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

Hello! This is a few days late and that's because I've been so busy every day that I haven't had the time to write at all. I feel like I'm constantly running around all over the place. But I'm here now!! I'm a bit shocked that it's already June (because I still feel like it's probably winter) and that Archie is finishing up his first year of school this month. It all flew by! I am also pumped and excited for all of the upcoming summertime fun! The month started with more Sarah hangouts and my favourite art & craft fair. May was off to a good start!

I celebrated the FIVE YEAR anniversary of the launch of my food blog, Erika Eats Everything! (Which is actually where you're reading this blog right now.) Starting this blog was such a big dream of mine for such a long time and to think that I'm already five years in is a little unbelievable. If you don't follow my food account on Instagram; @erika.eats.everything - what are you waiting for?? All of the best shit goes down on there.

Mother's Day was a whole wonderful event! First there was a Muffins with Mom Mother's Day celebration at Archie's school. His class created a "cafe" in the gym for all of the moms and they served us tea and muffins. Plus they gave us gifts, put on a performance, and there was a photo booth. It was actually quite impressive and very adorable!

Then on actual Mother's Day Tim and Archie gave me gifts and took me out for brunch at Chartier where we feasted on their Mother's Day Brunch Charcuterie and I had a mimosa flight. It was wonderful!

I also got to attend Amy & Ray's first big show at a real venue with their band The Kids Are Running Wild! It was a total blast! We made a whole night of it and had a fancy dinner first before cheering on our girl!

We also celebrated Nicole's birthday at her restaurant of choice, which was Sabor. It was great to be with her on her special day! (Plus I loved my outfit.)

And then our fun May Long weekend southern Alberta adventure began! First we drove to Drumheller and spent two nights there having a dinosaur-filled good time. We did all of the things like The World's Largest Dinosaur, the hoodoos, the Royal Tyrell Museum, and general exploring of the badlands. We loved it!

After that we drove even further south to Waterton Park for one night. I was very excited to visit this part of the Rockies because I'd never been before. We stayed at an amazing hotel, the Prince of Wales. Waterton is such a hidden gem!! It's much less crowded than Jasper or Banff (probably because it's more remote) and everything about it was very beautiful. We can't wait to visit again! (My parents were also supposed to meet us in Waterton and then come back to our house in Edmonton afterward... But they caught Covid and couldn't come. They'd never had it before so they had a pretty good run! They are now recovered and totally fine.)

After that we drove to the Coutts/Sweetgrass Border Crossing, briefly entered the USA (Montana), and Archie had his NEXUS interview which took all of five minutes. We were very happy to get it done though. And then we drove back up to Calgary for one night. I was very happy to get to see Lacey and to have dinner with her family!

The total road trip of driving time came to about 15 hours! But with all of the stops it didn't seem too bad and it was a lot of fun. We enjoyed exploring parts of the province that we rarely see! Back in Edmonton there was a fun event going on called Downtown Spark which we had a lot of fun checking out!

And then Sarah came back to Edmonton yet again and we got to have even more fun hangouts!

Another extremely exciting thing that happened in May is that we have hired a professional cleaning company to clean our house on a bi-weekly basis. This is MY DREAM COME TRUE. This is how I know that we've made it. HA HA! I cannot wait to have a team of strangers clean my house every other week while I DO NOT. Hooray! May felt like a great kick-off to the beginnings of summertime fun! I'm looking forward to more!

Life with Archie: Archie is as busy as always and a great adventure kid. They had Hat Day at school as well as the Mother's Day celebration, and Archie dressed appropriately for both.

Archie was the actual cutest at the Mother's Day celebration at school and I am so proud and grateful to be his mom. <3

Archie was invited to a friend from school's birthday party named Ella-Mae and he had a great time going nuts with his school friends.

Archie's foodie skills are coming along nicely! His ability with chopsticks is improving and coming along well! He's getting better at using real ones. (Not the kid ones that are attached.) And he was happy to help dad prepare LIVE spot prawns for dinner!

Archie also had a great time on our Alberta road trip! He loved seeing the hoodoos in real life and really seemed to enjoy the Royal Tyrell Museum a whole lot. His favourite dinosaur is the Stegosaurus, so he was super happy to get to see a real one.

Plus Archie had hangs with pals!

Calendon & Ava

Blake & Rowan

And now it's June and we're moving on to June things!

The first thing is that we're having a bunch of work done on our house and we needed to be out of the way, so we decided to make a fun two-night staycation of it and booked our favourite hotel in Edmonton, the JW Marriott Edmonton ICE District (fancy!) for it. But then the contractors screwed up and they have to come back and we have to be out of the house AGAIN (we're staying somewhere less exciting for the second round). It feels like we're never home lately. My brother and his girlfriend Tricia were in Edmonton for work so it was really nice to get to see them. Father's Day is later this month and we are planning to take Tim to one of our favourite restaurants, Biera, because they recently started serving brunch and we want to try it! I also have a ticket to see the band Hotel Mira play. I am obsessed with their song 'Fever Pitch.' Archie has his last day of school on the 27th! And then we are off to Jasper on the 28th to celebrate our 10 year anniversary!! We'll be there for five nights, staying at our favourite cabins, Becker's Chalets. On our actual anniversary we are doing a Vow Renewal Ceremony at Maligne Lookout (where we were married) followed by an Anniversary Party BBQ. We are very, very excited to see those of you who are coming to share in this event with us!! Tim and I always say that our wedding was such a stressful whirlwind that we didn't really get to enjoy it. So we're really looking forward to this low-key opportunity to re-live some of the magic while getting to have fun ourselves. THIS MONTH’S SHOUT-OUTS!: June 14th is Amy Bull's 15th wedding anniversary!

Wishing you and Ray a lovely anniversary and hopefully a date night away from the kids! June 20th is Laura Young's 8th wedding anniversary!

Wishing you and Matt a lovely anniversary and hopefully a date night away from the kids! June 24th is Sarah Turnbull’s 41st birthday!

I truly hope that this birthday surprises you with nothing but wonderful things. You are a warrior woman and you deserve to be celebrated and appreciated! I look forward to another year of adventures with you, working to expand our matching wardrobe, and continuing to support each other through life. I can't wait to see you a few days after your birthday!! You know that I love you like a sister and that you mean so much to me. <3 June 30th is my 10th wedding anniversary!

IT'S BEEN A DECADE!!! I can't wait to look into his eyes, 10 years later, in the spot where we got married, and to reaffirm everything that I feel about him. I still choose him. He's still the person that I am excited to spend my time with and plan my life with. I can't wait to spend many more decades with him. <3 I loved spending this special day, 10 years ago, with so many of you. You're all still by my side. <3