Civic Holiday Weekend

We had a packed weekend for the civic holiday long weekend with lots of summery plans.

On Friday night, we headed to the ribfest in Victoria Park. We didn't go to ribfest last year (or any festival in Vic park), so we wanted to make it to at least one this year and ribfest is usually a good one to hit! We were meeting Chels and Warren there and because they were running a bit behind us and we were hungry, we got some meat skewer starters before our rib suppers from the philippine bbq! So delish... we know our filipino friends make the best bbq, so...

Choosing a rib place is the hardest. There was a man who randomly came up to us to explain that all the ribs came from the same place and the difference was in the sauces. We picked our place based on the combos and the fact that the Silver Bullet had corn bread (we really like our corn bread). I had ribs and pulled pork and Aleksy wanted a bit of all the meats and had ribs, pulled pork, and chicken. We shared the corn bread, beans and coleslaw. I learned my lesson this year that I really cant eat a full dinner to myself and we'd be better off to share and save $20! It cost us about $45 for everything and we had meat to bring home!

One of the best kiosks at the ribfest was the sweet baby rays one. Free stuff is always the best and they had a wheel where you could spin to win either full bottles of sweet baby rays or little sample cups. I initially won a bottle by spinning the wheel, then at the end of the night when they were shutting down, they were getting rid of all the full bottles so we both scored 2 bottles each!!

On Saturday, Aleksy and I were bound and determined to have a beach day. We didn't go to the beach at all last year with the exception of our separate bachelor/bachelorette parties so we couldn't miss this year! We packed up our picnic lunch and headed to Ipperwash on Saturday... we got there around 1pm and had a couple hours of good, sunny beach time.

We noticed that Ipperwash beach sand space was a lot less than the last time we were there (I think that was 2 years ago!). The tide left minimal space for sand and you can see that that left us really close to the people beside us.

Beach sandwiches always are tastier than home sandwiches! This is Aleksy having his mea sandwich while I stuck with good ol PB and J because I am supposed to avoid cold cuts and I already had cold cuts twice in the week!

<--- pregnant beaching... my tummy's so big! Only 2 months to go!


After a couple hours of sitting on the beach and awkwardly tying to lay on the beach (which I gave up on and decided pregnant ladies are only meant to sit at the beach), we got a couple pregnant beach pictures in, then it became super windy and rainy. The sunny weather only lasted about 2 hours. We tried to hold off but when I got the goosebumps, it was no longer enjoyable and it was time to leave... and go for ice cream! We went right over to our regular ice cream spot at Ipperwash then headed home and had BBQ for supper and watched a movie (it was the True Story movie with Jonah Hill and James Franco).

On Sunday, we headed to Stoney Creek for an overnight date with our friends at their new place! Their backyard set up is amazing for a summer night. We spent Sunday evening in the backyard having BBQ for supper and a campfire (with smores... needless to say). This is the hammock in the backyard, which the girls were swinging on.

Cadence loves hanging out with the big girls, Serena and Natalia!

Our plan for Monday was to go out on a day adventure to either the reptile zoo in Hamilton or the African Lion Safari. We chose the Reptile zoo because it was a bit cloudy that morning and because of the savings! Andzelika had 2 for 1 admission coupons for everyone, which meant we only paid $14 with taxes to get in.

It was definitely worth while. First, we went around and looked at all the snakes, geckos, and other reptiles around the zoo. They also have an alligator and a crocodile. Then we went to a show where this lady took out a few of the reptiles, told us about them and let us touch them!

Here's Serena, Natalia, Cadence, and Chels touching one of the reptiles (I don't remember what he was... but I remember his name was Freud).

Everyone sitting round during the show... except Warren and Cadence who were taking a break because a 1 years old's attention span is not too long.... plus it was super sweaty hot inside the reptile zoo!

Contrary to me, Aleksy was more apprehensive to touch the snakes and reptiles. In real life, I scream and run really fast from gardener snakes that are on our lawn (this indeed happened last week), but when they are contained like this, I am totally game to touch anything.

You can see Aleksy really enjoyed touching the massive snake (which the lady pulled out of a big plastic tote with clasps... weird)... I also had to convince him to touch it.

After the reptile zoo, we headed back to London... it was a pretty jam packed, fun long weekend!