Canada Trip - Part 2

The time has come to actually blog about the second half of our 10 year anniversary trip to Canada. It was like, almost a year ago now so I won't remember much. I'll try.

I don't remember the days now, but it will still be in order. So, one of the days we decided to take a trip into Toronto to tour the city and go to the temple. I'm not really going to say much about this day. It was a really bad day. I wanted to kill my husband, I missed the kids, and wanted to come home REALLY bad. I actually tried to book an early flight home but it was too expensive. I'll leave it at that.

So anywho.....Eventually we found the temple and wanted to do a session. It was closed. Bummer. So we went back into Toronto and tried to check out the city by ourselves, but it was too hard. We gave up and went back to our condo. Super long, frustrating day. Oh, and on a our way back there was this amazing amusement park we wanted to go to. Everyone talked about how amazing it was. But ya, it was closed too. I guess in the fall they only open on the weekends. Bummer again. So let's just forget this day ever happened. But I am glad I can at least say I saw the Toronto temple.

The next day we actually decided we would take a guided tour of Toronto. We didn't want to dish out the money to do it, but it was worth it. We took a bus from our condo. I think it about 1 1/2 hours to get into Toronto. The first attraction was Fort York.

Our super goofy guide. He was a little, ok alot, cheesy.

I was trying to take a picture of the barracks and this silly looking dude got in the way. I know, he's a little creepy. Someone should tell him he should lose the stash.

To be honest....I wasn't that interested. I know, shocker. I don't think I even paid attention, but I'm sure it was super interesting. I think it had something do with a war between Canada and the U.S. Oh geeze, I should stop typing because I'm sure it makes me sound really dumb. Oh well, anyone that knows me, knows I have no interest in history. If I ever have any interest to learn about the place I went, I'll google it.

Next stop.....CN Tower.

This was my favorite attraction. The CN Tower is THE tallest building in the world. The whole world! Pretty cool right? See! I can pay attention. Not really, I just googled it. It is 1, 815 feet tall. That's tall.

The glass floor was pretty cool. This is at 113 storeys.

The tour also included lunch at the revolving 360 restaurant. That was also super awesome. I'm going to say it took about 15-20 minutes to make a complete 360.

View from the lookout level. 114 storeys.

Last stop.....Casa Loma. Even though I didn't really pay much attention to the istory of this house, it was pretty freaking amazing.

This was some really rich dudes house. It is over 170,000 square feet. That is huge. He built the generating plant at Niagara Falls. Among many other things. Eventually he lost everything and the city now owns the house due to back taxes. It was abandoned for a long time and homeless people lived there. Eventually it was restored. They were actually still doing restoration work when we toured it. I especially like the secret passages that you are actually allowed to use. Nothing is off limits at the castle. It has towers and tunnels, and all sorts of cool things. There is an 800 foot underground tunnel that lead to the stables. That was cool, and creepy. We climbed up one of the towers. That was a little creepy too. Which is right up my alley. I like creepy

This is the Oak Room. This room is famous for being in a lot of movies. The only one I remember is X-men.

Anyway, tons of amazing things and pictures. It would take me all night to post them all. It was a good day. I'm glad we did the tour. It is a must if you go to Toronto.

Our last day there we did zipline/obstacle course through the rainforest. Looking back on it, it was fun. You know, one of those things that isn't fun while you're doing it, but it was fun after your done? It was definately a work out and I was sore for days. It was absolutely beautiful.

The end.

10 Year Anniversary-Part 1

For our 10 year anniversary we (when I say "we" it really means "I") really wanted to something spectacular. Well, since we aren't rich, we had to settle for something just cool. We decided on Niagara Falls. Since we have a timeshare that we don't use we decided we better use that. I looked up the closest resort to Niagara Falls and the result was this.....

Carriage Hills Resort somewhere in ON, Canada. When I say "somewhere in Canada" that means in the middle of nowhere, we later found out.

So off to Canada we go! We flew in to Buffalo New York on Saturday night because it was way cheaper and we had to rent a car anyway so we decided to drive over the border. What an adventure! Driving in a foreign place, not knowing where the heck to go. Ha. One thing I will advice you not to do is try driving over the border with Nathan. I won't go into to detail but just leave it at that he knows exactly what NOT to say when you're trying to get into another country. Geeze. We ended up having to call our resort from the border to prove that we were staying there. I had to shut him up and do the talking. Good times.

So after finally getting into Canada successfully we stayed the night in Niagara Falls since we flew in really late. We walked down to the falls and checked out Niagara at night. Our hotel was really close.

Much, much more amazing and beautiful in person.

The next morning, Sunday, we went back, got up close and personal, and did the Maid of the Mist tour.

