Our Family Trip to Toronto

Samantha: 74 Months, Week 4

Aedan: 39 Months, Week 2

People often ask me what my hobbies are, and sometimes, especially with having young kids at home to take care of, I'm not really sure what my hobbies are. One common hobby of both Ben and me is our love of traveling, experiencing new things, and exposing ourselves to new places. After all, we did meet studying abroad in Ireland for a semester. And I specifically chose to take certain classes at certain times, even back during my freshman year because I wanted to make sure I spent a semester in Ireland, I wanted to go on a J-term mission's trip, and I wanted to go on a Spring Break trip as well. I wanted to travel even as young as an 8th grader when I left my family for the first time and went on a People to People trip to London and Scandinavia. So, I guess you could say I love to travel. If there was a job where I could just travel, enjoy the world, and write about my experiences, that would be ideal.

So, when Ben mentioned about taking a family trip to Toronto, I was all for that idea, not only because I love to travel, but also because it would be our last chance to take a trip as a family of four, and after having a baby, we won't feel like taking many long road trips for awhile. For how much I love to travel, Ben is an excellent travel planner. He could probably be a travel agent because he is so detail oriented and is great and finding discounts and websites, looking at travel and parking ahead of time so he has everything planned out. Going to Toronto was no different, and he found a nice AirBnb close to downtown Toronto with two bedrooms and convenient access to a local grocery store and public transportation, as well as free parking. He even downloaded some public transit maps and parking apps ahead of time so we could be prepared.

We left for Toronto on Monday, August 7 after my 34 week check-up. On our way down south, we dropped Izzy off to be boarded and then continued on our way. (It's interesting to think that Toronto is actually south of where we live right now.) Samantha was doing much better with her urination issue since we started putting her on a schedule, but we still stopped a little more than we should have when driving that day. By the time we got close to Toronto, we were just done being in the car (my pregnant self included), so we just ate snacks in the car and pushed through, planning on just eating dinner when we got there. We arrived at the apartment complex we were staying in just before 7:00, met up with the lady who showed us how and where to park, as well as where the apartment was that we were renting. Then, we decided to walk out to a main shopping/dining street near us to find some food for dinner. Everyone was tired and hungry, so we settled on a small burrito restaurant where we got the kids a quesadilla, which is usually a big hit for them. Samantha did great eating, although she has been a terrific eater for awhile now. She has quite the appetite most days, and we don't have to do any coaxing to get her to eat her food. Aedan, on the other hand, has been very picky. Even things he usually would like, there are some days when he just won't eat with coaxing and prodding and bribery for a certain number of bites. Plus, neither kid napped much in the car that day, so they were tired (and the parents too), and when Aedan gets overtired he just doesn't have much of an appetite anymore. It was all we could do to finish our food, get our stuff settled in the apartment, and get the kids tucked into bed.

Samantha always has trouble sleeping in a new place, and Monday night wasn't much different. The kids shared a room with bunk beds, Samantha on the top and Aedan on the bottom. However, the vertical blinds that covered the windows were partially broken, letting in a significant amount of light from outside where there were much more street lamps, head lights, and noise than we are used to at home. It took a couple reminders for Aedan to be quiet and go to sleep, rather than lay in his bed and whisper to Happy Bear, which then keeps Samantha awake as well. While the kids worked on falling asleep, Ben walked to the local grocery store to buy a few things for the week. We planned on eating breakfast at the apartment each day before heading out. Then, it was bed time for us as well. It had been a long day of traveling. In the middle of the night we heard Samantha go in and out of their bedroom repeatedly, as we heard the door loudly open and close five or six times. Eventually, Ben got up to see what was going on. Samantha was just standing in their bedroom when he went in, and Aedan had already been woken up by her going in and out for the last forty-five minutes. She said her nose was running and sniffling, which is why she was in and out so many times. We got pretty frustrated with her, and I eventually joined in the conversation, making it pretty clear that she had woken up everyone in the entire family by going in and out, rather than just coming to us and telling us that she had a problem. I didn't want to deal with her waking anyone up again, so I had Ben just take the mattress down off the top bunk and put it on the floor in the living room, that way if she got up, no one would be bothered and we could all get some more sleep. After being disturbed for so long and having to move her mattress and everything, it took awhile for everyone to calm back down enough to go to sleep. Being woken up in the middle of the night made it difficult to not wonder why we had bothered to come on this trip in the first place and how inconsiderate it was of Samantha to be carrying on like this in the middle of the night. We knew everyone would be tired and grumpy the next morning because Aedan wakes up between 6:30-6:45 like clockwork. There is no sleeping in, so we were all operating under a sleep deficit to start off the first day of our trip.

