favourite activities Archives

Explore: Summer in Pictures (Vol. 5)

September 22, 2013 by Farewell Stranger ·

We had rain last week, cool after what seems like endless hot summer days. The water park in our community closed has closed. Fall is here.

But, oh, the summer was good.

Through no actual intent or forethought on my part, I planned my maternity leave perfectly. Going back to work in October (one more week! Already! How can that be?) is a beautiful thing. I had the summer to explore, play, and travel with my family. I think we made the most of it, and now I’ve had September to help with the transition to Kindergarten.

(And speaking of exploring, I’ve given up my Yummy Mummy Club blog. I just decided it’s time to focus elsewhere.)

In any case, I realized it’s been a while since my last one-word update and what I’ve been exploring, so this is a bit of a photo dump to share some parts of our summer.

We did a few different trips over the last few months.

We went to the mountains. We looked way up at them, and we looked down at the world from their peaks.

Finally, after much anticipation, we went to San Diego. We dipped our toes in the water.

We played in the sand. (This is his “beach face.”)

Oh yes, we went there.

And it was a hit.

San Diego is such a beautiful place.

One night after Ethan was asleep Connor and I went for a walk along the boardwalk. Well, I walked. He wanted to go in the stroller, which he very much does not fit in anymore, but we managed to get him all tucked in there. He hunched beneath the canopy, so quiet I hardly knew he was there. We walked, all along the boardwalk and out to the end of the pier. We got ice cream. It was lovely. The perfect evening.

Below is the view from our room on our last night. I wasn’t awake nearly late enough to fully appreciate it. (I love marinas.)

Yes, San Diego was great. (We even got to visit Tonya.)

We also visited our best friends.

And got in touch with dinosaurs.

We went Stampeding.

And even dressed the part.

We camped. (This is his “hi!” face.)

And we went to farmers’ markets.

Lots of ’em.

Yes, it was good.

How was your summer?

Linked up with iPPP.

Filed Under: Happy things · Tagged With: #iPPP, family, favourite activities, living life, One word

A To Z: Old School Blogging

June 9, 2013 by Farewell Stranger ·

Elaine is hosting Old School Blogging again, this time with Jennifer as her co-host. I like doing a fun, about-me type post once in a while, and I’m always good with an alphabet meme, so let’s go!

A: Attached or single?

Attached, and amazed every day that I got so lucky.

B: Best friend?

My husband, I’d say, but very grateful for these girls too.

C: Cake or pie?

I don’t generally say no to either, but my husband has perfected pie (crust, filling, the whole deal) so I’ll go with that.

D: Day of choice?

Friday. Right now, anyway. I get the afternoon to write and I like the vibe Fridays have.

E: Essential item?

Chapstick.

F: Favourite colour?

Pink.

G: Gummy bears or worms?

No, thank you. I’m not really a candy eater.

H: Hometown?

Victoria, BC.

I: Favourite indulgence?

A Smarties Blizzard. You Americans that don’t have Smarties are seriously missing out.

J: January or July?

January. I don’t like hot weather, I dig winter stuff, and it has such a feeling of possibility.

K: Kids?

Yes, these two. (There is a second under there. And his hood just fell like that, but his big brother thought it was pretty funny.)

L: Life isn’t complete without?

Walks in the sunshine, a glimpse of the mountains, time by the ocean, an opportunity to learn something new, family time, chocolate.

M: Marriage date?

August 28, 2004.

N: Number of brothers and sisters?

One brother, two sisters. One half-brother, one half-sister.

O: Oranges or apples?

Apples.

P: Phobias?

Spiders, claustrophobia, the dark. Yes, I’m afraid of the dark. Shut up.

Q: Quotes?

When I was in high school I had a journal that I collected quotes in. At the time, my goal was to fill it up, which seemed like a lofty goal at the time. I eventually stopped adding quotes to it, though I love them still. But one quote has been my favourite for a long time, and I think it can be applied to most things in life:

R: Reasons to smile?

Ethan’s baby laugh, Connor’s big heart, a really good book, a fantastic run, the perfect cup of tea, a decadent dessert, a really good day.

S: Season of choice?

Winter. I’m Canadian, eh?

T: Tag five people.

I hate tagging people.

U: Unknown fact about me?

