Rain

One thing that has surprised me about living on the 14th floor of a 20-story building is that you normally don't hear the rain.  There have been a good handful of times when it has started raining outside & I've been unaware of it. 

From our experience, rain typically falls straight in downtown Toronto, so we don't hear it hitting the windows.  We're up so high that a good steady rain hitting the ground can't be heard, and there are 6 floors above us, so we don't hear it from above.  We have huge windows in our living room, and since our view is another apartment building across the street, we can't see the rain falling.  It's a curious thing.

However, if it's a good hard rain, we do hear the traffic going through the puddles :)

Cooking Bacon in the Oven

I have a husband who loves bacon.  LOVES IT.

So I try to incorporate it into our meals somewhat often.  But really, who likes to stand at the stove and cook bacon?  It takes a good while!  Until now...

I've started to cook it in the oven - and it's a wonderful thing.

Doesn't it look good?

Here's what you do:

1) Preheat oven to 400.
2) Line baking sheet with aluminum foil.
3) Lay out the bacon so that it's almost touching - the farther apart it is, the easier it is to burn it.
4) Cook for 15-20 minutes.  Starting at 15 minutes, watch it closely as it goes from being golden and crunchy to black and burnt pretty quickly.
5) When it's done, take it off the pan immediately and put it on a paper towel-lined plate.

Notes:
1) This above photo is obviously not mine because there's no aluminum foil.  The foil makes it so easy to clean up!  Really.  Let the pan sit for about an hour, and you'll be able to fold it up with all the grease in the foil.  NO MESS!
2) Some directions on the internet say to make it by putting the bacon on a cooling rack that is in the pan.  I didn't try it because it would mean something else to clean up - and I found there was no need.  It still gets crunchy without the rack.

Our Return To British Columbia

After the festivities in Oregon, we headed up to BC for a few days.   In some ways it was odd to be back. Our old neighborhood has been developed SO MUCH; it's unbelievable how many condos have gone up in the last two years.  And traveling around in the Lower Mainland with a kid is so very different than traveling around with just two adults.  But it was also great to be back.  We got to see lots of friends, which was really wonderful.  We got to visit a few of our old haunts.  We got to eat delicious yogurt :)

We totally forgot to take a photo with the friends we stayed with!  However, even though there's no photo to document our time, it was really nice to spend time with you guys, Dan & Jemma, and to get to know your son more!  Helena sure had fun playing with him & his toys.

 A pizza dinner at Derby Reach was also enjoyed with friends.   

Their daughter was really nice to show Helena the ropes of a McDonald's Playland after dinner!

What we were most looking forward to in BC was getting back onto the hiking trails.  The air smelled so fresh and we were surrounded by deep thick greenery.  I LOVED IT.

Helena seemed to love it all too - looking at the big banana slugs up close...

 

running through rotting tree stumps...

and having a centipede crawl all over her arm were the highlights for her.

Again, being surrounded by forest was amazing.  It was wonderful to look up, way up, and see nothing but leaves and tree trunks and blue sky.

Oh BC, we still love you.

Random Photos from the Wedding Festivities

The lava fields were amazing and the wedding was beautiful,  but there were a lot of other fun random times!  Here are some photos (taken by us or Kari or Aunt Connie) that show those moments.

It didn't take long for Helena & Charlie to warm up to each other!

 Mom, Dad & Katie practicing the walk up the aisle.

Uncle Rob doing what he was looking forward to most - spending time with his nieces & nephew.

Aunt Connie so wanted to spend time with her brother's grandchildren, and they finally went along with it in the last hour.

The new member of our family!

Helena has loved bikes for awhile (we always say hi to them when we walk into our building).  The smile you see in the above picture, that didn't leave her face once for the entire 45 minute bike ride.

I ate at Voodoo Doughnuts twice, never with my donut-loving husband) but one time with my fun-loving niece Emma!

It was really really nice to be with family, extended and immediate!

My sister is married!

The reason for our trip to Oregon was to be there to witness my sister's wedding day!

You know how something is real but all of a sudden it hits you as being REAL?  That's what happened to me when the above photo was shot.  The photographer had taken a picture of the 4 sibs and then called for a photo of the sibs with the in-laws.  I thought, "Okay, John & Kari, come on in," but then I heard Katie say "There are seven of us."  "Seven???  Oh yeah, Chris. That's right. Come on in, Chris. Welcome to the family."

They got married in a beautiful hazelnut ranch.

Emma was a great flower girl, and Charlie & Helena handed out bubbles.

 

Doesn't my mom look great in her dress?  Besides the bride, who looked amazing, and the handsome groom, my mom was the best looking one there!

Instead of one cake, they chose to get a variety of delicious cakes and tarts for dessert.  Yum, yum, yum.  I had a sampler plate of the lemon poppyseed cake and the key lime tart, and heard gushing comments about the chocolate cake, the fruit tart, and the frangipane tart.  Again, yum.

 On March 22, 1975, my mom married her love.  On March 21, 1981, my mom's sister married her love.  Do the math and their weddings were 6 years minus one day apart.  

I married my love on July 8, 2006.  My sister just got married on July 7, 2012.  Do the math and it's 6 years minus one day apart.

That's right.  Katie & Chris were meant to be  :)

Oregon - Lava Fields

We're back from the West Coast and my sister is married!  It was a lovely wedding and a great vacation, but it's good to be home.  Regular activities have begun again, but for awhile I'm just going to relive our fun vacation activities!

Most family had arrived for the wedding by Thursday, so Katie & Chris had planned a fun family day out to the Lava Fields in Oregon.  We first stopped at some beautiful waterfalls.

The lava fields were crazy.  Never seen anything like them before.  It's just this vast area of land covered in black rocks.  I had thought it would be very smooth land covered in rock, but as the lava cools and water gets in, it breaks up. 

The CCC built this fort out of the lava so that one could get a view of the land and have a nice view of the Three Sisters mountains.

Helena enjoyed standing in the windows with her Nani holding on.  (I love this photo of my mom.  It shows how happy she is when in her element.)

It was a great day.  We enjoyed the scenery, the company, and the hiking!