adventuring along niagara gorge.

my dad recently got a new computer and as my dad always does, has spent the last few weeks figuring out anything and everything this new computer can do - from syncing all his emails into one account to making slide show music videos.  he has the same computer as i do, but trying to figure out this computer was never something i tried to do. 

anyways, point is - dad is going through photos and making albums for each year/event and organizing everything he has in terms of photos and videos. i decided i would do the same thing and then i came across my good friday photos and realized i never posted them.

so here is how my parents, terry and i spent our good friday 2013.

headed down the escarpment

 climbing around boulders

better late then never right?!

is it spring yet?

after an absolutely lovely weekend with weather so perfect it was hard to believe true, we get a crumby monday with way too much rain. thats a great way to make me hate my monday even more. it would be an understatement to say i was a little bitter today...
the weather this weekend was just teasing us.. i will wait with anticipation until that weather shows up again and stays for more then two days. 
i woke up on saturday to the sun shining through the slight part in my bedroom curtains. the whole day was pure sunshine and up to 10 degrees celsius. i probably didn't take as much advantage of this beautiful weather as i should have, but i did love the fact that a coat was not necessary.
sunday i got outside a bit more to enjoy the weather. sunday got up to 14 degrees celsius. terry and i went for a drive around the city (he may have even had the windows down). on our way back we stopped for a little hike up to tiffany falls. 

after i got home from the drive/hike with terry i felt guinness was missing out on the weather he loves so much, so i thought id take him out. my dad and i hopped in the car with my pup and drove to what we thought was an entrance to the rail trail. it turned out to be a random forest but it was still the perfect place to take guinness for a walk. anywhere he can be off leash is perfect to him.. 

he even found a little lake to play in.. 

i hope next weekend is just as beautiful!

reminding myself .. still in ontario, thunder bay ontario..

terry grew up in thunder bay and as much as he claims to dislike the place, i think he was excited to show me around the place he grew up and i was equally as excited for him to show me. 

friday our flight was at 9 am on friday morning (we were up at 5:45 and in the car for 6:30 on the way to the airport). the flight to thunder bay from toronto was about an hour and 20 minutes, allowing us to arrive in thunder bay around 10:30 am. after laughing at the unbelievably tiny airport, terry's uncle had arrived to pick us up from the airport and brought us to where we were staying for the weekend, at terry's grandfathers house. we brought our suit cases in the house and in a matter of 20 minutes terry and i were back in the car - my tour of thunder bay had begun!

we drove around probably for less than an hour before i was complaining how hungry i was. he took me to a place (it cant even be granted the title restaurant) called coney island in which terry had previously described as "a hole in the wall restaurant with amazing burgers". maybe it should be called a diner. you know - the kind of diner that uses plastic cups, mismatched dishes and only accepts cash - yup that is what coney island is. terry ordered 4 burgers and i ordered a burger and a poutine (dont worry, any smaller and these burgers would be classified as sliders). i didn't enjoy the burger very much because all i tasted was mustard but they were pretty interesting - the burgers were similar to a weird mix between a hamburger and a sloppy joe (with a strong taste of mustard - blahh!). terry loved his 4.5 burgers and i liked my poutine!

the rest of our friday was spent driving around. terry showed me the mall (yes the one mall in thunder bay) and the neighbourhood he used to live in with his parents. we drove around the poor parts and the rich parts of thunder bay and he showed me some of the arenas he used to play hockey in. we went to see the terry fox memorial monument (thunder bay was where terry fox was forced due to physical illness to end his run across Canada). we went to get a few groceries and some wine for the weekend and we even took a special eight year old in his life out for dinner and to the arcade.

throughout the weekend, i honestly had to keep reminding myself i was still in canada. they had restaurants, coffee shops and grocery stores i had never heard of. there were even foods i never heard of and brands i had never seen before. ohh also.. so as we were driving around, i kept smirking at these funny little yellow huts that were stationed outside of certain houses near the side walk.. im laughing to myself thinking.. man what the heck, these things are so ugly - that really has to devalue the property of a house, having one of these huts in front of your house.. terry explained.. it gets so cold during the winter in thunder bay that these huts are actually for the crossing guards to stand in while they are waiting for kids crossing the streets (haha makes sense- but i had definitely never seen them before.. i still think they are the most ridiculous looking things ever!)

