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

Once again, I am running late on this. It's been a busy last little while! I'm trying to catch up on my life and get us all back into the routine of fall, which I'm really looking forward to. Summer was a blast, but there's nothing like routines and schedules, am I right? Just me? :D August began with us returning home from Toronto and rolling into a few solid weeks of good Edmonton summertime. Krystie and Jason visited from Chilliwack and it was so awesome to have a few quality days with Krystie! We ate good food and did yoga, so it was the best.

Then it was Fringe time and I got way, way into fringing! It basically took over nine days of my life. The Edmonton Fringe is my number one favourite thing that happens in the city all year and I loved diving in deep. I got a Double Fringer Frequent Fringer pass and ended up seeing sixteen different shows. I'm pretty sure that this is a record for me! I also ate six green onion cakes. We spent a bunch of time on the Fringe grounds, especially me and Archie on the weekdays. It was a great Fringe. I love that I live in Edmonton and can be a part of it once again.

We also had Rachelle and Sarah's Bridal Shower, which was a lot of fun! It had a Hawaiian theme, there was great food, and we loved showering them with pre-wedding celebrations!

After that we flew off to Ontario once again, this time to London. We spent six days in London, seeing Tim's family and friends, and doing London things.

I even got to see Colen again because she came all the way over and we took our kids to Clovermead Adventure Farm. There were goats!

We also went for a tour of Gunn's Hill Artisan Cheese, another cool thing that I was excited to do. They're my favourite cheese producer in Canada, I'd say. Head Cheese Maker, Shep Ysselstein, showed us all around and explained the process of how their cheese is made. It was very interesting! (My favourite cheese that they make is called 5 Brothers Reserve. So if you ever see that, buy it!)

After that we drove to Grand Bend, which is a beachy cottage area about an hour away from London on Lake Huron. Tim's family had rented a cottage there for a week and we were all getting together there. If you remember from last month, we are planning to sell the family cottage in Muskoka and we won't be going there anymore. Going forward, the plan is to rent a big cottage (closer to London) for a week each summer instead. So we returned to Ontario again to be a part of it! Unfortunately, we couldn't stay for the full week because Archie's first day of school was also happening during the same week. So we had to return home in time for that. But we had a wonderful time in this HUGE cottage (called Sunset Lodge) with plenty of space for all 17 of us! We spent a ton of time on the beach. It was so gorgeous and looked more like the Caribbean instead of Canada. So glad that we got to be there!

It was another very busy month! We went out with a bang!! This summer felt so packed with tons of summertime fun and it really felt like we made the most of it. Life with Archie: Archie is just a part of the team! We're always off doing things and he's happy to be part of the crew! This month he did a week-long Pony Up Camp at the Whitemud Equine Learning Centre Association and tried horseback riding for the first time. He loved it! He learned a bunch of proper riding techniques and it was such a cool experience for him.

The next week Archie was in a week-long Kinder Science Camp at TELUS World of Science which was focused on marine animals, patterns, building, aviation, and the human body. He loved this camp as well because it covered so many of his interests.

Last month I told you about how Archie learned how to ride a two-wheel bike without training wheels and now I have a photo to prove it! He's going to need a bigger bike next summer.

And of course Archie had a great time at the Fringe as well! We've been taking him to fringe plays since he was born. This year he saw two and one of them wasn't even for kids. There's also a KidsFringe area that we spent a ton of time in! They had a kids yoga class one day, so of course Archie joined in on that. And Archie maybe loves green onion cakes even more than I do??!

Our trip to Ontario marked Archie's 32nd and 33rd flights!

Having fun in and around London!

Here are some highlights of our time on Lake Huron from Archie's point of view.

And of course the best part of all was that he got to spend a bunch of time with ALL of his cousins! He might be the only boy but they all get along so well. It's wonderful that they're all so close in age! I feel like a very lucky auntie to have all of these little beauties as nieces. <3

Sitting in order of age; Amelia, Madison, Archibald, Laura, Evelyn, Mackenzie, and Penelope.

You would think that rolling into September and summer vacation being over would mean that things are going to be calming down for us... But that is absolutely not the case. The most exciting thing is that Archie will be starting French Immersion Kindergarten at Lendrum Elementary School! It's a new school for him and the start of real school! Archie is very excited and ready to go! Sarah and her kids are coming to visit from Regina and I'm very excited to see her! And then in the middle of the month we are off to Ontario! Yes, I said this same thing for the last two months. We will be flying to Toronto and then driving to Niagara Falls. We are spending two nights at Great Wolf Lodge and are also planning to see the falls themselves. The main reason for this trip is because I have tickets to see OK Go there, a concert that was originally supposed to happen on May 23rd, 2020 (before we moved away from Toronto). It has been postponed FOUR TIMES because of the pandemic and now it's finally happening. I need to see this through. I have come so far. Then as soon as we return it's Rachelle and Sarah's wedding!!! I'm a Bridesmaid and I am very, very excited!! The wedding is taking place in Falun, Alberta at a very pretty venue. It's going to be wonderful! My parents are also coming to visit, which will be a nice re-do since the last time they tried to visit we had Covid and they had to run away. Another busy month full of things ahead! THIS MONTH’S SHOUT-OUTS!: September 6th is Zena Domanski's 47th wedding anniversary!

My parents are currently celebrating in Aruba at the moment, so I think that it's safe to say that they're having a great anniversary!! This is their engagement photo. The 70s were awesome. September 10th is Sarah Tasker's 11th wedding anniversary!

11 years, 2 kids, same husband. I'm pretty sure that's a feat in itself! ;) I hope that you and Darren have a chance to celebrate! September 17th is Sarah Tasker’s 40th birthday!

I absolutely LOVE that we have gotten to share so many adventures with each other this summer! We really nailed it! I hope that your birthday is super special and that you really get to celebrate this new decade. I'm not sure how it's possible that we have come this far from being little five year old babies together. I love you so much and I'm so grateful that we have gotten to be forever people in each others lives. <3