However, despite the bad night we all had, Ben and I tried to start off Tuesday on a positive note, and to go into it knowing we would have to approach our kids with more grace and patience because they would be tired. Our plans for the week included hitting up the places included on our City Pass. We decided to go to the Toronto Zoo on Tuesday since the weather would be good, and we thought it would hold their interest more even if they were tired. It was also the farthest drive away, only about forty-five minutes. We hadn't been to a real zoo since the last time we visited the Cincinnati Zoo, so it had been well over a year. The Toronto Zoo is huge in both size and the amount of animals it has.

Our first stop was to see the giant panda bears. This zoo is one of the few zoos in the world that has giant pandas, so it was pretty neat that we were able to see these vulnerable animals.

We saw lots of different animals, walking around and observing as much as we could. The weather was clear and sunny, a perfect day for being outside and walking around.

They had a carousel and tram ride there that we bought tickets for. Aedan was very excited to the tram ride, so we decided to take a break and ride around the zoo, to take a break from walking and to also see what animals we might be able to see from the tram without having to walk past them.

After the tram ride and seeing some animals that live in the colder areas of the world, we stopped at a cafe to get some lunch before continuing on. The kids thought it was funny seeing the polar bear hanging his bottom in the water, just floating around and relaxing.

Here they are posing with some sea horse statues.

They had a kid's zoo area with a tree house to climb in and a slide, as well as exhibits they could crawl on and interact with, like pretending they were turtles hatching out of eggs and wearing shells. This was definitely their favorite part, and they spent quite a bit of time playing there.

After going to the children's zoo area, we got the kids dressed in their bathing suits so they could play in the water park/splash pad area. It was pretty large, had lots of places to climb and slide down, and lots of sprinklers and fountains to jump through. Samantha was having a blast, but Aedan doesn't do as well when he gets cold. Plus, it was the middle of the afternoon when he is usually napping, so he was pretty tired. He played for a little while, but then got water in his eyes, and then just decided to come cuddle in my lap all wrapped up in his towel. I tried to get him to lay his head back and close his eyes, but there was too much going on for him to let himself fall asleep. He was ready to get dressed and move on, but I told him we were going to let Samantha play for as long as she wanted to since she was looking forward to this all day.

We decided to stay at the zoo for as long as the kids were enjoying themselves and being respectful. After playing in the water area, we stopped to get a fruit smoothie for a cool, healthy, refreshing snack, and then we continued walking around the zoo. We saw an orangutan, a tiger, a snake eating a mouse, and many more interesting things. The kids really were doing well being out all day, and we were having fun walking around the zoo together. Aedan rode in the stroller most of the time, and Samantha was a trooper walking all those steps right along with us.

The kids really enjoyed looking at the fish in this fish tank. Samantha decided we should take our picture in front of it, so she volunteered to take our picture and did a pretty good job capturing her silly little brother's personality.

We had a great first day in Toronto, staying until almost 5:00 that evening when we decided it was time to make our way back to our AirBnB and find a place for dinner. Aedan fell asleep in the car on the way back, and we decided to just get some Subway for a simple dinner before heading back to the apartment to let the kids play for a little bit before tucking them into bed.

Everyone slept much better on Wednesday night, and we were ready for another day in Toronto. We decided to visit Casa Loma in the morning which ended up being a good choice because we beat the big crowd that came after lunch time. It was easy to get right in with our City Pass, and the audio guide was free, so we decided it would be worth it to let the kids try them. They thought it was pretty cool to wear it around their necks and hold it up like phones to listen. Aedan particularly enjoyed punching in the numbers all by himself.

We started in the basement and the tunnel that led to the garage and greenhouse. They found the tunnel very interesting because of all the pictures that lined the walls, including pictures of the great fire and people sick with tuberculosis. Samantha is really beginning to enjoy stuff like this, and she loves to learn and hear the story behind things, especially real historical events. It's fun to share our joy of learning new things with our daughter, and I hope she never loses this curiosity for learning and expanding her mind.

