A Few Little Things

This past week it has been so beautiful here so Eli and I have been sure to get out every day so that we don't miss a minute of this sunshine.  I know that all too soon the rain is going to come back and then we will be stuck indoors again.  It is amazing what sunshine can do to your attitude. I don't mind the rain too much, especially at night because it is nice to listen to it before bed but it does become a bit of a drag when it feels like the sky will be grey forever.  Not that I'm complaining!  I know that Edmonton has been hit particularly hard this winter with the amount of snow they had.  Hopefully everyone there is driving safely and has winter tires on their vehicles.

Today was another rain-free day and Bruce had the day off so we made our way outside as soon as we were all ready.  We went down to the beach first and Eli had a great time walking along the pier and was pretty amazed that the water was beneath us.  Whenever he is surprised he always says "oh no!" and as soon as we walked onto the pier he shouted "oh no water!" about fifteen times.

The floating pier.

Only one cloud!

Our little captain.

We also went walking down West Broadway to a few of the shops there just to explore. We came across this cupcake place, aptly named "Cupcakes" and we had to go in because Eli needed a treat... I did as well. My cupcake was ridiculously good and I assume Eli's was as well because he downed it pretty quickly.

Yes, that is popcorn on my cupcake.

Self Explanatory

Here are just a couple of other pictures of our outings. Eli and I hang around the complex a lot because there are so many parks but one night when Bruce got home from work we drove to Wreck Beach.  There were about one million stairs that you had to walk down before you could get to it but it was a pretty nice beach.  In the summer it is the only clothing-optional beach in Vancouver but gratefully it was too cold for anyone to be running around naked.

No Clouds!

No naked people!

Last month Bruce and I had a date night and we decided on Las Margaritas for dinner.  It was superb!  I don't think I have ever had authentic Mexican food in Canada before but this place was fantastic.  The atmosphere was very inviting and everything on the menu looked delicious. We probably won't end up trying any other restaurants in Vancouver because we will go to this one every time.  I highly recommend it if you are in the mood for some taquitos!

Dessert... Churros!

Taquitos and homemade guacamole.  What more could you ask for?

Last but not least, our little Eli gets more goofy everyday. Sometimes when he does something totally insane, or when he gets completely absorbed in a movie, or when he throws himself dramatically on the bed... I think that while he may be the spitting image of his Daddy he might be a bit more like me in the crazy department.

Not so excited.

A little excited.

Really excited!

So many pictures in this one!

Catch up! Halloween and Birthday

Holy cow! I can't believe that it has been so long since I updated this.  I guess that October did turn out to be a pretty busy month.  However, I will now attempt to do an update of last month!  We had a couple of pretty big events this month, the first one being Eli's birthday.  Our little guy turned 2 and I just can't believe it!  I honestly don't know where the time went.  He had a pretty good day and got to do a ton of FaceTime with our family in Edmonton and even his Auntie Ashley in Utah.  During that day Bruce got to leave work early and surprised us when he walked in the door.  We decided to go to the aquarium and had a blast.  He still asks me for "fish" when we walk out the front door.

Eels! 

He wasn't a huge fan of this dolphin costume.

Nemo

Here are a few pictures of present opening...

He found a marker while we were chatting with friends.

And here are some Halloween pictures!  He was my little Dobby this year and he looked just ridiculously cute.  Bruce wasn't home so the pictures are a bit blurry but you get the idea.

A friend of mine took this while we were out.

I also just had to include this one... Bruce came home from a hike today with Tim Hortons and Eli found them pretty much immediately.

I know this is pretty short but I will do more thorough updates this month!

Hello October!

Life in the Chenuz house has not been too eventful for the last few days.  Over the last couple of weeks however, Bruce has made the big decision to change his career path from Architecture to business.  It's a pretty big change and will offer different challenges but all in all I know it's for the better.  With this new track he should be done school in about half the time and I think he will really enjoy learning something new.  He has always had a real interest in business and started his own while we were living in Alberta but never really considered it as a career until recently.  As a family we realized that we couldn't have him away from home for 100 hours a week, which seems to be the case for both Architecture students and professionals.  With the free time that Bruce has now he was able to pick up more hours at work and is working on getting an incredible grade on his GMAT (the entry exam for business).  

Meanwhile, I am preparing for Thanksgiving.  This year we are having one of the families from our ward come over for Thanksgiving dinner and I don't know what I was thinking when I invited them.  I have never even attempted to cook a turkey and because Bruce doesn't like potatoes I think that I have made them maybe one time in my entire life.  I have already purchased a back-up frozen pizza just in case.  Everyone wish me luck!  

Eli and I are also getting ready to go to Edmonton for a week in October!  I keep thinking that it is so far away and then I realized that today is October 1st.  We will be in Edmonton so soon and I can't wait to see everyone.  I will admit that I am a little bit nervous to take Eli on a plane all by myself and I'm sure that the passengers around me will mostly be feeling either pity for me or annoyance.  Thank goodness for Pixar animation!  Eli is just like me and any time we have something on the television it's as if nothing else exists in the whole world... except for maybe food. The other day I went into the kitchen to make him some breakfast while he watched a little Finding Nemo and I came back to find him like this...

A little TV watching cocoon.

No more pictures please!

