I love coming home to our Pasadena apartment

After being away for a while, it still has that new apartment smell to me, it makes me think of newborn babies, reading magazines while pumping and guzzling chocolate soy milk. Good times being a new parent on a new adventure with all the necessary energy that entails.

My Canada day cheesecake

We had a very nice trip to Canada this summer. 2 weeks in Manitoba included trips to the zoo, boat rides, a visit to the cabin, a family reunion with the best pizza I've ever had, waterslides, flying cows, visiting mennonite heritage village, a day out with Thomas the train, great food, family, fireworks from a canoe, Canada day party, animals and lots of kids to play with. During our time in Portage I rented studio space from the local art gallery and got a ton of work done, which I forgot to photograph, but is hanging in Diane & Terry's art gallery/hallway for the time being.

2 weeks in BC without dad included 8 boxes of kleenex, sickness, a trip to the ER, croup, runny noses, phlegm... there was good stuff too, visiting friends and family, 3 nights camping at Rathtrevor, hanging out in my parents brilliant backyard, the pool, the hammock, mmm soup, Bocce, SKY!!! (cousin Sky), tall ships festival, harbor quay, library visits, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cars, Coombs, sushi, train ride, movies and of course, cats, dogs, parrot and guitars (all of the babies currently residing in the Barker household).

Here are a few pictures of Bronson during the trip to show how he's grown. I am not going to post pics from every outing, etc for 2 reasons: 1) too many and 2) we ran out of camera space in Manitoba and I was too ill and too busy nursing my son to get my act together and put the photos on a cd to clear the card so I have no photos of the BC portion. (Mom, dad, jess, Amy, Melissa, Sabrina please pass on any nice ones you have for my scrapbook.) I only touched a computer maybe 3 times all trip, and I'm proud of that fact.

Visiting Thomas the train:

Hey, look, it's Aunty Denise and cousin Ethan!

The zoo, heritage village, etc.

Here Bronson is sitting next to an old woman. Really, the statue's to the right of grandma.

Bronson loves to play with his friend Will. A big thank you to Will and Kristin and Patrick for lending us a playpen, bedding, pool stuff, toys, a car seat, their van... and everything else we could possibly need during our visit.