After finishing the basement and part of the main level, we went outside to the patio to eat a little snack before continuing our tour. As time went on, the kids got tired of listening to all the audio explanations, but we tried to keep them engaged by giving them snippets of information and describing what each room would have been used for. I think they were pretty amazed at how large the house was. Here are some of my favorite rooms in the house.

The house had a cafeteria in the basement that we ate in for lunch before heading out. The kids even cooperated for a picture outside the house by the fountain before we left. I love how Samantha put her arm around Aedan and kissed him on the head. She really is such a sweet, caring big sister. Aedan is lucky to have her. In fact, they are lucky to have each other. I'm glad we have had this summer together where they have gotten to spend so much time playing with each other and forming an even stronger bond. They are the world to each other, and I love seeing that connection.

From Casa Loma, we decided to spend our afternoon at the Royal Ontario Museum. It was a bit difficult to find a place to park, but we were glad we decided to spend a few hours there. They had lots of "stuffed" animals that Samantha found fascinating, and while we walked around that area, Ben pushed Aedan in the stroller in an attempt to get him to take at least a little bit of a nap. He finally gave in and slept while I took Samantha around the animals and a place where you could interact with some museum employees that shared things you could touch, like polar bear claws and seal fur. One employee talked about the dodo bird that they had on display, sharing a couple facts about how it could have gone extinct. Samantha chimed right in saying that it also laid its eggs on the ground, making it easy for predators to access. The employee was impressed that she could spit out a fact about dodo birds so easily. Samantha said, "Well, I have a book about them at home, so I know a lot about them." I love this natural inclination of hers to absorb, learn, and remember facts. That is definitely another trait she gets from her daddy. I loved being able to walk around the museum with her. I don't get the chance to interact with just her as much anymore. It was fun to see her frolicking from one exhibit to the next. Most kids probably wouldn't find museum exhibits like this as interesting as she did. :)

There was a kids' discovery area that Samantha really wanted to explore, but we convinced her to wait until Aedan woke up from  his nap so that they could both enjoy playing there together. They had a sand table where the kids got to dig up T-Rex bones.

Then they had a dress-up area where they donned dinosaur costumes before discovering the king and queen outfits.

Aedan was thrilled to be able to dress up like Samantha, wearing a fancy cape. I enjoyed just sitting there and watching the two of them interact with one another.

Isn't he a handsome King?

Then they found crowns and pretended like they were getting married. Since they were getting married, they had to kiss, and I couldn't resist capturing the sibling love on camera. :)

Ben and I then watched the kids dance together and sit on the floor and play with puppets together. Aedan's nap did him a lot of good, and they were having a great time playing at the Royal Ontario Museum. I'm glad we didn't skip over going there for the afternoon.

Even though we had walked through the dinosaur area with Samantha while Aedan napped, giving her the chance to really look at things that interested her, we knew Aedan would enjoy walking through that area as well. They had so many different dinosaur bones on display, some that were just amazingly massive.

We stayed at the museum until close to dinnertime when we decided to walk across the street to get some dinner before heading back to our AirBnB. Ben had plans to attend a baseball game that night, so he left shortly after getting us to the apartment safely. The kids and I just hung out together that evening, playing with some of the toys from the kids that live in the apartment, spending time out on the patio that overlooked the city, and giving the kids baths as well as getting them to bed at a decent time.

We had tossed around the idea of all of us going to the Toronto Blue Jays game, but with it starting basically at bed time at the end of long days out, we knew it would be too much for us all to go. However, I wanted Ben to be sure to enjoy a baseball game, even if he had to go by himself, which I don't think he minded. Here are some pictures he took of the stadium and the game.

Thursday was our last day of activity, but we still had time to enjoy the view outside on the small patio area. Our patio overlooked some train tracks, but the the trains that passed by were actually pretty quiet, and you couldn't hear them much inside the apartment, which was nice. Here is the view outside.

