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

It seems crazy that it's already June. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was complaining about the freezing cold. How is it already basically summer?? I have so many ridiculously amazing summer plans that I can't even contain myself!!!

May was pretty crazyamazing as well.

It all started with Amy, Rachelle, Nicole and Kristen visiting me from Edmonton and Vancouver! It was THE BEST. I could cry just thinking about it (which I did do, abundantly, when they left again). It felt like I had my family back and I am so grateful that they travelled all the way to Montreal.

We crammed in SO MUCH STUFF during their visit. Mainly eating. Ha ha. We had a day of pedicures and got dressed up for a fancy and boozy dinner in Old Montreal. We went to Le Bremner, which is Chuck Hughes' second restaurant. It's run by Danny Smiles, who came in 2nd place on the 3rd season of Top Chef Canada! He was so awesomely nice and even took us back to see the kitchen!

We hit up the tam tams on Sunday, went to a yoga class, did lots more eating and adventuring around town, and we also went to go watch a taping of Chuck Hughes' current (french) TV cooking show À Couteaux Tirés. The episode that we saw isn't going to be aired until the winter. And we got to hang with Chuck again! Apparently this is just what we do now in Montreal.

I was so terribly sad for them to all leave. Thankfully Colen and Jeff came to visit right after from Toronto! Their visit was shorter, yet still consisted of insane amounts of eating (we went to a really good restaurant called Tuck Shop). We had such a fabulous time showing them around town!

Then we were off to Lake of Bays in Muskoka to spend the weekend at the Golem cottage for May Long Weekend. We were super excited to spot THREE moose along the way in Algonquin Park!!

Cuddling with 7 week old (at the time) baby Amelia was a pretty big highlight. She already seems so much bigger and way more expressive! She took a big rumbly crap on my leg while I was holding her, and I couldn't have been prouder. I'm looking forward to telling her about that when she is 13...

One morning I got up at 5:30am to go and sit on the dock by myself and watch the sun rise. It was so incredible that I was almost brought to tears! Being in nature is absolutely the closest that I get to any sort of spirituality, and I was definitely feeling it on this morning.

The weather was so hot and amazing that we were even able to swim in the lake!

Again, I recorded my latest The Girl Can't Cook video, but it's not ready yet. Keep an eye out for that soon!

I have not heard anything back from Zomato at all. This could either mean that they aren't interested in me, or that they don't have their shit together yet... But in either case, I'm a bit relieved. I have A LOT of stuff coming up and the longer that I don't hear from them, the longer that I don't have to make any difficult decisions. I'm perfectly happy to coast for right now.

On a similar note, the Urbanspoon website is now NO MORE! So that's a bit terrifying for me! Everything has moved over to Zomato now, so you should check it out! Sign up and follow my profile and whatnot! Get familiarized with the new website! I'm already a level 13 Connoisseur, which is the highest that I can be... So I guess that I don't have anything new to strive for. Ha ha!

June is going to be just about as crazy and insane as life gets for me... And I am craving it. I can't wait to bust out and be out there having summertime adventures and fun!!!

Firstly, some things at home. The St-Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival starts up today and you are probably aware of how much I love the Fringe. It's totally not as good as the one in Edmonton, but it's still a bunch of fun. We're planning to go and see about five plays next weekend.

This Friday is the 2nd First Fridays of the year, and I missed the first one. It's a giant gathering of all of the city's food trucks, and I intend to consume a frightening amount of tasty goodness.

Tim just found out that since he has been working his butt off lately, they're going to give him a four-day-long weekend this weekend. So we are talking about going to Quebec City for like two nights (it's only about a 2.5 hour drive away). We've barely gotten to explore our own province since moving here (we cut back a LOT this year on the things that we would usually do; weekend trips to places that aren't free, we didn't do any snowboarding this winter (sadly), hardly any concerts, way less movies... All in an effort to save money for other bigger things. We're adults!) so we feel like we may have earned to do something for us. (Not to be confused with the next thing that I'm about to tell you about...)

