Summer 2013 begins!!

Since we've been back from Florida, we have had a lot of rainy weather. In the midst of the rain, we have been able to enjoy some of the warm weather with our friends and fam! Here's what we've been up to over the past few weeks:

A couple weeks ago, Brooklyn and I hit up the covent garden market on a Saturday afternoon for a snack and to look around. We checked out the upstairs of the market, where they have the theatre and found in August, the Original Kids are putting on GREASE!! So, Brooklyn and I bought tickets to see in Grease on August 1st!

We went the market on the weekend where they were having the Turkish festival so Brooklyn and I enjoyed some baklava, which was fresh & delic and some ice cream from the little ice cream place in the market!

After the market, Brooklyn and I went for a walk downtown, this is us just by the fork of the thames. I love downtown!

Last weekend, we went out to celebrate Warren's 27th birthday. We went to this new place Milo's Craft Beer emporium, and surprised him since he didn't know that all his friends were going to be there. It was a great place because everything that is served there is local food and is not your usual, boring chicken, burger, salad kinda place. I had a chickpea burger and Aleksy had the duck. The beer selection was good too, lots of local beers available, I liked the raspberry flavoured one the best!

Chels and I are at Winks here with our beverages. After Milo's, we headed over and finished off the night at Winks... my first time at Winks ever! We left about 2am... had some awesome greasy Stobies pizza and shared a cab home! It's been forever since we've had a late night downtown like that!

On Saturday morning, Aleksy and I had an appointment downtown with Museum (for the wedding bookings!) and after we headed to the Dundas Steet Party. We bought potentially the best homemade coffee cake at a vendor on the street and found a stand with a couple of guys who make bow ties: Mac & Jo, I think the name was. Aleksy bought a bow tie for our engagement party, and took their card so he can consider them to make the ties for his groomsmen for the wedding!

They also do photography and their pictures were great... something to consider!

Later on Saturday, we went over to Mom & Paul's to celebrate Paul's birthday. Paul bbq'ed up some hamburgers, and there was lots of snacks that everyone bought to enjoy as well! I particularly enjoyed the cake and the gigantic chocolate chip cookie (that Rachel is eating a piece of here).

On Sunday of last weekend, we had a busy day with lots of driving to different cities! Here Nikki and I are at Maiko and Kaileigh's baptism celebration. Those little kids are just amazing and looked pretty spiffy o this day with Maiko's little tux and Kailegh's white dress!
Oh, and the food.. (clearly I really like food) was amazing... homemade spring rolls, pulled pork, chicken, and amazing cupcakes and squares made by Tabi (which means extra delic!).

After leaving the baptism celebration which was in Kitchener, we headed to Brantford to watch my little niece Emma's dance recital! She looked so cute in her little outfit, and watching her group was amazing!! Emma was very clever and watched the actions of her teacher to make sure she was doing what she was supposed to. She was not shy of the crowd at all!

On Tuesday this week, we had a play date with the little Brown girls! Andzelika and Paul are away on vacation in Italy, so we made arrangements to spend time with the girls for a couple of the days that they are gone. Just Aleksy and I had the girls on Tuesday.
After a McDonalds supper stop where the girls played in playworld, but mostly enjoyed rolling on the floor, we headed to Springbank park!

As you can see the girls had the time of their life...

 After the park, we took the girls for some ice cream at the little ice cream stand in Lambeth that served delicious London Ice Cream Company ice cream. Clearly I had happy birthday (yum!), and the girls had these little cups filled with Cotton Candy, and cherry. And they surprised me and ate every last little bit. Didn't leave anything! They sure love their ice cream...

And today, Brooklyn and I had our fishing day in Dorchester, and we caught 2 fish! So... it may have been a stocked pond where you are guaranteed to catch something, but you know, the whole casting and reeling thing takes practice and at least our skills were suffice to catch fish. Well, Brooklyn caught the 2 fish... I just took my picture with hers!

This was our second time going to this little place in Dorchester where the sportsmans club put on an event for Big Bros and Sisters with a day of fishing and bbq for lunch. After some burgers & hotdogs, we headed to the Trails End Market and had some ice cream for dessert.





Lots of summer adventures ahead!

Our Florida Family Vacation: Days 4-7

On Tuesday, we had a stay at home day where we lounged by the pool, had some drinks and swam!

Day 4

This was mine and my sisters dessert for the afternoon: some pina coloda to give the feeling of the tropics! The house that we rented had everything, even a blender!

Just enjoying us some pina coloda and sunshine :)

Aleksy and my Rachel enjoying their pool day. Synchronized jumping! Rachel was in heaven...

