Happy 50th Anniversary to @robinsdonuts_can, the best dang non-specialty doughnut on the planet for as long as I've been eating 'em. Chocolate glaze. Maple glaze. Bismark. Jambuster. Mini cinni. Ace sandwiches and breakfast, too. (I don't drink coffee, but I hear they have a good takeout coffee, too!) All of it beats American-owned Tim Hortons by a country kilometre. Thanks to Robin's superfan @solid_green_moore for the tip that today's the actual day the first Robin's opened up in Thunder Bay, ON in 1975. Wish there were more still around Winnipeg, but whenever I'm near one, I'm indulging! #robins #robinsdonuts #robinsdonuts50

A few weeks ago we took our first trip as a family of 3 (along with Danae's parents, siblings, & their kids) all the way to Churchill! We drove to Thompson and then took the overnight train from there. Zoey did amazing on the train both ways. I can't recommend going to Churchill enough! August is beluga season, and we got to see a fair share of them on our boat tour (Danae even went paddleboarding with the belugas earlier that day!) but we also got to see a mama polar bear with her cub on her back in the water. 🐻‍❄️ It was over 30c and smoky our first couple days there – wildly unreasonable for Churchill – but everything else was amazing. The murals everywhere, the friendly folks, the Inuit museum, the landscapes, the mural-covered abandoned planes and buildings out of town – all of it amazing. (The second and third photos are from brief stops on the way to and from Thompson at Pisew Falls and Little Limestone Lake. We're starting with adventures early! Haha.) Edit: I have no idea why that first photo looks so low-res after uploading. But I'm not reposting everything, so it is what it is. 😂

Our application form for our 2025 summer events at @assiniboiadowns will only be up until the end of day THIS SATURDAY, MARCH 15. If you're interested in being considered for one of our events, please get your application in now!

Only 22 days late. 🤷‍♂️ My 2024 on #BeReal.

2024 Photo Dump • Part 8 of 8 (Friends!) We've finally come to the end of my year of photos. With very different adventures ahead for 2025, maybe this year I'll just post more consistently. Or maybe I'll delete my Instagram and Facebook accounts altogether. Who knows?? 😂😬 But what I do know is ever since I bought a flip phone (and especially since November 2023 when I got one with a full front screen #galaxyzflip5 #notanad), I have very purposefully and intentionally taken more selfies with friends, family, and of course @danaereimer. Being able to use the main lense for selfies has been a gamechanger for capturing more memories with people I care about. These are the things that matter: doing cool things, sure, but doing those cool things with the people that you love. Beyond the 3 big trips highlighted in my previous photo dumps, 2024 saw: weddings, camping trips, @winnipegfolkfestival, lots of golf, multiple visits from family/friends, @jazzwinnipeg catch-ups, hikes, board games, a bunch of @purpleroom_wpg events at the Downs, @pridewinnipeg, producing shows for the @wpgcomfest, cabin trips with mystery ice cream truck sounds in the distance, CaRaVaN at the Cube (including hosting at outdoor @winnipegfringe), our first visit to @529wellingtonwpg, several trips to Birch River, @wpgbluebomberscfl games, neighbourhood walks, multiple vegan Googs at @bridgedrivein, many many burgers, and just the best news ever. It was a full year and a hard year and a good year. As the world gets even more terrifying and unpredictable in 2025, here's to a year filled with love, family, friends, community, support, growth, resistance, and caring for (and standing up for) each other in real, tangible ways. 💜

2024 Photo Dump • Part 7 of 8 (Porto, December) The whole genesis for this trip came from wanting to go to #Portugal with my dad. 🇵🇹 Despite my dad not being Portuguese, he's been connected to the community in Winnipeg through friends and clients for decades. He loves the food and the culture. (Portugal also happened to bee my previous all-time favourite travel destination.) Since I had been to Lisbon and Lagos before, and had heard so many glowing reviews of #Porto, we decided to spend all 3 of our nights in Portugal there. And it was amazing. We had amazing meal after amazing meal: bifanas (@adega_do_manel), peri peri chicken (@pedrodosfrangos), chicken & waffles (@delideliporto), one of the top 5 burgers I've ever had (@tabernadoscarris), Brazilian BBQ in a ridiculously fancy mall food court, fresh fish, steak & eggs, heaps of delicious french fries with almost every meal, great breakfasts in our hotel (@casualhoteles), gelato, and of course multiple pastel de natas. We saw incredible and colourful architecture and tilework at every turn, visited probably a dozen local markets (some permanent, some set up just for Christmas), saw the world's fanciest McDonald's, found my favourite ever kitschy European chain store, did a river tour of the 6 bridges of Porto, took a 1930s streetcar to the ocean, and played the most bizarre mini golf course imaginable. We walked so many steps up and down hills (and stairs) – 20,000 per day with the inclines factored in was a lot for me, yet alone my dad – and I wore shorts in December. You can't go wrong with Porto. It's full of food and culture and life and joy and I can't wait to go back someday. The whole 8 days with my dad, despite it sometimes feeling like I was travelling with a toddler 😂 ("Don't cross yet!" "We'll find a bathroom soon!" "Why are you going in that direction?") was an experience of a lifetime.