Our plan for Thursday was the CN Tower and the Ripley's Aquarium, which are actually located right next to each other downtown, so we decided to get around by public transportation that day. It would be easier to ride the bus and the street car rather than driving and finding parking. Also, it would be a cheaper option for our family. We decided the kids would find it interesting to ride all these various modes of public transit, and also to see what life is like for a lot of people that live in big cities and don't have cars to drive around, relying solely on public transportation. We started off taking a bus down the street near our apartment to another main road that had street cars that took us to the heart of downtown. Samantha and Aedan both liked the street car better than the bus because it moved faster and didn't have to stop as much. Here are some cute pictures of the kids on the street car.

Our first stop was the CN Tower. We explained to Samantha that you ride an elevator up to the top, and I think she had flashbacks to the Tower of Terror where the elevator fell as part of the ride. We reassured her that it was going to just be a normal elevator ride, just up more floors than normal. I think she was kind of intimidated by the height of it, and we didn't realize she was feeling so anxious about it.

The CN Tower was included with the City Pass, so it was easy to get in, and we didn't have to wait too long to get up an elevator. The kids were pretty amazed at how far we could see and how little everything looked down on the ground.

Ben and I went to Toronto and Niagara Falls on our Honeymoon, so it was kind of fun being back here with our two kids and one on the way.

Here's a picture of Ben and me now, with me 34 1/2 weeks pregnant.

And here we are on our honeymoon 11 years ago. It's hard to believe we have been married for 11 years now and are parents of three children. We definitely look different, older and more tired, but our life together is so good. I don't really know where we envisioned ourselves 11 years down the road, but our relationship is strong, our love for each other grows more and more each year, and I think we make a pretty wonderful team. Ben is such a loving and doting husband, and I don't say enough about him. I think and feel so much, my heart overflows with love for him, but I don't often express it. However, on our anniversary on July 22nd, I had to take some time to brag about him on Facebook. Here's what I said: "Today is our 11th anniversary. Ben likes to remark that we have now been married 1/3 of our life. It's hard to believe we've been married that long, but at the same time, we were so very young in this picture from our wedding day. You always hear people talk about growing to be more in love every day, and you don't really know what that means until you experience it. This guy is the man of my dreams. He is an amazing friend, confidant, father, scholar, professor, supporter, encourager, and husband, just to name a few. Every day I see him fulfilling his vows to me, of loving me as Christ loved the church, and giving himself up for me. Every day I feel loved, cared for, and cherished. I know a lot of who he is and what he does goes unnoticed, but I deeply appreciate and respect who he is as a man and how he is all in for his family and for me. I still feel giddy when I see a message from him. I still look forward with anticipation when he comes home from work for the day. My heart still skips a beat when he holds my hand or leans in for a kiss. Life with him is the only life I want, and I'm so glad we chose to marry each other 11 years ago. I love you, my dear. Happy Anniversary, to the love of my life."

We spent a little more time on the observation deck of the CN Tower, looking at the different views of the city and feeling the wind blowing in the outside viewing area.

Of course we couldn't pass up looking down through the glass floor. I joined the kids on the floor for a little while and looked down, but it seems like my vertigo is pretty bad this pregnancy. Even when I see Aedan or Samantha standing on the edge of something, I get a funny sensation and a swaying feeling, making me feel pretty dizzy and off-kilter. However, being up high and looking so far down didn't seem to bother the kids at all. They sat right down on the floor and looked straight down to the ground. They could have stayed out there for quite some time, but there were other people waiting for a turn as well.

At the bottom of the tower they had these giant moose and bear statues to pose with, then we spent some time in the little Kids' Area where there were places to climb around and play.

As we passed by the aquarium that morning, we discovered that the power had gone out. The power company was working on fixing the problem, but the entire place was running on generators, meaning it was not open to the general public. The aquarium was the last place we had left to visit, so we didn't have anything else to do right then. We decided we would check back later, as they anticipated the power working again soon.

Instead, we walked a little distance to eat at an Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant for lunch. We all enjoyed our meal and got really full. Then, as we talked to Samantha about how she wanted to spend the money she had saved up from birthdays and Christmas and doing jobs around the house, we mentioned that Toronto had an American Girl store, so if she was interested in going there and looking around, she needed to let us know. We didn't want her to feel pressured because she had been waffling back and forth between what she wanted to spend her money on. However, we also thought it would help her to see the dolls and what they looked like, rather than just ordering one online. We took the ten minute walk to the store, and Samantha was pretty excited to see all the American Girl dolls, clothes, and accessories. They had many of the classic dolls like Kit and Samantha, as well as the dolls you can get that look like you. After looking at several different dolls, Samantha decided she liked how Kit looked the best, but then she picked a dress from Samantha's collection because she liked how it looked fancier. We decided to buy one extra outfit for Samantha's doll, so we thought it was only fair to let Aedan pick out something as well. He chose a backhoe loader truck that made noise. They both left happy with their purchases and couldn't wait until we got back to our AirBnB so they could open their presents. Here they are the kids looking at their bags while waiting at the bus stop.