The blanket was on the couch but I guess that he decided he needed to be a little more comfortable.  In any case I will need to find some fun indoor activities for him to do now that the rainy months will be here soon.  Hopefully I will be able to stay away from the temptation to plop us both in front of the TV.

His new favourite thing is trains.

Only 12 more sleeps!

Crazy Kid

These past few days I feel like I have spent a ton of my time taking pictures of Eli.  He is always doing something cute and weird, that is when he isn't trying my patience by demanding a cookie for every meal.  There hasn't been too much going on here so I just wanted to show the pictures.

He was trying so hard to put this tie on!

He was very pleased with himself.

Helping with the recycling.

I love it when I get a genuine smile.

When he makes this face I know I'm in trouble.

Spaghetti everywhere!

It's Autumn

I don't know why but this year I have been very excited for the fall season.  There are so many wonderful things about this time of year: The crisp air, the falling leaves and pumpkin flavoured everything!  Eli and I have have done a few fall baking projects so far and they mostly turn out ok but of course the clean up takes as much time, if not longer, than the actual baking itself.   Today however, I decided that I wanted to do a real craft with Eli.  He is getting to the age now where he wants to help and participate but he still doesn't really know how so it needed to be something easy.  We went out this morning and gathered up some leaves to make this little craft...

He picked the leaves all by himself.

We just arranged the leaves on some wax paper and then covered them with another piece of wax paper and ironed it.  I've seen these all over the place with all sorts of things in them but never knew how to make it.  Eli helped with everything except for the ironing, as I sometimes try to be a responsible mother.  He now points at it every time we pass the window in our kitchen where I taped it up.  All in all I think it was a successful crafting day!

One of the drawbacks to autumn is that the colder weather brings the bugs inside.  Every morning there is another spider by the front entry that needs to be squished.  I had to take a picture of this nasty spider that was gratefully not inside or I may have had a panic attack.  There are lots though that are building there webs on our windows.  Gross.  Gross.  Gross.

His butt was as big as my thumb nail!

      Even seeing the picture gives me the shivers.

I am also very happy to be cooking regularly once again.  While we were in Airdrie and I was working full time I never had a chance to make monthly meal plans or anything of the sort.  Bruce was always amazing at making sure that I had a warm meal when I got home from work but I'm glad that I can be practicing my cooking again.  It makes me even happier when Eli likes the food that I make.  This is a pretty rare occurrence but I am finding out more and more what kinds of foods he likes.  The other day I made waffles and he ate as much as I did!  When he was done he had to lick the plate clean and got himself even more covered in whipping cream.  I was a little annoyed but couldn't resist getting some  pictures of him with whipping cream in his hair.  I had to give him a bath right away because he started to smell like dairy and it was gross but he sure looked cute.

My happy boy. 

A Visit to Kamloops

A couple of weekends ago (I know it has been a long time since I have written a post) we went to Kamloops for a little break before Bruce really started into school.  It was a lovely weekend where we all got to relax and just have a good time in the sunshine.  While we were there we decided to take advantage of my sister-in-law, Alyssa, and we all got our hair cut.  Eli was long overdue and my hair was just getting too long!  I couldn't believe how well behaved Eli was and I think it made a huge difference that he actually knew the person who was cutting his hair.  Usually any time we try to get it done he screams the whole time and basically makes it miserable for everyone involved.  On a whim I ended up deciding to chop off quite a few inches of my hair, about five or six.  I think next time I do I'll probably donate it to Locks of Love or something but unfortunately this time I just didn't have the foresight.  In the end there was a ton of hair that we had to sweep up!

He's being so good!

Gross.

 As a very nice and unexpected surprise Bruce's mom made me a birthday cake and everyone sang Happy Birthday to me.  It was so nice and thoughtful of her and it was even my favourite flavour: red velvet!  Eli absolutely loved it and for a while afterward kept saying "Birthday" every time he saw the cake.

Can't take a picture without a very enthusiastic "Cheese!"

I also just have to share these pictures of Eli on their trampoline.  There was so much static that even the hair on his arms was standing straight up!

It took me forever to coax him off of this thing.

He's so darn cute.

The Night Circus

This weekend I forced my husband to take me to Chapters because I desperately needed something new to read.  We sent in an application to get a free library card here at the Vancouver Public Library but it hasn't come yet so I have been very anxious to get a new book.  So with some birthday money from my in-laws I purchased this fantastic book...

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

I absolutely devoured this book, finished it in about a day and a half and stayed up much later than I should have reading it.  I think the word that describes it best is: enchanting.  From the first sentence I was completely hooked.

   "The circus arrives without warning."

You have no choice but to read on!  I don't want this to turn into a poorly written book review but I have to say that I cannot recommend this book enough.  The characters are so compelling and there is a certain electricity throughout it that I can't really describe.  More than once I released a breath that I did not know I had been holding. It's one of those rare books where the story becomes your reality for a little while and when you put it down only then do you realize that you're still in your own home. There is so much imagination in this book; fortune-tellers, illusionists, jugglers and contortionists that I felt as if I had actually pulled back the curtain on a circus tent. Perhaps the author is an illusionist like the characters in the novel.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if such magic were real?  All I can say is that I will definitely be visiting Le Cirque des Reves (The Circus of Dreams) again very soon.