On June 16th we are OUT OF HERE. Summer vacation, here we come!!! We're leaving for 22 glorious days and I don't care if we never come back! I have been looking forward to this trip more than anything else this year!

Our first stop is Vancouver and I'm so very excited to get to spend time with my mainland west coast ladies, Erin, Kristen and Krystie! It has been WAY TOO LONG since I've been over there to see you guys!!! I plan to make you uncomfortable with my amount of hugging.

We're renting a car to get around in, and our next stop is to ferry over to Vancouver Island AKA pretty much the best place in the world. We're meeting up with Sarah at this point too! We're driving to Hornby Island which is about a 2.5 hour drive north of Nanaimo and requires us to take two more ferries.

Then we're on Hornby Island to celebrate Laura and Matt's wedding!!! I am so beyond excited. First of all, I just MISS YOU a shit ton, Laura! I can't wait to see you as a gorgeous bride and to also get to meet Madeleine! I'm going to cry. A lot. It's going to be amazing. Yeeeeeeee!!!!! We're staying at Sea Breeze Lodge while we're there, and this is also where the wedding is being held.

After that Tim and I are off to recreate our 2012 vacation to Vancouver Island, our favourite vacation of all time. (That's the trip that Tim proposed on, so that will be pretty impossible to top.) We plan on discovering some new things this time around as well! First stop is Qualicum Beach, staying at Sand Pebbles Inn, a little place that we stumbled upon and fell in love with the last time. We also have one night at Free Spirit Spheres, which are spherical treehouses that are suspended up in the trees! (We tried to do this last time, but our reservation got screwed up. NOT THIS TIME!!!)

After that we're heading across the island to Tofino. Ah, Tofino, my heart! We're camping at Bella Pacifica Campground again, like we did last time. However this time, we have what I determined to be "the best site" when we were there the last time! It's right on the beach with a view of the ocean. (The beach where we got engaged.)

All of that is going to be about two weeks. Vancouver Island (and the specific stops that we're making) is a major soulplace to me. So yeah... Pretty sure that I'm going to refuse to ever come home.

After that we're driving back to Vancouver... But are we heading home? NO!!!

From there we're taking the bus to Edmonton (which will be July at this point) and we're spending over a week there! I'M COMING HOME!!! I can't wait to be back among all of the things that I know and love so dearly. And to be back with Rachelle, Amy and Nicole!! And I'm so excited to get to see Susan and Jaelyn as well! SO MANY AMAZING FRIENDS ON THIS TRIP!!!

Then at some point we're going home. It's July 8th and I don't care to think about it.

Soooooooo yeah. That's some stuff.

THIS MONTH'S SHOUT-OUTS!:

June 14th is Amy Bull's 7th wedding anniversary!

I am forever honoured to have been a bridesmaid at you and Ray's beautiful wedding in Edmonton! Time sure is flying by! I wish you both a wonderfully special day of romance!

June 24th is Sarah Turnbull's 33rd birthday!

I am missing getting to be with you on your birthday by only a few days! You are my family and we have been through it all. I have so much respect and pride for everything that you have done in this past year. You have created an empire and it is going to continue to grow and expand and you'll be the queen sitting atop all of it! I get emotional thinking about what you have meant to me over the past 18 years and I have no idea where I would be without you. We've held each other up... And we have also argued like sisters. I take my clothes off in front of you without even thinking twice about it. Ha ha ha! When we're together, I feel like we're a force to be reckoned with and that we could rule the world. I'm so glad that we have each other. So Shane better spoil you a lot, because obviously you're very important to me!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH WITH MY WHOLE HEART!

June 30th is MY 2nd wedding anniversary!

Oh yeah! So this is also a thing... Two years have passed like nothing and I can safely say that I love Tim more than I ever have. Sometimes it even surprises me, just how content I am. We have challenges just like everyone does but we always know that we are so much stronger when we face them together (and subsequently smash them). We play and we adventure and we are living our life in exactly the way that makes us the most happy. Marriage is wonderful because you always have someone to get into mischief with.