Fall Drives and Birthday Dinners

Ryan's birthday is coming up this week, and so to celebrate, he wanted to take a drive up to Creemore, Collingwood and go to one of our favourite places to eat.

First stop was Creemore.  The drive to Creemore in the fall is beautiful.  Creemore has a brewery, which Ryan got to enjoy some samples at and I of course had to turn down.

Next stop was Collingwood.  We travelled to the Village at Blue Mountain and grabbed a Starbucks and just wandered around.  No money spent besides our coffee.

Next up was my favourite part of the day.  Ryan wanted to buy some apples, as we were in apple country.  So we asked someone where to go and she suggested the nearby Farmer's Pantry.  

At The Farmer's Pantry they have a huge orchard where you can pick your own apples.  It was a rainy day, so we just bough some straight from the store instead.  The store also had baked goods, frozen food, jams and hot apple cider!  So we grabbed our apples and a hot apple cider each.  

On our way in, I had gotten pretty excited when I saw a donkey!  I don't know what it is about donkey's but I just love them.  So of course we had to go visit this little guy.  He clearly wasn't impressed about the rain, but as soon as we walked over he came over to us and stuck his head through the fence.

A little girl walked up to him later and he started hee-hawing at her.  Now I don't know about you, but I knew that was the sound donkey's made but had never actually heard the sound.  It was pretty funny. 

They had other animals too, like sheep, goats, ducks and bunnies.  It seemed like a great place to take kids.  The only cost is the cost to pick your apples, and you're getting the apples out of the deal!  We will definitely be back there in the future with little baby Osbott!  

Finally we went to Ted's Range Road Diner for dinner.  This place is off the beaten path and is located in a Quonset hut.  You would never go in if you hadn't heard about it.  And you need reservations because it's always busy.  You order from their chalkboard menu which includes things like Bison, Elk, Venison, Kangaroo and Ostrich.  I had the Ostrich as I had never tried that before and Ryan had the Bison.  As usual our meals were delicious!

Snow and Olympics

This weekend basically consisted of me watching the Olympics.  And I don't regret it.  Because of the time difference, the only time we can watch live action is on weekends. So until the Olympics are over, that's where I will be on Saturdays and Sundays.

Saturday consisted of team figure skating short programs and women's moguls.  

The moguls were very nerve wracking because they changed the format and so instead of combining scores or taking best scores or however they did it last time, each run counted on it's own.  So one screw up and you  might not make it on to the next final.

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Two of our Canadian girls had amazing runs, and Hannah Kearney didn't.  Which was actually shocking, because apparently she's very consistent.  But I'm not going to complain about it!  When we got the gold and silver it was totally unexpected for me and I may have screamed!  And then cried.....just a little bit.

Sunday morning Ryan and I went out for a snow shoe to a park near by.  We had never actually snowshoed through this park, so it was a nice change of scenery.  It always baffles me how quickly snow shoeing tires me out though, and Ryan could go for hours!  Clearly my endurance needs some work!

The park was beautiful and quiet.  Only us and a few cross country skiiers there.

Then we came home to watch the last of the Figure Skating Team competition.  It turns out that going into Ice Dance, gold and silver were already decided.  So this portion didn't really matter for us, but it did give Tessa and Scott an opportunity to see where they were against Meryl and Charlie.  I couldn't believe that there was a 7 point difference!  

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Let's hope that Tessa and Scott can tighten up that gap a little bit and that the rest of our Canadians continue to do amazing!

Ploptastic

If you have been a long time reader of this blog, or know me personally, you may have heard of the Plunger Plop.

Every year, my town has this ridiculous event.  It's kind of like curling or horseshoes, but it takes place on an outdoor rink, and we throw plungers at toilets, hoping to get a "ringer" which means that the plunger has actually landed in the toilet.

That's a lot of plungers

If may sound crazy to some, but it's a day that we all look forward to.  We had 8 teams of people coming back to our house in between games and once the festivities were over.  There was of course a lot of food and the odd adult beverage.  Everyone throws plungers better after a few beers.  (Even me, and this is probably the one and only time this year that I will actually drink.)

