Toronto Zoo

We went to the Toronto zoo for the first time in over three years. My mom is here visiting for Leif's baptism (because the Canadian border finally opened to US citizens!). We took all the kids to the zoo and had a fun, but hot, day. We started with the carousel. Natalie was very wary of it at first, but once it started going around and her animal started going up and down, she started giggling and loved it! She didn't want to get off, but I finally persuaded her that there were more fun things to do at the zoo.

We say lemurs and tigers,

tortoises and peacocks (while we were having lunch)

gorillas and lions,

and zebras.

Natalie got a really good view of most of the animals by riding on my shoulders or most often on her brothers' shoulders. She was most eager to see rhinos (which she calls dookie-ookies, after her stuffed animal rhino) and saw two different kinds of rhinos.

We saw hippos and giraffes,

and the animals that was the biggest show off- the polar bear.

He swam back and forth for quite awhile, then started doing back flips through the water off the side of his pool. We watched him do this for over 20 minutes, just diving over and over again. He was still at it when we finally left- I guess its a fun way to entertain himself, and everyone loved watching him.

Natalie also loves flamingos (because they are pink) and was happy to see some.

The boys decided to pretend to be sloths just for fun.

They enjoyed walking through a little bridge under a waterfall.

And loved stopping for treats while we waited our turn to go into the splash pad. We had beaver tails, which are basically flat churro type bread- one with cinnamon and sugar and the other with nutella. Since Trevor can't have any of those, I bought him a pink lemonade which was quickly commandeered by Natalie who was convinced it was hers because it was pink.

She was way past her nap time and likely to throw a huge tantrum, but luckily my mom had gotten another pink lemonade and we avoided a huge meltdown.

The kids loved playing at the splash pad and cooling off. We are planning to go back to the zoo again next week with Austin's dad (we got a yearly membership since that cost only a little bit more than a one time pass for everyone) .

 

Manitoulin Island

We took a trip to Manitoulin Island this weekend. Its the world's largest fresh water island and it's in Lake Huron. We got there by driving up through Bruce peninsula to a little town on the tip of the peninsula called Tobermory, then  took a ferry to the island. We visited Tobermory last summer, but only took a boat ride to a small island called Flower Pot Island for a few hours. We've wanted to take the ferry to Manitoulin for a few years, so we finally made it happen this year. We woke up early super early (as you can tell Natalie is still in her nightgown with the stuffed animal she sleeps with). We were hoping the kids would sleep on the three and half hour drive, but they were to excited for the first part of the trip and didn't fall asleep until the last hour or so. Here are the kids with Austin before we boarded the ferry.

This is the kids and I on board the ferry

This is Asher watching the front of the boat close after all the cars had boarded. And below Leif and Trevor watching excitedly as we got started.

The ferry ride lasted for about an hour and a half so the kids had plenty of time to walk all over, explore, and ask if we were almost there.

The kids loved running on the deck in the wind. Heidi also got very hyper and started dancing all over the deck for awhile.

This is a photo from inside the van as we were about to drive off the ferry.

This is the view from where we unloaded.

Our first stop was a little plant shop with a farmer's market out front. An Amish man was selling some farm produce, but the kids just wanted to visit with his horses.

We saw some deer on our way to a beach where we had lunch.

It was only about 70 degrees so I didn't pack swimsuits, thinking that it would be too chilly to swim, but it was very sunny and felt very warm so the kids got into the surf anyway. Luckily I brought an extra pair of clothes for Trevor, who got the wettest.

We had a little visitor for most of our time at our picnic. It kept fluttering around and landing on the kids' shoes.

We planned to do a hike that is supposed to be moderately hard, but really pretty, but Natalie had just fallen asleep when we got there and we didn't think the kids would be up for it. I was a little disappointed, but it leaves something for us to do next year- we definitely plan on returning to Manitoulin Island, for a few days or maybe even a week.

Instead we stopped at another famous site called Bridal Veil Falls. This was a very easy walk down some stairs- unfortunately it was pretty crowded- Austin just did a good job cropping out the other people. I guess that's just what you get when you go on a Saturday in August with perfect weather.

I think one of the best parts for the kids was wading down the river where there were far fewer people.

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The last stop we made before we had to head out for our long drive home was a little gift shop with an amazing view.

We left the island on the north side via a bridge. It was a longer drive home, but we didn't have to pay for or wait for a ferry and we wanted to take the opportunity to see more of Ontario.

It was a very fun trip, the driving wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been and we all had a fun and memorable day!