WARNING - LONGEST POST EVER.

 Before I get into the details of my weekend, I just wanted to ramble a bit. I've had very few girls weekends in my life. Not that I didn't have friends, I have a bunch of different groups, but having kids so early really limited how many of these weekends I could have as an adult. I also find as a young adult you still hang out with people who don't neccessairly make you happy or bring out the best in you. Hanging out with these people is mainly because you were friends in high school or some sense of weird loyalty that's misplaced. As I'm entering the phase of my 'late 30's' I'm realizing what it's like to chose my friends and I love this. Tanya posted a meme the other day that said:

 LIFE HACK:  you literally do not have to be friends with people you don't like.

This is so true! I'm too old and tired for forcing friendships that make me feel bad about myself. I'm too old for gossip, and drama. So those I don't like, I chose not to be their friend.  The end. But now I've chosen who I talk too and I love all my girl tribes. I feel so lucky to have people I truly love at work and that I'm super proud to call my friends. (it's a good thing cause I see them every day) I'm including Tanya in this too cause I work with her.  And my Fit Fam/Booty camp girls - I cannot say enough about them. Today I went to boot camp, and we all just chatted for an hour instead working out because some of us were having a hard day/week and we just need to do that. And then finally my blog tribe. We all chose to travel (some really far) to spend the weekend with each other and I love that. No drama, no BS, just grown ass women building each other up. Eating poutine, and drinking beer. Makes my heart full.

 Anyways - enough of me carrying on - this post is long enough:

Here's what we did in Toronto


Thursday

Shaunacey picked me up around 4:30pm, me armed with personalized cookies, her with butter tarts - and we were off. Normally would have taken about 1hour 10 minutes to get down there, but it was rush hour so it was just over 2 hours I would say door to door. I was in good company so I didn't mind. We chatted the entire way about random shit, and I tried to get as many swear words out of my system before I was on my best behaviour.

When we arrived at the Grand I was so excited and SOOOO nervous. Lisa & Andrea were waiting in the lobby for us and nerves went away but adrenaline stepped in. They looked exactly like I thought they would. Shaun and I were hot messes (me more than her) after our lengthy car ride so once we got to our room we quickly freshened up. Once downstairs the selfies started right away. One of the biggest joys of this entire week was we were all the same. We documented everything and no one judged. When food came out, so did all of the phones. It was hilarious.









The rest of the night people trickled in. Whitney who drove 5 hours from somewhere south west (I mix up her state with Alisons). And then Alison, Sarah and Katie came in. Lastly Deena & Christy (Lana's flight was delayed) and we all ate hamburgers and chatted away. All of our first drinks were on Andrea's Husband (thanks Mr. Nine!!) and Andrea and I were twinning with our Pink fizzy drinks. I think somoene else may have ordered this drink too, Sarah maybe? I later on Alison and I drank rose, but we capped it at 2 drinks that evening. ( I secretly think Alison would be a fun drinking partner....next year we'll see:) )



Friday.

We got up at the crack of dawn. I was a bit worried about how 3 women were going to get ready in the same space that quickly but we made it work! And shared make up. I also learned the skill of curling my hair while only seeing myself in the reflection of the microwave. #lifehack you're welcome. Also Shaun, Sarah & I were late every morning except the last one....Not sure what that says about us?

We spent 129830 hours on a bus. Or it felt like that anyways. It was also the day of our first group photo!



I also randomly started a photo series of my eyes, and Deena in the background. I will continue this forever.






Our day in Niagara was well spent - Just a ton of bus ridding. We stopped in Niagara on the lake quickly (and I mean quick) but enough time to get ice cream & coffee's and of course take photos.




Back on the bus we went, and then next stop wine tasting.





I've been on countless wine tastings, and this one was decent. I brought the white home with me, because it was pretty delish. I'm not a fan of ice wine (way too sweet) but others seemed to love it. Of course we got a photo. Which I had to photoshop myself into by merging 2 photos into one.