On our pool day, we thought it would be the perfect opportunity for a little bbq for supper. Here's Aleksy and Matt grillin up some meat!

My Brandon enjoying all the floaties in the pool... the one that he is sitting in we left with a little bit of a hole in it... I guess it wasn't made for adults...

The whole fam, enjoying their pool day... my sister enjoying a little more than everyone else!!












Day 5

Was our day trip to Magic Kingdom. I was so excited about this day to see Rachel's reaction as she saw the castle for the first time.

After leaving just after lunch time (around 1pm), we arrived around 1:30pm. We chose to go a little later to make he fireworks in the evening, which started at 9pm. We didn't see them the last time we were in Florda in 2008, so we had to see them this time! Here's all of us on the way into the park from the parking lot!

Aleksy and I bought our tickets into Magic Kingdom  (at about $90 per person), and when we got our cards into the park, we got Minnie and Mickey! So cute!

This is not just a picture of a toilet bowl... that would be weird. Do you see the little lizard?? I went to go to the washroom when entering the park, and couldn't use this stall because of this little guy.

The whole family just entering the park with the castle in the background! Not many full family photos (which require a strangers assistance), but this one sure is a goody!

Rachel up close and personal to the castle. She was so excited!

Aleksy and I on the buzz lightyear ride. This was a picture we took of the pictures at the end of the ride that they sell you for an incredibly overpriced cost. Just as good, and much cheaper!

This is the ride where you shoot the targets for points. I am not sure if the scores tallied are correct, because I killed Aleksy, but this is much more up Aleksy's alley of expertise...

 Rachel was very excited about the Dumbo ride and we discovered that there was a whole carnival section that we missed the last time we were in Disney!

I went on this one with my sis!

Another picture of the picture at the end of the ride. This was the Splash Mountain ride, which was the demise of my Dad's hat :(
This picture as the last that we will see of that London Knights hat.. it took a little trip somewhere in Splash Mountain heaven....

On another note, this is one of my fav's at Magic Kingdom!

Once Aleksy saw someone with a turkey leg, I knew there would be no other options for supper. Aleksy sure loves his smoked turkey legs. These bad boys were tasty, but they were not quite as good as those from the Ilderton fair... and about double the price at about $12 a piece!

Some siblings, a cute niece & nephew and I just about to enter adventureland! Toward the end of the day, getting ready to get in front of the castle for fireworks!

When we went to Magic Kingdom in 2008, we didn't go to the fireworks at nighttime, so this time we made damn sure that we saw it. And what a show they put on. I'm telling you... Disney does everything up.

This whole projected show + fireworks was so entertaining. Rachel was enthralled the whole time!










Day 6

Thursday was our shopping day!! We hit the stores that day with my sister, Kenny, and the kids.

We quickly learned that having Rachel walk through all the stores was going to be exhausting for her, so this little fire truck was the best $7 my sister and Kenny ever spent!!

This allowed for Rachel to sit in comfort, while being entertained since she's driving a fire truck so we could get down to business and shop!

Orlando has 2 premium outlets for all your shopping needs: we went to both!

Aleksy and I got some good purchases like lulu pants, levis jeans.

And Rachel's best purchase of the day: a batman costume. All the other kids were very excited to see batman in the firetruck as they were shopping with their parents "there's batman"... that's my Rachel!












Day 7

Friday was our last day in Florida to soak up as much sun as we could, and go out for some supper (we managed to eat at the house for the entire week with the exception of eating at the parks and Joes Crab Shack on Monday!).

Aleksy and I enjoying some of the last drinks by the pool: beer and pina colodas!

Floaties were a big hit on Friday: everyone was lounging on the "beds" as Rachel called them. But... we could only lounge on the colour that Rachel assigned to us... she's too cute!

This is the deliciousness that was had at supper. I look at this and wish I had wayyy more room in my stomach at that time so I could have devoured more. This was rice, potato, white fish, and delectable portuguese seasoning.

We chose this little Portuguese restaurant in Orlando to eat at on our last day, which we wouldn't have known about if it wasn't for a billboard advertisement that my sister happened to spot.

It was tucked into the corner of a plaza and kind of a challenge to find but so worth going to! The food was amazing here!

All of us enjoying our last supper together in Orlando!

Day 8: on the plane back home to Detroit.

We headed back to Detroit early morning Saturday, had some early morning greasy Burger King breakfast at the Orlando airport the headed on our way.

And Florida 2013 concludes our big travel times until our honeymoon in 2014!