I can still walk and that does prolong your life. Keep walking that pretty Penny of yours 🙂

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  26. Yes, indeed, Terri, every day is worth celebrating! Happy 10-year anniversary to you and Hans! And I do hope you were spared the terrible fires near Spokane! The smoke from wildfires landed on this side of the mountains today with a vengeance!

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  27. This post is filled with family and happy photos – you have much to celebrate Terri and lots of loved ones to celebrate with. Happy 10th anniversary – you and Hans have not changed a bit. I like the photo under the clock. 🙂 Lots of fun. All the pot pies look delicious. My mom used to make a tourtiere often – she would make this meat pie in individual ceramic dishes – what I wouldn’t give for one now. I am not a cook or baker. I turned 67 in April. I took a few falls in my day and was lucky not to break any bones, but I do feel my age when I first get up in the morning – I put it down to those falls. One was hiking on a mountain, the other two were trip and falls on uneven cement sidewalks. Although I am an avid walker, I am NOT limber. I tell myself I will do limbering up exercises routinely, but I mostly do them before going out in the garden for Spring clean-up or before heavy snowfalls as I do the shoveling. I should be doing them on a regular basis so I don’t whine about it – ’tis my fault.

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    • Thanks so much, Linda! We bought a tourtiere pie also, my fave so far! How cool you had them regularly. I never heard of it but they sure are delicious! I haven’t felt too great the last 2-3 days with all the smoke. I limit my time outdoors so I haven’t walked much in that time. I spent 15 minutes on the elliptical yesterday and it was all I could handle. I’m pretty limber for some strange reason, and I follow an app for daily calisthenics. Better than nothing!

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      • Canadians eat alot tourtiere pies and poutine (the latter I’ve never tried). 🙂 We had a period of very bad air quality about a month ago – in fact around 4th of July I believe, the Detroit area was the worst air quality in the nation. The photos of the western wildfires are scary. This Summer has been bad for natural disasters – I’ll be happy to transition to Fall and hopefully cooler weather. I bought a yoga CD and some flash cards last year, so I need to get crackin’!

        Liked by 1 person

  33. Such lovely celebrations and milestones Terri! Congratulation and thanks for allowing us into your world. I love the idea of celebrating in a wetsuit :). As I am approaching 63 I know what you mean about the body telling us things – I’m making inroads into taking some more control over the physical things I can and can’t do.

    I know you’ve included my link to celebrating our 2yrs of What’s on your Bookshelf (many thanks) but I’ve also just written a post about my granddaughter Dottie turning 4 – I hope that’s OK.

    Celebrating Dottie as she turns FOUR #SundayStills

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  34. Hi, Terri,
    We celebrated our 52nd anniversary by returning to the open road. No picture of that milestone, but every year has been wonderful. Your post is a fun read, and everyone looks so happy–I love the picture of Hans on the barstool and you flanked by your brothers.
    Terri, you look marvelous at 63; I want some of whatever you’re having. The picture below was taken in April when I celebrated my 75th with some dear friends. The party was great, but 75 hit me hard…at least I’m vertical and taking nourishment. Have a great week! Joe

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    • There is no better way to celebrate an anniversary than with a road trip, Joe! Congrats to you both! Thank you for your kind words, I inherited youthful genes from the maternal side. I enjoy being active my whole life and I am now patiently waiting for the wildfire smoke to disappear so I can back outdoors. You share a great pic–nothing better than celebrating with friends and family!

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    • Thank you, Miriam! We really hit the wedding anniversary jackpot this year! As new home owners of our lovely property, we have spent 2.5 years adding, building, decorating, planting, etc and every thing feels like a little celebration after each is completed. I’m sure you will experience those for yourself!

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  45. Happy Wedding Anniversary to Hans and you for today, Terri. I hope you both have a great day.
    And happy anniversary to your family members too. It’s great that you all got together to celebrate these important milestones. The photos show the love and happiness, and fun.
    I hope there was/is cake and bubbles involved. You can always have a little cake and bubbles on an important day and have a second helping.
    Here’s my entry. A photo taken one Christmas Eve nearly 40 years ago. Yes, we could celebrate just as good back then too. And I’m delighted to say that I still celebrate Christmas with all the enthusiasm I show in the photo.
    http://hughsviewsandnews.files.wordpress.com/2023/08/img_0273.jpeg

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  46. Such beautiful photos of all your celebrations. Celebrating home improvements is always excellent, which means the hard work is done!
    And celebrating family is always fabulous. However, celebrating your daughter’s wedding and your anniversary is the best. You and she made beautiful brides.

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  48. I love seeing your family. Your daughters are both so gorgeous. Celebrations r u this year for sure. Happy Anniversary on the day of! I hope you are enjoying your laid-back time. I love your picture for Colleen’s poetry week, and Robbie’s poem is lovely. This post fits in beautifully with my post this week – FUN! Your pictures are all compelling examples of fun celebrations. AND my post fits right in with yours. Lots to love in this post, my friend. 🙂

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  49. You’ve had plenty to celebrate, and congratulations! We celebrated my granddaughters’ 1st and 3rd birthdays earlier this month. On a less cheery note, I heard about the wildfires in Eastern Washington, and hope you’re doing okay. I’m not sure if this is close to you or not.

    Liked by 1 person

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