We had planned for this remodeling, the biggest we have ever done, since the beginning of the year.  We started with deciding what we wanted, looking for vendors, getting some quotes and booking them.  We then slowly boxed up or got rid of some of our belongings in the house.  We finally planned the process to begin after our trip to Canada.  I had scheduled the painter to start on 6/11, the railings to be installed on 6/17 and the flooring to be placed as of 6/25.

     We had decided not to re-paint the game room, master room and most of the ceilings.  We took a couple of days to move things / furniture out of the way; Kevin and the crew took 4 days to finish the painting.  He has to return for a day later to do the touch up and baseboards.  We chose a lighter color Neutral Ground and the house looks cleaner and brighter.

     Joey had been making the steel railings in his shop the past two months and came on 6/17 to install them.  It took him 2.5 days to install and he returned for 1/2 day on Saturday to put the top wood piece on.  I am very happy with the finished product.

    The following Tuesday the flooring project begun.  Before that, all four of us moved one set of the sofas, the dining table set and the guest room furniture to the garage, and my office furniture to the game room.  Monday night, we moved the boys’ things to the game room where they had a slumber party for the night.  Jose and the crew came early Tuesday and did the carpet replacement in all the rooms upstairs and the hallway and part of the stairways in one day. We paid for the furniture moving for the master bedroom thus we did not have to worry about those.  On Wednesday, Connor and I quickly moved the family room couch and kitchen dining table set to the backyard before they began to demo and later to install laminate flooring on the entire downstairs.  The crew worked very hard and very long day until 6-7pm every day.  Those nights we had our dinner in the backyard while they finished up.  By Friday early evening, their job was completed.  The new floor made the house looks modern and clean, and we love it.

    Within the next couple of days, we slowly dusted and cleaned up, and put back part of our things.  The boys helped with a big job to clean the kitchen cabinets.  Now we just have to wait for the painter to return to wrap up this entire remodeling.  It was definitely hectic the past few weeks but everything went well as planned and smoothly.  We are very happy with the cleaner and cooler house now.

      We had planned our 7 day trip to Montreal/Toronto after we got the boys’ passports.  For this trip, we decided to use mostly public transportation including a train ride from Montreal to Toronto; and all of that went very well.  The hotels we chose were centrally located near downtown in both cities, thus it was very convenient to walk to metro, shops and restaurants. We definitely had a lot of steps every day.  The possible rain initially had downgraded and thus we only encountered a minor shower one afternoon.  It was actually quite sunny warm in Montreal and we looked forward to a bit cooler weather at Toronto.

      After arriving Montreal on 6/1/24, we checked out the main street in downtown; it was a pretty night to walk around and we had a wonderful dinner at an outdoor dining area.  Day 2 we rode the metro to Notre Dame to see the beautiful cathedral architecture.  Then we walked over to the Old Montreal where there were some cool shops to look around.  Nearby was the Port of Montreal and we found an indoor labyrinth.  We separated in teams for competition; the boys got all the treasures but Stuart and I sadly only found one.  That evening we walked a different direction from the hotel to a college neighborhood, Concordia University; there were many Asian restaurants and we had a Vietnamese dinner and I found some Asian desserts too.

     Day 3 we woke earlier before the heat to go hike up Mount Royal which was near our hotel too.  In just a mile-ish, we were up to the top and had a nice view of the Montreal.  After that we were hungry and found a burger restaurant in downtown for lunch.  A much needed rest later, we returned to the downtown area; we checked out the shopping malls and walked further through Chinatown as well.  We took the metro back to our neighborhood and the boys wanted Les 3 Brassiere again as our final dinner in Montreal.

     On Day 4, we headed over to the Central Station to board our train.  This turned out to be a very enjoyable trip as the scenery was beautiful.  We also could rest, play cards, read and dined with drinks; the 5 hour trip went by quickly.  We arrived in Toronto Union Station and it was only few minutes walking distance to our hotel.  We immediately could feel the more bustling environment at Toronto.  Our hotel was very modern and nice; the only thing was the beds were small which became our joke for the trip.  We rested and headed back out.  We had a dinner at a beer bistro, then we walked to check out the Nathan Phillips Square to take some pictures and wrap up the day.

    I had purchased the City Pass and we tried to make the most out of them the next few days.  On Day 5 we started by checking out the CN Tower and enjoyed the nice view of Toronto from the top.  Then we walked over to the pier for a relaxing 60 minutes cruise to see the harbor view of the city.   That late afternoon we walked around the popular Yonge-Dundas Square near the hotel and shopped at the stores.  We found a Hong Kong style restaurant Congee Queen to have a much missed Chinese cuisine for our dinner.

