End Of Summer Vibes and Magic Shoes

September 1st … it doesn’t always mean summer is over, but torrential rain here in Vancouver sort of signaled it like a heavy cloud burst beacon! The rain is welcome, however – this summer has been an awful water-shortage drought for us. Dreams of kiddie pool splashy fun disappeared and lawns dried up like blond straw. The heat was oppressive some days – but really, who can complain – we’re alive!

So this happened: Teddy’s 3rd birthday! I had plans of a sweetly designed and fun filled birthday for him but the truth is a few days before the party was supposed to happen, I collapsed under an overwhelming stress ball – Teddy was sick with a yucky virus and I was crumbling under the mental/emotional strain of 7 months of treatment. I felt so guilty cancelling his party. But then I was reminded: I am not the me of last year. I am a different me, and I just don’t have the energy to do it. Instead, we had a mellow outing at his favourite pizza place around the corner, and Dairy Queen came to the rescue as usual with a straight-from-the-freezer Domo ice cream cake!

Pizza birthday guy and his parents. I think I look relieved.

And this. Rich’s brother found this flying V kid’s guitar on Craigslist like 6 months ago and Rich drove out to Surrey to buy it – the look on Teddy’s astonished face when he opened it … and when he strapped it on for the first time – maybe one of the best moments of my life, seeing him so happy and excited. Mini mellow family birthday = just right. He has since done some serious ripping on the guitar and composed his first song, entitled “Get Away, Agedashi Mozzarella!”

We went camping the week of Teddy’s birthday, too! Went to Miracle Beach, on Vancouver Island. It’s a gorgeous and magical place. The tide goes way out and there’s cool-on-your-feet muddy sand islands and tons of miniature crabs scooting about, and it’s just minutes from the tree covered campsite. Every night we made a fire and sat amongst the meditative crackling flames, roasting marshmallows. It was so mellow.

Camping food! Local strawberries, arugula salad and WIENER BURGERS, anyone? Hehe. (Veggie wieners…)

Local tutti fruity, marshmallows and chocolate. Gone campin’.

Have you ever read this? My Side Of The Mountain by Jean George? It’s a kid’s book but it will make you want to make your own deer skin suit and cook acorn pancakes over a fire on the top of a tin can. A magical little story and perfect for camping and non-mind-torture!

Happy 3rd birthday to my sweet Teddy! We frolicked on the beach the morning of his birthday and then went to the local speedway for a MONSTER TRUCK RIDE (I was scared) and go kart racing (I had never driven a go kart but now it’s all I want to do. NEED FO’ SPEED SUNG.)

A camping family selfie. Grunge mom still in effect. See you next summer, camping trip!

Back in Vancouver, I have been going wild over this shaved ice place on Kingsway called Ice Pik Shavery – look at that mountain of icy delight! I love me a wacky pile of Asian-style frozen dessert, and this place does not disappoint – the one pictured above is green tea shaved ice, fresh mango, chewy mochi, lychee jelly and grass jelly.

Another killer new joint in Vancouver – Uyu Ice Cream! Organic soft ice cream in Asian-y fun flavours, like this black sesame soft serve with caramel drizzle.

Any place with kid size cones is a cute little thumbs up in my books. Teddy was a very happy chappy. Fun fact: I am soft serve obsessed, always have been, and back in 2008, I had hilarious plans to open a soft serve ice cream joint – I even bought the domain name of my biz. Swirlie!! Haha. I told my friend Steph about the name of my would-be shop and she laughed at me and explained to me what a “swirlie” was – I had no idea that swirlie meant to flush someone’s head down the toilet. Oops! ^__^

I am on week 2 of my radiation! So far I am feeling pretty good. I think I owe it all to these magical unicorn pink runners. They’ve saved my sanity and have given me a daily purpose, apart from getting my breast blasted with rays. Every day I have been sweating it up at either the gym or going for a run. I come back to the house covered in sweat and proud of myself that I did something positive for my body. Before these pinkies came into my life I was pretty darn low and I knew I had to get out of my emotional eating cancer potato schlump. The power of exercise, I tell ya! Hope you are doing well, my friends – happy September to you! xo Lyndsay