Hiking at Elk Island National Park

As I knew that we would, we returned to Elk Island on the weekend. It’s so nice living within such a short distance of a beautiful national park, and it’s something I haven’t ever taken advantage of. This year that will change.


It worked out to be another perfect sunny winter day that wasn’t too cold. In the sun you could almost wear just a sweater, but in the shade a jacket and mitts were still required.

When we arrived in the late morning and stopped at the visitor centre to grab a map of the hiking trails I decided that I would also buy a Parks Canada pass. It allows entry into all the national parks for 2 years so I think it is well worth purchasing. I have every intention of visiting several parks several times this year. It will be the year of adventure. You can quote me on that.

Having made it through the gate we proceeded to the Bison Loop first, just like last time. Unfortunately we were not greeted by any furry giants this time either. We were about to take another few pictures in the red Adirondack chairs when someone pulled over and asked if she could take them for us. Really. She pulled over just so she could help us take a picture. How sweet is that?!

We drove off right after our picture because what we came for didn't show up anyway and we were keen to get to our hike.

We decided on a hike that suggested it would take about 1-2 hours to complete and is a moderate terrain and difficulty. I wanted more than just a walk in the trees, but we also weren't prepared to be out for several hours.

This trail had less hills than the last ones did but offered more areas to explore on either side of the path. We followed a few Deer and Bison trails along the way, each time leading us to an opening that was usually near water. Of course, none of the trails led us to any animal sightings though.

Plenty of these side trails left evidence that animals spend time in the areas. Tufts of hair caught on branches, fallen trees, packed snow and many trees stumps left by beavers.

Taking the opportunity in front of us, we also decided to hide our first geocache together. It needed to be somewhere with a good hiding spot but also somewhere that people can still enjoy the pleasure of actually finding it. I personally get a tiny bit frustrated when I can't find what I'm searching for.

We have 3 more to hide but I'll wait and tell you about all of them once they are all placed and ready to be found.

I'm really excited to start spending more time in the beautiful national parks around me!

Celebrating 1 Year Together

Ryan and I celebrated our first year together recently and made a day of it. I had a day off that I needed to take and this seemed like the perfect day to use it. Plus, getting Wednesday off sure makes the week feel short!

To start the day off right we slept in a bit and then had a lazy morning getting ready. No particular rush to get out the door, just enjoying each other’s comfy and the mid-week break.


The plan for the afternoon, courtesy of Ryan, was getting antique photos! I’ve wanted to do them for so long and it makes the perfect tangible memory of our first year.


Before we even arrived and looked at our options we knew that cowboy and saloon girl was the theme we wanted. My second choice would have been southern charm – Gone With the Wind style.

The girl that worked there got everything explained to us and then brought out the clothes! Almost everything has a Velcro or tie-up back so it’s quick and easy to dress, and I imagine it’s easier to fit a variety of sizes.


Dressed in our fancy saloon-wear we headed for the photo set. It was already set up for our theme so it took no time to get started. Ryan got 2 guns to go with his outfit and I got one. She also posed us quite specifically. Hand on the hip for me, Ryan’s thumb in his gun belt, tilt your head, point your chin, knees together… Eventually she was satisfied and started taking the pictures, a good variety too. Most were of the 2 of us, but she snapped some individuals as well.

Back in October/November we had wanted to try a restaurant called The Melting Pot but it is almost always too busy to walk in and any time we tried to reserve it was already full. Little did I know, Ryan booked 3 months in advance for us to go now! I was really pleased and very excited when I found out.


The restaurant is very cozy and dimly lit with lots of twists and turns that lead into secluded sections. And each table has a pot warmer built into the top for the fondue pots.


The server explained how everything works first so we could get started on picking from the menu.


Everything is done at the table. All the ingredients that go into making a cheese fondue are brought out and mixed together in the pot in front of you. We got the traditional Swiss fondue with bread, vegetables and apples to dip. It was really good.

For our second course we each chose an entrée and agreed on the vegetable broth for cooking. Ryan had a selection of steak and I had a vegetarian platter. Mushrooms, edamame, asparagus, tofu, pasta and artichoke hearts. Nothing we had was less than completely delicious.

Finally, and very importantly, chocolate. The menu offered a selection of chocolates and mixes. Chocolate with peanut butter or dark and white mixed, etc. The very clear winner for me was the S’mores fondue. Chocolate and marshmallow cream with graham crumbs. I don’t think it gets better than that. It was served with Oreo and graham crumb coated marshmallows, assorted cakes and pastries and fresh fruit.

We really enjoyed our time at The Melting Pot and I’m eager to visit again and try more!

Our final plan of the evening was to finally visit the ice castle but we ended up missing our ticket time and rescheduling for another day.

Weekend Creations

Let’s start with the food! I absolutely love baking, it’s so much fun for me. Looking online and in cookbooks for inspiration and recipes is equally as enjoyable though. I could spend hours on Pinterest looking at new recipes and old recipes being re-vamped and 300 versions of “The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie.” Seriously, it has happened before.

