#tbt: Illumi, August 2023

I've decided that the next few Thursdays in December will be #tbt (ThrowBack Thursday) posts. I have a few things which I've been wanting to blog about but haven't taken the time to do so yet. So that's what will be happening on Thursdays for the next few weeks.

For today, I'm taking you back to the August long weekend. We picked Sam up from camp and visited a sunflower farm on the way home. I blogged about that visit here. And the next night we drove to just outside of Toronto to experience "Illumi." It is a light show made up of more than 20 million lights, displayed in 13 different universes, or themes. We enjoyed this night so much.

This was just the entrance to get into the display. We took way too many pictures considering we hadn't even started yet! But did you see the tulips?!?! They definitely knew the way to my heart!

Left: Another picture from the entrance; Right: Family selfie in a light tunnel

The next area was randomly themed -- a bit Hollywood, a bit glitzy. There were a few huge shoes in lights and both kids enjoyed trying to pose like the sports figures. (I just looked on the Illumi website and this area is called "The Craziest Boulevard." That makes sense!)

The next theme was like being in a fall Hallmark movie on a farm. It was so magical. There were benches to sit on and lots of pumpkins.

Next we moved on to a Christmas holiday area. There were lots of gnomes, trees, stars, and snowflakes. I loved the paper mache look of the gnomes. And Sam and Rachel enjoyed the ice castle. (Officially, this is called "The Land of Frost.")

Then we headed off to Europe and a lit up carousel which we rode on. The buildings reminded me of the town square we visited in Brugges, Belgium. And I don't know why I didn't get any pictures of the carousel.

This was a safari themed area and we probably spent the most time here. I loved the dazzling display of colours and the kids wanted their pictures taken with every single animal!

After that we ended up in Candyland. I think this was Rachel's favourite spot. It was so fun!!!

 

After this we headed through The Scarlet Spiders and it was just creepy. There were over 200 spiders all in red, and I did not need to spend any time there. I sped walked through it as quickly as I could. Yuck.

We also had a lot of fun taking pictures in the Poles. I loved all the penguins and Rachel liked doing gymnastics in the igloos.

This area is called "The Magic Lanterns" and the goldfish were my and Sam's favourites. I also loved how almost everything in this universe was made of the stained glass (not really glass, but it looked like it) and lit from inside.

Then we walked through the famous Cavalia horses. There were over 200 life sized horses all in lights. It was so cool to see.

We ended up under the Christmas tree, made entirely of lights, and surrounded by other trees. It was very pretty.

This was such a fun evening and if you ever have a chance to attend one of Cavalia's installations, I'd highly recommend you go. I especially enjoyed experiencing it on a warm summer evening when we could wander through at our own pace without being too cold!