A New Adventure in Toronto, Canada

What does going to Toronto, Canada for 4-5 months look like in suitcases?

Like this:

We had 7 checked bags, plus Sarah's car seat...

 And we had 8 carry-on bags, plus Glenn's booster seat, and her stroller that we checked at the gate.

 We thought we had way too much stuff, but our Uber drivers--both in Texas and in Toronto--said they were surprised we didn't have more bags!  So maybe we did okay.  We tried to pack smart--we knew we were going to Canada--a place where we could buy most things like in the USA, but I also didn't want to have to buy a lot of things if we already had them and could bring them.  So it was a balancing act that took some time.  We also didn't really own any more bags that we could pack in to bring more things.  We maybe would've needed to use boxes.  But I think we'll be okay.

We didn't have a direct flight from Austin to Toronto, but had a short layover in Dallas/Fort Worth.  Paul was nervous about our bags having enough time to make the transition to the new place, but they did just fine.  They were there waiting for us once we arrived in Toronto.  (But because we had so many bags, Paul joked that it wouldn't have been a bad thing if they hadn't made the flight and then the airport would've had to bring them all to us...that way someone else would've had to deal with 15 bags!   But no such luck.;) haha!)

We had good flights and for the most part we all did well.  We had thought Sarah would nap on the second one, it being her nap time, but she was wired.  She was silly and wanted to be up and down and all over.  She eventually did fall asleep though--about 5-10 minutes before we landed!  Isn't that always the way?!  Haha!

(I don't really look that good in this one, but oh well!  I'm not that good at taking selfies without making my face look weird...)

 I took a few pictures of the landscape as we were making our way closer and closer to Toronto, and then finally as we were arriving in the city.  

Looks pretty white!

 Lake Ontario and downtown Toronto

 When we arrived at the airport we went through customs pretty quickly.  We then had to wait in another line to obtain Paul's work permit.  The line was pretty slow-going and then once we were called, we had to wait until they were able to get everything processed.  I realized then that I was grateful that Sarah was asleep for this part and not the airplane ride.  She would've been quite unhappy standing in a slow line.  Glenn did well to pass the time by reading one of his books he brought.  So grateful this boy loves to read!

Things took a bit longer when they realized I was a Canadian citizen.  I hadn't really thought about it much because I was using a US passport and hadn't brought along any Canadian documents.  But apparently they couldn't obtain a visitor permit for me under Paul's work permit because I am a citizen.  They were then checking the status of our kids and whether or not they would need visitor permits too.  This would only really be a potential problem they said if we leave the country and travel back to the US.  Well, we are hoping and planning to do some traveling and visiting in the northeastern part of the US, so we just have to hope that there aren't any problems with me trying to get back in.

Then we were on our way from the airport to our new home for the next few months.  We finally arrived at 140 Simcoe Street, suite number 409.

 Here are pictures of our new apartment.  Glenn described it by saying it was "fancy, new and nice."  We are very happy with it and think we'll be very comfortable here.  

The entry and hallway

 I'm so happy to see these beautiful machines in our unit!

 The bathroom for the kids and guests

 Glenn and Sarah's bedroom--Glenn is showing off the little box of chocolates that were on the beds.  He thought that was pretty great--delicious too!

 The kitchen--with a full fridge, stove/oven and dishwasher!

 The dining area

 Looking into the living area

 Living room

 "Open office" they call this space

 Master bedroom

 Master closets on both sides

 And the master bathroom

This is some info about our place--I don't expect you to read it, but it's fun for me to have for my record.

The only concern is about a bed for Sarah...she is used to being in a crib and not being able to get out and walk around.  I had quite the time last night trying to get her to stay in bed with Glenn and go to sleep.  In the end, after a couple of hours, she climbed into bed with Paul and I and slept with us.  I hope we can either get a crib somehow or teach her to stay in bed.

 Once we brought our things in and relaxed for a bit, we were all hungry and wanted dinner.  We walked a short distance to a burger place called "The Burger's Priest".  It had a simple menu, but really delicious burgers!  We were all satisfied with our choices.

 After eating our burgers we walked around the block to the nearby grocery store called Rabba Fine Foods.  It is seriously so close to our apartment!  This is going to be so nice, especially since we can't go to Sam's Club and buy in bulk and then drive home with all of it.  It'll be nice to not have to carry heavy bags of groceries very far.  

Well, that was the end of our first day here in Toronto (Monday, February 5th).  Today we took time to unpack and get settled a bit, and then we bought transit passes and bought a few more groceries and other items that we needed.  We are in a great location in downtown Toronto, within walking distance of a lot of things and really close to a metro stop.  We are really happy with where we are and look forward to exploring more and more around us--maybe when it warms up a bit.  It was well below freezing today and we just aren't used to it yet!

For those of you wondering why we are in Toronto for a few months, the short story is Paul's company needs him here.  They are working on a bid for a project.  Since mid-August of last year he had been traveling to Toronto every other week--sometimes every week.  When we got home from our trip to Utah for the holidays, they told him they needed him there for several months--not traveling back and forth.  He was losing at least 2 days a week by doing that--the travel days--and it was getting expensive sending him over and over again.  When he said that 4-5 months was a long time away from his family, the company said they would send us too!  And pay for our airline tickets and our housing accommodations!  They wanted him close to the office, which meant we would be living downtown.  And they would pay us a per diem for being here.  And they would pay us about $1,000 for shopping for winter clothing if we needed anything!  So it didn't take us long to decide that having the entire family go was going to be a great thing!  Sure we would miss things back in Texas--like piano lessons, art class, soccer, music class, book group, and our friends--but we saw that this would be a great opportunity for us to explore and see new things and places.  And since we homeschool it's really easy to just leave for a few months!  We brought along workbooks and look forward to learning new things here.  

So despite the cold and the lack of having access to everything in our home or in our community that we are used to, we are excited for this new adventure!