Our 'Other' Latest Project

We're halfway there baby! 

Cannot wait to meet and cuddle with you this fall.

xoxo,

Mommy, Daddy and Big Brother Ben

Memorial Day Wedding

Danny and I headed down to Phoenix this past weekend to celebrate the wedding of our very good friends. They have been living in Arizona for the last two years while working on a Neuroradiology Fellowship and Post Grad Degree in Education. You may recall we visited them (with Ben in tow) a few months ago. But this time it was just the two of us; a quick little getaway for some sun and fun.

We stayed at a lovely golf resort which is sort of ironic in that neither of us actually golf. Even if we did, however, I thought it was too hot to hit the links anyway. So we sat on a patio and sipped on nice cold beverages instead, ha! Even after brunch I had to retreat to our air conditioned suite to cool off. This Canadian girl isn't used to 38'C weather (triple digits 'F).

The wedding itself was in the evening at a quaint restaurant surrounded by luscious gardens and beautifully lit trees. It was a small intimate gathering of family and close friends. Very relaxed and calm - full of love. There were so many thoughtful details to take in (which I apparently didn't photograph) but appreciated nonetheless. All around it was just so enjoyable. Hearts feeling full.

We were honoured to be able to celebrate with our good friends and are equally as excited to have them return home soon.

Happy Memorial Day to all our American friends!

May Mountain Picnic

I'm loving our new home and we're mostly settled in but I made a request this past weekend that we take one day off from our enormous 'to do' list and do something fun. It was the first warm weekend we've had all year and I did not want to waste it. No chores, no errands, no working from home, nothing. One day off... that's all I wanted. Luckily Danny agreed.

My favourite place to escape to is obviously our extended backyard, the Rocky Mountains, so we got up bright and early on Sunday morning, packed our bags and headed out west. Both boys slept as I hit the open road and soaked up the beautiful views. The sights never get old.

We stopped in at a local cafe in Canmore and picked up some soup and sandwiches to add to our half-packed picnic basket. Then we moseyed along to the Nordic Centre to figure out a place to enjoy our picnic. After a brief chat with the folks at the day lodge and a crisp new map in hand, we decided to drive to Barrier Lake.

Barrier Lake holds a lot of memories for me. Cousins playing in the bushes and filming our version of the Blair Witch Project, a trip with girlfriends fresh out of university looking for a place to wind down. And now I could add a family picnic on the first warm weekend of the year with my little family. It was so much fun.

I have a feeling we'll be making a lot more memories here in the future.

A Little Encouragement for Mother Nature.

Source

It snowed again yesterday. Another long, drawn-out spring. My goodness we're so close though. Forecast is looking promising for the weekend and I'm pulling out our spring jackets.

Come on spring, we're so ready for you!

Our Latest Project

A couple weeks ago I eluded to the fact that we have another big move on the horizon and I'm pleased to say this is one of the most exciting ones yet. We're not changing countries, or provinces or even cities this time but we are moving into our very own house (our first ever "Yes we own it, yes we pay our own mortgage"house)! Up to this point we've been fairly transient in our lives so renting made the most sense at the time. But now it's time plant some roots.

The process started back in October, after we had some time to settle down from all the hubbub of moving cross-country, starting a new position at the hospital, and wrapping up a fairly busy summer. We found a rare lot in our dream location and were able to jump into the process rather quickly. The next few weeks were a flurry of design selection meetings, bank appointments, electrical appointments, change orders and the like. It was a bit overwhelming at first, especially considering we were in a situation where we had to work within in a condensed timeline, but overall the process has been really fun.

We've made a tradition of driving over to the site each weekend, coffees in hand, to look at the progress. It has been so incredible to see our home take shape; the place where we'll host barbecues and family dinners, where piano will be practiced and knees will be skinned. Our family's first home.

Three more weeks!

What's Crackin?

I found myself in a predicament this weekend as I opened the refrigerator only to find that we had a slight surplus of eggs (like four plus dozen) instead of our usual single dozen. Woops - you bought eggs too, honey? Fortunately this is the time of year lends to a few egg surplus solutions.

I decided to try to get a bit of inspiration so that I could perhaps dye some of the eggstra baggage (sorry, the puns stop here, I promise). We often painted or dyed eggs as kids at Easter time but I haven't done it myself for a few years now. Should I stay with the traditional egg dye route we did so many times or should I try something new?

The Graphic Designer in me did a little backflip when I saw these Easter eggs (here). I'm such a sucker for pantone swatch related paraphernalia and I think these are just brilliant. Lets not pretend I'd actually have the patience to do this myself, but still...very cool.

These ones from Martha Stewart are also pretty fun.

But I get that there are lots of different ways to decorate Easter eggs and not everyone gets kicks out of graphic design and print press related eggs the same way as I do.

A little more searching and I found these calligraphed ones which would be cool if I had a steady hand...

Of course I would find some ombre eggs. Call me crazy but I've never been a huge fan of this trend.

Grab your sharpie and have fun with these bold black and white creations. You wouldn't have do deal with the mess of dye but you might have a marker high by the time you were done.

And finally I stumbled across these pinata eggs which just made me crack up because, oh my goodness, could you imagine smacking one of these things if they weren't sufficiently hard boiled first? Surprise!

So maybe I'll put some of those those extra eggs in our fridge to a good use and embrace the Easter spirit, or maybe we'll be eating a lot of omlettes in the next couple weeks. We'll shall see!

Snapping out of it

I don't like leaving things on a sour note and that last post stayed up way too long! Yes, it was a really yucky period, but as is the case with most parts of life, things change.

Pleased to say that we've been feeling much better and haven't gone through nearly as many Kleenex boxes as of late. It's still snowing a lot around these places but we can't be too surprised because we all know that spring doesn't come to Canada until at least May. That being said, I've begun to buy flowers a little more regularly while at the grocery store. Even a small bundle of tulips can brighten up a long string of grey days. Plus it's usually still light out when we eat dinner and that feels good too.

We have lots to look forward to in the coming weeks. Outings with friends and family are becoming a bit more regular, Easter is just a few days away. Plus, we're gearing up for another big move (within city limits, thank goodness) and cannot wait to truly plant our roots so to speak. I was going to post some pictures but am working off my iPad and can't seem to get things syncing properly so it will have to wait.

Plus, Baby is sleeping and i just might take this opportunity to get a little shut-eye myself. Yay for afternoon naps.

So more to come soon!

Hope you're all well!