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

The past month has been craaaaaazy!!! With going away on vacation I haven't had any time at all to get around to writing this! But I'm here now. Edmonton got VERY cold in January; it got down to around -40°. So the timing of our tropical beach vacation couldn't have been better! (This entry is going to be very picture heavy because there's a lot of ground to cover!) First up in January was my birthday! I turned 42 and celebrated in a few different ways. Tim and I went out for lunch on my actual birthday to Brew+Bloom and then out for an adult dinner at Fu's Repair Shop on the weekend (we had a really excellent meal there!). Plus I got to have a Birthday Girls Night dinner at Uccellino with the ladies. I felt sufficiently celebrated and it was all wonderful! <3

Plus birthday Oodie snugs with my favourite boy was the best way to spend my day!

Shortly after was Archie's birthday and he turned 7! On his actual birthday we did our usual thing of birthday nachos and presents.

And then on the weekend we threw his birthday party which turned out to be quite epic!! It was a pirate-themed party and we held it on The Ship at West Edmonton Mall. We had 25 kids attend who were entertained by The Pirate Joe Show, a puppeteer/magician. Plus it was a costume party so most of the kids dressed up. And I fed them all Korean corn dogs. It was a blast and Archie loved it!

To keep the theme going we then spent the night in the Pirate theme room at the Fantasyland Hotel inside of the mall. Archie slept on the top deck of the pirate ship! It was all very fun and over-the-top!

As previously mentioned, my friend Mary moved back to Edmonton from England! It was been wonderful getting to reconnect with her and we've always just hit it off really effortlessly. We have a lot in common; we have sons who are the same age (that's how we met in the first place), we both love to travel and eat in good restaurants, and we both practice yoga. In fact, Mary has joined my yoga studio! I'm really looking forward to having her as a close person in my life. <3

On January 19th my new nephew was born!!! That's right, NEPHEW!!! The curse of the one boy has finally been broken! His name is Chester Rowe and I can't wait to meet him. Archie is very excited to have a boy cousin (although he super loves all of his girl cousins too). I now have SEVEN nieces and nephew! We *think* that this is likely the last kid in the family.

I had my last Pelvic Floor Physio appointment after attending for a few months and I have graduated! I have noticed a huge difference in my ability to hold my pee and I feel a lot stronger. When I first started going my therapist said that my pelvic floor strength was a 1/5. But on my last appointment it was a 4/5! I am really happy with these results and it didn't even take that long to achieve them. I am still waiting to get in to see a female gynecologist about my perimenopause issues and potentially having an IUD put in. I'm hoping that this will happen soon. Although, I did get the results back from my pelvic ultrasound and everything was normal. I am currently on day 78 of my cycle, which has become entirely normal for me. And then we left on our week-long vacation to Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands! We truly had such an amazing time. Beaches was a really wonderful resort full of tons to do and really great activities for kids. We spent lots of our time on the beach (which was so gorgeous!) but we also really loved the waterpark. The Sesame Street aspect of the resort was a lot of fun too and there were plenty of great opportunities to see the characters. The weather was hot and sunny for the most part and our room was really comfortable with a king bed for Tim and I, and a twin bed for Archie. This was our third time visiting a Sandals/Beaches resort and we really, really enjoyed it (so much that we've already pre-booked Beaches Negril (Jamaica) for winter of 2026)!

Resort Erika has arrived!

Oscar is my favourite!

The food was generally really good and we absolutely loved the Jerk Truck on the beach and ate there three times. We also left the resort to visit Da Conch Shack, the best place to try the country's national dish; cracked conch. (We ate sooo much conch in Turks and Caicos!)

It was all fabulous and I love, love, loved it. Great vacation!!

Life with Archie: Archie seemed especially busy this month with all of the little things that he has going on in his life. First, we visited the Sea Life Caverns and he made friends with a penguin named Seashell. They appear to have a mutual love for each other and it's very cute.

Then Archie's school had a drumming residency that was held by a group called Rhythm Rhythm Rhythm. It was a really cool experience where the kids got to spend a week learning about drumming and practicing playing. At the end of the week there was a final performance and we all got to attend a huge drum circle!

Some of Archie's winter activities have started up and he's doing Swimmer 1 for swimming lessons and Tadpoles at a rock climbing gym. He's never tried rock climbing before so this is something new and interesting that he's trying out.

Archie attended another Home Depot Kids Workshop and built a Delivery Truck.

He dressed up for Beach Day at school.

And he lost TWO more teeth...

Here are some more highlights from Archie's birthday. I love him so much as a seven year old!

And here are all of the piles of pals at his birthday party!!! We invited his entire class because we didn't want anyone to feel left out. Plus he invited friends from other parts of his life too.

...And more weird mall animals?

Archie also attended his friend Silas' birthday party (they're the two oldest kids in their class). It was a hockey party and the kids had a great time on the ice!

Archie really seemed to love our travels and he has now flown 51 times!!! He was even allowed to go into the cockpit on one of our flights, which he LOVED. He's an excellent and seasoned travel kid.

In Turks and Caicos Archie tried snorkeling for the first time and saw a sting ray, enjoyed attending the resort's kids club a few times, loved swimming in the ocean, REALLY loved the Xbox Lounge that they had there, and had a blast meeting all of the Sesame Street characters. It was so special to share all of this with him and I am so grateful for the ability to expose him to these types of life experiences.

What a big month! With birthdays and a vacation it felt like a whole lot! Things should be quite a lot quieter for us for a while now.

February is definitely more chill. Valentine's Day is this week and Tim and I are attending a Valentine's Charcuterie Date Night at Meuwly's Artisan Food Market (without Archie) which should be super fun. We also have a date night planned with Mary and Jonny on the weekend (with no kids) for dinner at Darling and I'm really looking forward to getting back into the fun double dates that we used to have with those guys! And that's pretty much it! THIS MONTH’S SHOUT-OUTS!: February 9th was Laura Young’s 38th birthday!

I hope that you got to feel very spoiled on your special day and that you had a very enjoyable and relaxing time at the spa! I hope that we get to reconnect a bit more this year and that we have the chance to make some new memories. You're very special to me always! Love you! <3 February 18th is Candice Weingartner's 12th wedding anniversary!

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