last night taylor storm and i walked the streets of charlevoix, pausing by pretty colored buildings and fire hydrants along the way to snap a few photos. taylor is an absolutely stunning woman, and i have to thank her for putting up with my quirky attitude last night 
we had a lot of fun shooting pictures around downtown charlevoix at the city marina, around the local businesses, and out at the castle farms. i can’t wait for taylor to see the rest of these – you’re beautiful, girl!
are you crazy about the venetian photos? i’m sure you’d love to have a picture of the men in pink soccer team for your refrigerator! haha venetian photos are available for purchase! in this gallery are photos that haven’t been published, so be sure to at least check it out! click here to enter the gallery, and insert code 81474-venetian to view and purchase the images. enjoy!
brent and i went down to the lighthouse on lake michigan on sunday only to find the pretty white structure surrounded by scaffolds and half painted in a shade of gray! the railings are also in the process of being painted dark green…i think, it was hard to tell the exact color… i can’t believe the change, but i’m so excited to see the results!
saturday of venetian was the most fun of them all! races, parades and lots of smiles!
waiting for the ryan shay memorial race to start. two of the runners stayed at my parents’ house for the weekend.
sean tully, the third-place winner of the men’s race, finished the mile-long course in four minutes and four seconds! sean spent the weekend at “hotel way”
frances koons took first place in the women’s race finishing in four minutes and thirty-one seconds for a $1,000 prize! congrats frances! she was also a guest at “hotel way” on friday night.
wendi and mike knoblock and their precious baby princess, alexandra
jon, my cousin, placed first in the jeff drenth memorial 10k foot race! awesome job, jon!!
brent and i wearing matching shirts! haha
enjoying the street parade from the same spot as the past fifteen years!
problem was, they were sitting on somebody else’s blankets assuming they belonged to our family… oopsie!
katie, my sister, and her husband paul, who is finally home from working seven long weeks on the great lakes! welcome home!
aunt stacy and uncle don on the left – jon boss on the right
congratulations girls!! i’m so proud of you!
alyssa, the outgoing queen, was absolutely radiant riding down main street in dad’s cutlass supreme. you were a beautiful queen and did a wonderful job! congrats!
here comes dry harbour marine’s big truck! the boat dealerships and service centers in charlevoix brought their biggest rides out for the parade.
uncle mike’s business, pine river inc., showed their e-log house in the parade.
2009 miss charlevoix venetian queen coronation took place tonight at 7:30pm. eight girls waited anxiously in beautiful dresses as the winners were announced. tammy potter won miss congeniality, a $500 scholarship award given to the girl voted the most friendly. the high scholastic achievement award for the best essay was given to taylor storm, a $500 scholarship. brooke nemchak was crowned second runner-up, a $500 scholarship, and tammy potter walked away as first runner-up with a $1,250 scholarship. the hearts of six girls ran wild as they awaited the next announcement, and the 2009 miss charlevoix venetian queen is celina wanek! how exciting! as a previous two-time first runner-up in this competition, i understand the nerves and excitement during the coronation ceremony. i am so proud of every girl who ran! it’s a huge commitment, a lot of hard work, and a very prestigious scholarship competition to participate in. congrats!! back in may i photographed these girls at the annual operation petunia. click here to view those photos!
brent arrived for the weekend shortly after the coronation. we walked around town and enjoyed a beautiful firework display that took place over lake charlevoix. my family and a few of our friends took dry harbour marine’s formula 40 pc out on the lake to watch them. it started to rain a few minutes into the show, but they were still as beautiful as ever!
click here to view the entire photo gallery from coronation!
2008 venetian queen alyssa mccormack
alyssa with 2008 second runner-up shauna spencley, first runner-up katherine forrester and competition director dianna phillips – opening the envelope for miss congeniality!
alyssa is like a sixth daughter in my family. she’s so sweet, and we love her dearly! thank you for appreciating us in your exit speech, miss lys! xoxo
celina’s mother was so excited! it was really touching to see their overwhelming joy