saturday we woke up and went to the market. i guess there is a market every saturday morning from 8am until noon. terry's mom had mentioned we should stop by and say hi to some friends of hers who have a little stand at the market. we had no intention of purchasing anything but we ended up leaving with probably three meals worth of perogies, fresh dinner rolls, some italian sausage, some elk jerky for terry and some chocolate for me. yum! we spent some time in a coffee shop (me reading my kobo and terry doing some work on the laptop - both drinking coffee). we got some lunch and then headed to kakabeka falls where we were meeting up with some friends.

kakabeka falls was one of the few places i was daring enough to take my mitten hands out of my pockets and actually take some pictures. even though the falls were entirely frozen over, the site was beautiful.

 the sky was such a beautiful blue that day. not a cloud in the sky

 you could hear the water running underneath the ice, but the top layer was entirely frozen.

ahh so beautiful! id love to go back in the summer or fall!

after the hour or two we spend at the falls, we drove around a bit more. around 4 we went  back to his grandfathers house to make some dinner and rest before we had to help set up for the stag and doe.

we went to pick up terry's friend around 630 and headed over to help set up (basically our job was to stock the beer fridge) for the stag and doe. the stag and doe was fun! drinks, music, lots of people and some great prizes! i think the couple getting married was impressed with the turn out! get this though.. saturday night it went down to - 23 degrees celsius before windshield! i dont think i have ever experienced cold like that when i wasn't decked out in ski attire (fleece sweaters and covered head to toe from the cold). my purse froze! my leather purse - completely froze! i swear. when we came back to the house at 2 am.. i shivered for probably 35 minutes after being in the house and covered with a blanket (i think terry may have thought something was seriously wrong with me). 

sunday was very low key. i slept a lot. terry watched a lot of hockey/sports (when terry watched sports, i napped - there wasn't internet and only one tv got channels worth watching.. so i napped a lot.. or read). sunday dinner, terry's aunt and uncle kindly took us out for dinner to a local steak house. i had salmon and it was delicious.. ohh and did i mention all you can eat salad/bread& soup bar?!.. yum yum!   it was nice! i like his family (thats a good sign right!?) :). after dinner we went back to the house and decided to play some weird game.. i forget the name, something to do with pigs. the game didn't last long, i won a round, he won a round then we gave up. we decided to watch a movie and drink some wine.. (big wine fans here!)

monday family day! our flight back to toronto was around 4 pm. we lazed around, went for lunch, got some coffee, dropped off some presents/made a visit and went back to the house to pack.

that was my long weekend! 

first weekend away with mister boyfriend :)

thunder bay

i like long weekends. i like long weekends more when you can entirely relax and not just add another day on to your already stressful weekend. i especially like long weekend when you get to leave and go somewhere else for a few days - somewhere that stress is not even an option because your wont let it be. i loved this february long weekend! my boyfriend and i got to spend four days relaxing, away from home (sort of not for him) and stresses associated with it. terry and i spent our long weekend in thunder bay and i entirely enjoyed myself.
i am not surprised in any way that i enjoyed my weekend but you honestly should have heard some of the warnings (i guess you can call them warnings) i got when i told people i was going to thunder bay.
"eww thunder bay- why would you go there!?" 
"haha, i got sent to thunder bay once for business and the next time my boss tried to send me i got down and cried in front of him asking him why me!? why me!?"
"there is nothing in thunder bay - you should refund that plane ticket now"
"highest crime rate per capita in thunder bay"
"dont get stabbed - its common there!"
yup.. true say. i heard all these comments.

so obviously i disregarded the concerns in these statements and went to thunder bay with terry.
the purpose for us going was for a stag and doe ("shag" as they call it in thunder bay). terry's cousin is getting married in september but the stag and doe was over the long weekend so we made a short trip out of it - we both booked friday off work!

