I was processing heading to Calgary on the May long weekend starting the Thursday right before the long weekend :). A good friend of mine had just had a baby girl, my cousin had just had a baby girl, friends of ours were heading to Ireland for 2 weeks, and my kids needed to do something COOL. So with Steve's blessing at 10:00pm on Friday night I decided that we would leave Saturday morning for Calgary. At midnight Friday night, my sister in law Nikki, and her 2 kids (Sawyer and Cooper) decided to come join us. We were in for an adventure!
We were able to get away by 10:15 on Saturday morning. It took us a bit longer to get to Calgary as we stopped for lunch in Camrose and continued to play musical seats in Red Deer - we learned Cooper cannot sit directly beside someone and not annoy the heck out of them! Once we had children reshuffled again, it was a pleasant drive.
Once we arrived to our hotel (which was 7:00ish)...we had some very hungry children that no way would want to then sit for an hour at a restaurant. Nikki came up with this fabulous idea to order in - so we did. Nothing like a makeshift Boston Pizza picnic in your hotel room to complete your evening.
Saturday evening after supper, I was able to head to Mike and Darcy Blackstocks to see their latest addition to their family - beautiful baby girl Isabelle. She is perfect! Darcy and I grew up in Lloyd together and it brought back a lot of memories having our daughters together. I wish they lived closer - it would be interesting to see if Mckenzie and Isabelle became as good as friends as Darcy and I were.
Sunday morning we headed out to Didsbury to surprise friends of ours - Mike and Darlene. Mike used to be the Pastor at Southridge when I was growing up and their daughter, Sarah is one of my best friends. We arrived to their Church just as the service was starting and were able to surprise them at their seats...which was right at the very front (typical Mike and Darlene spot)...what we didn't realize was that there wasn't a nursery or children's church running - long weekend - until we were sat right at the very front...WITH 5 KIDS UNDER 4. I'm sure that you all are wondering how that adventure went :) GREAT. Thank goodness for snacks in my diaper bag :) After Church, Darlene said "Your kids need to play with toys!"...so off we went to their home for lunch and the kids played :) Mike played hard too - reading books to them for the majority of time that we were there. It was so nice to visit with them and to hear Mike preach again (it has been 6 years since I have heard him preach!).
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Mike and Darlene with the kiddos. I still think they should have 5 grandkids
in 4 years - Sarah Jane you better get on this! |
Sunday late afternoon we decided to take the kids to the circus - how did we luck out to be in Calgary when the circus was! The kids did awesome! Sawyer was mesmerized by everything and my boys loved the animals. We lucked out huge with our seats - they sat us in the reserved handicapped section (I'm sure they just felt sorry for us :) ) so we were right at the front and RIGHT BESIDE the entrance in and out of the show ring....so yes, this meant we were literally 2 feet away from the elephants as they walked out - and the lions in their cages! It was so fun to be with the kids and be that close!
Monday morning we headed to the zoo. Our goal was to be there by 9:00....we arrived at 9:45 - not to shabby on the late department. Remember we had 5 kids with us :) We had made the decision to not buy lunch at the zoo - so ridiculously expensive! Instead we stopped at a Subway and brought lunch in with us - such a better idea. For a treat at the end of our time at the Zoo, Nikki bought the kids Popsicles as a treat. I'm sure many people thought we were crazy....
going to the zoo and bringing a zoo :)
The very epic Penguin plunge area.
Ezra's favourite part was the dinosaurs!
It was such a nice quiet ride half way home...everyone was asleep shortly after we got out of Calgary...apparently the zoo for 5 hours does that to little people :)
We made it home! I mentioned to Nikki that they should sell shirts at the zoo that says:
"we took 5 kids under 4 to the zoo and we lived to tell about it - as did they" :)
So nice to be home!
It was such a fun and enjoying weekend away with my children and with Nikki and her kiddos. It will probably be a bit before we venture on that again - perhaps the youngest will have to be 3!!! However, its mini holidays like this that we will always remember, and that our children will remember for lifetimes as well!
