Teen's back: Did you miss me?

Blog Buddies!! It's Teenie here and as much as Beans been doing an awesome job maintaining our blog (sorry for the lack of participation, buddy), I think it's time to write my essay on "What I did during my summer break".

And BOY was it ever the best summer ever!

I don't really know how these past months transpired, but with the perfect timing of friends and family visits, mini-excursions and a long overdue trip back home, somehow I was able to relive those summers past. When life during the summer months meant my only responsibility was to keep myself busy and spend my disposable income until school started again. Man, those were the days.

So! Without further ado...

What I Did During My Summer Break (by teenie)

1. Luigi, Julie and little Adrienne visit!
Life was ho-humming a long just nicely, working away in our new (old) office digs, since we just moved back to our respective homes. Beans and I met up a few days in each week to talk about things (in person) and eat a meal...all good things. And then BOOM! My brother, his partner and their baby girl arrive to Vancouver for their annual trip out west. This is their 3rd annual trip in the last 4 years (they missed last year) and having them around was both fun and exhausting but more than anything, it felt really wonderful to have family close by.


The best part of their vacation was that I was the special person who was invited to take the place of a set of friends from NYC who didn't end up making the trip out West. What does this mean? WELL...Benny and I were invited to use the extra two tickets to see the Cirque du Soleil with the whole family (AWESOME!) and I got to join their trip to the Okanagan for five days, to taste wine, eat yummy food and pretty much live a life of leisure that I don't think I would ever be able to experience otherwise. Thank you to my family from Toronto, the family in Hong Kong & Shanghai and the family in Vancouver for allowing me to have the best start to the summer ever!



2. FERNIE, BC
I'll keep this part short and sweet because Beans did an awesome post already about how fantastic, fun and fancy free our trip was to Fernie, BC. Let me just note to all those out there who haven't explored our BC: DO IT. Not only was it so very beautiful driving through and across our province, but this little sleepy (and not so sleepy) valley town, nestled in the middle of the Rocky Mountain Trench is so beautiful and quaint and precious and fun! Brina and Rod were the perfect hosts, keeping us more than busy showing us around the town, planning summer activities and introducing us to some very fantastic people.

Next up: Winter in Fernie!!


3. A New Nephew, Parents Visit, Goodbye to Papa
As our funny universe is, with all good things in life we are balanced with the opposite. My brother (who is my remaining family left in the city) and his partner, Karen, welcomed a brand new edition to their family on July27th (see entry below). Braxton is beautiful and huge and has a full head of hair and a scowl just like his Dad. He's amazing and I feel so blessed to have my neice (his older sister) and nephew close by to share and participate in their life.


But like I said, the universe loves to balance and teach us things, doesn't it? As it was such a happy time for our family, we also had mixed feelings of sadness and anxiousness, as our Papa, my stepfather's dad, was sick in the hospital. We all thought that he was going to get better I mean, he was always a little spitfire of a man, strong and robust, he lived life with gusto from the time I met him. Sadly, on August 17th, Papa said his goodbyes and left this world for something better.

4. Toronto, ON
In between all this family happenings, I was able to finally make a trip back home to see the other half of my family who I haven't seen in over two years. Two years! There's a nephew I had yet to meet and win over for the first time ever! The trip was perfect and exactly the kind of family love injection I needed. I met up with my old buddies who I haven't seen in a while, spent a lot of quality time with my two nephews and nieces (sidebar: Lucas, my nephew in Toronto, started his first day of school ever the same day Brody did! BFFS!) and of course, made sure that I got lots of time in with my parents. I was even able to convince (twisting her rubber arm) my sister to fly up from New York for a weekend so that we can all go to the African Lion Safari. One word: FUUUUUUUUN!!!

Sigh. Family rules.

5. One more visit to round out the summer nicely
I've been back for a few weeks now, same as Beans, and it's definitely been challenging to get back to normal pre-summer life. Making things harder is our last out of town visitors hailing from London, UK.

Two very fantastic and close friends of mine are back in the city to spend their quality time with family and catch up with us friends. They've been busy and exhausted from travelling back and forth from the burbs, making it tricky for all of us to meet up, but we were able to squeeze a few visits in, including a full day out in False Creek for a kayaking excursion. This was my first time on a kayak and even though my arms a still a little sore from the memory of paddling against the current and wind, I had the best time out there! If I had more space in my apartment, I'd buy my own kayak and go out and do it every weekend. Fun! Fun! Fun!

(this is actually a photo from the vaults because we haven't really taken any photos this trip!)

They're leaving tomorrow for Seattle, which is where they're going to fly back home from. I'm hoping to get one more visit in with them before they leave, since their visit really marks the end of summer.

You know, if they just STAYED then summer would technically never end....

:)

So...what did YOU do for your summer?