Anja and Vernon's wedding

So, New York was a blast, as it always is. Every time I go there, there's something new to see and experience and I don't think I'll ever tire of visiting! Which is why Anja is never allowed to move away:-) Lucky for me, she seems to love NYC far more than me!!!!!! For this trip we definitely enjoyed a few of the touristy spots, and lucked out in being there for the big mermaid parade on Coney Island, but overall, the focus was very much on Anja's wedding as we were only there for such a short time. And well, weddings are exciting affairs! On the Fri we all met at the City Hall for the official ceremony, and that turned out to be a blast! They literally had to take a number and wait for it to be called, we were standing around in a hall FULL of other wedding couples waiting for their numbers to be called, the ceremony itself was very short and sweet, and then there was the fake backdrop set up in order to take shots -so tacky and awesome and a very fun New York moment to experience!







Then on Sunday the actual reception was held, at one of their favourite restaurants. Anja made her own cake for the dinner (lemon, so delicious!) and the highlight of the weekend for Kea was definitely being able to help Anja in the baking and the decorating!!!! Anja looked absolutely stunning for her big day, and we all thoroughly enjoyed an evening of great food, moving speeches, overflowing wine and interesting conversations. Three weddings in just over a month, all three of them so very different and personalized to who the couple were - wishing all of you much love, laughter and adventure, alongside compassion and forgiveness in your lives of wedded bliss! xo

Mud Lake in Spring

And so, after 3 very busy, full weeks in B.C., we returned home to Ottawa on a Saturday. Sunday we unpacked, caught up on laundry, rested and of course, did a couple of walks into Mud Lake to see how much it had changed. Such a magical place, it feels like every single time we walk in there, there's something new to see and explore!

Monday Jamie flew off to Nova Scotia to visit a job site in Antigonish, spending two nights away. Then he returned on Wednesday around dinner time, we spent the evening visiting, doing more laundry and packing, and on Thursday Kea and I flew off to New York City for the weekend - crazy busy times, but so much fun to go and celebrate Anja and Vernon's wedding! Anyways, here's a few photos from our spring adventures in Mud Lake!

The Sanghas

And last, but definitely not least, here's a few photos from our visit with the Sangha's - our home away from home.  It is the first place we come to after our chaos of a traveling day, the place we choose to spend our last night before we head home, and the place that we try to stop in as often as possible in between.  We can hang out in our p.j.'s for as long as we want, play sock hockey in the living room, get our fill of all things electronics, play cut-throat card games until the wee hours, fight over what Thai food to order, eat our weight in sushi over and over again, and sing karaoke with the Wii with no shame.  Kea tells us that Emma and Ollie aren't like best friends, they're more like another brother and sister, and that's exactly what it feels like when we're in their home - they're family, and they live tooooooooooooooooo far away.  Luckily they like to travel as much as we do, and we can't wait to host them in our yurt this Aug.! xoxoxox  

A quick visit with Dad.....

Sorry for the delay, I had hoped to continue catching you up on our trip to the west coast, so that I could catch you up with our lives back here in Ottawa but then our lives here in Ottawa kind of bit us in the butt and so I was hardly at the computer. Nothing serious, just various colds, aches and pains for the kids (WHY OH WHY do my kids have to get mosquito welts all over their bodies that keep them all. night. long.?!!! TORTURE) Then I got a stomach flu that had me up all night and out of commission for the following day - I *never* throw up, so this was pretty major around here. Kea in particular noticed something odd. "Um, Dad, I'm really worried because Mom NEVER gets sick. I'm more used to you being sick." :-) Shockingly, the whole household did not fall apart with me out of the loop for 24 hours, but our never-ending list of things to do definitely fell behind! Anyways, here we are, trying to catch up once again!!!!!

So, yes, while we were in Vancouver my Dad had a work meeting during the same time, so luckily he was able to extend his stay by a few days and hang out with us. We wandered around Granville Island and spent a lot of time on the tire swing, took the water taxi and visited our beloved Science World (the museums in Ottawa are awesome, but NOTHING quite compares with Science World, we really miss it) and took a quick tour of Gastown.....where we enjoyed uninterrupted conversation over an eggplant omlette, yum!!!!! As always, I wish we had more leisurely time to just chat and explore favoured stores, but we'll take what we can get - and reiterate to one and all, come visit us in Ottawa, we'll make lots of time for you here!!!!!!!!!!

