We Built A Fort!

And I'm currently sitting in it!

Jena and T got two all purpose canopies for their wedding and couldn't fly them back to B.C., so we inherited them (or are borrowing them 'til they move back to Ontario). I sunburn incredibly quickly and easily, so a canopy or 'fort' in the backyard allows me to sit outside without having to pile on buckets of sunscreen first. It also makes for a kind of outdoor office, which I'm really liking (although I'm sure John would like his laptop back at some point).

All purpose canopy in the box

What's in the box

Lay out all the poles first

Raise the roof!

Tack roof tarp in place

Add leg poles, tie down roof tarp, and secure poles with ropes

Comfort zone established!

Outdoor office - a nice place to write blogs!

Waste Not, Want Not

So remember all those milk and creamers we took home from the wedding?

Well the milks were about to expire and needed to be used up. So I took one for the team and decided to have a bowl of cereal with them.

I'm obsessed with Cinnamon Bliss, which is Sally's Cereals version of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and had some on hand to go with the milks. I didn't want to have any soggy cereal, so I opened all the little milks before I added them.

I did pretty well and only ended up with eight leftover.

And I used those up by having another half bowl of cereal. Which was easy for me to do because Cinnimon Bliss is so incredibly good. Super yummy and no milk was wasted. Double win.

Everything is a Photo Opportunity #11

We stayed at a cottage for a night last week and got to enjoy a quiet sunset over the water. This is definitely summer at its best.

Cottage Supper #FoodPornFriday

We got to spend a night at a cottage in Victoria Harbour last week, as the newlyweds went back to Vancouver a few days before their two week rental was up. It was a total win for us and super relaxing.

The cottage had a full kitchen (and a mostly full fridge) so John pan fried some pork buttons with some spices and sauteed fresh mushrooms. The mushrooms were packed with flavour - I think I could have eaten a whole pan of just them. On the side we had some steamed carrots and broccoli and a big scoop of leftover wedding potato salad (which still tasted amazing, as this was before I ate waaaayyyy too much of it). 

This post is part of Big Dude Likes Food #FoodPornFriday link up. Feel free to head on over to his blog and link up an awesome food post!

Family Wedding By the Numbers

It's been almost two weeks since we had a family wedding and all the numbers in my last post reminded me of some things I could quantify from the wedding.

Date the wedding took place: July 20, 2013

Anniversary that Jena and T were celebrating on their wedding day: 10th

Number of years Canada was celebrating having nation wide equal marriage (signed into law on July 20, 2005): 8 years

Distance the brides traveled to get to their wedding: 3600km (2237 miles)

Distance T's dad and brother traveled to get to the wedding: 2268km (1409 miles)

Distance I traveled to get to the wedding: 23km (14 miles)

Number of wedding guests: 45 (approx)

Scheduled start of wedding ceremony: 7:00pm

Actual start time of wedding: 7:30pm (approx)

Number of cars that broke down in and around the wedding: 6* (*I'm counting mine twice)

Number of 5kg (11 lb) buckets of various salads purchased for wedding: 6

Number of buckets of potato salad that ended up at my house: 1/2 a bucket

Number of days in a row that I ate potato salad: 4

Amount of time before I can eat potato salad again: 3 months (approx)

Number of slices of wedding cake I ate at the wedding: 0

Number of slices of wedding cake I ate in the week following the wedding: 3

Number of slices of ice cream cake I ate in the week following the wedding: 2

Number of cucumbers we had at the house following the wedding: 5

Number of days in a row I have forced myself to eat part of a cucumber: 10

Number of days in a row I ate a fancy cucumber sandwich: 3