September date day and thanksgiving recap

Yep, you read that right. We had our October date before our September date even happened lol.

This weekend was filled with fun.

Friday morning we woke up and everyone got ready. We met with our photographer at the Arboretum/Experimental Farms/Ornamental Gardens and proceeded to take 2 hours of pictures (family, me and Garett, Ty and Garett, and just Garett). I cannot wait to see all th great shots we got! She has 7 shoots to touch up before ours, but she has promised some teasers soon--with the whole set taking about 4 weeks.

We headed out--and Garett was toast!

We had to stop by a job site for Ty to check on the guys, so Garett and I hung out in the truck for 25 mins singing and clapping and he took some pics when I was just trying to show him us in the camera. I was hoping that he knew what he was doing and did this on purpose, but I think it was a fluke he took the pics...either way, it was cute.

We grabbed some lunch and headed home to relax and finish our day with some kind of the regular routine!

Saturday morning we were up bright and early packing for us and Garett --he decided to sleep in, so this made the packing of him very last minute lol. My parents came and picked up the boy so we could have our date night overnight. 

First, we met up with our tour guide for the C'est Bon Cooking A Taste of the Lowertown Market Food Tour. O-M-G. For us aspiring/blooming foodies , this was just the thing we needed. Ty may have even had more fun than me, and we are looking to book a spot on the rest. Luckily, it was a private tour for us--no one else came along. I must say, I am happy. There was so much info and small stores and stuff that e stopped into , that a crowd would have been annoying.

Here's where we went:

Le Boulanger Francais--tried one of their homemade old school butter croissants- yum! 

Byward Fruit Market --we learned a lot here--like how the different colours on the vendors signs indicate the amount of produce they ship in vs grow themselves, etc. we tried a few things at different booths--some fresh picked that day cherry tomatoes from Vars (up the road from my house), some apple butter and fresh apple cider from Halls apple orchard in my hometown of Brockville, etc

Canada in a Basket--a little boutique in the byward market building (which I did NOT know about this gem). We sampled some crackers with a variety of specialty spreads--some mustard (not my fave), a caramalized onion spread (yum) and a roasted red pepper spread which I loved because it was so spicy!

The House of Cheese--this place smelled funky because some broad was shopping for some seriously potent blue cheese...but the prices here are wild and they have over 300 types off cheese. We sampled a hard white made with buffalo milk. Then we tried it with a blueberry ice wine reduction...oh my word. I died. Then I went to heaven. With every single chew.

La Bottega Nicastro-- we stopped outside first to talk to this crazy Italian roasting chestnuts. He told us the story how back in the home country (Italy) a man was to take a hot roasted chestnut, peel off the shell, feed it to his lady and they both make a wish. Fun--but the taste was pretty bland...like bread but a weird texture and hard to swallow. 

Then we went inside and tried fresh Parmesan right off a 100lb wheel, then tried it with rose petal jelly-yum!. We also saw a $200 bottle of balsamic vinegar...wtf, lol

Maple Country Sugar Bush-- sampled a light variety....I did not know maple syrup is classified into three shades. Depending how long it is left in the tree. Also, it has actual health benefits--significantly better for you than honey and contains riboflavin, calcium, etc. it is also ok for diabetics! Very cool. We bought a few more jars lol

Sante --the restaurant attached to the Holtz Spa where Ty bought me my spa package. We found out its a Thai fusion restaurant, founded 25 years ago. We sampled a curry chicken kebab with a peanut sauce ...very yummy!

Sasloves Meat Market-- we didn't sample anything here but they have the biggest selection of sausage/ meats in town. Lots of meat. Made me feel hungry! Lol

Shafali's Bazaar-- watched naan bread get made fresh and they cooked us one--never had it hot right out if the clay oven before-yum!

Stubbe Chocolates-- the smell of this place is intoxicating. Run by the cutest old German man ever. Oldest established company in the country. W watched some chocolates get made and sampled a smoked cocoa bean dipped in chocolate--yum. And he gave us a few samples to take because he liked me :) I want to work here.

Los Taos de Mauro-- a Mexican restaurant that is discotheque at night LOL. Legit Mexican food--we had pork tacos (Ty had lamb). Did not know cheese on Tacos was an American thing--all they use is two spicy sauces (holy, burn my tongue off), chopped onion and fresh squeezed lime--good, but I could handle less spice. He gave us Mexican lime soda, which I couldn't taste because my face was melting .

Health food store I forget the name of--we tried a disgusting lime, chili and sweet potato salad and got free huge bags of granola. 

Ps: did you know there was a horse stable with miniature ponies for kids to ride?!? So cool. Also. We saw a 968 lb pumpkin!

Anyways, that wraps up the tour !

After, we walked to the Highlander for a quick snack since we weren't very hungry, and rewarded 3 hours of walking with a cold beer on the patio.

After lunch, we grabbed the car and went to check into the Hotel Indigo--a funky Boutique hotel, with comfy beds and edgy decor.

Outside the rooms (hall) is an open atrium where you can see down into the lobby --very cool, but I was scared so I held my phone way out and snapped a pic,

We got refreshed with a shower and napped for a bit before heading out to dinner. We settled on Al's Steakhouse--we went before and loved it, and we were in the mood for a 4 course, nice dinner with some nice wine. We were seated in a little nook by the window and the waitress thought it was so cute how we cuddled into each other while we waited for our food lol

On the way it, we admired the wall of celebs that had visited. These are just a few--it's a huge wall!

After dinner, we went and hung out at Woodys Urban Pub for a drink and then left up the road to Lieutenants Pub. We had a few good friends out for a bit, then grabbed a late night snack at Elgin Street Diner (yum) and went back to the hotel to bed !

We slept n until 9 and lounge until 10! That was nice to do :)

We had a bit of an ordeal when we checked out--we were in the system as a "no show" lolol...they fixed it...

Funny thing...this hotel is right across from my work building lol...I don't work at the library for those that don't know me...I work a a federal government agency that is in there too :)

We headed out after checking out, stopped for gas and Tim's and headed to Cornwall.

We had a nice family dinner/visit before we decided to head out so G could grab a nap. This was the first time he used his big boy 3-in- 1 carseat...he's growing so fast :( 

Once we got home, I had a nice bath and the found Tyler's wedding ring he has lost for months now!!

I reached over to turn on a light and I saw it glisten between the box spring and bed!!! Lucky!

Now eating some leftovers and relaxing while Ty watches the game and Garett sleeps !

Hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving filled with family, love, laughter and delicious food! I know we did :) enjoy the Monday holiday!