Toronto: Day Sixteen

Have I mentioned yet that Toronto has really nice grass?



I mean like, "stop-on-your-way-back-to-the-car-for-a-quick-game-of-leapfrog" nice grass.



It's just so soft. You can't help but kick your shoes off and roll around in it.



Speaking of nice grass. It's good to know they have these nearby.



We spent a few hours at the Shops at Don Mills on Sunday. We started off with lunch, outdoors, at a place called Glow Fresh. It was a bit hoity-toity for me but the food was good. It struck me as very European. Somehow we managed to escape there without the boys breaking anything.

Next it was off for some shoe shopping. They had a New Balance store and both Abe and I are in the market for new running shoes. We ended up buying a pair for each of us but we're going to return them. Despite their "buy one, get one half off" sale, we can buy them both at full price on Zappos and still save $50! How insane is that??? I love Zappos. I'm sorry but if you aren't shopping there yet, you're crazy.



I don't know what they sell at Anthropologie. It could be fossils for all I know. I just wanted a picture of the shops for the blog.

After the shoe shopping, we hit up what they call the "town square" at the shops. It has a water fountain that was open for the kiddos to splash around in (which we did not partake in). And on Sunday they had a bounce house and inflatable obstacle course set up. The boys were able to burn up some energy.

Let me tell you about the man monitoring the obstacle course. Picture if you will, a drill sergeant. The course had two holes at the entrance so basically two kids could start at the same time and race each other to the end. This guy was adamant that the kids "work it out" for themselves as to whom would race against whom. That's not a bad idea, really. But it's as if he drew an invisible line in the grass and as soon as any parent crossed it, he barked "I need all parents to step away from the children". He also made it very clear that this obstacle course was not suited for small children. Anytime he read a look of disappointment on the face of a parent because their child was too small he would say "you can let him/her try, but it's just not worth it".

On what was already going to be Zane's last time through, he was paired up with a girl. Legend had it, she was the fastest one through the course. Well, Zane was a little behind and started pulling on her shirt trying to slow her down. Before Abe and I could get to Zane and tell him that it's not winning if you have to cheat, the man came up and told the girl "get yourself some water" and told Zane "you have a 5 minute time-out". I almost laughed out loud. Abe and I proceeded to talk to Zane about how that (the cheating) wasn't a very nice thing to do. But I think Zane was more upset that he was "in trouble" with the drill sergeant. Nonetheless, we had Zane go up to him, give him a handshake and thank him for letting him play.

All in all, the drill sergeant was pleasant and never really said or did anything terribly offensive. I just found it very entertaining to see someone take their job so seriously.



Yesterday, the boys and I had the pleasure of visiting Abe for lunch at Flight Safety. This is where Abe has been spending his days, trying to stay awake for hours upon hours of lectures. They provided pizzas for everyone so that was perfect for our boys. Which by the way, Brody is eating pizza now. That is huge news, as some of you may know.

They have mouthwash in the bathrooms. I had to take a picture as I've never seen that one before. I thought this would be right up Abe's alley seeing as he goes through mouthwash like it's water. But he said he hasn't used any of it. He thinks it's kind of creepy that they keep something that goes in your mouth, in a public bathroom. I suppose he has a point there.

After lunch, Abe gave us a little tour of his training areas. The classroom....

and the simulator...

There are just a few more pictures from our visit to Flight Safety in the photo collection.