Niagara Falls + Toronto Vacation

Nate & I really love to take the kids on a road trip somewhere at the end of the summer, before school hits. It's a great way to end the summer break & it also give us lots of family time before the busyness of school & fall sports. This year I thought of Niagara Falls & after looking into it and realizing it was only a 6.5 hour drive, we decided to do it! We also decided to head across the border up to Toronto as well. Here's a little look back at our trip 😀

We drove up to NY on our way there and obviously had to make a pitstop for Jacoby to see his Buffalo Bills stadium. Can you see the joy??

He was telling us facts about the stadium that he read in one of his books. If you know Jacoby, this doesn't surprise you! 

The first day we were there was a bit chilly, rainy & overcast but it was still beautiful. 

Boys 😜

Jacoby took this after about 50 selfies that he took while pretending to take our picture haha. 

I didn't realize there were so many lookout spots at the falls! There were lots of different places to walk around and then lookout. Also, can't forget the binoculars hahah!

Every night at 10pm they do fireworks at Niagara Falls, so we went up on the bridge to watch them. It was really hard to capture the fireworks but I did get this beauty of the lights. The colors change often but I loved the red, white, & blue. 

Pretty cool, right?

The next day was sunny & hot, so the perfect day to get SUPER WET on the Maid of the Mist. This was SO much fun. When you're on the boat, you really understand how much water & how much wind the falls creates.

before we got too wet! 

It was so fun & beautiful!!! 

Nate & I kept thinking of The Office episode with Jim & Pam 💓

After the boat ride, there was another area to hike up to and see the falls from a different angle. Again, so many different ways to see them!

It was so windy & wet....can you tell?!?

After the boat ride & the small hike, we dried off at lunch. Then we had tickets for Cave of the Winds. This was the boys' favorite thing! They build this deck area super close to the fall (they tear it down every winter & put it back up every spring). You take an elevator down to it & then you can get SO close. 

Do you see the water crashing in on our feet? Our shoes were wet for days!! haha. 

Also, the rainbow!! 

Is this not breathtaking?!? It was so beautiful!!

The Cave of the Winds has the deck that you can walk as close to the falls as you'd like. There's a "Hurricane Deck" that you can go on and according to Niagara Falls Park,  it feels like a category 1 hurricane. I was so proud of the boys because they all went on the Hurricane Deck. We could NOT see what we were doing. I was snapping pictures but had no idea what I was taking a picture of. If you faced the falls, it was so incredibly windy & there was SO MUCH water. I've never experienced anything like it. It was such a thrill. The boys were laughing and there was absolutely no point in our ponchos at this point!!!

squinting in the water & hoping for a decent picture!

Soaking wet but having so much fun. A memory I will never forget.

The rainbow again... 💓

After seeing all of Niagara Falls, we headed across the border into Canada and drove the 2 hours to Toronto.

We stayed at an AirBnb right downtown, across the street from the CN Tower & the Toronto Blue Jays stadium. The location was PERFECT if I do say so myself!

Look at the view outside of our place!

Obviously we had to go up the CN Tower to see all of Toronto! It was super high, but you could look out all over! 

Jacoby did not like being up so high. He's our adrenaline junkie but apparently the heights really rocked him!

They had a glass floor in part of the tower...

and while Jacoby stayed to the part with a real floor, Kendry was jumping on the glass floor. #thatthirdchild 

We took a pirate boat over to Toronto Island for part of the day. 

We hung out at the beach...

ate lunch while looking at the skyline...

These 2 fight hard & love hard. 

Our condo had a rooftop pool that they boys HAD to swim in. They love a good pool. It was so pretty & the view wasn't too bad either!

When we go to big cities, Nate & I LOVE to try new foods. Nate picked a Korean BBQ place where you order raw meat and then you grill it yourself at your own table. I cannot tell you how much we ate! It was SO GOOD-- we ordered everything from pork, shrimp, chicken, steak, etc! Maddox said it was his favorite food ever and asked if we could go back for his birthday. For school he wrote "Over the summer I learned that Korean BBQ is really good" hahahaha. Needless to say it was a highlight for all of us!

Niagara Falls & Toronto, you didn't disappoint! Can't wait to see where we end up next year :)

xox,

Naomi