Our Summer According to Instagram

I first did this post at the end of last summer, and I like the quick glimpse it gives me at our memories from the past few months. Summer just flies by and sometimes I'm like, "what did we even do this year?!", but then I look back at photos and I'm quickly reminded that while we may not have gone on any big trips, we had a lot of fun and made a lot of great memories!

This was our second summer in Calgary and while there were a few things we didn't end up doing that we thought we would (trip to Drumheller, road trip to BC), I love that we are so close to the mountains and are able to get away for a day or even two so easily. And my goodness, Sully was so little last year! It's crazy how fast time flies!

And like I mentioned in last years post, I'm a huge lover of fall, but that doesn't mean I'm not a little bit sad to see summer go. I just hope the wind and storms hold off so we can enjoy the changing colours of leaves on the trees for as long as possible!

Here's a look at how we spent our summer according to Instagram:

ice cream in canmore with jim's folks//flying a kite for the first time//exploring waterton

lobster boil//ice cream at village ice cream//exploring new parks

first time at the movie theatre//hero's behind the hero's obstacle Race//calgary stampede parade

walks in fish creek park//playdates with friends//riding the city bus for the first time

date night//time with gramma//jumping at kayben farms

we're expecting!//visiting my grandma's farm//yogathon

sully's first camping trip//we're having a girl!//decorating muffins

antigravity fitness class//picking apples//throwing rocks

first gymnastics class of the season//exploring downtown//elbow falls with gramma

And if you're not already, we'd love for you to follow along on Instagram as we take our adventures into fall!

What would your summer highlight reel show?

Our Summer According to Instagram

It's hard to believe another summer has come and gone. I know September can still be a nice month, but there's no denying the cooler temperatures once the sun goes down. It won't be long now before we start trading in our flip-flops and tanks for socks and comfy sweaters. And I'm not going to lie, I'm actually looking forward to fall. It's my favourite season - I love the cooler days, I love the wardrobe, I love the leaves turning colours and falling on the paths and the sound they made when we walk over them. I love that fall means more soups and stews to be made, more cozy nights curled up under blankets, more warm drinks to be consumed. Have I mentioned I love fall?

I'm ready to embrace this new season, but not before saying goodbye to a fabulous summer. This was our first summer in our new home, in a new city. And our first summer with a toddler who really reminds you to slow down and live life to the fullest. If you ever want to experience what it means to love life with no concerns, spend a day with a toddler. They find the joy in everything and make even the smallest things and little outings so much fun.

Here's a look back at how we spent our summer, according to Instagram.

hiking the local trails//gardening, pants optional//smoothies on the back steps with nanny

evening bike rides//c-train rides//colour me rad run with blogging friends

sprinkler fun with cousins//first time at a petting zoo//family walks

hiking bragg creek//heritage park//calgary stampede

biking the glenmore reservoir//more hiking//visiting gramma in edmonton

exploring imagination grove//training for a spartan race//lots of library visits

splash pad days//taste of calgary beer gardens//spartan sprint race

zoo days with aunty//ice cream trips//morning walks in the neighbourhood

celebrating birthdays//5k races//head-smashed-in buffalo jump

If you're not already, we'd love for you to follow along on Instagram 

as we continue our adventures into fall!

What was the highlight of your summer?

A Mini Getaway

It had been almost two months since I last saw my mom, so last week, I packed us up, and Sully and I hit the road to Edmonton. I had been feeling a bit lonely since my in-laws left after a month long stay and a dose of mom and Gramma time was just what Sully and I needed!

{Edmonton River Valley}

We arrived last Tuesday and ended up staying until Friday. My mom lives in a spacious one-bedroom apartment and Sully had a blast running around, exploring new cupboards, pushing the elevator buttons, taking the garbage to the garbage shoot and yelling at passersby from the balcony. I was a little bit worried that sleep would be an issue since the last time Sully had to sleep in the play pen, he didn't do so well, but this time he slept like a champ! He did wake up early, but he would easily go back to sleep with me in bed for another hour or two.

Our first night in Edmonton, I left Sully with my mom while I went to my Edmonton book club night. July book club is always held at Sarah's house and she treats us to a campfire and s'mores. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate so book club was kept indoors, but it was still a wonderful night. I was worried about my will-power to stick to my 21 Day Fix diet when it came to the food, but Sarah out did herself and had prepped all the ingredients for us to make our own salad rolls! I had never made salad rolls before, but it was so much fun and I definitely plan to make them at home now.

 

I didn't make plans to see anyone else while I was in Edmonton because I wanted to spend as much time as I could with my mom, but I did get away for a few hours to visit with my friend Lisa and meet her new daughter, Jade. Of course, I was too busy cuddling baby Jade to take any photos, but trust me, she is adorable and the whole time I was holding her, I couldn't believe that Sully was also once that small!

