THE GOODS BLOG: Erika's Precious Little Life ~ June Edition

Happy June!! June is the start of the summer as far as I'm concerned! It has been quite rainy in Edmonton but because of that everything is lush and green. We're just coming out of "spring flowers" time where everything was in bloom and it was so beautiful. My whole yard is still covered in fragrant lilacs and I love it. The sun sets at about 10pm these days. Life is good. Let's do a little monthly recap, shall we? You know the drill around here. At the very start of the month Sarah came to Edmonton from Regina and we went to a weekend Spring Spa Retreat together that was about 20 minutes outside of Edmonton. It was a pretty magical and transformative experience. We went on quite a journey! The weekend was full of ritual and ceremony, being seen and held by incredible women (there were 13 of us plus about 5 women facilitating), yoga and movement, hammam and massage... And of course delicious food. The whole property was beautiful too. We also got completely nude together, micro-dosed mushrooms, and steamed our vaginas... So this thing had a lot of layers. It sounds crazy but it was actually really empowering!

My roommates at the retreat were Sarah and Justine. We had such a nice time together!

Konzy and I went and saw RENT together which was great!

And then my parents arrived from Regina! They spent a few days hanging around in Edmonton with us and my mom and I went to the new OddBird Art & Craft Fair and I loved it.

I also celebrated the six year anniversary of my food blog, Erika Eats Everything! I'm pretty proud of myself for having the consistency to keep this blog going. I have been writing restaurant reviews for about 20 years (it all started with posts on MySpace!) and I'm still passionate about it. I have learned so much and grown in my writing. Beyond all else, I have loved eating everything! I appreciate any and all support that you have given to me over the years - it means so much!

Then we were off to Vancouver for five nights! Hooray! First we celebrated Mother's Day and it was very nice to get to spend that day with my mom!

We surprised my parents with a morning seaplane tour on Harbour Air! We've always wanted to do one of these and we kept it a secret from my parents. They were very surprised! It was super neat taking off and landing on the water and the views were stunning. Archie absolutely LOVED it because he's obsessed with all aircraft.

After that we went to BOTANIST for their fabulous three-course Mother's Day brunch which included two alcoholic drinks each. It was very good!! What a special Mother's Day!

The rest of our time in Vancouver was wonderful. We did many things!! I loved being back in Kitsilano and being back in my old neighbourhood. We ate TONS of different food. I had a facial and went to yoga. We hit Granville Island and the Vancouver Aquarium. The Postal Service and Death Cab for Cutie concert that we went to was amazing! And I got to see Carrie!! It was such a full visit in one of our favourite cities and we loved it very much!

Back in Edmonton we had our monthly double date night with the Coxes which is always a blast! This time we went to Fu's Repair Shop and it was delicious. It's so much fun dressing up and going out on the town with Mary and Jonny!

I'm not sure if you've heard but the Edmonton Oilers are doing quite good at hockey. Ha ha!! I'm not a big sports person but it is very fun when the Oilers are doing well and the whole city is excited. We went to one of the Road Game Watch Parties at the arena during the second round (when they were playing against Vancouver) and it was so much fun! (They have now beaten the Los Angeles Kings, Vancouver Canucks, and the Dallas Stars. The Oilers have made it to the fourth and final round against the Florida Panthers. If they win this round they will win the Stanley Cup!)

Archie and I attended a super cute Kids Baking Beginners class at Duchess Atelier and it was so much fun! I used a stand mixer for the first time! We made brownies, salted caramel, and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and it all turned out really well.

Aaaaaaaand we caught Covid again. Round two bayyyybeeeee! I have no idea where it came from. I was pretty knocked out for a couple of days. Tim and Archie had it as well but it barely affected them at all. This happened almost exactly two years after the first time that I had it.

We also checked out Downtown Spark which is a very fun annual event with awesome art installations that we enjoy.

The Core Four celebrated Nicole's birthday with a Girls Night at Meat, which was her restaurant of choice. It was very meaty and tasty!

And Dustin came from Vancouver and slept over at our house!

