The last few days
The last few days have been super busy but oh so fun!
On Saturday we celebrated Leahanne and Henry getting married. Brian's cousin Leahanne (on Brian's dad's side) and I have had the same name since 2004, however her last name is now changed. So from one Leanne to another, much congratulations!
The day was hot, however, he kids totally rocked the dance floor! Hadley had all the groomsmen swinging her around, and Easton was dancing around the entire room. It was awesome!
We stayed late and got home at 2am, but we all had a fantastic time! The bride and groom looked so happy!
The next day we hosted Brian's two sisters and Brian's cousin Paul (from Brian's mom's side), his wife and two kids.
Again, a good time, with way too much food!
We were so tired after this that we cancelled a playdate on the Monday and had a relaxing day to recuperate.
Tuesday we met up with my brother Joe at African Lion's Safari and had another fantastic summer day. I am truly grateful for being able to fully enjoy time with my children.
We did the safari bus ride, the water park where the water slides were a big hit, and then saw the three shows! We even did the petting zoo area and so much more.
I love that we were able to get together with Joe on this day.
Wednesday the kids had dentist appointments to have a good cleaning before back to school, okay, so the timing just worked out. :)
Then we packed up our overnight stuff and headed to Toronto where Brian has been staying all week for work.
Hadley was signed up for a work with your child day on Thursday with Brian at Linuxcon. She was so excited!
Brian had a gala to attend Wednesday night so I took the kids swimming and then did my best to get them a good night's sleep as the next day was going to be long.
Thursday Hadley practically raced through the morning prep, breakfast and walk to work and Brian said she did fantastic, even winning a baseball cap for a well answered question.
Easton and I spent the day in Toronto taking in some sights. We went to Ripley's Aquarium and arrived at Ripley's just after a wonderful hotel breakfast at around 9 am.
There were about 3 dozen people there but we walked right in. There was space between us and the next visitors so it was good.
We took our time, enjoying the moving sidewalk through the floor to ceiling aquarium section, and then played for about an hour and a half in the kids play area, then went on to watch a diver feed the Rays, and then we had the opportunity to touch the Rays ourselves. Easton really wanted to go back through to do more at the play area, so with time to do so, we got in line, waited for about 15 minutes to get in and then what happened next was pretty much unbelievable... there were thousands of people, we couldn't see the aquariums at all, everyone was stepping on everyone and their strollers, and the play area was a ZOO! We did not stay long on this second run through.
After getting back outside, we found there to be about a three hour long line just to get in to said zoo.
SO glad we went when it opened.
So, it was time to move on.
It was about 1:30pm now and time to find some lunch. We grabbed some food from the food truck and headed over to the CBC building where Easton and I sat on some comfy couches and watched the news on the big screen, then went for a tour of CBC, years past. We saw things like the treehouse and easel from Mr. Dressup, The Friendly Giant castle, and information boards for the first broadcast for hockey etc. Easton tried out some sound making fun by crinkling things in front of a microphone, and opening and closing door latches.
From here we went to the roundhouse just south of the CN tower to see the trains and we even rode on the mini train. $6 for the two of us.
There was a playground there too where we spent a little time but Easton said it was for little kids so not too long.
Then we saw a huge grey cloud off in the distance, so we started walking to the place where Brian and Hadley were for the day.
Enroute we saw Adam, James and Tara. Adam was in Hadley's kindergarten class and we use to walk to school with him almost every day. We were taking a detour as there was a suspicious package found in a building near where we were so we were taking a longer way which worked out since we got to see them.
And then... we got caught in the rain, so what did we do? We started to sing of course, and run and skip.
Then after meeting up with Brian and Hadley, you would think out day would be done, but no.
It so happens that my old colleagues were getting together to toast to our dear friend Lisa (who sadly lost her battle to cancer) as it was her birthday this month.
It has almost been a decade since I left, and yet we all get in a room and it is like no time is lost even thought almost everyone there is now working at a new company.
Seriously they were fantastic people to work with.
After a couple of BEvERages and some food, it was time to call the day to an end and head home.