The rest of our visit was spent going for walks along the Promenade along the river valley, playing in the fountain, enjoying Starbucks al fresco, going to Taste of Edmonton (where I also practiced extreme self-control!!), visiting with my brother, and watering Gramma's flowers on the balcony. Seriously, I'm pretty sure Sully drowned some of my mom's plants! I also got in all my 21 Day Fix workouts and I even got out for a run on our last morning there.

 

{My view of the River Valley on my run}

On our way home on Friday, we stopped to see my friend Karen and her kids before heading on to Red Deer where we had a little play date with Becky and her son, Liam, at Imagination Grove at Kerry Wood Nature Centre. We had the whole place to ourselves and it was so cute to watch Sully and Liam interact. I humoured Sully a few times and took him down the big slide, but for the most part, he was just as happy to wait for Liam to come down the slide, giggling every time he did.

Those few days with my mom were just what I needed and I came back home feeling refreshed and happy. It's hard not having my mom just a twenty minute drive away, but at least we're still in the same province!

Have you ever made salad rolls?
Does your mom live near or far? 

Watermelon Strawberry Smoothie

Nothing says summer quite like fresh watermelon does! It's my favourite fruit this time of year and it definitely helps that it's a guilt free one. Low in calories, high in water content and an excellent source of vitamin A and C makes watermelon a welcome addition to your summer diet. 

With temperatures sky high this week, I found myself craving ice-cold drinks to quench my thirst. But water just wasn't cutting it anymore. So with a fridge full of cut up watermelon, I threw together this refreshing watermelon smoothie. Perfect for a mid-day pick me up or a cool desert!

Recipe (serves 1):

1 cup cubed watermelon

1 cup frozen strawberries

1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk

1/2 tsp of honey or sweetener of your choice (optional)

Blend all ingredients in a blender till smooth and enjoy!

Summer Reading

 

This post has been in the works for weeks now and I've contemplated not even posting it because the chances of me ever getting through a reading list now that I have a baby is pretty poor. But I love lists, especially reading ones. I was always so jealous of the kids in TV shows and books that got sent home with reading lists for the summer. I wanted one too! (Is this an American thing or did I just go to the wrong school?).  I'm hoping that if I have a bit of a plan on what I want to read over the next few months, I might be a bit more successful than if I didn't have a list at all. I find that a lot of time can pass in between books I read because I'm never sure what to read next and easily get overwhelmed by the pile shelves of unread books I own.

For the sake of trying to spend less money and not further overload my bookshelves with even more unread books, my reading list for this summer isn't going to feature any new releases or block busters. But I'm totally ok with that because I know there are a lot of great books out there that I've missed. Also, it goes without saying that a few of the books will be mommy/parenting related. There's just no getting away from it now that baby is here!

An Abundance of Katherines: This month's book club pick was A Fault in Our Stars (which I read a few years ago) and after our discussion that night, it got me wondering why I haven't read anything else by John Green. I already own An Abundance of Katherines, a novel about a boy named Colin who only dates girls named Katherine, despite always being dumped by them (19 times to be exact), and I'm thinking it's the perfect easy read for summer. 

Falling Together: I've loved all of Marisa de los Santos previous books, yet this one has been sitting unread on my shelf for a few years now. Falling together is a story of past meets present, where three friends from college reunite after 6 years apart and uncover truths about each other that they're not sure they wanted to know. 

Outlander: I read this book exactly 15 years ago when I spent the summer on my grandparent's farm in Croatia. I was 16 years old and fell in love with the story of Claire and Jamie. I never made it past the second book in the series, but now that the TV series is set to air this August, I feel it's finally time to reread this saga. 

Baby-led Weaning: It's hard to believe that Sully will be ready to start eating solids in less than 2 months, but the theory behind baby-led weaning has me really excited for this milestone. I've done some of my own research via the internet and friends, but am really looking forward to reading all about it in this book. 

Bringing Up Bebe: This book has been on my radar long before I even got pregnant. "One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting". I've always been fascinated by parenting in other cultures so I can't wait to dive into this one. 

Do you make summer reading lists? 
What books are you hoping to read this summer? 

It's Not Summer Without You (Summer, #2) by Jenny Han

It's a little bit ridiculous that a YA novel can bring out all the FEELS in me, but Jenny Han, you've done it again. My heart was an emotional mess after reading The Summer I Turned Pretty last year. I immediately read It's Not Summer Without You, (the second book in the Summer trilogy), anxious to keep reading about Belly, Conrad and Jeremiah, but then, like usual, I got distracted and neither read the last book in the series or wrote a review of this one. Then, the other day while I was working, I popped into the library and I saw It's Not Summer Without You on audio* and checked it out. What better way to refresh my memory than by driving around in my car while trying to hold back the tears this book demands of me? Seriously - don't read this book while driving.