The original plan for baking and subsequent list of items to make was born from a desire to save money after moving into the apartment. Baking instead of buying is a huge saver.

I figure that to BUY all the items that I made would cast me about $105.00

The date bars that I made cost around $3.50 for a single bar and I made 20 = $70.00
2 loaves of bread cost about $4.00 each and I made 2 = $8.00
The muffins we usually buy cost around $6.00 for 6 muffins, I have a big batch of 21 = $21.00
To buy a loaf of banana bread at a café you can expect to pay at least $6.00, I made one = $6.00

Now, to bake all these took me about 2 hours out of my weekend and I was multi-tasking with other projects throughout that time. And like I said, I really enjoy the process so that was just fine with me.
Here’s what I used for all the recipes:

10.5 cups of flour, 2 cups of milk, 3 eggs, 2 cups of sugar, 2 cups of butter, 1.5 cups of oats, 1 cup each of cashews and cranberries and 2 cups of dates. Plus the small amounts of salt, baking soda, etc..

To purchase all the items listed above in large packages (12 eggs, 4L milk, etc.) probably cost in the neighbourhood of $55.00 and I already had all of them in the kitchen. So even if I used every drop of milk in the jug, every last cashew and all the flour, along with everything else, it would still cost me half of what it would to but all the items pre-made and I would have significantly more. I’m going to go ahead and say that it likely only cost me a maximum of $25.00 to make everything. That is a win in my books!

And for the best part, here are all the recipes I used! 

- Bread --> https://www.pinterest.com/pin/518688082064545859/

- Banana Bread --> https://www.pinterest.com/pin/Adr_HTIK1aqz7xGds9dtZ_06qwyIYmj9XBonFRqHIsengZ4W-cHjjIA/

- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins --> https://www.pinterest.com/pin/518688082064520445/

- Cranberry Cashew Date bars --> http://outofthenesttravel.blogspot.ca/2014/03/liar-bars.html (This is my previously posted recipe, it's slightly different flavors!)

With all the treats cooling on the counter I moved on to the next project of the day, painting.

I’ve been wanting some paintings to put on the walls of the apartment ever since we moved in, but I didn’t put any real effort into finding any and then one day it hit me. I like to paint and so does Ryan, so why not do it ourselves?! Just like the baking it is certainly less expensive to make art than it is to buy. It also guarantees that we get exactly what we want in the colors and size we desire. And I get to let my creativity run wild.

What I really want is a very large, colorful, abstract painting to put on the wall in the living room. Something that would bring light and excitement to the space. Pinterest helped feed this desire with its never ending supply of inspiration.

Here are a few pieces that I really love and feel inspired by:

- https://www.pinterest.com/pin/191543790378012790/

- https://www.pinterest.com/pin/313985405249247956/

- https://www.pinterest.com/pin/20195898304861364/

Having picked my colors and a small canvas to experiment on I got right to it. Ryan made a good point about not buying a huge canvas before I had decided what to put on it.

It didn’t take much time at all to create something that I love. I’m really looking forward to creating the big piece in the near future!

Winter Wandering

Ryan and I have been really active and outdoorsy all year and I didn’t want that to stop when the snow started to fall. Admittedly, I do spend more time wrapped up on the couch watching movies in the winter, but we had so much fun together in the early months of 2015 that I needed to recreate some of that magic this winter too. 

Back in November we went to 2 tree light-ups, the biggest one in Edmonton and another one in downtown St Albert. We really enjoyed ourselves at both. In Edmonton Santa made an appearance and there was live music. In St Albert we got free cookies and hot chocolate and walked the well-lit streets enjoying the atmosphere and each other’s company. 

Across the street from our new apartment is still undeveloped and therefore makes for a nice area to walk. We’ve been over there a few times now and really enjoyed our time. In one area the otherwise empty space has been used to dump snow that is cleared from the roads. We climbed up these impromptu hills one evening to get a better look at this place we now call home. In that same area we were finally blessed with a look at the Northern Lights. Ryan and I have been trying to see them for a year now. 

Feeling the Christmas spirit, because that happens in winter, we got crafty! Homemade Christmas cards for our friends and family were a huge success and the gingerbread lighthouse I made for my office was pretty great too.

Just after New Year’s we both felt the urge to get outside and hiking was just the ticket. We trekked to the End of the World first and then braved a walk across the ice at Elk Island. Both days we were treated to nice weather and plenty of winter sunshine.

This year Edmonton was introduced to something new, the Freezeway. It's a skating path through the trees in Victoria park and makes for a great little outing. I can't skate at all and therefore do not own a pair of skates with which to attempt it, but Ryan was able to borrow a pair for himself and we took ourselves down to the ice. After a few minutes Ryan got into it and was doing pretty well and I was contently following along on my nice flat boots. He did eventually get me to try out his skates though and I have to admit, I had a lot of fun. I was right in thinking I can't actually skate but as it turns out I am very capable of standing on the ice with skates on so Ryan held my hands and pulled me around the rink. That pretty much counts as skating, right??

For the second year in a row we attended Ice on Whyte, an ice carving festival in Edmonton. I had a lot more fun this year because it was actually cold and icy, last year was too warm. The ice slide takes the cake for most fun, hands down.