The She-Wolves

Honestly we have so much fun at this event every year.  I'm not going to lie, I'm fairly competitive and my dream is to win it.  As Coach Jim said on CTV news, you want to win this and "gain worldwide recognition."  Ok so maybe this isn't the olympics, and maybe the recognition isn't worldwide, but it's definitely something that you would never forget.

Winter - I'm Really Not a Fan

Sometimes I have to remind myself that I really love my country, because this whole winter thing, it's kind of ridiculous.  If I didn't love Canada so much I would probably move to Florida in a second.

This weekend we went up to the cottage.  It was actually really nice and relaxing.  It's so nice to just get away from home sometimes where you can sit around and do nothing and not feel guilty about it.  Unfortunately, while we were gone my house didn't clean itself.

And then I made myself go outside.  Because why go to the cottage in the winter if you aren't even going to enjoy the great outdoors.  I realized when we were outside for a rather short walk, that this was the first time this winter that I had been outside beyond just walking to and from my car.  Sad?  Maybe.  But I would probably be sadder if I had to be out in the snow all the time.

Our outdoor time was short lived.  About 15 minutes in the snow is enough for me.  You would think after almost 27 years I would be used to Canadian winters.  I'm not sure it's ever something that I will get used to.  

Luckily we had wine to come back to after our walk.  I should have known that blog pictures would be taken and that I maybe should have actually put some make-up on.  But I was at the cottage, who does that?

Saturday Night

Picture This. 

The ground covered in snow outside.  Candles lit.  Lying on the couch covered by a warm quilt.  Hot chocolate in hand.  And The Holiday on my TV.

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That my friends, was my Saturday night.  And it's right up there with the best nights of my entire life.

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Well thanks Jude Law.  But if these girls can go on two week vacations by themselves over Christmas, I'm pretty sure that I can kick my husband out of the house and watch a chick flick with myself.  (Ok I didn't kick him out of the house, he had a party to go to and I will always choose a night by myself over a party.)

Anyways, now that I have watched my first "Christmas" movie, I'm really feeling like Christmas.  So it may be time to decorate my house.  I told Ryan that I was going to decorate and he said no, because it's not December 1.  But it's November 24, so it's exactly one month until Christmas eve, so I would say that if you want to decorate now, that wouldn't be a holiday violation.

Well Isn't That Nifty

It was my mom's birthday this past weekend.  I won't give away how old she was, but it might rhyme with nifty....

Anyways, we had a small party for her on Saturday night despite the fact that she requested no party....It was just a few friends and family members, a camp fire and some snacks really.  It was mostly to fool her about what was going on the next day, on her actual birthday.

Oh heeeeey limo.

My dad rented a limo for us all to ride down to this restaurant that my mom loves in. 

She actually had mentioned that morning (while we were sitting around a camp fire in 35 degree weather...don't ask....) that she would like to go back to this restaurant for her birthday.  I think we all did a great job of keeping a straight face.

So we rode down in the limo.  It was about a two hour drive.  A few beverages were had along the way, that's the point of a limo right?  And what's classier than a box of wine in a limo?

The restaurant was right on Lake Ontario.  So we had a great view and great food. 

We had planned on eating her cheesecake in the limo on the way home, but we forgot the forks and plates.  So we ate it when we got home.  Which worked out well because my dad then got to light her candle with a blow torch.  Is that not normal?

Normal is not a word that is typically used to describe my family.

Weekend Wednesday

So I suppose I should share a little bit about my weekend.  It's not that my weekends are boring, just sometimes I don't feel that they are exciting to people outside of myself.  I'm trying to get myself to blog more though, and I think that part of that is just posting things sometimes even if you don't think that they are your best posts ever. 

This past weekend was especially great because it was the first one after my exam.  It's so nice to sit around doing nothing and not feel guilty for it.

Friday night, we went to see Now You See Me.  It was really great!  What was even better was that we used a movie pass that my mom had given us and so the two movies, two pops and popcorn cost us....wait for it....$0. 

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Saturday night was a little graduation get together for my sister.  We went to a local patio, had dinner and some drinks.  It was a good time.  Ryan also put up our new clothesline on Saturday.  I know, married life is thrilling!

Sunday of course was Father's Day.  So we spent time with both of our fathers.  We headed out to Ryan's parents for Brunch in the morning and then to my parents for dinner.  We took the traditional Father's Day picture. 