American Falls

Niagara Falls

I loved the Falls. I wish we would have spent more time there since that was the whole purpose we chose our vacation spot. However, this was the only time we spent there because I didn't realize our resort was 2 1/2 hours away. Oops. Maybe Nate should plan the next vacation. After the tour we drove to the resort, um, in the middle nowhere. Seriously. I think the population of the town we were in was like 11. Not really, but super small. A tiny little grocery store, a gas station, and a couple of family owned restaurants. That's it. That made it easy to decide where to eat! It was really beautiful and the leaves were starting to turn.

When we got into town we went grocery shopping and just lounged at our condo. The condo was super nice. Some of my favorite things were the full size kitchen, fireplace, and the BEST, most comfortable jacuzzi tub I've ever used. I should have taken some pictures of it but I didn't. Just take my word for it. Amazing! I took a bath everyday, sometimes twice a day and never stepped foot in the shower.

We went on this vacation having nothing planned. Literally nothing! What we didn't know when we planned nothing was that there would be nothing to do once we got there. Monday we woke up and got in the car looking for something to do. I found a chocolate shop close by, yummy, and asked the nice girl what there was to do. She said nothing. Thanks for the help! She did mention a famous beach that was about an hour away and gave us a map. It was Wasaga Beach, which is the world's longest fresh water beach. That sounded awesome so we went!

The beach did not look like this.

It looked more like this. Vacant. I guess no one goes to the beach there in the fall. Ha ha.

On our way back we did find this....

They were pretty um....darn good. And yes, I do know that my husband looks like a perve with his mustache. Don't get me started. I hope he's embarrassed by these pictures because I know I was!

Update on my Car

One week and two days later my car was found. It was called in by some quail hunters. Exactly where it was? I'm not sure. All I know is it was near the Hubbard cemetary up the wash a ways.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about it yet. I'm happy is was found and I can have peace of mind about where it is. However, our biggest fear was that they would find it, it would be trashed, not totalled, and never be the same again. And that's exactly what happened. There is not enough damage to total it so it will be fixed. All we can do is hope that it will come back good as new.

It really could have been alot worse and it's not as bad as it looks. There is about $12,000 worth of damage. Alot of that is in the rims and tires. Aside from the obvious (rims and tires) the damage isn't that bad. There is minimal underneath damage, possibly from being dropped. It needs a new transmission and battery because they took it. All the door panels and speakers need replaced because they ripped them out. They tried to take the TV and didn't succeed, so it's broken. The bumper is smashed up. They took some programming stuff out of the hood, to disable the on star I believe. I'm sure there's alot I'm missing, but that's the big stuff I can remember. It was really dirty from having the back open and windows down in the desert for week. As far as body damage, it was just the front and back bumpers.

Hopefully I will get it back soon. This impala I've been driving around doesn't fit 3 carseats in the back.

Alot of people are asking if I will sell it and get something else. I'll just have to wait and see what I think when I get it back. Right now, I plan on keeping it. I don't know for sure, but I don't think it will bother knowing what it's been through and the bad memories it will bring back.

Oh, and just so you know.....it totally wasn't my fault the car was stolen. It was 100% Nate's fault, ha ha. All they wanted were those stupid rims that I fought tooth and nail against. I did not want them on my car and Nate would not listen to reason. Me and Nate usually get along pretty well, but this is one thing that we fought about, like really seriously fought about. Yes, I was a little bitter at him for awhile after he put them on. I don't like the attention, and they definately got lots of attention. It made me really uncomfortable watching all the guys check them out anywhere I went. So you see? Not my fault. Not even a little. =)

(If you don't know how it was stolen you might want to read below and it might be a little funnier that I blame him.)

And off the record (don't tell Nate) I want my car back exactly the same, rims and all.

Farwell to my long lost beautful Tahoe

***Disclaimer. This was written the day after I got my car stolen. I just never published it. Now that the car has been found, alot of this is irrelevant.

Thank you for all the wonderful memories. You will truly be missed.


So, I don't really want to post about this because, honestly, it's a little embarrassing. But everyone keeps asking so here goes. Last night I learned a really hard (expensive) lesson and it resulted with getting my car stolen. Yep, that's right, MY CAR! I'm a little mad, and a little sad, and feel a little foolish.

I had a jewelry show in Safford. Short version of the story is I went inside to do my show and came out when I was done and my car was gone, with my purse and phone and whatever else is in there. And yes, if you must know, it was unlocked with my keys in the ignition just begging to be taken. You're probably thinking, "that was pretty stupid" and you are absolutely right. And no, I don't need to hear it a million more times for it to sink in. It has already done sunk in, thank you.

In my defense (even though it will do no good) I am usually so good to lock my car and not leave my purse in the car when I'm not at home. I was just unloading and got busy and forgot about it. I even had that prompting to grab my keys and purse and just never came back to it. You have no idea how badly I wish I had. Never ignore those promptings!

