Thomas Soccer

Last year Thomas played soccer and we were lucky to have him finish the game. He didn't like playing if someone took the ball from him and would cry if he didn't score a goal. He was so competitive that we had to try really hard to not make any comments at all. We were just happy if he played the whole game. This year Thomas has had a lot more fun and has scored many more goals, but we learned the hard way that at least with Thomas our parenting strategy has to remain the same. We try not to applaud too much if he scores, but rather praise him a lot for good sportsmanship, playing good defense, etc. We are still nervous for that ultra competitive boy that is just under the surface. Here is a quick video of Thomas's last game today when he scored a goal. He played great and had a lot of fun. I don't think we will ever have as good a coach as he had with this team. The father was a high school soccer coach and loved young children. It was a perfect and rare combination in the world of volunteer coaches. Hopefully, we can find someone great like that in the future because it made all of the difference. Hurray for volunteer coaches!

Toronto

Toronto is a cool city. We had a lot of fun driving and walking around. There was plenty of cool things to see with kids. Thanks to Dave and Annette Wells for letting us stay at their house for three days!!! They let us borrow their GPS, which was a life saver as well as providing home made dinners every evening when we returned. I wanted to move in with them forever!

The CN Tower is Toronto's most noticeable landmark. It used to be the largest free standing building until the one in Dubai surpassed it.

Toronto had cool bridges and walkways all along the waterfront.

We walked across about five different versions of these wave-like sidewalks. The boys loved running and playing on them. I also felt an urge to run across them. They bring out the kid in you.

Rogers Centre where the Blue Jays and Raptors play and Thomas in front of the Toronto Islands, which are a short ferry ride away

Ontario Science Center--Free with our museum pass. This place was huge and very fun for kids. There was a Harry Potter exhibit complete with sets and props from the movies, but we couldn't bring ourselves to pay the $50 plus to see it. We were definitely tempted though. Something about being on vacation makes you feel like spending money is okay.

I love playing with the hand size version of these things. The life size was awesome. Steve wants to put one in our house. How sanitary can it really be though?

Steve grooving with the boys

This lake and beautiful boardwalk and fountains are a short walk away from the Wells home in Unionville. It was a little bit of heaven.

Eating ice cream in historic Unionville. The first houses were built in 1792.

One of the coolest places we found was at this working farm in the middle of Toronto. We were extremely surprised at hearing the sheep "baa," which was both very low and loud. It scared Donny so much he fell over. Very funny. The highlight, however, were the goats. For some reason, Steve became friends with this one goat. Apparently, they bonded immediately and Steve is now contemplating a goat over a dog as pet. I don't want either.

The boys collapsed every afternoon on the drive home. We loved the city, but won't miss the traffic and extremely high cost of living. Thank goodness we don't get much traffic in Yelm. We do like vacations though and can't wait for our next adventure!

Niagara Falls

Woohoo!!! Steve had a week off for vacation so we decided to visit Niagara Falls and Toronto before we move West. The weather was absolutely perfect and sunny the day we decided to visit the Falls so of course we loved just being outside and enjoying such a beautiful place. The Falls are breathtaking. We came from the Canadian side, which we heard was better anyway, and were completely awestruck by how powerful and loud they were. We were told to just pay for the package tour, which was in our budget only because all of our children were free. This will change when Thomas turns six next month, but in the meantime, hurray for free children. We started with the Journey behind the Falls, which was impressive only because it got us so close the falls. It also got us really excited to go on the boat. Our favorite activity by far was the Maid of the Mist. Our family and four Asian ladies were the only people on the lower part of the boat so we had free reign and could run around as much as we wanted. When the boat stalls right next to the falls Thomas had to hide behind the deck because we were getting so wet. Hewitt and Donny both loved it though. Donny made me nervous because he kept running everywhere and I thought he would fall. The Asian women made a lot of squealing sounds whenever he ran past them though which made him do it more and more. There is nothing like a bunch of Asian women shouting your praises that makes you want to showoff. Hewitt pretty much stayed right next to Steve and watched the Falls. Hewitt absolutely loves water so this was a dream come true. We spent the rest of the day watching a movie about Niagara and walking along the water to see the rapids. Both of these events were relaxing, but nothing came close to how much fun we had on the boat. I guess we need to buy one as soon as possible:)

Journey behind the falls

Walking along the boardwalk and eating a little lunch. Thank goodness there was usually a little piece of land behind the fences. I had a dream before we went that one of my boys scaled a fence and fell in.

On the Maid of the Mist