Toronto Trip

we had an absolute BLAST in Toronto!! It was SOO much fun - Landon and Arlan were in their glory playing with their cousins! And I really enjoyed a few relaxing days too!!

The flight there was pretty good - I am glad that there was both John & I for that first flight with both boys. It took Arlan quite awhile to give in and go to sleep, but once he did both he and John got a nap in. In fact, Arlan slept right through descent and landing and everything - so sweet! Before he caved and went to sleep we spent a fair bit of time letting him crawl up and down the aisle - much to both his and the other passengers delight! He was making friends everywhere! LOL
Landon was pretty good too - it was a bit boring for him, but he managed well enough. It would be a lot easier if he would enjoy some sedentary activities - like colouring! But we survived it :-) John and I traded off the kids, so neither of us had to deal with one kid the whole trip - and the change was good. From the "follow Arlan around, keep him happy" type of work, to the "answer 1,000,000 questions, or maybe the same question 1,000,000 times" kind of work with Landon!! LOL Ah well...

In Toronto we spent our days playing! Of course. The first thing Landon did when we arrived was head downstairs to play with trains! LOL Plus he LOVED all of Thomson's trucks (LOTS of construction vehicles!). And Landon & Izzy are two peas in a pod, they had so much fun running and squealing. We spent time at the park by Liz & Rob's, plus we went to two different parks to play - one with a Pirate ship, the other with a castle. Landon was in heaven!
Arlan loved the action and Izzy too! Well, Izzy was loving Arlan lots I think as well! When we arrived, Arlan was hungry so we strapped him into his 'high chair' (that attaches to the table) and were going to feed him some yogurt. Well, Izzy beat us to it - feeding Arlan yogurt herself! It was so precious!
One thing that continues to amaze me is just how much Thomson and Landon look alike. John did manage to get a pic of the two of them (Landon was posing for pics by the end of our visit as we were all taking so many!! LOL) - I'll post it when he gets home with the camera. It's crazy - they could be twins, just different ages! aiaiai

Anyways, so John stayed in Toronto to go golfing with his buddies (is there still), while I ventured home with both boys, by myself, on the plane, for 4 hours ... The plane was right packed full too (on the way there, there was an entire row with no one in it, so John and Arlan were all sprawled out napping together -- so cute, I have a pic of that too!). I was lucky enough to be seated by a Grandma who was oh-so-patient with me and the boys. And both boys were pretty well behaved too, which was a blessing. There were a few squawks and grumps, but for the most part we were ok. Arlan did less aisle-cruising, as it becomes much more cumbersome having Landon tag along for that game and he didn't want to stay in his seat by himself (I don't blame him, must've been a pretty big ordeal overall for him, and what if I didn't come back!??). But Landon did stay to play with Betty for awhile when I had to change Arlan (did you know that Landon has NEVER pooped while we've been travelling -- car or plane? He always waits till we get there ... not ARLAN!). And Betty was so kind as to read some stories to Landon and to play trucks with him, giving me a nice break to deal with only Arlan.

The excitement, as it were, actually came after landing. First of all, Arlan slept during the entire descent, and was completely konked out when were to get off the plane. To top that off, Landon fell asleep right after they turned the seat belt sign off at the GATE! So I have two boys fast asleep - which allowed me to get packed up, etc, but put me in a dilemma as to how to get them off the plane. Landon would NOT wake up (his eyes just rolled in his head and he lolled over further in his seat), and although Arlan was awake, I still needed to carry him. In the end, a flight attendant carried Arlan out and put him in his stroller while I carried the still very-sleepy-headed Landon out. *shaking head* He could've pulled that stunt about 2 hours earlier, would've been easier on everyone! LOL
Now Landon is SO TIRED at this point, and I'm hot and tired, and I just want to get our baggage and go. Landon wants to be carried and is pouting, loudly, because I won't carry him. But we get going through the airport and there's lots to see, and things are going pretty good. We get to the escalators to leave the secured area (the place where it says "Keep going. Do not stop, or alarm will sound") ... Landon's been begging to go on every escalator we see. He's pumped - he jumps right on the escalator, I stand beside him with the stroller on the escalator (I know I know, you're not supposed to do that, but I didn't want to spoil his fun). Then ... Landon gets scared and runs back up and off the escalator!! And there I am, still going down, with the stroller so there's no way I can go back up to grab him, no matter how much I wanted the stair-master-type exercise!! And Landon is hysterical at the top, and I'm yelling for him to just get on the escalator. At this point, I'm thinking I'll have to park the stroller at the bottom and run up the stairs to get Landon, setting off all the alarms, and we'll be detained and strip-searched and the whole nine yards ... YUCK! Then, a man, a nice man, comes walking up to the escalator. I call to him "Please, can you grab my son and put him on the escalator?" The poor guy looked around like he thought it was some sort of candid camera joke (or if there were perhaps another way down!! heh heh), but in the end scooped Landon up and brought him down for me. All without that stupid alarm going off (even though I had stopped at the bottom). Phew!
So Landon tells me every day (usually more than once) that he was REALLY scared of the escalator ... and we've a good story to cap off our trip! LOL

Oh yeah - and then of course we get to the luggage carousel, the luggage starts coming around, and Landon has to pee :-/ Figures. So we beetle off to the washroom and come back to just our two bags going around and around ... at least I didn't have to elbow my way up to the carousel!! LOL

So we made it home - and we're all happy to be here. The day we got home (Wed), Arlan ate, slept, ate and went to bed for the night! Landon and I were in bed pretty early too, and we all slept GREAT!