Keri and Jared's wedding

We traveled to Robert's Creek for a weekend of festivities to celebrate Keri and Jared's wedding.  They rented a wonderful little B&B with a funky dome house and lots of grass to camp on, and we all enjoyed visiting, hanging out until the wee hours by the camp fire, hula hooping, drinking good wines, and passing their beautiful new baby girl Asha around!!!!  

The kids were obsessed with watching the bridal couple getting ready for the ceremony - such an oddity in their lives, hair primping and makeup!!!!



Asha.  How beautiful is she?!!!!!!
Keri, Riley, Asha and Jared, during their beautiful ceremony on the beach.  Riley wrote the vows, and they were perfect and profound and comical all at the same time!  Then she made the most awesome grossed out face during the kiss!!!!:-)
And then we ended the ceremony by all dancing the hokie pokie.  Because, why not?!!!!!
Jared shows off his great skills by balancing the bouquet on his forehead - sure beats a boring ole' bouquet toss!!!!!

We went to the Gumboot Cafe for a delicious dinner, after many days of rain it turned out to be a BEAUTIFUL sunny day in honour of their celebration!

Before we left the next morning, Riley wanted to show off her new tool for menthos and diet cokes.....pretty impressive!!!!

Some shots of friends we visited during our visit....

When we got home, I realized that there were many visits I didn't end up recording - some days it was raining really hard and not so conducive to bringing the camera out, other days it just felt too busy. We also didn't even manage to see many of the people we wanted to see, our time was so filled up it was just crazy.  However, here are a few of the moments I did manage to capture......


We spent a few nights with Lori and Steven, and their two daughters Lily Joe (Kea's age) and Estraea Rose (Ryland's age). Lots of great food, great conversations, and a demonstration on Lori's new passion - wanding the world! It was definitely quite cool to feel the shifts in energy when she wanded us, as skeptical as we might have been to start with!


It's always inspiring to spend time with this wonderful family, and I never feel like it's enough time together. We soak in as much as we can, explore house design ideas, learn more about healthy food preparation, share in parenting ideas, browse through fascinating books and just hope it's not too long again before our next visit!!!! xo

This next photo is of the three kids cuddled into bed with Sky, a beloved neighbour who the kids all still desperately miss now that we've moved away. Sky is wonderful with every age, and each one of my kids feel like she is a good friend. Eating fresh food from their garden, eating honeycomb from their shared beehives and chasing after their back yard chickens feels like the perfect way to live in the city, and we're always inspired by many of their projects. Can't wait to get our hands dirty on our own property, and have them out to taste our fresh eggs for breakfast!!!!!

And then there was the two nights that we quickly slipped over to Comox, in between Keri's beach wedding on the Sunshine Coast and Jamie's work conference in Vancouver - because, you know, we like to keep ourselves busy!!!!! But in actuality, it had been too long since we'd seen the Taylors so we were determined to catch up a little with them, and see their newly renovated house now that they're settled in! We met Lorne and Tash during the second year Jamie and I were dating, during a canoe trip up in the Yukon. We kept in touch over the years, celebrating each others' weddings, and excitedly discovering that we were both pregnant with our first child within weeks of each other. Then we moved into the same neighbourhood in Vancouver, and our friendship really took off after that, watching our children grow together and supporting each other over the years. It's Lorne and Tash who opened up their basement to us when we renovated, and I was there when both Zach and Kieran were born at home (amazing - look at how big they are now!!!!) Tash also has a special place in our hearts after all of her wonderful support during and after Ryland's birth, everyone should be so lucky to have such care when they have their babies! When the Taylors moved to the island, it was mighty tempting to move near the ocean as well - and although we are THRILLED with our decision to move closer to family, and we love love love our new property and can't wait to move onto it, a part of our hearts will always remain on the west coast and we'll have to set up a yurt on the Taylor homestead in order to keep a foot on the west:-)