There have been some other things that have been going on... We have gotten some pretty sad news about Tim's mom. She has been diagnosed with Neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) on her liver. It's not cancer but it sounds very similar to cancer. She is now on a treatment of medication given by injection but there isn't a cure. We really don't know how well she is going to do or for how long. It has been a difficult and sad time for Tim's family navigating this new development. On top of this Tim's dad's Parkinson's Disease continues to progress. We usually have a big fun Golem get together every summer and we have gone back and forth a few times about what this summer's plans will be. It sounds like we have finally decided to keep our current Muskoka plans so that we can still have a nice vacation with Peter and Theresa while they're still (somewhat) able.

In more positive news, May is one of our favourite times of the year because it's money time, ha ha! Tim got a raise at work, a bonus, and we sold a bunch of stock RSUs. Among other things, we have used this money to pay off our car (which we've had for two years), pay off Tim's student loan (which he still had all this time!), and pay off our credit cards. This will also fund our upcoming summer vacation. So if you see us splashing out more than usual, that's why! It's a very fun and optimistic time of the year for us!

And that's all! It was a busy month with a lot going on, just the way that I like it. I'm looking forward to getting into the summer season and enjoying all that comes with it.

Life with Archie: As always, he's got a lot on the go! Archie finished up Beaver Scouts for his second year! He really enjoys this program and gets a lot out of it. Plus he has made a bunch of friends there. They gave him all of the badges that he has earned this year too!

Ice cream hangs with Jonah and Edie! They have now moved into their forever home only a few blocks away from us!

They had Hat Day for a spirit day at school but the kids are also encouraged to wear Oilers stuff on game days.

Archie is loving his Junior Riders horseback riding program a lot and says that it's his favourite program that he's involved in.

Archie really loved our trip to Vancouver! He has now flown 54 times. We are counting the seaplane tour as a flight. He said that the seaplane was his favourite part of the whole trip! Archie is a really great traveler and enjoyed the whole adventure!

Archie is way into hockey and is very invested in the Oilers playoff run. He knows way more about hockey than I do.

Here's Archie working away at the baking class that we went to. He did a great job!

Archie's class had a cultural background day at school where they were all supposed to bring something that represented their background. They were allowed to bring food so that was clearly the right choice! Archie brought kolaczki to represent that he is three eighths Polish.

And finally, we got Archie's class photo and it's pretty cute. His class has 23 kids in it but two of them were missing from the photo. Grade One has been a great year for him!

I cannot believe that as of today, he only has 17 days of the school year left!! Grade One is almost finished somehow?!

June is off to a good start and should be a bit more low-key. I think the main focus will be on finishing off the school year and getting ready for the summer. Maybe we'll get to see the Oilers win the Stanley Cup! Father's Day is this month and we have brunch reservations at The Butternut Tree which should be nice. Improvaganza is this month, Edmonton's improv festival. I used to say that this was my 3rd favourite festival that happens in Edmonton! So I got tickets to two of the shows and I'm excited to attend it once again. And the end of the month is me and Tim's 11th wedding anniversary! We booked dinner at a restaurant called XIX Nineteen that I've been wanting to try. I think it'll be a nice month with some great outings around our city. Happy June everyone!

THIS MONTH’S SHOUT-OUTS!: June 14th is Amy Bull's 16th wedding anniversary!

Just a couple of children! I hope that you and Ray have a chance to celebrate your day of romance! June 20th is Laura Young's 9th wedding anniversary!

Just a couple of children! I hope that you and Matt have a chance to celebrate your day of romance!

June 24th is Sarah Turnbull’s 42nd birthday!

You are so special to me and you're always up for a crazy idea or a wild adventure. I'm like "wanna dance naked in the woods?" and your answer is always an enthusiastic YES. We have walked side by side down the path of life for so many years and I can't imagine my world without you in it. You work so hard to do it all and deserve to be SO spoiled on your special day (by new Andrew!). I love you so much and I can't wait to see what we get up to next. <3 June 30th is my 11th wedding anniversary!

I still love doing life with him so much. Even when life is bland or busy I would still rather end my day lying on the couch with Tim watching Welcome to Wrexham (this is what we're currently watching, ha ha) than anything else. I love what we have built. This is the happiest that I've ever been and I say this to Tim all the time. <3