Autumn Part 2

Here's part 2 of my Autumn recap - just in time for the start of the Christmas season!

Andy took Ella to downtown Toronto for a daddy-daughter day in October. They took the GO train from Mississauga, which in itself was an exciting event for Ella. Trains and kids = winning combination. 

They visited the CN Tower, which, when I was a kid, held the title of "World's Tallest Free Standing Building", but it lost this record in 2007. It's now the ninth tallest (wow, a lot of tall buildings have been built since 2007) but is still one of the most iconic buildings in North America and is one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. 

Andy and Ella took the high speed elevator to the top of the tower, and they had a blast looking out at the city below. 

Ella didn't seem afraid of heights at all, and was even willing to lie down on the glass floor with Andy!

Once they came back down, they spent the afternoon exploring downtown together.

 

 

We took advantage of the beautiful fall weather to visit some conservation parks in our area. First up was Kelso conservation area. They have a small reservoir with a boardwalk that you can walk around. In the summer you can swim in the reservoir, and do other water activities like canoeing, paddle boarding, and kayaking. In the cooler months there is hiking, mountain biking an adventure course and skiing.

Ella and I had fun rolling down this hill, which is a beginner ski slope:

On our way back from Kelso, we stopped at Springridge Farm in Milton. They were having a pumpkin festival, and we picked up a few pumpkins as well as some homemade (savoury) pie for dinner.

The good weather continued into the next weekend, so we headed to Rattlesnake Point, another conservation park in the area. There are hikes of varying difficulty with beautiful views. Having two small children and one pram, we opted for an easier hike. The scenery was gorgeous, and the hike was a good challenge for Ella. We were SO lucky with the weather - it was nearly 20 degrees and sunny, which is pretty warm for late October!

In October Andy and I started going to our local Parkrun. Parkrun is a free 5km timed race every Saturday morning. There are Parkruns all over the world; we originally started going when we lived in London. It's been a while since I've run a full 5km, but I was happy to finish my first run in 29 minutes. We went again a few weeks later and I got down to 27 minutes and 30 seconds, so was pleased with that improvement. I'll admit that now that the temperatures are often around freezing in the mornings, we've been too chicken to go again! I think we need to invest in some warmer running gear if we want to go throughout the winter. The run laps around a small lake (below), so it's a lovely route to run first thing in the morning:

Three days before Hallowe'en we were still having amazing weather. Beautiful blue skies and unseasonably warm weather:

Of course, that weather did not last until Hallowe'en, which was cold and rainy all day and night. My brother Mike and his wife Ashley were in town for the weekend, so they did some pumpkin carving in the afternoon and took the kids out trick-or-treating with us that night. It was Ella's first real Hallowe'en experience, and she was initially wary of going up to spookily decorated houses. She really doesn't like skeletons! Luckily we ran into one of her friends while we were out and with her assistance Ella plucked up the courage to ring on a few doorbells. Once she realized that people were handing out candy she lost her fear completely! 

This is a very Canadian Hallowe'en look: a winter jacket under your costume:

And that was our Autumn! Thanks for reading!