Next up Niagara Falls! Again, I've been here probably a hundred times. I cannot get sick of it. I bring the kids all the time, and am trying to convince Nick to go in July. But even though I've been here so often, I've never done the Maid of the Mist (or the hornblower now it's called). So I'm glad I lost my falls boat virginity with these ladies. So fun!




We had a lunch overlooking the falls as well, and of course quickly walked Clifton Hill. I basically ate all the foods on the hill. Popcorn, chocolate. peanut butter thingys. I know it's not possible to gain 130 pounds in one weekend, but I'm pretty sure I did.






Whitney and I passed out on the bus on the ride home, but I'm not showing you that photo Alison took because it's terrible. (not her photo taking skills, my mouth wide open sleeping )


Dinner that evening was at El Catrin and OMG - yum. They had me at the decor  - it was very day of dead-ish, and totally me. Give me sugar skulls any day. But the food? UGH so good. Also, word on the street is drinking 3 mango margaritas may give you a buzz and say things like 'Penis Knees' to bunch of strangers. So you've been warned. We also showered Shaunacey with gifts for her baby girl who's due to arrive in October and 3 of us got her the same onesie.






Saturday

The next morning I woke up with a head ache (surprise, surprise) so Shaunacey and I walked to a near by Starbucks. I felt much better after that. After coffee and a good breakfast we got changed and headed out to walk the six.





And I got in one photo:




We walked all over downtown, Kensington Market, Little Portugal, Graffiti Alley, Nathan Philips Square, and then took on the Eaton Centre. We had lunch at the Lakeview and ate poutine, and drank some beer and it was delish. Thanks for splitting a club with me Shaun.

I think we left the hotel at 10am and didn't return again until 10pm.  It was a full day of walking, shopping and talking - I loved every second of it.  We split into two groups at the Mall and half of us went to sit and eat and then shop, and the second half just went straight to shopping. Guess which half I was in? GELATO!! that's where I was.

And then we took the American's to all the Canadian stores. Hello Reitmans, RW&CO etc etc. I also had to go to Sephora because the Chrissy Teigen palette has been sold out at the one in my city since it came out and I need it in my life. AND I GOT IT (oh and the Tarte Pro Palette) and also hit my VIB with Sephora. Pretty exciting stuff.




We did dinner at the Pickle Barrel, and Andrea and I got matching Bellini's - peach of course! Katie had a beer bigger than her, and the other end of the table got desserts I was super jealous of, but literally couldn't fit into my tummy that was already muffin topping over my pants.




After dinner we headed back to the hotel and did one of the coolest things ever. We did the hot tub on the roof. Which had a giant movie screen behind us. This is where Deena set off some sort of alarm, and red lights flashed and I basically thought we were going to die, but nothing happened. It was all very straight out of Lost but no smoke monster came, and the engineer of the group managed to stop the beeping. We chatted like women do (like named our hall pass movie guys (and girls))  and took turns pressing the stupid button (see I told you it was lost, it was every 14 minutes too I swear).



Sunday 

The very very sad day. We got up early for breakfast to say our goodbye's to those who had early flights. We got a group photo in our new tops from Andrea, and then had a very long breakfast basically just chatted. The 7 of us remaining hit the mall again for round two of shopping.  I bought a dress from store I can't pronounce, and a MAC highlighter from Nordstroms. I hit American Girl as well, and a few other stores for the kids. After shopping it was time for Shaun and I to drive home, so we said our final goodbyes (more hugs) and headed home back to Barrie. We were both exhausted and emotionally drained I think. We couldn't even make it all the way home, we had to stop for coffee and donuts to get us there.


' I'm drained from writing this, and I've probably left something out.  But luckily we're all bloggers and have all blogged our take on the weekend so I'm sure between all 11 of us, we've covered it all.

And on that note, I'm off to bed.
Peace.