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

When I was preparing to write this blog I thought "we haven't been doing too much, this is going to be a quick blog to write." And then I looked back over the month and realized just how wrong I was. I am in full-blown summatime funtime mode and even though I haven't left Alberta I have still managed to cram our time FULL of stuff. I hope that you've all been doing the same!!! Or not. Lots of you probably prefer a far more chill vibe and that makes complete sense! You don't all need to be a psychopath like I am!

July started with our (now annual!) Canada Day tradition of a BBQ at the Cox house followed by going to see the fireworks!

We got a second car! Believe it or not, we've been a one-car family since 2013 - twelve years! When Tim and I met we each had our own cars - and they were necessary because we were both driving to work each day. However, when we moved to Montreal we sold both cars and purchased one new car. I had stopped working and Tim was excited to use transit to get to work. There was simply no need for more than one car. This remained the case in Vancouver and Toronto. Then the pandemic happened and Tim started working from home and we moved back to Edmonton. But now, come September, Tim is going to be expected to return to the office for three days a week. The pandemic party is officially over!! Transit isn't quite as efficient in Edmonton compared to the other cities and it became apparent that it was time to return to owning two cars. Tim very specifically wanted to get a 2020 Volkswagen e-Golf Comfortline (this car is no longer in production and the 2020 is the last/newest available) and he found one that he liked and bought it. This is our first fully electric car!! It will mainly be used as "Tim's car" and only for city driving within Edmonton. It will also be operated FOR FREE using the sun juice that we collect with our solar panels. The freedom of having two cars once again has already been very useful!

I have essentially been running a one-woman summer camp all up in here and have been doing my best to fill Archie's summer break with lots of fun daily activities. My goal is to avoid the two of us sitting at home indoors or wasting away on screentime. I decided that Archie and I should take a little Alberta road trip and we did! First we drove down to Stettler to stay at our favourite little farmstay, Ford's Farmstead for two nights. We had the best time in our tiny cottage and we hugged the animals every day!

From there we continued down to Drumheller where we spent two nights at The Tyrannosaurus Rest B&B! In true bed & breakfast fashion, breakfast was included. We loved it there! We did all of the usual badlands dino stuff and it was super fun!

Next we popped over to Canmore and stayed at Lacey's house for a night! Alberta is an unbelievable province in the sense that we were in the desserts of the badlands and then only a few short hours later we were in the glorious mountains. It's a magical place to live and I don't take it for granted. (You just have to put up with some red necks and cowboys sometimes.) It was SO GREAT to see Lacey and to catch up with her family! We even got to visit Banff a little as well.

Then we drove over to Calgary to spend four nights there doing ALL THE THINGS. We went to Granary Road, the Calgary Stampede (I've been an Albertan for a total of 15 years and I've never been), Calaway Park, and the Calgary Zoo. Tim flew down to Calgary to meet us there for a weekend of fun (and then we all drove back home together). We also saw one of our favourite bands, Bleachers, from the very front row! IT WAS AWESOME!

Jack Antonoff, the lead singer, took this photo!

On the drive home from Calgary we stopped in Innisfail to visit Discovery Wildlife Park (yes, that bear is real) and then Red Deer County to visit Canyon Ski Resort. I stayed true to myself and crammed in every activity possible, as usual.

There were certainly instances on this road trip when Archie drove me absolutely crazy. But overall we just really enjoyed the time together. I know that I'll look back at these adventures later in life and feel so grateful that I made the effort to spend special time like this with my son. Also, we need to talk about the fact I now have a nemesis. Her name is Michelle and it's a true frienemy situation. If you scroll back up to the photo of us in the crowd at the concert, she's the one on my left wearing a cowboy hat and a coral-coloured top. I first met her in April when we were both side-by-side at the Bush concert. We sort of hit it off and started following each other on Instagram. The problem is that we're a lot alike. We're the same age. We both like to be in the front row at concerts - and I have seen her at literally EVERY concert that I have attended since April. We also both have food accounts on Insta. The issue is that she's very loud and obnoxious, isn't very self-aware, cannot read the room, and is completely entitled and delulu. Objectively, I can see that the way that she acts is rooted in her insecurities. But she keeps showing up at everything that I go to and wants to mooch off of the time that I've spent waiting for something or the money that I've spent to be somewhere. I've tried to be friendly and polite to her but she has really gotten under my skin. I'm tired of being stuck playing nice with this person who is barely an acquaintance. I'm hoping that I won't bump into her again this summer because I simply cannot with her. Other fun things that happened in Edmonton this month included going to the Great Outdoor Comedy Festival and having an amazing second row table to see Martin Short and John Mulaney (yes, Michelle was there and she tried to sit at my table), going to Taste of Edmonton with 120 tickets in hand and eating 31 different things (a new personal record!), going to KDays a couple of times (to ride rides and eat weird food), and taking Archie to Monster Jam (which he loved).

