Toronto - Part 1....

After Vancouver we boarded the plane to Toronto where we were greeted by my father (who was greeted by a very smiley grand-daughter) and one of my best friend's Germaine. Out through the security gates, Doug continued his Tim Horton's odyssey and made a quick B-line to see if the Double/Double at a Toronto Timmy's was indeed better than Vancouver Timmy's....(school's out on that one).

Following a quick catch-up we quickly headed to my parents home, about an hour out of Toronto in the beautiful little country town of Uxbridge where my mother, sister and two nephews Alex and Theo eagerly awaited us. After flying across the continent, Doug sadly had to turn around the very next day and head straight back to attend a tradeshow for work in Las Vegas (yeah - poor guy). So that left Nylah and I to enjoy a very long and much needed catch up with my family. By the end of the week Doug had returned and Elias (my sister's husband) had joined us in Toronto where we spent the next few weeks relaxing and trying to instill as much of the Canadian accent into our daughter as possible (well that was my goal).

One of the things that we were really looking forward to on the trip was to have Nylah baptized along side her little cousin Theo. With my father's retirement coming up next year we saw this as a really special opportunity to have our children be among the last for him to baptize. The service was a memorable event at his church - St.Peters on the Hill with many of our Canadian family and friends in attendance. After the service it was back to the Bristow household for a large BBQ celebration. It was a very special occasion and will no doubt remain as one of the most precious days of our lives thus far. Thank you to my family for all their incredible hard work and planning for the day's events.

Here's some pics from the Baptism....

Canada here we come....

So after 8 months of regular Skype calls and photo exchanges, the 3 of us FINALLY packed our bags last month and headed to Canada to introduce Nylah to her Canadian family....oh and for Mum and Dad to have a nice trip to catch up with family and friends.

The big concern before the trip (well, for mum anyway as dad was suuurrrre everything would work out alright) was how little Nylah would take to the long haul flight to Canada. In the 6 weeks leading up to the trip, the poor little thing had been through a bought of colds and ear infections. Her ears were even blocked the morning of our departure, however a quick trip to the Doc and we were cleared to fly...but with a warning that the landings (3 of them) could potentially be quite uncomfortable for our little one.

So it was certainly a huge relief that not only did Nylah seem to feel no pain throughout the trip, but the gentle humming of the engines led her to a massive sleep of about 11 of the 13hrs to LAX. We spent the night in LA before landing in Vancouver - refreshed and ready to visit!

And VISIT is certainly what we did for the next week. With only 5 days and 4 nights to check out the old haunts/catch up with many of our old mates/shop/sneak in a few runs (well for Doug who was 2 weeks away from doing another marathon) and bow to the whims of a 8 month old child - it was a whirlwind visit to say the least !!

A massive thankyou straight up to the lovely Jennie Rittberg who let us use her downtown Vancouver pad for our stay. As it turned out, while we were in Canada, Jennie was actually in Australia for a wedding. In the few days before we left she had actually been staying with us in Melbourne... divine timing for all of us.

While our time was a bit of a rush, we managed to squeeze in a little bit of everything and catch up with many of our long missed and dear friends. A special thanks to Liss for having us over for a beautiful dinner with the girls and their gorgeous families. It was fantastic to see Nylah playing with all your little ones. Also a big thank you to the extremely generous Chris Rock for hosting a great BBQ reunion at hers. Great afternoon, great venue...forever the hostess with the mostess. Lex and Stace, Janelle and Scott, Stewie...all of those of you who opened your doors and expanded our bellies..we thank you.

Other highlights from the visit -

1. Checking out the changes around downtown Vancouver and False Creek in preparations for the Olympics
2. This one turned out to be a lowlight - Having a coffee at Artigianos which until returning home to OZ, Doug was sure was as close to Melbourne coffee as you could get - WRONG. Well at least now that the new owners have taken over. Very disappointing.
3. What was as good as ever was Timmy Ho's (Tim Horton's)...the old Double/Double was as big a treat as always....as too were the donuts/doughnuts (depending on your country) and those ridiculously addictive Sausage Biscuit muffins...Vancouver was just the beghinnig of an epic Tim Horton's journey for Doug over the next 3 weeks.
4. Strolling along 4th and Robson St's and lounging down at Kit's beach.
5. Brekkie at Zen.

Good times, good times.

Here are some pics from our Vancouver days

...and she's off !!

Nylah takes her first steps to independance...