Victoria Day Long Weekend

In Canada, our May long weekend is called Victoria Day, to celebrate the birthday of the late Queen Victoria.  Most people just use it as a launch to summer, and an excuse to get really drunk.  Since it generally falls near the 24th, it's been re-named May 2-4, to celebrate buying cases of beer.

Thankfully this year, after lots of rainy, gloomy days, it was a beautiful, sunny and hot weekend.  Since this was our first weekend of 'summer' at our new home by the beach, Josh and I decided to stay at home and host some dear friends.  I love sleepovers!

We started out the weekend with s'mores and lots of them! 

 The campfire, of course, came second to cuddling with Steph's newest addition to her family, Lolita Mary Hoppins, who has the floppiest little ears!  

She was so adorable just hopping around the yard, exploring everything it had to offer.  She's only a little baby, at 7 weeks old, and its so so cute.  The best was watching the boys cuddle and coo over her.

Since the winter sand and salt has finally (!) been cleared off the roads around here, the skateboards  came out in full force.  

Darren was stoked on the new bearings for his long board, and the boys were so happy to be able to finally skate again, after a long snowy winter.

Croquet was very popular this weekend.  Games were constantly being played, and everyone learned how to swing the mallet with one hand, so that no one had to set down their beers.  When the cigars came out, the girls just sat back and laughed at the young guys looking like 70 year old men out in the yard.

Frisbee and disc golf also made appearances this weekend.  We decided to take these to the beach for a little fun in the sun.

I love that we live so close to the water.  Our home is at Beach 5, only a couple minute bike ride away!

We are living in a little town which is home to the largest freshwater beach in the world.  During the fall and winter months, it's pretty quiet, but once the May long weekend hits, the tourists start to arrive, boosting the population to almost ten times as many as people (almost 200,000!)

Beach 1 turns into Canada's own Jersey Shore, which is so hilarious to look at that we couldn't resist a little cruise by the boardwalk this weekend.  We took the top of the truck, and went for a little look.

It was Steph's first time in the Yeti (our beast) and the wind wasn't being very kind to her bangs and long hair.  She was getting quite a whipping!  Next truck adventure for her will have to be off roading, with a little mud in the face.  Love when the city friends come up to the country.

One morning began with a grand breakfast of crepes, fruit, whipped cream and bacon (!).

Coffee relaxation on the porch was a must for Steph's Josh (ya, that sometimes gets confusing…Steph and I both are with Josh's).  We also woke up to insane allergies, and when we looked at how much pollen had settled on our cars we quickly realized why.  Sneezes and kleenex were in full force this weekend.

The adventure ended with a final weenie roast over the fire and reminiscing of the time spend on the beach.

It's so great that it's finally nice enough again to spend time outside in the sunshine.  I can't wait to go on new adventures with old friends.  Actually, there's some new friends too, since Darren had a new lady friend, Jess!   Aren't they cute?

Oh, and since you've met a handful of my friends, I guess I should introduce myself too!

 Hi! I'm Reva! You'll meet my husband up next post.

**Wish I had taken a picture of the amazing ice cream that Steph and I treated ourselves to.  I think that we'll have to go back again soon, and feature a little write up about it.  It was that good.
ICE CREAM UPDATE: blogged about here.