disneyland adventures

me in front of sleeping beauty's castle

on sunday (february 16th), jenn, avery and i woke up bright and early to get ready for our drive down to anaheim. 

we had breakfast (eggs benedict and oj) at coogi's before attending morning worship service.

after we said our amens, we changed into our shorts and started on our journey. 

although, we had all been to disneyworld as children, we are all thoroughly excited to visit disneyland.

the first thing we did was enter a gift shop to purchase some mickey ears - a must.

we even splurged and got our names stitched onto the back!

here are few snapshots from our visit:

how dare i ride a carousel for the first time in my life?

my boy simba during the parade

jenn and avery

sister, sister (missing one sister though)

**we also ate these delicious beignets in the new orleans

section of the park. unfortunately, jenn is a pig and ate

them all before a photo could be snapped. she bought a

second bag and ate them too, smh.

all in all, it was a truly magical afternoon spent reliving our childhood and being carefree.

*lesigh* to be young again...

:)

vanessa

ps. as much as i enjoyed myself, they need to do something about the price.

$92US/person for one visit?

merde!

pps. this photo of avery always makes me laugh:

who's so unhappy to be at disney?

tell 'em that it's my birthday :)

saturday (february 15th) was my birthday and it was uh-mazing to finally spend a birthday in the sunshine.

the first activity of the day was brunch with my sister at this quaint mexican restaurant named howdy's.
i had the chicken tacos (delisioso) while my sister opted for enchiladas.

after brunch, we walked around the malibu country mart and had some yummy gelato at grom malibu.

trying to buy some time, we then decided to venture onto pepperdine's campus for some photo ops...

shirt - love culture; jeans - american eagle; 

shoes - converse; purse - michael kors

while on campus, we were invited to watch their women's basketball team play a home game.
initially we said we were going to only stay for the first half but got so invested that we had to stay for the entire thing.

sadly, pepperdine lost but it was a great game - minus the annoying heckler dude in the #13 jersey.

we went home to freshen up and went out for a birthday dinner.
we headed to duke's malibu - i had the pork mac n' cheese (not a fan) and some sweet potato fries (fan).

found this wine at the local ralph's - describes me to a t :)

my friend, avery, arrived later that night which is when the real fun began - starting with a birthday cupcake!
                                         

:)
vanessa

santa monica adventures

just a few snapshots from my visit to santa monica with my sister, jennifer:

we also stopped by kitson where jenn and i found these necklaces by a company called "the giving keys". 

each key contains a specific trait (courage, love, peace, strength, etc.) and one is to hold onto their key until they come across someone who is in need of it more. 

after giving the key away, you're encouraged to go onto "the giving keys" blog to share your story. 

i chose to buy the "courage" key while jenn opted for "strength". 

as much as i love it, i'm looking forward to giving it away one day. 

:)

vanessa

shutout - sochi 2014

i'm not going to sit here and lie and say that i am a hockey fan.

but when it comes to olympic hockey games, i bleed red and white.

much like the rest of the country, i was up bright and early to watch the puck drop at 7am.

it was amazing to watch our men beat sweden 3 - 0.

as a former competitive athlete, i appreciate the hardwork and dedication displayed by all of the athletes competing in the games.

shoutout to team canada for putting in "werk" these past 17 days.

25 medals isn't too shabby.

oh canada!

:)

vanessa

ps.

anyone from the toronto area knows that this is a rare sight

baby daddy, though

this was circulating during the USA vs. canada semi-final game - sad yet hilarious

guess he's all yours now...

missing malibu

 view from the malibu pier

first off, please forgive my absence.

i'd been visiting my sister in cali for the past couple days and as a result my little blog has been neglected.

but sadly, i'm back home now and will get back to blogging more regularly.

this year i vowed to make an effort to collect moments rather than things.

before heading to cali i compiled a list of things i wanted to do and am happy to report that i crossed off the vast majority of items on said list.
i also bought a purse...
old habits die hard.

it's super late now and i'm very tired but promise to write up some posts about my adventures in the 'bu.

:)
vanessa

ps.
i saw this on instagram while in cali and laughed because it's true:

pps. 

yessssssssss!!

YESSSSSSSSSSS!

i literally only watch hockey come the olympics.

whatever, let's go canada!

:)

www.neverleavinghere.com

soooooooooooo, i'm back in malibu and don't think i will ever return to toronto.

:)

vanessa

ps. happy valentine's day to all those who are in love and blah, blah, blah.

happy single awareness day to all those who are forever alone...like me.

wise words wednesday - dreams

as mentioned in an earlier blog post, i’m a strong proponent of setting goals in life.

i read somewhere once that goals are just dreams with deadlines.
so i guess by default, i'm also a big proponent of having and chasing dreams.

i think dreams have been the driving force behind the evolution of man.

everything we see and use now was once someone’s dream that came to fruition.

of course, most dreams don't become reality overnight which often leads to people giving up.

here are some of the “wise words” i often turn to whenever i get an inkling to abandon a dream of mine.

* the first time i read this, i literally sat in silence for like 3 minutes.

an interesting perspective on life.

whether you’re already living your dream or working towards achieving your dream, i wish you all the best!

:)

vanessa

real-life parent trap

i came across this video on youtube a couple days ago and have been sharing it with everyone i know.
so, i figured...why not share it with you all.

"twinsters" is a documentary about twin sisters, samantha and anais.
you're probably thinking "okay...?"
well, samantha and anais were born in korea but separated at birth and were raised on opposite sides of the earth.
neither one knew the other one existed until...click play for the rest of the story :)

i'm really excited to see this documentary in its entirety.
we're constantly bombarded with stories about how horrible the internet and social media is.
but were it not for the internet, specifically good ol' youtube, these two sisters would have never met.

best of luck to samatha and anais in years to come!
what a story!

:)
vanessa