Toronto

Toronto! We had such a great time. Just to refresh everyone's memory, Jayson served his mission in Toronto with the Chinese people from 1999-2001. He hadn't been back since to see his friends, and I was anxious to meet them. Jeremy Robertson, one of Jayson's good friends from the mission had coordinated a trip to Toronto, so we couldn't miss out. We were there from July 5-11. Here is our trip, in a nutshell...people, food, and places.

The People

Jayson spent his whole mission in just two wards (congregations). It is said that Toronto has the highest Chinese population in North America, so he met lots of wonderful people. Because I can't do it justice, he's going to tell you about the people we were reunited with.

...Actually I'm going to post this and he'll edit it when he can.

The Food...

It seems like most of our trip centered around food...and for good reason. Toronto is described as a stained-glass window, not a melting pot. It's pretty sweet, there are sections around town dedicated to each region of the world. There was even a little Portugal. So with all these people living in their own little communities, they have the best restaurants. Jeremy seemed to know where the best places were, so we just followed him around and ate, ate, ate.

Here was some fruit we picked up in China town. Mangostein, lychee fruit, and another one. So weird, but pretty delicious.

We had the most delicious greek food. Sooooooo good. We went to a restaurant named "Astoria" on Danforth Street. This was flaming cheese. They brought it to the table and lit it on fire. Opa!

We love love love greek salad. This salad was AWESOME.

Oh my goodness. OOOOOOOh my goodness. I LOVE these things. I ate these little delicious things (natas) when I was in Portugal. We found some in little Portugal and I think I ate the whole box.

Also my favorite from Portugal, pineapple fanta. I've been dreaming about this stuff for so long and I was so excited to find some in little Portugal. I brought home 4 bottles and it was gone in days.

This really was the best brownie I have ever had.

Mmmmmm, Chinese noodles (China town was crazy). My lunch was delicious and Mae thought her bottle was really delicious.

Korean barbecue. You cook it at your table and I was amazed at how I liked it. We think a restaurant like this would do well in Provo.

The Sights...

We're on our way! Mae was eating up every word of Harry Potter. She was a great little traveler.

O, Canada! We flew into Detroit, and then drove to Toronto. It made for a long travel day, but the drive was beautiful.

Here we are at Casa Loma. We went up here to check it out, but to actually go through it is super expensive. So we sat on the grass, closed our eyes, read from the guide book about it, and imagined how it looked. I think it probably looked better in our imagination then in real life. We had a ball on the grass playing with Mae. Here are some pictures of us.

Mae and her dad.


Mae and her cool smart mom.

When they pulled our rental car around, all we could say was "are you serious?" Here is Jayson, looking so much like a cop in front of our cop car.

Later that night, there was the poorest fireworks display we'd ever seen. We still aren't sure why they had fireworks; our best guess was because it was 07/07/07. We paid $12 to park and there wasn't a place to use the bathroom anywhere unless you paid another $12 to get into a scandalous looking party. I thought I might die. Jayson took a picture of my grove of trees, if you're interested in seeing it.

As lame as they were, we were still happy to see some fireworks since we'd missed them on the 4th of July.

Mae looked adorable at the fireworks.

We felt like Mae was the queen while we were out there. She just looked like one as she rode around in her stroller.

One place we really loved was cabbage town. It is a quaint little neighborhood with a bunch of queen anne homes. If we lived in Toronto, I would live here.

We also spent some time at a farmers market. I loved the sights and sounds of it all. I kept dreaming of all the things I could make, but I knew it wouldn't make it home. I hear they have a farmers market in Salt Lake, and I hope to make it before the season is done.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Mae. I love how big her head looks. Perspective is everything, huh?

This was our last picture in Toronto. The posters are for the band Interpol and their new album. We were super jazzed to see it, because our very talented brother-in-law shot the pictures for the album art. We felt like we had met a celebrity. Way to go, Seth.

4th of July...no fireworks?

Hello everyone! We're playing catch up...doing two weeks this week. We neglected to take our computer to Toronto so now I have to try and remember two weeks which is really hard for my little bitsy brain. Let's see how I do.

Before my (heidi's) parents left, we would spend our Sunday afternoons at my mom and dads. But now that they're gone, our friends have really picked up the slack. Karrie and Derek had us over dinner on Sunday and it was so nice. They cooked a delicious dinner (bom apetite!) and we spent some time with their new adorable puppy, Phebe. Phebe found a particular liking for the toe jam in Jayson's shoe. She just crawled right in and started licking. It was so nasty.

Seriously guys, sick.

Here's J and Mae at Derek and Karrie's.

J Dawgs required some of our full time attention that week. What started as a quick project somehow turned into hours and hours of work. I think the pictures tell it best. Here's how it all went down....

First was the simple installation of a ceiling fan. Our ice maker had been sweltering in the recent heat and couldn't keep up with demand. So Jayson installed a fan to help it cool down. It has worked remarkably well and we haven't had any problems since. That was done about 9:00 p.m. Then somehow a can of paint came out...