And here they are posing with their presents for me. It was the middle of the afternoon, and the kids needed to take at least a short nap, but we decided to let them play with their toys for a little while first.

Samantha was so excited to get Kit out of the box.

Then, much to the chagrin of the kids, we had them both lay down for naps. The aquarium was finally open, so we wanted to make a trip back there later that evening; however, there was no way that would work unless the kids, especially Aedan, took a little bit of a nap. We had Aedan lay down in our bed and Samantha lay down on the bunk bed so they wouldn't disturb each other trying to fall asleep. They were both pretty tired and fell asleep relatively quickly, and once it got to be about 5:00, we decided to wake them both up so we could have dinner and go to the aquarium. I didn't realize Ben was doing this, but he took a few pictures of me as I woke Aedan up from his nap. He was totally out, and he is often slow to wake up from napping. I kissed him several times and cuddled with him for awhile before he finally decided it was okay to be awake.

Then, we were off for our last evening of adventure in Toronto. We took a bus to the train station where we caught a subway train downtown. The kids thought the subway was the most interesting mode of transportation. They looked down the tunnel, eagerly awaiting the headlights of the train to round the corner. They also were amazed at how fast it came up, and how fast we zoomed through the tunnels underground, knowing there were streets, cars, and buildings up above us. I think they would say the subway was their favorite, especially because it went faster and didn't have to to stop as much as the bus.

We found a Chipotle in between the subway station and the aquarium, so we stopped there for dinner first. We were definitely glad we came back to visit the aquarium that evening because the kids were really into it. They used to not find aquariums very interesting, but they definitely do now, especially Aedan. They wanted to look in every tank, at every animal.

In this large tank where you were lots of fish that you could see from different sides, they even named some of the fish based on what they looked like, like Mac and Cheese because it was a yellow-orange color.

This tank was a popular one because it had little Nemo and Dory fish in it. Aedan loved standing there and pointing to every Dory fish that swam by him. He even posed for a picture for me, which rarely happens with him.

Samantha will always pose for a picture for me and give me a good smile. :)

One of the coolest parts of the aquarium was a tunnel with a slow-moving walkway through a huge tank with a variety of sharks, turtles, and other fish. The kids were so excited every time they saw something swim by or overhead. They were so cute and so into it. It was difficult for them to keep their voices down and contain their excitement.

A little bit more than halfway through, there was a small break in the aquarium with interactive play areas for kids, like this tunnel to climb through, a small play structure with slides, a pretend submarine, and a water table area with boats. The kids had a lot of fun playing here. They also had a place where they could touch horseshoe crabs. Aedan was a little too afraid to stick his hand in the water, but Samantha was definitely not. In fact, she stayed there with Daddy for awhile talking to the aquarium employee about the horseshoe crab and what it was doing in the water.

I love these pictures of Samantha inside the fish tank tube. She wanted me to do her hair like Kit, which is why she had a small side ponytail with a matching ribbon in it. I love her big grin and her somewhat curly hair. She is a cute girl, and it's been wonderful spending so much time with her this summer. Aedan and I are going to miss her when she goes back to school in a few weeks.

After letting the kids play for awhile and realizing that there were more exhibits to see in the aquarium, as well as it realizing how late it was getting, we decided to move on, and a bit more quickly this time before the kids started losing their ability to behave. One of our favorite areas was a whole room full of really cool jellyfish.

There was another area where you could touch little things that would tickle your fingers, which they said was the animal eating dead skin off your fingers. Neither kid really wanted to let these guys crawl on them, but Ben got these cute pictures of the kids and me. I am not in very many pictures, so it's pretty precious to me to see pictures like this before we add another child to our family.

