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

Frozen Four

I am a huge sports fan. I blame my family who has been making me fill out bowl predictions and brackets since I was little. ESPN is our home page. Even with all of my sports interest, I have never even heard of the Frozen Four, which is the final four for college hockey. I didn't even know it existed, but when I heard the name Frozen Four and that it was in Detroit this past weekend, I knew we had to visit. So we packed up on Saturday and went downtown to visit the fanfest. At the first booth we visited, two of our paralympic sled hockey players were there increasing awareness for the paralympics and showing off their newly won Vancouver Olympic gold medal. Now, I may not know much about hockey, but I love the Olympics. I was thrilled to hold the Vancouvery gold medal. It was huge and heavy. The boys got to hold it and put it on. I was in heaven. Already, I deemed our outing a success.

Our next stop was a hockey skills test. Lights would flash on this 9 block grid and you would have to hit it with a hockey puck. Your total would flash above it with a counting down clock. We were second in line behind this 9 year old kid who proceeded to hit about 8 of the blocks in a minute. Needless to say, we were super impressed. Steve couldn't follow the child prodigy so he made Thomas go next. Thomas had a great time and enjoyed just hitting the puck as hard as he could. When Steve got up, one of the guys explained that the upper left light was having trouble so if ever did need see a light then that was the one to hit. Steve looked at him like he was crazy. Steve then proceeded to hit the lower, middle block about seven times in a row. It was hilarious. Steve would definitely be accurate in his attempt to go through a goalie's legs. We decided that we needed to learn how to get the puck in the air before we try any more timed hockey events.

By the way, Wisconsin was playing Boston College in the final. We decided to cheer for Wisconsin after the paralympics gold winner told us that one of their players had a great family and a couple from Maine heatedly told us how much they disliked Boston. Unfortunately, for all of you who don't live in Detroit and see the headlines everywhere, Boston won 5-0. Oh well. I would have lost that bracket. So after the fanfest, we rode the people mover, which is a long monorail around downtown and then walked on the Riverwalk. We had a great time. And the only thing I regret is not buying a Frozen Four t-shirt. I don't suppose I will ever get the opportunity again.

Kensington Metropark

With the recommendation of my neighbor Lisa who is becoming a regular on our weekly outings, we took advantage of the beautiful spring weather with a bike ride. I have been hearing about this park for awhile, but this is the first time we have ever visited. There is a 8 mile bike/jogging trail around a beautiful lake with a bunch of nature hikes, beaches, and playgrounds along the way. I didn't realize that the bike ride was 8 miles long when we started, however, but once we got going and decided we wanted to stop we were already halfway. So poor Thomas rode his bike 8 miles around the lake. He started complaining around mile 6 and I started getting nervous, but he stopped when we hit the boardwalk and had no problem finishing. It was so much fun. I can't wait to take Steve. I feel bad sometimes that he can't do all of these fun adventures with us. Poor guy has to work.

Easter

Easter this year was a lot of fun. We kicked things off with an Easter egg hunt at the local park put on by the community. My boys personalities are summarized completely by this experience. The kids were divided by age groups. Upon hearing the bell, Thomas ran around like crazy and gathered a bunch of eggs, but dropped them all while carelessly swinging his basket while running. He ended up with zero eggs. Hewitt, on the other hand, did not run at all when the bell rang and instead sat himself on the ground with no desire to find an egg. I handed him one, opened it, and gave him a piece of candy. After savoring it for a few minutes, Hewitt decided that he wanted another and started looking for eggs. He probably picked up two before they were all gone. Thankfully for Thomas, some nice man took pity on Hewitt and offered him about 7 eggs, most of which Hewitt donated to Thomas, who was crying. Donny was the only one who walked away a winner. He grabbed about 10 eggs and was super happy the entire time. He required no attention or help.

Easter egg dying is a fun tradition, but a messy one. I will take lessons from my cousin Ellice in the future who had aprons on all of her children as well as all utensils on a cookie sheet pan for each child. I think her children were just as happy, only cleaner.

For Easter this year, the Easter bunny brought a basket full of marble pieces that she bought at a local Mom2Mom sale for $10. Best purchase the Easter bunny ever made. They've played with it for hours and hours. Thank goodness we don't have a baby right now because I am finding marbles everywhere.


HAPPY EASTER!!!