July 2015

 

July was awesome as well as June.  Lots of time with friends and family, a trip, and a concert!

 

The boys had their annual physicals, didn't need any shots, and never pass up a sucker.

Jackie and I took the boys and friends to the Hangar (airport restaurant) for breakfast, then headed to Ceraland for a day of fun including archery, swimming, putt-putt, and boating.

 

When Chef Bianca hosts book club, it's an amazing evening!

 

A friend offered me ridiculously low priced tickets to the One Direction concert.

I will thrilled that Sarah Towsley wanted to go with me.  It was so much fun to experience it with a true fan!!  We had a great night at Lucas Oil Stadium where the Colts play.

 

When we first entered.  We had much better seats.

 

 



 

Thomas took a computer design course in Toronto, so we made a family vacation out of the trip!  We had a ton of fun, but missed Thomas while he was at the University of Toronto all week.

 

Our first night's dinner in London, Ontario. 

 

Unstaged photo below.  This is how they were playing a game together while we waited for our delicious Japanese food.

We said goodbye to Thomas at the University of Toronto.  He had a great week.  

We had a great hotel with a rooftop area that gave us great views of the city.

I had to try the poutine.  It's a Canadian favorite - french fries with beef, gravy, and cheese curds.  Surprisingly good, although very filling!

We took a double decker bus tour that gave us a chance to get off and on at a lot of places we planned to visit.

 

We had lunch at the CN Tower.  The last time I was there was for work when I was expecting Thomas - about 16 years ago!

 

We also took a boat tour of the islands off of Toronto and the harbor.  Great skyline views.

We went to a few museums.  I was anxious to see the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) and the Henry Moore exhibit since we have a pretty famous Henry Moore here in town.

 

The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) was pretty impressive too - natural history.

 



Because of preservation laws in Toronto, no historic building can be modified on the exterior.  So this portion of the building is actually just placed on the historical original building.  Pretty cool.



 

Toronto had a big impact on Brennan.  He could see himself studying there or living there.  He's always liked cosmopolitan cities that we've visited. 

 

Then we were off to Niagara Falls.  I've been wanting to visit for the longest time.  We had a ball.

 

View from our hotel room of the two falls!

 

View inside the hotel room.  Ha.

 

After dinner we thought it was impressive that they had the falls lit up.  Then David said "Bonnie, come look, quick!"  They had fireworks over the falls.  It was incredible.

 

The next day we took the boat tour of the falls.  We saw a full rainbow off the bow of the boat.

And got to see the falls up close.

 

It was awesome, and the only downside was that Thomas wasn't with us. 

I suggested he take his wife on their honeymoon one day (to which he rolled his eyes).

 

Watching the boat tours

 

Playing around with panorama.  That's our hotel in the background.

 

We were so excited that Grandma Nan, Aunt Shelly, Natalie and Danielle got to visit us!

And Uncle Dave one night as well!

 

We spent one day visiting all sorts of places in town.

 

Like the popcorn store that we like so much.

The kids took off one day on a scavenger hunt.

 

But we spent a lot of our time swimming.  Including a diving board contest.

 

Then we headed to Great Wolf Lodge in Cincinnati.

And indoor/outdoor water park that we've only visited in the winter, but it turns out to be great in the summer too!

Wonderful food, lots of swimming and activities for the kids.

A very full and awesome July 2015!