Toronto Trip

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We go up to Toronto every few years and always have such a great time!  We were so excited to bring the kids and they did great! It did rain pretty much the whole weekend, but we still made the best of it.  We tried to get photos, but it’s not easy with two littles and living in the moment.  Memories were made and that was the most important!

We left on Thursday afternoon and made it to about 40 minutes outside of the city before we were all starving.  We stopped at a Japanese restaurant and ordered sushi and noodles.

We arrived at the hotel a little after 8 and the kids were blown away at how beautiful it was.

Our view from one of the windows.

The first thing I did was slip on that amazing Ritz Carlton robe and made myself some tea!

Brooke loved the robes too!!

Bradley took this photo!

I took a video and some blurry photos of the kids enjoying some warm cookies and milk delivered for them!

The man who delivered them told the kids to dunk them in the milk.  They loved it!

Friday morning I scheduled a Hydrafacial (another post coming on that!) so hubby ran and got me a quick Starbucks breakfast and of course a Matcha Latte–Canadian soy milk tastes so different! This drink is not sweet at all up here.  I still loved it.  I also took a few minutes to work on my coaching!

Although it rained, the kids and Joe had a ball exploring a bit!

The kids could see the CN tower out of their side of the suite which was pretty cool.

Joe ordered an Uber and the kids had their first experience riding in one.  They found a really yummy breakfast place (so good we went back all together on Saturday!)

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Mama was still hungry since I didn’t eat anything for lunch, so we walked the wind and rain to this little restaurant/bar Gabby’s.  I had a yummy goat cheese salad and Joe loved their wings.

Bradley is really getting into his selfies haha!

After our mini walk in the rain, we came back to chill in the hotel until our dinner.  I stopped at the hotel bar and grabbed a glass of delicious rosé, threw on my robe and relaxed in bed. It was glorious!

We put on our fancy clothes and I was determined to get a family photo of the kiddos looking so adorable.  The hotel had this beautiful Easter egg display that the kids loved.  We were heading to dinner at East Thirty-Six.

I mean, come on!! I know I made them, but how cute?!

Always let them take a silly photo too!

They’re something else.

Saturday we went back to Cafe Landwer so that I could experience it!

The kids had pizza and it was really really good!

I went with an Eggs Benny Florentine—yum!

Nutella Hot Chocolate = bomb!

The boys had homemade vanilla ice cream

The kids & Joe loved the daily candy bar!

My little shopping spree at the mall consisted of a fun new black coat, sunnies, earrings and some skincare products. After shopping we did go swimming in the pool.  Brooke loved it but Bradley wasn’t a huge fan…hoping to change that by the next vacation!

Brookie and the CN tower.

For dinner Saturday night we returned to Rodney’s.  This place RUINED us for oysters the last time we were in Toronto!  They were so fresh and never once do you get a shell.

We were proud that the kids at some butter noodles with scallops.

Joe enjoyed a Bloody Mary and a lobster roll. I had some really tasty Thai seafood soup.

On the walk back, Bradley cried because he wanted to Uber (LOL!) and we stopped so they could get a little mango ice cream which helped ease the crying a bit.

Sunday was Easter morning and the bunny sent Joe a photo text saying he hid the baskets at home, but the kids had a few eggs and some ears in the hotel waiting for them.

We went to Fran’s for breakfast–it’s right by the mall and super tasty!

Little rabbit ready for the ride home.

Once we got home they found their goodies and played a bit, before we hit up a restaurant for a quick dinner.

We didn’t end up at the Aquarium or the CN Tower, mostly because we didn’t have a ton of time up there, we wanted to relax a bit and enjoy our hotel, and it takes a long time to eat out at restaurants! We figured we will return again soon (maybe later this Summer or early Fall?!)

Overall it was just so nice to escape the everyday life, not have to cook every day, and most importantly spend some great quality time with just us four. Brooke and Bradley both loved the big city, the different foods, the fancy dinners and hotel.  We can’t wait to explore many more places with them.

Quick Hello

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I hope all of you had a lovely Easter weekend! We spent our up north in Canada! I’ll do a bit of a recap later on, but I wanted to at least say hello!

It was a bit of a rainy weekend, but we had so much fun dining out eating some amazing foods, did some shopping, family time and enjoyed being all together.

I’m staring at an incredibly messy home, and I have thousands of things on my to do list, but thanks to my life coaching, I’m just b-r-e-a-t-h-i-n-g in the chaos and doing all things in a calm manner.  It’s funny how just a quick jaunt away can reset the mind, body, and soul.

If you too are feeling overwhelmed, just take a few minutes to pause and breathe.  It will all get done, everything will be okay and life will go on.

Namaste.

Fun Facts Friday

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I figured I would just blog a quickie today!! I may have some newer readers around here so I wanted to share some fun facts about moi.