Last summer Ryan introduced me to something called Geocaching and I loved it straight away. If you aren't familiar with it, I highly recommend you check it out. It's essentially a treasure hunt except that there isn't much in the way of actual treasure and the best part is the search for it. We hadn't been out in a while but I looked to see if we had any in the area of our apartment and a few popped up within walking distance. Despite the chilly night and the fact that we weren't able to find anything in the dark/snow we had a great little winter time adventure.

Apartment life

I moved more in 2015 than I have in the rest of my life combined. No really big major moves, but still moving.

For January and February I was living alone in my condo until the lease expired.

After I came back from my trip at the beginning of March I stayed with my parents for about a week.

Mid-March I left home and moved to Regina to live with my Grandparents.

Mid-June I left Regina for another trip and then moved back home to Edmonton where I lived partly with Ryan and partly at home.

Middle of September I moved in fully with Ryan at the house he was living in.

December 1^st we finally got an apartment of our own.

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Even though I craved it all along, I forgot how good it feels to have my own space. Doing what I want, when I want. No tip-toeing around because other people are sleeping, showering as early or late as  want and best of all, any mess that is around is my own (or Ryan’s, but that is beside the point.) I really love everything about it.

Something I don’t love is how much I own. More and more over the years I’ve become uncomfortable with clutter and excess. I’m certainly not saying I’m a hoarder or anything, I just think I could have less of a lot of things. It is an ongoing goal of mine to continue shrinking my belongings.

Ok, I also don’t love physically moving. It’s stressful and sometimes painful. Thanks to Ryan for keeping me from losing my head on more than one occasion when I got frustrated with things.

Our building allows for a 1.5 hour window when we got exclusive use of the elevator but that’s pretty useful in the scheme of things. How do you move your whole life in 1.5 hours??? In the end it took us a total of 4 trips in 3 days to get everything moved in. We had to get everything from where we were living, everything I was storing with my parents and fully empty my storage unit where the bulk of my belongings were. We managed to get everything out of the unit in only 2 trips, EXCEPT 1 mirror!!! It just wouldn’t fit.

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As for the actual apartment, it’s so lovely!! We looked at ads for a long time and almost never saw anything that was decent and/or reasonably priced. This place is both, and more.

2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, big living space, open, lots of storage, ensuite laundry, 2 parking stalls… It ticked every one of our boxes and then some. Laundry was non-negotiable for me so this place is a real winner.

The location is great, near pretty much everything we need. It’s easy for both of us to get to work. I can take the train instead of driving in rush hour and paying to park every day. We have walking paths, grocery stores, gas, post office and parks all in our immediate area and less than 10 minutes down the road is a huge outlet mall/shopping area with tons of restaurants and a movie theatre.

It’s really a 10 out of 10!

We are still working on making the place feel more settled but we have almost everything we needed now. A few small kitchen things, stools and/or table and chairs and then it is all about the decorating and little touches. I really want lots of plants for inside, art and pictures for the mall and mirrors to add more light and space. It will be a cozy, tropical, well-lit paradise when we are through!

Ice on Whyte

For the second year in a row Ryan and I made an evening out of one of Edmonton’s favorite winter festivals; Ice on Whyte. The ice carving festival is quite popular since its fun for all ages.

To start off our evening we went for supper at a nearby restaurant called MEAT. I’ve been there once before and I knew Ryan would love it.  The main dish is, as you may have guessed, meat. You choose what type and what size portion and it is served family style on a platter, perfect for sharing. We chose beef brisket and pulled pork with sides of mac and cheese and garlic fries plus a pickle for me.

The restaurant is on the pricier side but it is well worth it for a nice night out and you can’t be the location. It’s really close to everything Whyte Ave has to offer.

Warm and full we headed down the street to the festival. It was really warm when we went last year so it lacked a bit of the charm, but this year it was a perfect cool crisp night. Going in the evening when it’s dark is nice as well because the sculptures are lit up in different colors.

Inside we went straight over to admire the standing sculptures and also to watch the men still creating their pieces. A jester, a tiny man and what looked to be turning into a lizard were just a few.

In another are we found ice thrones and a Bison next to a small snow maze.

My favorite part of the festival is in the very back corner. A large Combine made of snow and ice with 2 ice slides shooting down the front. Ryan and I raced down a few times and I had a blast. Ice slides beat plastic slides, no competition. In this area we also found a jumbo sized Jenga game and got right into it. We actually managed to do fairly well despite wearing gloves and the occasional shiver.

After the game toppled over we made a visit to the fire pit to warm ourselves before exploring further.

The “indoor” area, an events tent, held snacks, a bar and live music! The guys on stage could be heard throughout the grounds but we had no idea they were actually there playing live. They were really enjoyable to listen to and had a great play list.

Back out into the snow for our evening finale. Another ice slide, but this one is much taller and longer and incidentally much slower and less fun. Ryan barely made it half way before he had to start pushing himself to get down. Enjoyable anyway though!

I think we will make it a tradition and attend again next year!