Gosh, is there anything? What haven’t I told you? Okay, here’s a story from today:

I have an anaphylactic reaction to shellfish. Or at least I used to. When I was 21 I quite suddenly became allergic after eating it all my life. With the first incident, I got really sick and thought it was food poisoning. Then about a week later I ate it again and ended up in the hospital, where they told me I really ought not to eat shellfish anymore if I wanted to see my 22nd birthday. I carried an EpiPen for years, but I never had to use it because, for the most part, shellfish is an easy thing to avoid. And the darn things cost about $70 a pop, so I got a little tired of paying for something that I never used and that expired pretty fast. My husband was not a fan of this approach, but I’m stubborn.

After today, though, he wins. We were at a farmer’s market just out of town (i.e. fairly far from the hospital) and I ate some samples of curry from a vendor that sells kits. It wasn’t until my sister and I had both tried all three kinds that she pointed out the little sign that said, “Contains shrimp paste.”

Commence panic!

I’m fine, though, and it seems that perhaps I have outgrown that particular allergy (which I have long suspected). But I will still get an EpiPen until I can get some testing done just to put my mind at ease (and because after today if I don’t my husband will probably divorce me).

So a generally unknown fact about me? I should carry an EpiPen but I don’t because I’m stupid. (But, man, that curry was good.)

V: Vegetable?

English peas.

W: Worst habit?

Nail biting.

X: X-ray or ultrasound?

Ultrasounds. I had so many ultrasounds with both pregnancies that I’m a pro.

Y: Your favourite food?

Right now it’s this salad.

Z: Zodiac sign?

Sagittarius. Fire sign, baby!

Those are my answers. What about yours?

Filed Under: Happy things · Tagged With: blogging, favourite activities, lists

Lacing Up

June 2, 2013 by Farewell Stranger ·

I’ve had lots of excuses for not running in the last 18 months. At first it was because we had just moved and there was a lot of snow on the ground and I didn’t really feel like breaking my neck. And then I got pregnant. And then I had just had a baby. And then there was snow on the ground again.

Then my husband got me some Yaktrax, which removed my fear that I might break my neck. The first time I wore them it was -18C (about 0F) and I managed to stay warm enough and figured I was good to go. But then in January I twisted my ankle and I stopped running, and I didn’t really start again.

I started to think maybe I wasn’t a runner anymore. I was feeling too old and achey. My knees weren’t cooperating. I was sucking wind and generally feeling like all my running mojo had veered off the path and run away without me.

I did other things. Boot camps and Jillian Michaels workouts and yoga. Long walks with big hills. Pilates. All of which were fine, but I didn’t find myself in any of them. There was a piece of me missing.

So I took to the trails again.

I’ve walked a lot in our area in the short time we’ve been here, but when I started running I didn’t yet have my go-to running routes the way I used to. And we live on a ridge, so no matter what direction I go I end up coming home on a hill. But still, I ran. I looped out and back, and followed paths. I found some trails and ran them to see where they went. I still sucked wind, but I was running. I had no particular thoughts about it; it just seemed good enough.

This morning when I got up I re-evaluated my planned run. My knees were complaining and I was sore after a challenging yoga practice last Wednesday and a stroller fit class on Friday. I was feeling like I’d been working hard and maybe skipping a run wouldn’t be a bad thing.

And then I got inspired and figured I’d do a short one. It was my day to walk the dog anyway.

If you follow my Facebook page you know how it turned out. I got to the end of the “out” part of my planned out-and-back and saw the entry to a path I hadn’t seen before. So I went down it. To make an hour-long story short, I got lost. After following a series of paths I ended up way, way down at the bottom of a glen and, just as I was starting to wonder where the trail came out, it ended.

Apparently this is where the sidewalk ends.

I have no idea why the trail ends there. At some point, someone must have decided that was all they were going to do. Or maybe they ran out of asphalt.

In any case, I found my mojo. It was down at the bottom of a glen, waiting for me on a rainy Sunday morning.

I’m a runner again.

Filed Under: Happy things · Tagged With: favourite activities, running, weekends

Time Travel Smiles

May 19, 2013 by Farewell Stranger ·

A simple post today, inspired by Sarah at The Sunday Spill and her post Because Everything Feels Lighter at Present.

We stayed here —the Banff Springs Hotel—last night. It’s incredible.