*picture is of  (frozen over) Kakabeka Falls - Thunder Bay, Ontario*

christmas is on its way

its december again! the month where stores can play christmas music without complaints and christmas baking becomes my hobby. december 1st started my preparation for this holiday season with the chocolate advent calendar, christmas shopping and christmas tree cutting. my sisters and i have been getting chocolate advent calendar every december 1st since i can remember! one chocolate for everyday in a count down to christmas. i truthfully believe my parents will be buying us a chocolate calendar every december until we have children of our own - its a simple and common tradition.. then came the christmas shopping - christmas shopping excites me! i love shopping for the perfect gifts for family and friends - i like when there is room for creativity and thoughtfulness in the gift, some people are easy to shop for while others want whats on their list and no other. i've so far managed to get two partial presents for two different people.. id say its a good start!
another tradition of my family for the past few years has been to pick out and saw down a christmas tree for our house! all 5 of us put on our winter boots and warm jackets (guinness also got his sweater on) and we drove out to the christmas tree place we've gone for the past few years to scout out the perfect tree.
we now have our christmas tree decorated in our living room and christmas lights strung out outside our house.. im definitely in the christmas spirit!

we selected our tree and each took turns sawing it down.

 **proof i helped with the dirty work :)**

guinness observed.

labour day weekend

 the labour day weekend has come to an end and september is officially in full swing. despite being sick since thursday, i was able to make the most of this long weekend.. but with lots of tea. i managed to do a lot of reading and watch a lot of buffy (yes buffy the vampire slayer.. 7 years ago it used to be my favourite show.. now its just absolutely hilarious to watch -  the outfits! oh the outfits!). i also went to the burlington rib fest, made some sangria, went on a roadtrip to stratford and took guinness on some nice long walks. 

rib fest wasn't bad. im not really a fan of ribs (i honestly detest eating anything off bones - ribs, chicken wings.. anything like that) but i do love barbecue sauce.. and barbecues.. mmm everything there smelt amazing! terry and i only tried the ribs from one vender (you are supposed to try a few and vote on your favourite) but we also didn't vote either.. oops. basically it was just a whole lot of people drinking beer and eating carcass - i feel its more a mans territory. 

on sunday we couldn't decide if we wanted to go rollerblading at the bayfront or go on a drive somewhere.. we decided on a drive and although terry didnt tell me where we were going at the time.. it ended up being to stratford. i had never been to stratford before - now i like it. it was my kind of town! used book stores and coffee shops and there was even horse and buggies (like the mid 18th century kind)..

i couldn't find the book i was looking for but thats alright.. terry ended up buying two books :)

         

yummm... chocolate covered espresso beans (some of the best!) and iced coffee

monday was spend watching the ti-cat vs toronto argo labour day classic and watching tv... it was a good long weekend.

just another weekend

this weekend was fairly low key.. nothing new at all. i completely enjoy weekends like that.
friday- i worked 8-4 then got home, got ready and went to the gym (yay me! - first time in a while). the rest of the night i stayed in and started reading a new book. oh and as usual, i got my friday evening coffee (starbucks is my place of choice).
saturday - i woke up to guinness sniffing my face at 8 am.. hes a little weird like that. late morning i went over to terry's house to help him and his parents rip up their kitchen floor. they are doing a bunch of renovations to their house and i offered to help (to be honest, i wasn't much of a help.. i watched and once in a while carried some heavy tiles out to the dumpster). i guess i did bring coffee's though.. that should count for something! after a few hours i went home to shower and get ready.. we were in need of a cold beer and some food!

we thought it would be a good idea to get the party platter for two of us. 

BAD IDEA. next time we need at least two others with us

im pretty sure we ate 1/4 of it! there was soo much food! chicken wings, fries, onion rings, nachos and quesadillas. it was nice though, the brassie has live music playing every saturday (i just found that out). the singer was talented and we both liked the music.

sunday - i woke up to buckwheat and banana pancakes (i love my mom!) and i worked at the store the rest of the day (i pretty much only work there once a week right now). not very interesting.

and to finish with some exciting news..

guinness graduates from beginners puppy school tomorrow! its going to be pretty cute - definitely photo worthy!

