[Edit: I'm sorry if the layout is all effed up here. Need help from husband who is not home at the moment to make stupid wordpress work properly! Check back soon!]

In the spirit of family togetherness we ventured out of London this week and made the trip to Toronto to spend some time with friends. This group of friends are a lovely bunch of people, none of whom, have children. So the fact that they put up with us, and the many limitations that accompany sightseeing with children (a.k.a touring the ROM at the speed of light), speaks volumes about their character.

They put up with my four year old who wanted to play silly games and lead each and every one of them around by the hand. They put up with my two year old who wanted to be carried around by whichever adult was nearest, whether they were biologically related to him or not. They put up with their annoying antics and my whining and helped us schlep our gear everywhere it needed to go. They didn’t laugh (much) when I wrote my cell number on my kids arms in ballpoint pen (in case we lost them). I have to say that if you are going to tour downtown Toronto with two young children, doing it with an adult to child ratio of three to one is the way to go!

So to O, A, S and D…thanks for making the trip so much fun! And to S, especially, for letting us camp out at your place and sleeping on the couch just so we could sleep in beds, you are the best!

We practiced taking the subway since our up and coming new home will likely involve subway travel from time to time (for those of you who don’t yet know…am I driving you crazy yet?). Avery thought it was great fun. I thought it was pretty much like every other form of public transit. Loud and dirty. But whatevs.

We saw the bones of flying turtles.

We sat down because our feet were so effing tired from hiking through the endless floors of the ROM took cheesy pictures.

My kids refused to look at the camera while I took their pictures because look! It’s shiny! A shiny chair!

Then we stayed up too late, got really mad had a lot of fun playing Apples to Apples, were woken up at an ungodly hour by the kids, had a sweet brunch, and headed off for a day of being gang-raped by price-gouging vendors at excitement at Niagara Falls.

I haven’t been to Niagara Falls since I was a little kid. What I do remember is that the day we were there in about 1986? It rained. Yesterday? Same deal. Pouring. Rain. Niagara new I was coming, yo.

I will be the first to admit that when we arrived, after driving through stupid traffic and pouring rain, I was not in the most cheerful of moods. But after we started to walk around and the rain stopped for a bit and we took the traditional pictures in front of the falls, I felt a bit better.

We agreed that the one thing we wouldn’t feel was a complete waste of money spend our money on would be the Maid of the Mist boat tour. The kids enjoyed the trip. Here we are. I am the one who looks like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Kieran loved his complimentary garbage bag rain slicker so much he insisted on wearing it ALL. DAY. Even for the two hour ride home. And really, how could I say no? Because hello? Cutest. Ripoff. Ever.

But then I had to rip it off in fist-sized chunks around his car-seat seatbelt half an hour from home as his devotion to the plastic souvenier suddenly turned into the fiery hatred of a thousand burning suns and had to be removed IMMEDIATELY. At that point it was slightly less endearing.

All in all, despite the horrendous weather, it was a fun day. That’s Family Togetherness: 1, Craptastic Weather: 0 (or 32984323, depending on how you look at it).