I also got to see the band Hotel Mira (who I love!) at KDays and it was extra exciting because I got to say hello to the band! Mamas still got it! (And yes, Michelle was at this show as well...) The lead singer is named Charlie Kerr and I do love him just a bit. I may or may not be using Hotel Mira to fill the Hedley-sized hole in my life. HA HA HA!

Phew!! I certainly feel like I've been living it up and getting the most out of summer! Life with Archie: Archie is very happy to be on summer vacation and had a blast on our Alberta road trip adventure! I think he had a lot of fun being on the road with his mom!! (I mean, I think I'm a pretty good time!) I know that Archie will grow up with core memories of the times we've spent at Ford's Farmstead.

Drumheller is so perfect for a boy Archie's age because who doesn't love dinosaurs? If you ask him what his favourite animals is, he'll say "stegosaurus" every time.

Calgary was SO jam-packed with big and memorable activities that it was an overload of fun! Archie loves to go on ALL rides - rollercoasters, upside down rides - if he's tall enough for it, he'll ride it.

Even the drive home was fun! Archie especially loved riding Alberta’s first and only alpine pipe coaster!

Archie has learned a lot about concert-going this summer! I have a lot of expert skills to pass down to him such as; how to get a spot at the very front rail, how to get a set list, and how to meet the band. I'm a seasoned veteran over here! BAH HA! He's a music-lover like his parents and I do think that this will carry forward for the rest of his life.

I took Archie to a Summer Reading Fest: Tasty Travels in the Kitchen class that the Edmonton Public Library put on and we had a great time cooking food together!

And Archie also did one week of Natural Investigators Summer Camp at the Royal Alberta Museum. He enjoyed this camp a lot and learned a ton of really cool nature-based stuff! (And I appreciated the week-long break to relax and to get some of my own things organized.)

We're trying to bring back our summertime baking project but haven't had a lot of time for it!

Archie also turned eight and a half!

Archie enjoyed our outings at home in Edmonton too, like going to KDays and to Monster Jam (where he got to meet the driver of his favourite truck).

Plus Archie has had some great hangs with his friends over the summer, which he has loved! He's got some pretty solid pals!

I think that covers everything!!! I wasn't kidding when I said that I'm a one-woman entertainment factory for an eight year old boy. I'm a bit shocked that it's already August and that summer is half over... But on the other hand it makes complete sense because we've certainly been filling our time. We have no major plans for the Heritage Day long weekend (that's what it's called in Alberta) and we're pretty happy about that. Just hanging around at home! I decided that I wanted to go to Jasper (we had no plans to go this summer) because they're running these Fire Ecology Hikes that I'm super interested to do. So I spontaneously booked a little one-night mid-week trip for Archie and I to go. We're going to camp in our tent at Whistlers Campground - super cheap and gets the accommodation job done! But of course the main thing for me in August is the Edmonton International Fringe Festival!! BRB because I'll be away from life and doing THAT for 8 days!! (I'm going to be missing the very end of it.) And I'm missing the end of Fringe because we're heading off to London to spend time with Tim's family. This will be a fun family time but more low-key than the cottage visits that we've usually had together in the summer. With Theresa's passing the consensus seemed to be that something smaller would be more appropriate this year. After that we're planning to spend a couple of days in Toronto as well! And that's phase two of the summer!

THIS MONTH’S SHOUT-OUTS!: August 3th is Zena Domanski’s 74th birthday!

We've had the best adventures together this past year and I have loved sharing them with you! I hope that you get to do something extra special to celebrate your day and that you feel very spoiled. I love you very much and am so grateful for all of the great memories that we've made (and continue to make)! <3 August 8th is Lacey Suttie's 16th wedding anniversary!

Congrats to you and Dallas on 16 big years! I hope that you get to do something special to celebrate! Cheers! August 15th is Enobong Anstey's 10th wedding anniversary!

Congrats to you and Ian on 10 big years! I hope that you get to do something special to celebrate! Cheers!