wine and chocolate

wine and chocolate yes, two of my favourite things.. this is basically what my saturday consisted of. although my birthday is tomorrow (monday), terry and i thought it would be a better idea to celebrate my birthday on the saturday. i was asked a couple of times what i wanted for my birthday and honestly all i wanted was a nice dinner or a nice day together to do something fun, something like wine tasting. lucky for us, living in hamilton, we are less than an hour away from niagara-on-the-lake, one of the largest wine producing regions in Canada. 
terry went ahead and booked a wine tour for the two of us. the tour started around 1:45, check in to be around 1:30. we got to our first winery around 2:00 and there we got to try some white wine and two different icewines - riesling and a cabernet sauvignon. icewine, if you have never tried it, is more of a dessert wine. its extremely sweet, sometimes to the point where it is recommended to drink it with some dark (bitter) chocolate. i loved it though! it literally smelt like jam. the wine expert had a little something to say about each of the wines we tried. 

after the organized wine tasting we spend about 20 minutes walking around looking at the selections of wine and trying a few different ones we didn't trying during the tasting. then off we were to the next winery. 
the next winery was niagara college. this is actually one of the only two colleges in north america that offers a school for wine making. here we got to walk out to the vineyards and go down to the cellar to see the machines they used and where the wine is stored. we also got to see the teaching classroom in where the students learn how and eventually make their own wine.

barrels and barrels of wine.

we learned some information along the way - such as: red wines are typically stored in oak barrels and wine wines are typically held in steel. the longer the reds are stored in the barrels the stronger tasting they often are and it is completely up to the wine maker how long they want to store the wines. also, the reason wines have different names is because they are actually named after the grapes that are used to make the wine (there are 100's different types of grapes).. icewine is actually made with frozen grapes that have to be picked when the temperature is between -8 and -12 degrees celsius.

next we went to a family owned winery called caroline cellars.. the wines here are not sold in the lcbo (if you are from ontario you are familiar with the lcbo, if you are not, the lcbo is our liquor store.. as we cannot buy liquor from any grocery store or convenience store here in canada.)

lastly we went to reif estates winery where we tried a riesling, a cabarnet merlot and an icewine and we also learned a little about the history of the wineries in the niagara region. 

it was a perfect way to celebrate my birthday and a fun thing to do in general. i could never imagine going every weekend or anything (you do try between 3 and 6 wines at each of the wineries- this does add up!) but id love to go again sometime. adding to make it a great day, the weather stayed clear from rain!

instagram diary

my weekend was full of food, beautiful weather, family and friends

 tiger stripe and birthday cake ice cream,

hutches down by the hamilton bay front

enjoying white wine sangria out on the back deck + reading

and of course my little ball of fluff

my long weekend was also filled with:

great conversations with amazing people

fireworks

hot tubs and pools

red velvet cupcakes and butter tarts

good books

"The commonly held view these days is that people don't write love letters anymore, and that email and text messaging are death to romance"- ursula doyle

may 2-4 weekend

they always come to me at night, the thoughts, the ideas, the inspirations. i lay in bed before falling asleep and always have ideas of what to write about, how to say what i want to say and why to write a post about it but of course im in bed at this point and i dont get up and write these ideas down. i know i should... it is what good writers do. although i carry a notebook and pen with me in my purse they are often not with me next to my bed at night as i fall asleep. when i wake in the morning i head to work for the day and when i come back from work after 8 hours the ideas are often forgotten or lack creativity. this resulting in a long series of posts that can only be defined as picture diaries of my weekends. 
and again all i have to post if pictures from my weekend with some words..


friday: worked all day then went to terry's and made stuffed peppers.. they turned out pretty darn good
saturday/sunday: we went to visit some of terry's friends at a cottage they rented about an hour past toronto.. we laid by the water on the beach, ate, drank, tanned, read, talked and of course roasted marshmallows and made s'mores (pretty much one of my favourite things ever). *terry had my camera with no charger for the past few days and by the time we got to the cottage my camera had died - sad but true*
monday: my family and i went on a drive (like we often do on weekends) we drove to niagara on the lake  making a few stops along the way. we stopped at a park and later we stopped at a beach.. we got to niagara on the lake, walked along the water, went in a few stores, grabbed coffees and some cookie biscuits for guinness and back home for a later dinner. it was an absolutely beautiful weekend.

 guinness loved the beach

he loves the water but is afraid to actually swim

 he did a good job of fetching the stick though,

as long as it didn't require him to swim

 he stepped on my flip flop

niagara on the lake is a beautiful town

its perfect in almost every way