My mom worked in the dining room here in the 60s. The hotel is celebrating its 125th anniversary and she went up for an alumni weekend, except—crazy lady that she is—she didn’t stay the second night and gave it to us instead. AND she took Connor home with her; we kept Ethan and had a lovely night to ourselves.

Banff is where we went for the day on last weekend’s ill-fated Mother’s Day and, at the time, we had no idea we’d be back again so soon, and in such a beautiful setting. We met my mom in the afternoon after her visits and tours etc., and had a chance to wander around and go for dinner. She told us stories about working at the hotel, some of which I knew and some I didn’t. She talked about how she ended up there and what she did. She told us who her friends were and why that time in her life mattered.

This morning we had breakfast in a beautifully furnished lounge with windows that look out over the mountains, which we had to ourselves because apparently no one else had discovered that you can sit in there. Rich mentioned that he had wandered through the gallery that showcases the history of the hotel and saw a 1920s-era picture of people sitting on the ledge right outside the window we were sitting by. The view, apparently, looked almost exactly the same. I found myself wishing someone had perfected time travel so we could go back and surreptitiously stand there as they were having their picture taken. Wouldn’t you love to have the ability to take everything you know now and go back in time to appreciate a place as it was years and years ago? I would spend a lot of my time popping invisibly into scenes and pondering what life would have been like in the same places but at very different times.

And so it was, as you can imagine, a lovely day. An unexpected, quiet night at a nice hotel is a beautiful thing, but I’m especially grateful that I got to see my mom and hear her stories in that environment. It made me smile. It’s as close as I’ll ever get to travelling back in time to be there with her when she was young.

Filed Under: Happy things · Tagged With: family, favourite activities, gratitude, living life, weekends

Bring on the Elephants

May 14, 2013 by Farewell Stranger ·

Sometimes when I think about what I want for my kids I get caught up in the idea of a typical (stereotypical?) childhood. You know, like riding bikes all over the neighbourhood and…whatever else it is that kids are “supposed” to do. (Clearly this is not a well-thought-out angst.) In any case, I feel like we put one important piece in place on the weekend.

We went to the circus!

It’s possible that Rich and I were as excited about this as Connor, but he was totally excited. He was dying to see the elephants. As in, kept asking when we were going to see them. Ah, to have no patience whatsoever. But, boy, did we get to see the elephants.

We got VIP passes, which got us a behind-the-scenes tour of what goes on in and around the big top before the show starts. Connor—who normally won’t sit still for anyone—loved the ringmaster when we got to hear him talk about the circus. (And he wasn’t even in full costume at that point.) He told everyone we saw the next day that he got to meet the ringmaster. Maybe if I put on a sparkly coat Connor would listen to me better…

Anyway, then (I feel like we need a drum roll here) we got to visit the elephants.

They were having a bath when we first got there.

And then… Oh my, and then we got to feed them.

Well, Ethan didn’t. His aim with a banana isn’t very good. But Connor loved tossing a banana over the fence and watching the elephant pick it up.

Too bad the little bugger wouldn’t let me take his picture. But—ha ha—too bad the little bugger didn’t see the photographer there.

Love the joy on his face. Magic childhood moment, check.

But it got even better inside when he got to have a ride on an elephant. The kid was in heaven. (As was his dad, I think.)

The show itself was really good. I’m always in awe of what these performers can do.

See? Awe. (And kind of enjoying watching with my biggest boy on my lap.)

The acrobats were amazing. But man, oh man. Better them than me.

Especially this guy. The grand finale was the Wheel of Destiny, and I was sure this guy was destined to end up taking a tumble. But nope. He walked around on that big ol’ spinning wheel and made the rest of us hold our collective breath. Grand finale indeed.

The elephants were awesome. The acrobats were incredible. But what I thought was especially cool is that this circus tour is the Zerbini family’s 250th anniversary. Can you imagine? A family business that goes back that far… Their stories at Thanksgiving must be something else.

I have a feeling we’ll be talking about this one at our dinner table for a while too.

Disclaimer: I was gifted VIP passes to the Royal Canadian Circus for my family, but our love for the circus (and the beloved elephants) is entirely our own.

The Royal Canadian Circus is in Calgary for a few more performances May 16-20. You can buy tickets through their Facebook page, and the code “FUN” will get you 2-for-1 general admission tickets.

Professional photos courtesy Kevin Yee, KISSPHOTO INC.