 

  • I’m the oldest of 3 girls
  • I went to a state college for my teaching degree
  • I taught English (grades 7-11 throughout 8 years) and loved it.
  • I met my husband on Match.com and MySpace in 2007 and we actually met and began dating in 2008.
  • We went on a cruise only after knowing each other a month!
  • We bought our first “fixer upper” in 2008.
  • We got married 7.10.10
  • Joe and I honeymooned in Amsterdam, Paris & Rome.
  • We now own 10 properties, plus our home and 20 acres of land to build on.
  • When I no longer wanted to teach, I became a stay at home wife.
  • After trying to conceive since August 2010, we were blessed with our first born on January 11, 2013.
  • She was the perfect baby ringing in 8 lbs 6 ounces!
  • I gained over 70 lbs during pregnancy
  • I became healthier and in better shape than before I got prego (thank you AdvoCare!)
  • 2 years and 6 days later, we welcomed our son into the world at 8 lbs 14 ounces.
  • It was shortly after baby boy that I realized how involved I had to become in our real estate. (All the paperwork!)
  • In 2017 we upped our real estate game and decided to offer rent to own homes.
  • I enjoy cooking gourmet meals.
  • I have no desire to go back to teaching.
  • I want to write multiple books.
  • My favorite color is pink.
  • I prefer cheese pizza over any other kind.
  • I hate sweet wine.
  • I’m obsessed with the moon phases.
  • We will own a lake house one day!
  • I used to hate working out but I really have grown to love it.
  • I kill all plants.
  • My body does best when I eat clean real whole food.
  • Traveling is one my favorite things to do.
  • Reading and writing help me process thoughts so much.
  • Dancing makes my soul feel soul good.
  • I can be shy but I’m pretty funny and outgoing once you get to know me.

Any questions? Ask me anything!

Happy Friday friends!

Weekend

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Happy Monday! Both kiddos are off this week and I am not bad about it! Our dog has also gone to “puppy training school” so that is an added bonus around these (quiet) parts.

Friday was GORGEOUS! It was the first day where it truly felt like Spring.  It was sunny, warmer and not too terribly windy.  It did rain later at the bus stop, but we soaked up every moment of enjoying the nice weather until then.

I hit up the gym for a 9:15 Zumba class and it felt so great to move and shake.

We checked out this delicious taco joint in the city and holy guacamole it is a MUST do! I honestly love Fridays with my guys.

I tried the get the ‘cleanest’ thing on the menu, which was the Becca bowl.  It was loaded with veggies, lettuce, some rice, pico de gallo, beans, and I got both the baja fish and the shrimp to try.  Joe and Bradley ended up eating my fish, but it was a HUGE portion and so very tasty!

We took a little drive to look at houses and then ended up on a few walks around downtown.  High Falls is pretty cool looking from this pedestrian bridge.

It gets rather windy out on the bridge, but we got to see a train go by too so it made this dude’s day!

 

We were making the “Dino” roar noise here…haha!

 

We also took a quick walk down on the river.

Friday evening we ordered sushi via Grub Hub, booked our SUMMER VACATION plans wooo!!  The kids had a “picnic” dinner in the living room and it was very chill.

Saturday morning I hit up the gym for a quick sweat sesh.  I tried this new coconut water electrolyte drink.  It was pretty tasty!  I am usually not a fan of coconut water, but I enjoyed it.

Saturday night we had a fast dinner at The Rev, as we had plans to see a comedian at 7:30.  Cheers to the good life and all our big plans!

Tammy was HILARIOUS and my stomach is still a bit sore from laughing so hard!

After the comedy show we stopped by Radio Social next door.  There’s a bowling alley and some fun games to play.  The boys had quite the Jenga game going!  It was nice to get out and have some fun.

Sunday was rather uneventful, other than Joe dropping off Bailey at the trainer’s.  I whipped up a quick dinner with some ground venison. I kind of just googled “pasta bake” and added whatever I had left in the fridge. Result?  We loved it! The kids don’t seem to love pasta mixed with sauce and meat, but they did eat it.  I added cheese and pepperoni on top and call it “pizza pasta” in hopes they eat it haha.

After dinner the boys played legos and Brooke read her Kinder take home book to us.  After the kiddos went to bed, we wanted to watch a movie. (Note, we are the 1% who has never seen Game of Thrones!) We ended up with Wolf of Wallstreet, ya know because we have not seen it 50x already…but it’s all good because, you know, #leo.

It’s a chilly 39 today, overcast and rainy.  I guess it will warm up later in the week though!  I have some plans of working on my Life Coaching (more coming on that soon!) and spending some QT with the kids and I plan on hitting the gym later on.  Are you on Spring break? What are your fun plans?

Toronto: Must See & Do

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We may have booked a little family getaway!! We are so excited to take the kids up north to one of our favorite cities.  We will be staying right by the CN Tower and the Aquarium, but what else is fun for little ones?  I am sure we will spend some time at the pool for sure!

The last time we were up here, we celebrated Joe’s 40th birthday. 

We most likely will be hitting up Rodney’s Oyster House once again– best oysters ever!

The kiddos will get their own area on a pull out couch, so we will have plenty of room for all four of us.

3 years ago we were up in Toronto in May and had a ball.  We could not for the life of us find this amazing restaurant–we must have walked by it a dozen times before we saw it.

Lunch over in the ‘fancy’ area … Bloor/Yorkville.

I know it won’t be quite this warm, but we are hoping for some warmer weather for sure!

We did travel up here with Brookie back in August of 2013; it was tricky with a stroller and her being a baby, but still was fun! She was great until our last nice dinner…she wanted nothing to do with it!

It will be about a 2.5/3 hour drive so that shouldn’t be that bad with the kids.  They will be totally fine I am sure.  Once we are there, we can’t wait wait to take them to some nice restaurants, do a little shopping and certainly some site seeing.  We’ve started experimenting and taking them to ‘fancier’ restaurants around here and they’ve been doing really well!  They’re starting to not eat off the ‘kids menu’ (aka chicken tenders/pizza/hot dogs) and boy do they sure love a good steak!

Most of all, I look forward to making memories!  It’s been awhile since the 4 of us packed up and traveled.  There’s something refreshing getting out of the house, seeing all walks of life, experiencing different cultures and living.  We will be sure to take tons of photos and videos to share!