    The next day Day 6 we had an early day.  We walked over to pick up our rental to drive to Niagara Falls.  We drove by Stuart’s birth place which was exciting for him.  We arrived Niagara Falls in 1:30 and it was beautiful there.  We took the cruise out to the falls which that was an incredible experience and refreshing as well .  I took lots of pictures and videos as I could not help it. Afterwards, we walked around at Clifton Hills; Connor wanted to play miniature golf.  The play area was actually quite nice and we had fun.  Next we drove over to the Niagara-on-the Lake.  It was a very quint town and we had a pleasant outdoor lunch.  The drive back to Toronto was fine until we hit the downtown area.  With the commute and the amount of construction happening, it took us more than 30 minutes to drive the last two miles to return the car.  We were so happy to be back on foot again.  That night we had dinner at a bar and grill restaurant which are the boys’ favorite these days.

     Day 7 we took the subway to visit a castle called Casa Loma.  There was an audio tour to see the huge castle which was quite cool.  After many steps later, the boys worked up an appetite for a steak and burger lunch before we checked out the Royal Ontario Museum.  The museum had many cool exhibitions, but after a morning at Casa Loma, the boys were tired with exhibitions.  A couple of hours later, we took our final subway ride in Toronto back to our hotel.   That night we decided to have Korean BBQ for dinner; Connor and sometimes Stuart were the ones who actually cooked for all of us.  The meal was yummy.  But apparently not enough for the boys, after walking around Yonge-Dundes Square after dinner, the boys needed a snack from McD before we wrapped up the night.

     On our final day, we made the most of our hotel stay, spending the entire morning there.  Logan had used both hotel gyms almost every day.  Stuart and I had watched quite a bit of tennis and golf tournament during this entire trip.  Once we had to finally do our late checkout, we did our final walk around in the Yonge Square.  At 3pm we walked to Union Station to take a direct train to the airport and we were homeward bound.  We are very happy that everything went smoothly during this trip, and the boys had a good first visit to Canada.  We all decided that we like Montreal more as it was beautiful and it was very neat with all the French influence.  Toronto has its great attractions and just a bit too busy and noisy for us.  Here is a link with the loads of pictures that I took.

   Connor’s ceremony was at the SAP center this year, thus we all looked forward to it.  It was very nice to be in the comfort of indoors when we recalled being baked in the sun during Logan’s.

    The ceremony was very punctual and went smoothly.  Having the big screen on top was a bonus.  After the announcement of all 300+ students, Connor has now graduated from middle school.  He is ready for high school.

   On 5/17/24, the 8th graders were gathered for the last dance at their school.  The organizers for the event needed more volunteers, so I volunteered and they signed me up for both set up and during the event.  I took off earlier from work and spent slightly over an hour there putting up and decorating tables. Then before 5pm, Connor and I returned to the school.  The vendors and volunteers did a great job decorating the cafeteria and transformed it into a beautiful dance hall with a DJ.  The kids roamed around the outdoor area to play some games, or at the gym playing or watching basketball, or at the cafeteria to dance or listen to music, or eating with all the food that were provided.  There was a photo booth too where I was supposed to staff but I got reassigned to help with drinks.  I could see Connor several times; he was hanging out with different friends spending time everywhere.  Some kids recognized me and once his friends asked me to take a picture with them too. 

     I initially thought three hours were a long time, but all the kids there seemed to be still enjoying their time.  At the end, there was a balloon drop to wrap up the night.  This was a wonderful night for the 8th graders to wrap up their 3 years in middle school.  I am glad that I was there to witness Connor having a blast and was able to capture a few group pictures.

     My wish was to play tennis with the boys on Sunday; they reluctantly agreed.  The boys also tried hard and did not complain as I had requested.  The boys can play quite well nowadays if they put their mind to it, so this was probably one of the best double games we played.  We also went out to grab a dinner of my choice.  I was quite happy with this Mother’s day.

    One Friday night, I met up with my friends for a quick dinner before we did our activity “paint night”.  It was always wonderful to catch up with them and spending time together talking while trying to follow the instructor to make our paintings.  All of our paintings came out nicely at the end.

     On another Friday night, my module pharmacists and our assistant met up for a dinner.  The five of us often chat at work but we never met altogether in person, so it was finally time to do that.  It was good spending some quality time with each other.