I keep hearing that it was just a possession. Yes, it's true, the car was just a possession and it can be replaced. I keep having to remind myself of that. However, the sentimental value of it and the invasion of my space was not just a possession. I know this may sound really silly but I kind of feel like a part of my identity was taken. Well, I guess literally it was, since my purse was taken, but I'm not talking about that. I kind of feel like my car was part of my identity. Does that make sense? Not really, I guess, but I just feel a little lost without my car. It makes me sick to think of where it is, who is in it, and what they are doing. Is it in the river bottom? Is it already in Mexico? Is it in someone's garage being pieced out? They now possess my personal information and can find out anything about me that they want. I feel vulnerable. They have my address, my house keys, my kids info, everything! I just pray it was some stupid teenager looking for a thrill and not someone looking to sell me.

There you have it. Just a little venting session. Now all I can do is move on and do the best I can to forget about it and take whatever comes my way.

Look who's 1!

Mallory turned one on September 2nd. At least I think it was on the 2nd. I can't keep it straight anymore. I have to be corrected all the time when my kids birthdays are. Can you believe it's already been a year? Doesn't it seem not that long ago that you were all annoyed at how much I was complaining about being pregnant?

We didn't do much for her birthday. Actually, we didn't do anything at all? That evening I was feeling bad that we didn't really acknowledge her birthday that I went and bought a little piece of cake for her. I think it was a part of a wedding cake. No presents. Nothing. Isn't that how it goes after you've had a couple of kids already? Please tell me yes, so I don't feel like a complete loser. I think you just start realize that they have no idea and don't even care it's their birthday when they're one. Look at her! She's happy. No party or anything.

Mallory has been such a joy. I know I say it all the time, but she really is the BEST baby. She is so easy. She rarely cries. She's always happy and lauging and smiling. She has slept through the night from day one. Perfect! And cute. And let's not forget chubby. Perfectly chubby. I sure love love LOVE my Miss Mally. I still can't get enough of her.

Kindergarten

Wowza! I can't believe I have a kindergartener! I know, I know, lots of you my age had one years ago. I just can't believe how fast time flies. Elly has been ready to start school for years now. She is such a social butterfly. She has loved every second of it so far. Here are some pictures of her first day of school.

And this is a picture of her second day at school. Being the bad mother that I am, I didn't even think about taking a camera to take pictures at school with her teacher until I saw everyone else doing it. Oops. Se we settled for second, but still no teacher. O' well. Isn't she the cutest kindergartener you've ever seen? I think so.

Piggies and Beans

My two other girls were born with tons of hair and had better piggies than this in the hospital. They didn't leave any hair for poor Mally. Here is Mallory almost a year old with her first pigtails. Finally! A little bit of hair. I can't complain too much. It is much easier to get her ready in the morning when there's no hair!

All of my girls are so different. It's amazing how all three can be so different and come from the same gene pool. Elly and Ragan are both horrible eaters. They just don't like to eat. Mally doesn't seem to have that problem. She LOVES food. Any food. And it shows. I took Ragan and Mallory to the Dr. a couple weeks ago and they weigh the same. Ha.

She's a healthy one, that's for sure! She can eat more than the other two put together in one sitting. Bring on the food!

July

Hmmmm. July must have been a kicken month. These are the only pictures I have for July. Either it was a really boring month, or I just haven't been very good at pictures lately. I'm guessing the later. Because with all these kids....how could it possibly be boring!

This is at Dhanni's baptism and we had all the grandkids together at one time! That doesn't happen too often since they are spread from coast to coast. The kids were in heaven playing at Nana's all day with the cousins. I wonder if Nana was in heaven? I'm thinking no.

The only other picture I have is of Mallory in her new big girl carseat. I think she likes it.

Happenings in June

I really truly thought I would get away with raising my children and none of them cutting their own, or each others hair. It happens to the best of us I guess.

Elly came running to me so excited with her preschool sissors and told me she gave Ragan a hair cut. I didn't think anything of it because I thought there was no way those sissors could cut hair. I thought she was just pretending to play beauty school. I was wrong. Obviously. This picture actually doesn't look too bad, right?

The back didn't look as good. It could have been sooooo much worse. At least it was fixable. I got lucky. I guess it would be more accurate to say, lucky Elly.

Thanks to the rescue of a friend, it looks really good! I fell in love it. Lucky Elly. She got off easy.

It has grown out quite a bit since then and after seeing these pictures again I might actually get it cut again. Elly? Could you help me out?


Also, Nathan bought an above ground swimming pool. Mostly for himself. He lets the kids swim in it too. They love it. Can you tell?

Just a few picture of the girls in June. The grow up so fast and change month to month.

Gosh dang, I have some cute girlies.

Elly came running to me a few days after she had cut Ragan's hair and again with excitement, told me that she did Ragan hair. I was a little scared at what I would find.

Luckily it was just a cute little girl covered in flowers.