This book was all kinds of sad - heart-wrenching, blink-back-the-tears-while-driving sad. And it wasn't just about the relationship between Belly and Conrad and Jeremiah. There was so much more to this book. There's young-love, old-love, the love and bond between life-long best friends, the relationships we have with our parent's at an emotionally-charged young age, and the relationships between the parent's themselves. I love how the summer books don't solely focus on the teens in this book. Susannah and Adam - Jeremiah and Conrad's parent's, and Laurel - Belly and Stephen's mom, weren't just side-line characters: they were pivotal to the entire story, providing that parental presence that I often find is lacking (or unbelievable) in teen stories.

This book also had the addition of some of the chapters being from Jeremiah's point of view. Sigh...sweet, loveable, Jeremiah. He and Conrad couldn't be more different if they tried. This is what makes them both so likeable in their own ways. Jeremiah is fun, goofy and wears his heart on his sleeve. Conrad, on the other hand, is his usual quiet, brooding self. He's as closed of a book as they come.

In this book, the summer's of their childhood spent at Cousins beach are no more. Belly, Stephen, Conrad and Jeremiah are growing up and fast becoming adults themselves. But something happens this summer that brings them together at the beach house to fight for something they all need. And along the way, Conrad and Jeremiah become more transparent to Belly than they have ever been, and she has decide once and for all: follow her heart or hold on to the past? How do you choose between two people you love so completely differently? 

“It’s all relative, I suppose. You think you know love, you think you know real pain, but you don’t. You don’t know anything.”

I loved this book just as much as the first and I have promised myself not to waste anytime jumping into the last book in this series, even though I know I'm not ready to say goodbye to Belly, Conrad, Jeremiah OR Cousins beach. 

*This book was fantastic on audio. I really enjoyed the narrator and I found she did an amazing job portraying all the emotions and feelings this book is bursting with.

The Summer I Turned Pretty (Summer, #1) by Jenny Han

Summer, the beach, tans, parties, first crushes, first kisses, first loves, forever loves. This book had it all. I felt physically and emotionally transported back to when I was 16 years old and experiencing all the emotions and changes that Belly the main character was going through. When her heart pounded in her chest, so did mine. When her eyes filled with tears out of frustration and anger, so did mine. When her heart was broken, swollen with love, or hurt, I felt it all too. I have never been so physically affected by a book as this one. It was like experiencing life at 16 all over again. The heartbreak, the crushes, the yearning - it was all my heart could handle. At 29 and happily married, it’s easy to forget about the whirlwind of emotions that you go through in your younger years, when you’re discovering first loves and all that comes with it. Would I want to go through it again? No, I wouldn’t, but I had an amazing time escaping in it. 

Belly and her brother Steven, and Conrad and his brother Jeremiah, have spent every summer of their lives at Cousin’s beach. Conrad and Jeremiah’s mother Susannah, is best friends with Belly and Steven’s mom, Laurel. It’s technically Susannah’s beach house, but during the summers, it is home to them all. Belly, the youngest of the four, has always been the “baby”, the first one to be left out, and the first one to be teased. But this summer is destined to be different. Belly is almost 16. She’s no longer a little kid and she has a pretty good feeling that this may just be their last summer all together at the beach house. She’s determined to make it the best summer yet, or at least the most unforgettable. 

I loved all the characters in this book. While Belly could be annoying or immature at times, her actions and reactions were understandable given she was the youngest and of the age where your emotions are so strong, it’s impossible not to let them show through your words and actions. And who can blame her – she had no real girlfriends during the summer – no one to over-analyze every little feeling or thought like girls are known to do.  

And then there’s Conrad and Jeremiah. I have no words. It’s no wonder Belly loved them both - I loved them both! My heart melted when Conrad was introduced. Dark and brooding, there was something about him and the way Belly reacted when around him, that had me swooning from the get-go. Even when he was being a jerk, he was easy to forgive.  Jeremiah – Conrad’s polar opposite – was goofy and charming and so loveable. He was Belly’s best friend, closest confident - the guy she could totally be herself around. It was impossible to pick a favourite. 

Even their mom’s had a large, welcome presence in this book. There’s Laurel, your typical mom – kind, protective, and annoying in front of your friends. And then there’s Susannah.  The mom everyone wishes there mom was like.  She was a breath of fresh air every time she appeared on the page -so gentle and full of love and kindness. I wanted to know her in real life. 

I really can’t rave more about this book. It sucked me in from the beginning and had me bawling my eyes out by the end. Even if you aren’t a fan of YA or love-triangles, this one was so different, and so real. While I can’t wait to get started on the next book in this trilogy, The Summer I Turned Pretty didn’t leave me on a cliff-hanger, or make me want to throw the book across the room. Sure, I want to keep reading about Belly, Jeremiah and Conrad (how could you not?!), but I can honestly say that I closed the book after reading the last page with a satisfied sigh, and tears running down my face.