Weekend Wedding Getaway

Everyone loves a break now and then - especially after a recent house move and subsequent stress of finding last minute child care. So maybe no one was more ready than me when we packed our suitcase and headed to Nanaimo B.C. for Luc and Janeen's wedding.
Before we knew we were moving, Jamie and I booked a swanky 2 bedroom, oceanfront condo at Yellow Point Resort in Ladysmith (about 10 minutes south of Nanaimo) for a two night stay. Jamie was to be in the wedding party so we wanted to find a place where Brandon and I would be comfortable while Jamie was off doing wedding related business with Luc and Janeen.
Well we couldn't have chosen a more perfect place. This condo - with it's awesome view - was stunning! Not only were we oceanfront, we were also pool front. Brandon was in heaven. He spent as much time as he could in the pool and hot tub but he also loved beach combing for crabs, shells and beach glass. It really was the perfect place for Mom and Dad to relax and for Brandon to have a blast.

When you're only four and half years old, there's still plenty of opportunity for "firsts". In Brandon's case he experienced his first ferry ride (loved it!) and attended his first wedding. Lucky for me, there were plenty of kids also at the wedding. Brandon was the youngest but the other kids took him under their wing and let him play tag, join in on trampoline dodge ball (yikes) and fed him gum balls (arg). I practically never saw him that day. He made a brief appearance for dinner and I spotted him again around 11pm dancing on the lawn and waving glow sticks around like a mad man. Much like his Dad, Brandon loves a party!
Another first for Brandon? - he gave a speech at the wedding reception. Yup . . . What can only be described as an "improv poem" Brandon stood in front of a crowd of about 60 people and, with a microphone in hand, strung together all the nice words he knew in about 45 seconds. Unfortunately I didn't capture it on film but it went something like this:
"special day . . .
sunshine and marriage . . .
love . . .
flowers . . .
pictures . . .
laughing . . ."
etc
He wrapped it up with a classic Brandon phrase
"just two times" (we're not sure what this means but he'll often end a story with this phrase)
He got a big round of  applause and smiles for being so darn cute. Mom was over the moon proud of him.
So be warned, this is what you get when the MC invites people to come to the microphone and say something to the newlyweds or sing them song. Brandon, it seems, has no fear of public speaking :-)

With the wedding over it was time to head down to Victoria and spend a couple of nights at my parent's home. They were attending my Afi's memorial in Winnipeg so we crashed their pad and watered their plants. While in Victoria we toured the harbour, dined on seafood and visited my old childhood swimming hole - Beaver Lake. We wrapped up our short visit with a trip to Island View Beach and one last hunt for beach glass. Before we knew it we were back on the plane and home to Calgary.

A lovely trip with beautiful memories. We hope to go back again soon.

Home Sweet Home

I think it was mid to late May when my Mom called me at work one day to let me know our family friends - Russ and Deb - were selling their house in inner city Calgary. I was surprised by the news but didn't think much of it. My Mom said "didn't you love that location? Maybe you should buy it?" It's true, I did love the location. It was only half a block to a great little French school, one block off the beautiful Confederation Park and substantially closer to work for both Jamie and I. After giving it some thought for a few days, I ran the idea of buying it passed Jamie. He agreed to go look at it and after dinner with Russ and Deb one night, he said "No". His initial impressions didn't blow him away.  In the meantime, I had decided this was a good opportunity for us. Here was a good sized house in a great location for a price we could actually afford. I saw Russ and Deb's house as a way to simplify our lives. The house itself was only 9 years old and didn't require nearly the upgrading and maintenance that our Silver Springs house did. I convinced Jamie and in only a matter of a week or so we hired a real estate agent (the awesome Maira Lizotte), made an offer and bought a house! Suddenly we found ourselves in the position of owning two homes. Not wanting to be in that predicament, Maria got on the job of listing and showing our Silver Springs home.
Jamie and I literally did nothing to that house except clean it. Maria listed it on the mls on Sunday morning - around noon - for $599,900. At 3pm we had our first showing and at 5pm our first offer. The young couple had offered us $585,000 and met all our conditions. Aside from the price, it was a great offer. Jamie and I countered at $599,900 and they took it. We couldn't believe it! Our beautiful home had sold and we were moving.

Our possession date was set for July 29th (and if memory serves, I believe that was also the possession date of our first home in Rocky Ridge . . . weird). We hired a moving company and started the arduous process of packing and selling stuff we didn't need/couldn't fit in our new house. For me, emotions started running a little high. I knew in my head we had made the right decision but in my heart I was quite attached to the Silver Springs house. It was the place I brought home and raised my baby and it was where I had last seen Kazi alive. Despite this, when it came time to close the door and leave it for the new owners, I didn't look back. I rarely regret decisions I make and there's no point on dwelling on these things anyways. My happy memories of Silver Springs will remain in my heart and I'll always look back on it fondly.

So now we've been in our new house for about a month and we're staring to settle in nicely. The neighbours we've met so far are really nice and we're excited about the two little boys that live in the houses behind us. Brandon and I make regular visits to Confederation Park and we love it. We feed the ducks, climb the trees and have recently discovered the fun treasure hunting game of "Geo-tracking". We also visit the school playground on a regular basis and that's lots of fun too. There's always kids playing and Brandon makes friends easily. We really do like being in our new location.
So that's been our summer - hectic, overwhelming, tiring, exciting. It feels like we bought, sold and moved in some sort of record time. I guess that means it was meant to be!