There's my weekend in a nutshell, and now I can feel better about myself for having taken the time to write about it.  If you have made it to the end, I commend you.

May 24

I'm finally getting around to posting about my weekend.  And what a weekend it was!  For the Victoria Day long weekend we always go up to the cottage with most of the family for the annual Canoe Trip.

The canoe trip started as a father kid bonding thing.  I guess now that most of us are in our 20's it's changed a bit.  Fathers and kids still go, but sometimes spouses and friends go as well.  It used to be an overnight trip, but this year we decided to do the whole thing in 7 hours.  This was also my first time going in about 3 years.

And they call me bits and bites - they are digging through a bucket for candy

One of the highlights would be this tricky tree.  Ryan and I couldn't manoeuvre around it and almost tipped.  So we moved to the side and watched 2 more canoes almost tip and one actually tip.  Then we decided that we should help. 

Tali had to go swimming to catch a paddle and some shoes. 

It was a beautiful day for canoeing.  We have had years where it has snowed, or been pouring rain.  Luckily this was not one of those years.





  Another recent change to the trip is that it's now acceptable to shotgun beer.  And don't I look thrilled to be holding onto the canoes while this is going on.

I told Ryan we had to scope out this section before canoeing down it.  Then everyone else came along and just went for it.  I felt like a dorkstick.  To make myself look a bit better though, many years ago, this area of the river and I got in a bit of a fight.  A rock, a tree and a big scar on Kaileigh's leg later, I'm a little bit wary of the rapids.

Mama Bear (aka me) tried to be healthy and bring along some carrots to snack on.  I was made fun of for it.

And just to increase the cuteness factor on the blog, look at this kid!

 He made my weekend.  He's hilarious and he knows it.  We call him the little dutch boy because, well, he looks dutch.  And his family really doesn't look dutch at all.  Most of the time when he talks, you can't figure out what he's saying, so we had him saying "I don't speak freaky deaky dutch."

 Seems like a good way to start the summer right?  It got me pretty excited for the next 3 months!  Hopefully this nice weather sticks around for awhile!

Clucking Bunnies

As you may have heard, this past weekend was Easter.  There are many pros to Easter.  Family time, chocolate, food and of course a day off from work.  It was a good, and very busy weekend!

We went out to Ryan's parents on Friday.  We went for a short walk to check out all of the wood that they have cut this year.  This time last year we probably could have gone on a long walk.  This year wasn't really ideal for walking though.  There is still a bit of snow but it's wet and melty and slippery.  So the walk was short.

Saturday we had a family easter combined with a birthday party.  The family always has so much fun when we get together.  And you are never too old for the cousins picture around the birthday cake!

We also had a giant game of crud.  Crud is a game that you play on a pool table.  You only use the cue ball and the 8 ball and it's all about throwing the cue ball and hitting the eight ball.  You want to hit it before it stops moving.  If you do, then the next person goes.  If it stops moving before you hit it, you get a strike.  4 strikes and you are out of the game.  Last person standing wins.  That's the shortened version.

So we played a giant game of crud with about 9 people.  I hadn't played since I was much younger so it was a lot of fun!

We also had a dinner at my parent's house.  3 family dinners makes for a busy weekend! 

You know what I miss though?  Easter egg hunts.  I really do.  Sometimes growing up really sucks.

Winter is Good For Something

Two years ago for Christmas, Ryan gave me snowshoes.  We used them once and it was an unhappy experience for me.  Take note: don't take your DSLR snowshoeing for the first time.  You fall in the snow and freak out when it gets wet.  So finally, after our winter storm, we had enough snow to go snowshoeing.  That's right, we didn't once have enough snow last winter to use them. 

This experience was more enjoyable.  I didn't fall once, so that right there is a bonus.  And I brought my waterproof camera along, which I was much more comfortable with. 

We probably snowshoed for 2 hours or so.  Which is a lot, considering I was tired after about 15 minutes.  It's not easy, but it's kind of fun and is a great workout! Which justified the 2 glasses of wine I had when I got back to the house....

Snowshoer down! (And it's not me)

Apparently it's going to get hot and rainy in the next few days, so that may have been our first and last snowshoe for the year.