Ethan and Kona

Ethan LOVES dogs.  All shapes and sizes.  When we are at the park he runs up to a dog and pets it (gently and nicely, I might add).  A while back he claimed a stuffed dog out of Micah and Joel's stuffed animal basket.  We named the dog Kona.  About a month later he claimed another small stuffed dog and I named it Hilo, which Ethan promptly dubbed "my udder (other) doggie". 

Kona's new bed.

So today we went to Costco and we had the boxes left.  Ethan dragged it into his room and put Kona in it and declared it was his bed!  That wasn't enough, however:

He had to sleep there too!  Needless to say he stayed in that bed for about 15 minutes.

Nueva escuela de espanol

Today Micah starts his new escuela de espanol.  It is an private after-school program and the only one in this city of 5 million people that we could find geared towards kids.  He'll go once a week to the "club" and then individual tutoring twice a week.  Praying that all goes well!

Toronto Zoo

Joel was too scared to see the bear!

On Monday we hit the Toronto Zoo.  The clouds looked menacing, but I thought, "We're Seattlites, right?  We laugh at rain where we come from!"  The difference here is that it actually, rains, as in POURS.  In Seattle its more like being in a mist... most of the time.  No one ever ever uses an umbrella in Seattle.  Here, many do.  Anyway, we got drenched, but we saw some indoor exhibits.  The Children's zoo was very unique with lots of interesting exhibits for the kids to climb around--like climbing into a turtle shell, turtle eggs, pretending you're in a prarire dog, etc.  The racoon habitat looked like a backyard of someone's house.  They also have a HUGE spray park with slides.  It looks super fun.  We can't wait to try that out next summer. 

We also saw the snake/reptile house, jaguars, tiger, Australia, macaws and polar bears.  They have an exhibt where you can walk right through the middle of the kangaroos/emus!

at the Children's Zoo

Library

Sometimes its just the little things that make your day.  Like being able to aquire a library card.  In my infinite wisdom I forgot to pack any books for the kids, so they haven't been reading much.  Micah was in heaven and is now busily reading away.  There hasn't been much for him to do here so that is a blessing.   This place is so small we couldn't have really brought much else anyway. 

Now if I could just get a frying pan, THAT would make life just plain easier!! I only have 2 small sauce pans and 1 medium sauce pan for cooking. And no cutting board.  There is only service for 4 here and at last count we had 5 people in our family!

Niagara Falls

So thanks to my good friend, Dana, we were able to pick up our car on Saturday.  We had it shipped to Niagara Falls, NY since it was half price to ship it in country rather than internationally.  I forgot to bring the title to the vehicle with us so I had to overnight the key to the safe to Dana who then went over to the house and found the title for us. THANK YOU!!

Since we *had* to drive down to Niagara Falls anyway, we decided to make a day trip and go on Maid of the Mist.  That was amazing!  Honestly, I know you've heard this 100 times, but pictures don't do the Falls justice.  When you are on the boat , you have 180 degrees of water encircling you, it is just amazing. It is like you are standing in a running shower, full blast.  We also were able to see a rainbow while on the boat! 

This is Horseshoe Falls  from Rainbow Bridge, which connects the US and Canada.  We took a disposable camera on the boat so it will take...ahem... a while to get that developed!  Joel was looking at the camera and he was pushing random buttons on it...he said "how do you see the pictures on this?"  HA, he thought it was a digital camera!  I don't think he's ever seen film.

Documenting our short 6 hours in New York.

Once we got over to New York we found our way to the lot with the Sequoia and then went shopping of course!  With import duties and 15% sales tax, things in Ontario cost A LOT MORE.  We hit up Target and the outlet malls, and gratefully replaced our previously-stolen GPS!! 

One note about Niagara Falls.  The Canadian side is so much prettier, owing to the  fact that both Falls face the Canadian side, so they have the prime real estate to invest in touristy-type attractions.  (But if you have the chance, go on the Maid of the Mist from the American side, its cheaper, and you see the exact same thing).  But it was interesting to cross the border and suddenly be pretty much in the ghetto.  Granted we didn't turn into the tourist part of town, but suddenly we saw boarded up windows everywhere.  Contrasted with a Clean Las Vegas -feel from the Canadian side. 

Toronto!

Some have suggested I resurrect the blog to tell of our adventures here in Toronto. We decided to move here for 1 year for a temporary position at Microsoft Canada. We thought it would be a good move for the kids to experience a different culture and an adventure to explore a new place.

We arrived the 28th of August. The next day we house hunted like crazy and found a place, thank goodness! Our current temporary housing is on the 3oth floor of a high-rise building. Very claustrophobic with 3 boys, to be sure! We are now waiting for our shipment of goods to arrive here to be able to move in.