BIRTHDAY SURPRISE VACATION!

Ian thought all of his birthday surprises were done after the surprise party with his family but they definitely weren't! I made sure Ian had gotten time off work on his actual birthday so that I could take him to Tobermory for a mini vacation.  It seems like everyone on facebook is going to Tobermory and with the pictures I've seen, we had to see it for ourselves!
According to Google Maps, the drive should have taken 4 hours. Challenge accepted! I made it in about 3 hours 40 minutes and beat google! We stayed at Big Tub Resort and I honestly didn't expect much from their website, but we were very surprised and will definitely be staying there next time we go. Two minutes away from the resort was a lighthouse that we were told to go see and since we didn't have plans to see the Grotto until the next day, we checked out the lighthouse and fell in love! The lighthouse was so cute, there were wild orchids everywhere, and the water was unbelievably clear!

 I kept telling Ian that I felt like I was in the real life Little Mermaid movie!

The only thing that made me incredibly nervous during our time at the lighthouse (or pretty much anywhere we went) were the signs warning you of the wildlife:

To say that I am afraid of snakes would be the understatement of the century! If given the choice between seeing a snake for 1 minute from a distance and only eating broccoli for a week, I would choose the broccoli without question!

After our time in town, we came back to the lighthouse to take in the views and I had brought my marinera skirt, so I got Ian to take some shots of me and I edited them and I LOVE what Ian got!

And we can't forget the most handsome birthday boy ever!

Here's the vlog for our first day on the surprise vacation!

For our second, and last day in Tobermory, I only wanted to go to the Grotto. It was a huge part of why I chose to come and I couldn't wait to jump into the cave and swim! Well, that didn't happen. Watch our day 2 vlog for the whole story, but we ended up coming back to the lighthouse to swim, which was really fun!

Since I love pink, I made sure I had my souvenir (there's water in that can, not pop)

We took a canoe trip where Ian did most of the work (thanks babe!)

Then it was time for swimming in the lake that was 13 degrees Celsius!! 

It took a while to get into the water, but I eventually got my picture on the Little Mermaid rock (yup, I named it!)

Here's our vlog for the last day of our trip!:

Bluewater Beach!

This weekend, we celebrated my dad's birthday! We've gone to the beach every single year for his birthday, but this year, we went to a new beach that I found on google! I don't think we have ever been in water that cold ever! 

We got there and were really excited to go swimming, but there was absolutely no way I was staying in the water for more than 10 minutes! 

The main problem with this beach was that there was absolutely no parking anywhere! It was a private beach (google left that part out) but my dad somehow made it work (dad to the rescue!).  

There were NO clouds in the sky and it looked beautiful!!

We eventually sucked it up and got into the water where Ian thought I was taking too long to get in. Before I knew it, he had picked me up and thrown me in to the ice lake!

When we got out, someone went straight to his phone to watch videos...so much for enjoying the view! 

I joined the cell phone party too :p

Turns out we got a little too comfy, and we fell asleep... In the sun... Without sunscreen. 

We left the beach with a really bad burn, but it was fun and my dad really enjoyed himself!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!!

Here's the vlog for our day at Bluewater Beach!

Our date in Toronto, Alberta!

Tourism Alberta took over the Toronto Harbour Front for the long weekend and I couldn't be more excited! I would LOVE to go to Calgary on vacation but since that might not happen anytime soon, they came to us and we made a date of it. We parked at City Hall and were about to walk to the Harbour but it was kinda chilly and Mr.All-Canadian was in shorts, flip flops, and a shirt so we stopped at Abercrombie for a hoodie (I was a little chilly too and wanted to warm up). After warming up and not finding a hoodie that he liked, we headed out to Harbour Front because Ian swore he wasn't cold (definitely saw him shiver a few times). Turns out Toronto, Alberta wasn't expecting a lot of people because by the time we got there (1 hour after it started) they had run out of some freebies (these really cute cowboy hats and Alberta food samples). We got to do this thing called Occulus which was a giant pair of goggles that put right in Alberta's landscape which made me want to go even more!

From there we headed right to the contest booth to enter to win a trip to Alberta for the Stampede (i hope we win!)

So I am really scared of horses and I know it wasn't a real horse but it still freaked me out so Ian stood in alone for a picture:  

But then a Calgary cowboy dude came over and insisted on a picture with the both of us:

And I had a mini panic attack right after:

Since that was it for the Calgary thing, we went over to the Circus event going on for the kids on the next stage over. We made it just in time for a Canadian Hockey Circus that I really didn't want to stay for, but my Canadian hubby loves hockey so much, we stayed for the whole show!

Ian was louder than all the kids there and was more excited than them too so the performer definitely noticed him!

Ian became part of his show by giving him a hockey stick (at the same time I started moving away from the crazy grown up with the hockey stick...)

And then he got up on stage...

 The trick was that the two guys lied down and the hockey guy walked over them in a handstand...

 Someone was SO happy he got picked:

 This was his grand finale: he balanced in his skates ontop of a hockey net while juggling flaming hockey sticks. It was really cool!

While we were at Harbour Front, we got a text from my aunt with pictures of my cousin Giovanni's graduation from medical school! So we sent him this:

My favourite place in the city and my favourite person in the world:

 I get really happy when I see boats:

 I could spend all day sitting at Harbour Front just watching the boats:

From Harbour Front, we stopped by the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. I had always wanted to try it and it was SO pretty inside! Very vintage and I absolutely loved it although I spent the whole time sitting next to this super creepy photo:

We both ordered spaghetti (obviously) and I couldn't finish mine so Ian had to step in and finish both bowls of pasta

After one and a half bowls of pasta, Ian was ready for a nap :p

Our dinner came with a scoop of ice cream which was SO yummy!

I really hope we win the trip to Calgary, but this was a fun Alberta tester for us!

Saddest Day of the Trip

On our last day of our vacation, we got a wake up call from my mom in Toronto telling me about the crazy ice storm that was probably going to delay our flight which totally was not great news to wake up to.  As most moms are, she was right and our flight was delayed one hour. This gave us more leisure time to get ready, but we still had no idea how bad the roads would be in Utah. I knew we had fun, but I had no idea how much I would miss my family in Utah until we said bye and started driving.  LOTS of tears were involved for most of our 5 hour drive back to Vegas. We made it to St. George where we walked around the temple grounds and absolutely loved the small town! It was SO cute!!!!!!

Our flight ended up getting A LOT more delayed once we got to Vegas and it got to the point where I really just wanted it to be cancelled so we could go back to Utah. Well nothing was cancelled but we were extremely delayed and made it to Toronto at around 5am. I missed my parents but I really wish we had family here in Toronto.