thanksgiving hike...

on saturday morning, we woke up at my parent's house ready for a nice thanksgiving dinner later on. to pass some time, we decided to go on a hike. hamilton just happens to be the waterfall capital of the word (seriously) and since it had been years since we had been to webster's falls, that's where we decided to go.

after we chose the location, i remembered that that place was the very first hike i ever went on, and dylan was the one to take me. the year was 2006 and we took pictures in front of the falls; when i posted them on facebook, a bunch of people joked that they looked like engagement photos. we found that pretty funny, considering we weren't even officially dating yet.

almost there!

misty rainbows.

since i still have the picture of us in front of the falls hanging in my room at my parent's, i took a picture of it before we left so that we could try to recreate it. we had to wait a bit for people to leave the area, and it took a bit to find the perfect rock to place the phone on without it tipping over, but we got pretty darn close! (and thank you to the iphone 6 finally having a timer!!)

the original - such babies back in november 2006.

october 11, 2014. a little older, a little grayer, but we're still cute ;)

the hike was a perfect start to a weekend of stuffing our faces with mashed potatoes, stuffing, roasted veggies, pies, and more. and now that thanksgiving has passed, it's basically christmastime, right?

a look back...

i was a little bored last night and decided to look through  my 'dig cam' folder on my computer, which houses all 30,000ish pictures or so by year, season, month, and event.

 2007 at halloween haunt.

our first family photo; the night i got chloe :) 2007. so tiny!

 our first nyc visit together. 2008.

 my 21st birthday. 2008.

 camping. 2009.

 stuffed in the back on the way to camping. 2010.

 beach. 2010.

 superman at a hotel. 2008.

2012.

happy weekend! 

haunted remains...

while we were housesitting, we took the dog for a nice trail walk just a short drive away. it was only a 2km loop, but there were plenty of little hills to go up and down that had my legs burning. also, i was in sandals because i tried to pack light and didn't bring runners. of course.

the hermitage. (click for details of what it is and the story behind it)

what remains of it.

such a rebel going behind those bars.

another deer sighting! with the light shining perfectly down on her.

the hermitage is supposedly haunted. if you click on that link up there, it will give you a bit more info. that last time i was here, it was nighttime, i was in grade 11 i think, and i was with 2 other girl friends. stupid us, we forgot flashlights, and we had a little climb until we could get to the house. we met a lady who was with her kid (!! kid, probably 6 or 7), and her friend with another kid the same age. we went up with them because they had light, and all the while you can hear people screaming in the forest and running around. once we got up to the house, she kept telling us to stop talking and laughing because she was trying to take pictures of orbs (of the paranormal interpretation). she was kind of freaking us out. thinking back to it, i (well, i think we all were) was scared sh*tless! in the second picture, there's a huge tree to dylan's left, and supposedly, if you take pictures of it and get them developed, you see an outline of man hanging, because that's where he killed himself. all in all, weird and creepy, but obviously not so bad in the daytime.

me and these 2 friends used to be into finding haunted stuff back in high school, and we even went to this old dilapidated barn one time (and *gasp* trespassed!) to walk around. unfortunately, not too long after that, it was burned down, by suspected arson. 

haunted stuff now at the age of 25? no thanks! i'll pass!

where it started...

after dylan's grad ceremony, we went stopped by the college where we first met (in 2nd year) to see if some of our old profs were in their offices and see what's new. we chatted with 2 of them for about 10 minutes, and gave them the run down of what's been going in the last 5 years.

it was so weird to walk around those hallways again. the hallways where we had our first conversation almost 6 years ago, the lounge where we studied countless hours, and the pub where our group of friends all had snacks and drinks between classes; all memories. 

facebook brings back the memories...

i was looking at my friends old facebook albums last night and came across this...

it was posted on facebook december 6, 2006-assuming it was put on right away, we had been dating about 3 weeks here! ha. so young. i'll spare you the few photos before and after where i stuff a huge clump of nachos in my mouth and the whole thing is documented lol i think that's what sealed the deal for dyl haha a girl that likes food! ;)

also from 2006, july. my 19th birthday. i used to have my tragus pierced, as you can kind of see. i really miss that piercing. i kind of loved it, a lot.

i ended up looking at so many old albums last night. good times and good laughs.

memory lane ..ie embarrassing stories...

i'm not sure what made me think about these stories, but since i remembered them, i thought i would share! i only wish i had pictures on my computer at a younger age..or maybe i'm glad i don't!

1) back when i was a wee one, i was a little chunky. ok, not really, but i had always been really small. then after grade 2, i got a little bigger, got glasses, and got a little odd looking. didn't we all? anyways, maybe a year later, i think i was in grade 3, i was walking in the hallway at school to go to the washroom or something and i passed the teacher i had in grade 2. and what does he say when he sees me? "my you've gotten fat!" O-M-G..i was mortified; who says that!?? to an 8 year old, to a girl, to ANYONE!? he was a older man, probably in his 50's, 60's, who i loved when i had him. but seriously, i will never forget that haha

2) i guess this was a bad age for me because this story also happened around the 7 or 8 year old mark. once again, i was in school and i went to the washroom. so i'm sitting there, you know, doing my business. this girl who was a grade younger than me stood on the toilet next to me and peered over my stall!! as if that's not bad enough, she then says "you're an ugly duckling!" and gets down. wow, thanks, awesome. (how she was able to reach, i have no idea)

3) oh, and i just thought of this one. again, the same age-ish. i think i was around 8 or 9 actually, because i had glasses and i got those when i was 7. anyways, my uncle was getting married and i was a junior bridesmaid. i thought that was pretty awesome and i loved what i got to wear. the dresses were made by some lady so we had to go to her house every few weeks to try the dress on and get fittings etc. well wouldn't you know it, every time i went, the damn dress would be too tight! i was freakin' getting bigger by the weeks! now, at the time i didn't really know this. the adults were nice enough not to be like,"bree, lay of chips, you're in a wedding soon" haha

i think this makes me sound like i was a big kid, i really wasn't. i guess in comparison to now, i definitely looked chubby. it also sounds like i had a traumatic childhood haha i swear i didn't! and now that i think of it, there is ONE picture on my aunt's facebook of me at a young age. it was before my little weight gain stage, the rainbow glasses etc...here goes..

 yep, that's me right there! (blocked out my friend). now, if i were able to look in my mom's photo album, i could tell you exact date and exactly where i was, but no such luck. i'm guessing i'm 5 or 6.
ps. i still have those shorts. and i wear them (to bed occasionally). i'm now embarrassed.

memories in a box

while i'm here at my parents, the house is a disaster. they are painting every room in the house basically, new floors and carpets all over, new furniture and such...it's a hassle. in prep for getting my room done, i was going through all my cupboards and drawers and throwing away all the garbage/crap that i don't want anymore. as i reached my hand to the back of the cupboard, i pulled out this tiny little gift bag. at first i thought it was the bracelet i got my dad when i was a little girl, because it's in an identical bag. but this was something different. i read the little tag on the gift bag handle, and it says "for breanne and diana, don't open until 2005!!" i thought "OMG, no way!"

 so out the bag comes this little trinket box. how cute? i opened it up and there's a tiny piece of paper that says "never be apart, promises" and then we both signed our names. i totally BBM'd her asap and was like "guess what i found!?" needless to say, it's a keeper!

 blocking out our last names, you know, for safety ;) i can't believe this is from 1998! we met when we were 2 years old in gymnastics and have been best friends ever since (going to the same elementary school, high school, and even college for some time), so going on 21 years now, insane!
♥