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

January was a tornado!!! I knew that it was going to be a lot but it really, really was. I'm looking forward to entering a period of chilling out for a bit. First of all, I wanted to share this picture from 2022. In 2022 I spent time visiting ALL of the cities/provinces that I have lived in. It became a bit of a goal and a challenge to see if I could get myself to all five of them in one year - and I did! And you know that I love a project, so I loved the idea of featuring my provincial flower tattoo in each of the actual locations. Each of these places is beautiful and special to me. <3

January started with us still in Regina. We spent New Year's Day in Regina and returned to Edmonton the next day.

We had a little bit of time at home and then it was my 41st birthday! I didn't get to do much to celebrate it because we left for Disney on the same day. At least I got to spend my birthday traveling, which I love. Tim is going to take me out for a birthday dinner later in February - we just haven't had any free time! Here's me going full birthday girl on an airplane.

Unfortunately, my wish for drama-free travel in 2023 was not to be. My birthday was actually quite terrible and stressful because our flight to Toronto got canceled due to fog in Edmonton. I was even on the national news about it! It was not a great start to our vacation. We had to scramble to get ourselves out of Edmonton, hoping that we'd choose a new flight that wouldn't also get canceled. Finally, we ended up flying to Vancouver and connected to Toronto from there. It was a nightmare. I know that I'm extremely privileged to be traveling at all, but when you've sunken thousands of dollars into a vacation you just want it to go according to plan. Thankfully, we made it to Toronto on time to catch our flight to Orlando the next day. Not so thankfully, our checked bag containing me and Tim's clothes and toiletries got left behind in Vancouver. *facepalm* Despite the rough start, we made it to Orlando on time, made it to our resort, and had a truly wonderful and memorable vacation at Disney World. We loved it so, so much. SO MUCH! Watching Archie be in awe of each day's new experiences and going on every single ride and meeting all of the characters was just the best. We visited all four parks and each one was a blast! You can see ALL OF THE PHOTOS HERE, but I can't help but share some highlights. MAGIC KINGDOM:

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS:

EPCOT:

ANIMAL KINGDOM:

Here are my two favourite outfits that I wore at Disney World. Disney fashion is a whole thing in itself!

We also celebrated Archie's 6th birthday at Disney World (we went to Magic Kingdom that day) and I definitely think that it was a birthday that he won't soon forget. Including birthday bumps in front of the castle! He's already SIX YEARS OLD!

This was taken once we were back home.

My favourite ride was Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. (I went on it twice and for those who know, I got 'Conga' and 'One Way Or Another.') My favourite restaurant that we ate at was Yak & Yeti, mainly because I ate a huge delicious poke bowl. But literally everything that we did and saw and ate was amazing. We did it all! Disney is hella expensive. I'm not going to pretend that it isn't. But if you have the means to do it, I really do recommend going. It's a wonderful family experience to have with your kids. Being six years old, Archie seemed like the perfect age because he was tall enough to go on everything but still young enough to be amazed by the magic. It was also really great that we had watched all of the animated movies leading up to the trip. Archie totally recognized everything because of it. We are planning to return in another six years, when Archie is twelve. We're hoping that we'll be able to stay at an even more ballin' resort by then, ha ha. Once we were back home Tim left again TWICE. He went to London one weekend (Tim's parents' house has already sold!) and Los Angeles for four days. I also started to feel sick on our last day at Disney and ended up catching the Disney plague (it was bronchitis) and I've spent the past few weeks trying to get over it. So things have been a bit upside-down and unsettled. I did get to celebrate my birthday with Nicole, Rachelle, and Amy and I chose to go to 5th St. Food Hall. It was so much fun!

We also had fun at Archie's birthday party... 'Cause we do kids parties now.

It was a very big month! As of right now we don't have any major travel plans for the rest of the year. We're going to go to London in April, Jasper in June, and Muskoka in July... But I don't really consider these as "major" travel because they're domestic and mostly just to see family. We'll see if anything else pops up for us! The year is off to a good (and slightly wild) start!

Life with Archie: There's always time for brunch! This kid can crush a pancake or a waffle like no other.

It should go without saying that Archie had an incredible time at Disney World. I don't think that he fully understood what Disney was going to be, he mostly just knew that that's where the castle from the beginning of the movies is. Watching him have the best time ever was the best. He LOVED meeting the characters, especially Donald Duck who is his favourite.

Archie's favourite ride was Test Track because he got to design his own car and then test drive it.

I was super impressed at how fearless he was, going on lots of the big roller coasters and rides that might be considered scary. He is so different from me as a kid because I was scared of everything at his age! I really loved seeing the sheer joy on his face for a whole week.

Archie had a magical birthday! Complete with a birthday character dinner at The Crystal Palace. (We did several character dinners and this one was our favourite.)

This trip also marked Archie's 40th flight!!!

Once we were back home Archie was happy to get back to the usual school routine and to see his friends. He was invited to a birthday party for a friend from school named Silas and he had a great time.

We also had Archie's birthday party as well! We held the party at Cineplex and the kids had lunch, played in the Clubhouse theatre climber, and then watched Puss in Boots. They all had a great time and Archie loved celebrating his birthday with his friends!

I had a lot of one-on-one time with Archie this month with Tim being away. It was actually really nice. I enjoyed the time to connect with him. He's so "easy" now compared to a few years ago and I really love the phase of life that we are in right now. What's up for February? A lot less, that's for sure. It'll be nice to get back to a balanced and more normal life for a while. Archie will be starting up with snowboarding lessons this month at Snow Valley and it'll be good to see if he has retained anything that he learned last year. For Valentine's Day Tim and I are going for dinner at Rge Rd because they're having a special Valentine’s Day Dinner and I want that! They are describing it as an "extravagant multi-course dining experience." Count me in! I think we'll finally also celebrate my birthday as well! And then at the very end of the month I have tickets to see Vance Joy. By now you should all have received an invitation to me and Tim's 10 year vow renewal in Jasper this summer! I would absolutely love it if you were able to come!! But also, no pressure. We're aiming for it to be a fairly casual event that we can actually enjoy without any stress. We are going to be staying in Jasper from June 28-July 3 at Becker's Chalets (our favourite). If you are in the mood for a mountain adventure this summer, please join!! <3

THIS MONTH’S SHOUT-OUTS!: February 9th is Laura Mitschke’s 37th birthday!

Wishing you an absolutely fabulous day, my sweet friend! I really hope that I get to see you this year and we really need to get our two boys together once again. I hope that the whole fam spoils you a whole bunch and that you get to do something extra special. I love you very much! <3 February 18th is Candice Weingartner's 11th wedding anniversary!

Wishing you and Ryan a lovely anniversary and hopefully a date night away from the kids!