Here is J and Joy. You can see we're all excited at this point.

Jared was done with his shift at 8:00, but he could tell it was going
to be a great time at J Dawgs, so he grabbed a brush...

Mae thought it wasn't such a great time, and she'd rather sleep.

9:30 p.m., 10:00 p.m., 10:30 p.m....still going. Need fuel. Get pizza quick.

What? We're still here? Okay, no problem.She woke up and just decided to hang out.
This picture is just proof that we have the best baby ever.

Mom, on the other hand...she just wanted to go home. Can I borrow that blanket, Mae?
At 1:00 a.m. we finally put on "Sloop John B" by the Beach Boys.
"I want to go home, Let me go home, why don't you let me go home...."

But our work party was a screaming success. We painted the whole outside, installed our ceiling fan, painted and cleaned the inside, and had a great time. Those work parties are fun, but we're so glad they only happen every few months.

The fourth of July started out fantastically. We fought miserable traffic through Provo to pick up Joy and Katy and headed up to Lehi to Ryan and Teresa. Ryan and Teresa put on an extremely well orchestrated flag ceremony and breakfast each fourth of July. They had at least 150 people out to raise the colors and devour pancakes. Jayson and Heidi enjoyed working in the kitchen and flipping pancakes. Heidi especially loved making Mickey Mouse pancakes.

Here is one of our beauties, MICKEY!!

Mae Mae and Aunt Katy playing.

What a delicious breakfast!

Mae was loving that watermelon.

Mom and Mae enjoy their first Fourth of July together.

Hey that hat is pretty cute...

You mind if I borrow it?

I'll just put it on...


It doesn't fit!

Okay, you can have it back!

I love this hat!

Cousin Haylee is so sweet!

After breakfast, we went down to Provo to the historic Smoot home. Every year, the Smoots and all their cousins gather to watch the Freedom Festival parade. People started putting out blankets almost a week early to save spots. I hope the parade was worth it! After the parade, they all gather in the Smoots back yard and eat. We had the pleasure of bringing J Dawgs to the party, and had an awesome time meeting all of the Smoots and eating delicious food.

We also found out that Kendra is a natural. She was cutting dawgs like a pro and obviously serving with some serious smile. Maybe she'll consider breaking into the New York market for us.

J, Kendra and Seth. Mmmmmm, hot dawgs....

After we had had such a great morning, the rest of the day was really quite boring. We left EARLY the next morning for Toronto and had so much to do to get ready, so we had to do all that stuff. We did hear fireworks off in the distance. Eventually we would see a very poorly planned and executed firework show in Toronto, but it just wasn't the same without "I'm proud to be an American."

what a week!

These last few weeks have been a riot! All my siblings cae into town for one last reunion before my parents left. We had 33 people all under one roof and there was not a moment of silence to be found. We had such a blast--the goodbye party for my parents, swimming at the scera, swimming at the felsteads, my niece Sarah's baptism, baby Stella's blessing, the setting apart and so much left over pasta salad we could barf. But wait, we all did that too. In the end I think about 10 of us got a 24-hour flu bug. It wasn't pretty.

Mae Mae and GG

So sleepy in the pool. I actually fell asleep.

Finally I get to meet cousin Stella

baby Stella, Kendra, Grandma, Heidi, and Mae

Oh delicious ring of frosting...

Mae and one of her favorite uncles, Kevin. We wish he lived closer.

Mae and her sweet aunt, Amy. We really wish she lived closer.

Uncle Kirk likes me.

Mae loves the grass.

On Thursday, Kendra, Drew and I drove President and Sister Livingstone (aka mom and dad) up to the airport and sent them to DR Congo. I think they were pretty terrified on the drive up, but took courage when they saw the other 100+ mission presidents checking in for their flights. Finally we reached airport security and it was our cue to go. We took our last pictures, gave our last hugs and kisses and said goodbye! We watched as they walked a little ways, waved, walked a little more, waved some more, walked, waved, until we could only see their waving hands through all the people. bonne chance (good luck) mom and dad, bonne chance!

I can't wait until I get one of these!

At the airport...so early!

President and Sister Livingstone!

To make my sisters and i feel better, we all went for a dose of retail therapy at the outlets in Park City. We had a fabulous time and admittedly all felt a little better after we had spent some money (thank heavens for patient husbands). We then went to the cabin and relaxed for awhile. It was nice to escape reality for at least one evening.

my sweet dreamers at the cabin

Saturday my friend Karrie and I threw a fun shower for our friend Lori. We had found the cutest puppets at Micheals; they are part of the Martha Stewart craft line, but we were pretty sure we could re-create our own. So we made some templates but also told people to make whatever they wanted. We were so impressed at peoples creativity and their ability to make darling puppets. Our one friend made a cheetah! so cute!

Here was the puppet table. So fun, I love puppets.

And the food...I love orange rolls.

So now its Sunday and I'm just getting ready for the upcoming week. We are excited for the fourth of July and then for our trip to Toronto!! Wahoo!