2024 Photo Dump • Part 6 of 8 (Rome, December) It's become clear a lot of people didn't realize these photo dumps have been from trips throughout the last year and not where I am currently! I apologize for the confusion – although you probably won't notice this explanation, either. 😂 Anyway, the Europe adventure with my dad in December continued with a high speed rail trip (300 km/h) from Naples to Rome. After making it to our hotel/apartment to settle in after such a long day (Naples to Pompeii to Naples to Rome!), we walked to @lafraschettadiportaportese for some pasta. I believe this was my dad's favourite meal of the trip – a spicy pasta dish and some tiramisu. The next day – our only full day in Rome – was unbelievably jam-packed, with visits to the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Basilica dei Santi Cosma e Damiano, the Vatican Museum, and St. Peter's Basilica. That evening, we grabbed pizza to go from @laboratorio_pizzeria_artigiana (next door to our hotel), and it was *the best pizza I've ever had in my life*. I can't properly describe how or why it was so good, and I'm sure you can't go wrong with any pizza in Rome (or Italy in general), but definitely go there if you have the opportunity. We didn't see everything we wanted to in Rome, but I think for only a day and a bit, we got through a lot. We definitely saw more than our share of things to make my dad say "insane!" or "unreal!", so that's a win. (I also loved having chinotto so readily available everywhere in Italy! Thanks @livesintransit for getting me hooked on the stuff a few years ago. Haha.)

2024 Photo Dump • Part 5 of 8 (London & Naples, December) My last trip of 2024 was a pretty monumental one, as I took my dad off the continent for his first time ever. Let me just say that it's been extremely difficult to distill 8 days and multiple countries – and over 1300 photos – into a handful of 20-photo albums. 😂 The trip started with 24 hours in #London, which – between trains from Gatwick and to Heathrow, plus a night recovering from jetlag – was really only about 8 hours of sightseeing. But we made the most of it, getting in 3 classic English meals (a Sunday roast, fish & chips, and an English breakfast) and seeing as many of the big sites as possible (the London Wheel, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben & Parliament, Oxford Street). We did all this mostly on foot, with some Tube rides, which was an impressive start for a 78 year old! From London, we flew to #Naples #Italy, our base to go visit the Pompeii Archeological Site. I had been to #Pompeii in 2007, mid-summer, dealing with near 40c temperatures. Needless to say, 15c with some clouds turning into sun is a much more enjoyable way to explore the formerly ash-encased city. After heading back from Pompeii, we explored the famed #ChristmasAlley (Via San Gregorio Armeno) in Naples, which is a year-round, blocks-long string of shops selling handmade nativity pieces and other Christmas ornaments/displays. It's hard to capture the sheer magnitude of the place, as well as the intricate work all these craftspeople do with each tiny little character or piece of furniture. Naples was an interesting place. We had traditional Napoleon-style pizza at a local family-run spot, and my dad had his favourite coffee of the trip at a little café, but everything you've heard about the chaos on the roads/alleys with cars and motorbikes is true. (Extra scary when my dad isn't as quick as he used to be!) It was quite unique experiencing Europe leading up to Christmas, as every place we went seemed to have markets and extravagant decorations. I've included a little video collage of the Selfridges department store in London and Christmas Alley in Naples as just a taste of what was on display.

2024 Photo Dump • Part 4 of 8 (Las Vegas, February) Even though February 2024 was my 20th trip to Las Vegas, it had been 9 years since my 19th trip, so naturally in a place like Vegas, a lot of new stuff had popped up. One new thing is my cousin @bcslots, who's built a huge empire as a slots influencer, has his own branded non-smoking slot room at the Plaza in Old Vegas (complete with his own machines)! It worked out that when I was there, Brian was in town holding a huge birthday event, so afterwards I got to catch up with him and @marcoluckisreal, and meet his best friend visiting from Ontario and some of his team. (He also treated us – on his own birthday no less – to a meal at @oscarssteakhouselv, where I had a ridiculously delicious pork chop and mashed potatoes.) The next day was maybe my most full (and favourite) day in all my 20 times Vegas! A visit to the @sharkreefaq, a dip in the Mandalay Bay pool, the wow-inducing @spherevegas, the best pizza I've ever had at @moneylinepizza, and then ending things off with the most fun humanly possible at @omegamartusa. Between the Grand Canyon and all this, it was an unbelievable time, and all the new stuff still didn't take away how comfortable and familiar the city is to me. (Of course it would've been even better if Danae was there – maybe someday I'll convince her to give Vegas a try. Haha.)

2024 Photo Dump • Part 3 of 8 (Grand Canyon, February) I've been to Las Vegas so often since first spending 24 hours there in 2003, so it's kind of ridiculous that I've never made the relatively short trip to the Grand Canyon in all those years. Thanks to a strong nudge from friends, I finally made it there at the end of February, and it exceeded my expectations! We also lucked out with a beautiful day that got into the teens. Had we gone the next day, we would've been shivering in snow and near-freezing temps. Doing a multi-hour hike with pretty extreme elevation changes in brand new shoes maybe wasn't the best idea, but it was still worth it (and much thanks to @2toastperday for pushing for the longer hike). The timing also worked out to check out the sunset while still being at the National Park, which was awe-inspiring. The last few photos don't come close to doing it justice. If you have a chance to go, go! (And go to the South Rim at the actual Grand Canyon National Park – a little over 4 hours from Vegas – rather than the closer Grand Canyon West.) Photos from my 20th (!!) trip to Las Vegas to come in Part 4...

2024 Photo Dump • Part 2.5 of 8 This video wouldn't post properly with the last album, so it gets its own post! The famed Voladores de Papantla were so impressive.

2024 Photo Dump • Part 2 of 8 (Puerto Vallarta, January) After checking out one of Riu's famous parties at a nearby resort, our last full day in Mexico was our day exploring Puerto Vallarta. Lots of walking, searching (and searching) for tostadas for Danae, exploring so many shops to try to find a hat for my dad, and stumbling upon yet another festival with shops, food, and live music, it was a great way to end off my first warm weather winter trip in ages. We had another 24-hour layover in Vancouver on the way home, so we got another visit with my sister in before heading home. (Bonus Part 2.5 coming because a video didn't want to cooperate with the multi-dimension option!)