I had intentions of writing this post prior to leaving for Toronto. But in the craziness of it all....well it never happened. There was so much to worry about prior to leaving, but in the end everything turned out just fine! The day we left to come here went relatively well.....as well as can be expected with 13 luggage items and 2 kids!!!!
My dad drove us to the airport bright and early...we were up at 4:30...I guess it was a good way to get on Toronto time....it was already 6:30 there! Things went unbelievably well at the Edmonton airport! BEST experience I
have had yet! Maybe it was because it was my first in Canada flight and we didn't have to go through customs. We dropped off our 6 checked bags and carseat, then continued on through security. We were still hauling 6 carry-ons and 2 kids, so it was really nice when one of the airport workers offered us a ride on his airport cart to our gate!! LIFE SAVER!!! ha ha
We found our gate, grabbed some breakfast from a little shop (fruit cup and danish- oh so healthy I know!!) :)
We only had a short wait until our flight started to board....we were priority boarding with our 2 kids and so we quickly loaded
the plane and in no time we were off! Mas
on absolutely loved it!!! It was sooo exciting for him to watch the ground get further away and all of the cars and houses to look like tiny ants! We let him have the window seat and he stayed glued to it watching until we could no longer see the ground with the cloud cover! Then we switched to movies on the laptop! We weren't sure if our plane would have an in flight movie, so we had bought Rio and saved it for the flight! It worked great! Aubrey did really good for most of the flight too. She started to get a little restless but finally fell asleep for a much needed nap!! We landed safely in Toronto on schedule and with only 1 item of luggage taking it's sweet time to get to us(broken belt and a 20 min wait) and now we jus
t had to get to our place!!
Just call a cab!!! It sounded easy
enough, but it was almost my breaking point!!! I called the taxi service we had planned on using and told them we needed a minivan taxi at terminal 1(at least that is where I thought we were). We waited the allotted time and started to wonder....we looked around and couldn't see any clear sign for terminal one so we started to wonder....we asked someone where we were supposed to get out taxi and they pointed us down the line to a sign clearly labelled as the place to wait for a taxi....so we quickly hurried over and I made a quick phone call back to the taxi company to let them know we had waited in the wrong spot and we were now where we were supposed to be. After waiting on hold with them for 10 min they finally informed me that the taxi came and we weren't there and they didn't have any more taxi's for us!
It may not have seemed like that big of a deal to some.....but I lost it....I started crying...I was in a foreign
city, with a massive amount of luggage, 2 tired kids and 2 lost adults!! Mike flagged someone down and asked how to get a new taxi, they called one for us and shortly we had a taxi.....but he looked at all our stuff and said it wouldn't fit!!! Not all of our stuff and us!! I almost bawled again until Mike simply asked if we couldn't just hold one of our kids on our lap! Yup you can and away we went!! Thank goodness for a husband that can keep a cool head!
I don't look to impressed, but mostly I am trying to stay composed so I don't bawl my eyes out. Both kids fell asleep on the way to our place as we took our first cab ride and got our first sight of the CN Tower and of downtown Toronto!!
My friend was waiting at our place with our small crate of items that were shipped and she showed us the ropes of getting moved into our apartment and finding the grocery store and how to get around Toronto. She and he
r family also had us over for dinner the first night and were just amazing for helping us out! I literally couldn't have done it with out her!! We are mostly settled now and we are getting pretty used to walking everywhere. It has been the hardest on Mason as he is having to learn that he must ALWAYS hold onto the stroller or mine or Mikes hand, and he often tells us that his legs are getting tired. Poor guy! We tell him he is amazing and strong and fast like superman and he usually picks up and keeps going. I am sooo proud of him!! We have taken the subway numerous times and we have walked everywhere! Thank goodness you can access all your needs with in a block!!! We have got to do a lot of really cool things already, we have been to the ROM(Royal Ontario Museum) twice already. It is free every Wed. between 3:30 and 5:30. We have been down to the harbour front we have been to a Blue Jays game(they even had a pretty amazing come-back win!) and we have walked and seen some amazing buildings that a a part of the University of Toronto. We have been so blessed and I feel so luck to have to opportunity to live here for the next 2 years! We are on a crazy adventure....so tag a long and find out a little more about Toronto through our eyes!!! Sorry this was a MASSIVE post, I will try to stay more consistent so you don't have to read a novel every time!