After we finished walking through the remainder of the aquarium, we decided to head back for the night. After all, it was after 9:00 and we still had to take a street car and a bus to get back to the apartment. However, the kids thought it was pretty interesting seeing the city lit up at night, a sight they don't get to see very often, which really is what this whole trip was all about.

Friday, August 11 we got ready, packed up, and headed on our drive back home. We wanted to pick Izzy up by 6:00, and we knew that getting across the bridge from Canada would take awhile as there was quite a large back up. We made much better time this time, even with the delay on the bridge, and we tried to stop less than we did on our way down. We still were a little late to pick up Izzy, but not too bad. Our trip was fun, the kids had a lot of fun and new experiences, and I'm really glad that we did it, but we were glad to be back home again, in our own house, our own beds, and not feeling cramped in a small space.

With having a busy week of going out and doing things on our trip, we took it easy around the house on Saturday, doing laundry, playing outside, and just spending some time relaxing and playing together. Here's a cute video I took of Aedan's special puppet show performance that evening. I'm not exactly sure why he called it a puppet show because it ended up not really involving puppets and was more of a singing, dancing, and guitar playing show. But it was great, and Samantha was a very enthusiastic audience member. Even Kit and Happy Bear were part of the audience. Samantha is pretending to be Happy Bear, and Aedan is talking to Happy Bear about his show. This is a pretty typical evening in our house, lots of noise, but lots of fun. :)

Sunday was a little bit different of a day because we went to the first service at church just like we usually do, but then we had plans to attend a church picnic that afternoon. We weren't sure about going because it started at 1:00, but we figured it would be good to go and meet some people, as well as just enjoy the nice, warm, sunny afternoon outside at Sherman Park. Everyone brought potluck dishes to share, and then most of the families with kids gravitated down to the water where the kids got time to swim and play in the sand. We ended up spending all afternoon there, and the kids had a great time climbing on rocks and playing in or near the water. Last summer we went to Sherman Park a lot more often, but this was really our first time going to there this summer to enjoy the beach. It was a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

After getting home and showering the kids off, we let them relax and watch a show since we skipped nap time/quiet time that day. Aedan was glad to have Happy Bear tucked under his arm.

With being gone for a whole week and missing time to get work done, Ben was back to his normal routine of going to campus on Monday. The kids and I ran a few errands around town, and then took Izzy on a walk over to campus. Samantha wanted to walk, and Aedan wanted to ride his bike, so I figured we would try it. However, I didn't realize how much Izzy barked at people on walks, so it was challenging for Samantha to hold Izzy's leash for very long. We went to Daddy's building to say hello and get some candy from Miss Sherry, but it was getting too close to lunch time and Aedan was getting tired. As a result, he wasn't paying as much attention to riding his bike, and he kept falling off his bike, getting hurt, and crying. Eventually he gave up riding his bike, just leaving it in the middle of the sidewalk and refusing to ride it anymore because of the scratch he got on his hand. Samantha was doing her best to try and help, even walking Aedan's bike all the way back home for him. With me being 35 weeks pregnant, it was a little too much for me to hold Izzy, help Aedan ride his bike, and allow Samantha to help out and walk with us as well, especially with how crabby Aedan got as we were out. It didn't help that I wasn't feeling well either, having lots of sharp pains throughout the day that was making it rather uncomfortable to move around.

That evening when Ben got home from work, he enlisted Samantha's help to water the flowers and bush out front. She likes this job, and she's a good helper around the house.

After dinner that evening, we decided to get some paper and paint out so the kids could make pictures for their little brother, Owen Patrick. We don't have many decorations for his room, so I figured this would be a cute way for the kids to make something special just for him. Aedan did lots of different colored scribbles, and Samantha did a large red heart in the middle with circles of different colors all around the outside because she said babies like to look at different colors. She spent a lot of time making it "just so," and it will be great to frame these paintings to display them in Owen's room. We also officially decided this baby boy's name will be Owen Patrick. We had been leaning towards that name for awhile now, but I finally felt comfortable writing Owen on the paintings and starting to tell people the name we decided on. I think doing this painting project helped it seem more real to the kids that their little brother will be arriving  in the next 5-6 weeks. It also helped me to feel like this little baby wiggling inside me had a name now, making it more real to me as well.

Then the kids roped Daddy into a family wrestling session with Batman assisting in the rescuing.

(Blog about August 8-14, 2017)