Summertime and The Living Is Easy

Sometimes, as a blogger, I hit a wall. I wouldn’t call it writer’s block per se, but rather the pressure of writing a “totally awesome, engaging, SEO-incredible, check-all-the-boxes post” keeps me from writing at all.

Almost a month later…here we are.

The thing is, none of us, or I should say very few of us, started blogs because we longed to give product reviews on tomato sauce or advise people on the 5 best ways to get rid of mold in your washing machine. We started a blog because we love to write. That’s me.

So let me start by telling you about my summer. No pressure, no profound truth. No how-to’s or five bests. Just a record in which, you might find some inspiration.

Summer has been great. It started out with a trip to BC. We stopped first in the Okanagan at my dad’s house. Him and his wife have just finished building their retirement home across from a beautiful, albeit, goose-poop-filled lake. No matter, it is perfect for fishing, kayaking and Jakob even went for a swim (no communicable diseases as of yet to speak of). We celebrated July 1^st with a pancake breakfast in Penticton, followed by a low-key BBQ in the evening with my cousin, his wife and kids and my aunt and uncle. And of course, no trip to the Okanagan would be complete without a trip to Tickleberry’s. It was perfect.

From there we headed to the coast. We stayed a night at my mom’s before sailing over to Vancouver Island, where we caught up with some old friends before driving up to Tofino.

It’s like a pilgrimage each year, really. The place I call home, the place I call paradise. The wide open ocean, the beaches where no one cares if your dogs or your kids are on leashes, the place where you can be a hippy for a day, get back to nature, cook over a fire and sleep under the stars…at least until it rains.

It’s hard to explain Tofino to people who have never been. Why would you want to go to a place with fridgidly cold water, where it rains all the time and takes 3 nausea-filled hours to get to? If you find yourself asking this exact question, take an hour and listen to this (Stuart McLean’s take on my favourite place). Perhaps then, you will begin to understand.

Wet but happy 🙂

Not too keen on camping in the rain. Ella opted for breakfast in bed instead.

A rainy day calls for a trip to the Ucluelet aquarium.

We had a few dry days before the rain clouds rolled in, at which point we shoved all of our wet gear into the Thule and sailed back over to the mainland to stay with my mom for a few more days. Then, back over the mountains to Edmonton, and our little home in the Ravine.

Audrey was pretty thrilled about Chocolate chip muffins.

Since we got back life has been slow. Saying goodbye to friends, meeting new friends, celebrating birthdays. We hurry to get work done so that we can spend more time eating ice cream, going to the pool and playing at the park. Obviously there is more to it than that, there is a lot more to it than that but these are the things I will remember. These are the things I want to remember and want my kids to remember. Because while I look forward to the rhythm and routine of September these are magical summers of memory making – of doing things together as a family before the a rhythm of rush takes over and adolescence clouds perceptions. Not only that, but when we lay aside the 9-3, the worksheets and the tests, there so much learning that is done outside the classroom.

Just a couple days, we were at the pool, yet again (we have an outdoor pool pass, which allows us to take advantage of the pool just down the ravine path as much as we want) and suddenly, seriously, out of the blue, Ella figure out that she loves to swim. When we started going to the pool in June, she was like a little scared koala bear. She would wrap her arms around me and not let go for anything. Soon, she discovered that she could go down the slide (which is only about 3 ft. in length)…but only if mommy was standing right there at the bottom, belly up against the end of the slide, with arms wide open ready to catch her. This is how most of the summer went. Then, as mentioned, she just figured it out. She realized she could not only touch the bottom of the pool, but could count on her life jacket to keep her afloat when she couldn’t. It was amazing and I was so proud! She became insta-friends with another little girl and was going down the slide all by herself!