I had been anticipating this trip for quite some time... a few weeks anyhow. It would be the first time ever that I drove that far on my own. On Monday morning Joshua, Arianna, Sarah and myself got up and were almost ready to leave when Andrea decided she wanted to come as well. So, being the flexible person I am, rearranged the van to add another seat, grabbed a little extra food and by 10:00 we were on the road. The whole trip went very smoothly, including one short stop for lunch. The GPS is a great tool to have!
Soon after we arrived at my sister's place, we re-packed, this time to head downtown to a huge wading pool. It was a great time. The kids hardly got out of the pools, Sarah kept at a nice safe distance from me, Rosie was content and Lucy had a nap (she was on the end of a flu bug). I got a nice sunburn on the left side of my leg which was the only part not sitting under the tent we brought!
After some homemade pizzas for supper, Alicia, Rosie, my kids and I went for a long walk. Alicia lives at the top of a hill. Getting
to the Starbucks was easy as we pretty much coasted down the hill. Coming back was quite different. I recorded the walk with an app on my iPhone and the average grade was 3.19%. It was steady up though... not a whole lot of recovery in coming home. At least there was no guilt about the drinks we had! After some Olympics, we all headed to bed for the night.
I started out Tuesday morning spending quality time with my sweet nephew building with Lego. It was a very good way to begin my day. We made plans to spend Tuesday out at Heritage Park. It's the same idea as Fort Edmonton Park but bigger and of course different things to do and see. I have to say, it was great to have the older three kids with us. They were able to take the littler ones on the rides and it was a little less stressful knowing we had a few extra pairs of eyes watching out for everyone. The first thing the kids wanted to do was the mid-way which was a good idea while it wasn't too busy. Sarah had no interest in the rides at all. She seemed a bit off but I really didn't know what she would think of them.
*Note to self: next time, don't buy her the rides pass* Since I didn't have a ride pass myself, it was fine for me to just watch the kids go. While my sister and all the others were on the carousel, Sarah and I found some boat swings which were right up her alley. This is when her day started to go down hill. The steam train had rolled in and blew the whistle which {of course} startled her. She's not good at surprises like that so she cried. After that, every little thing seemed to set her off. A bump in the road, the sun in her eyes... whatever. Once we had some cinnamon buns (they were huge!), we meandered to the paddle boat. We figured a nice smooth ride would be good for everyone. It was completely shaded and the cool breeze was refreshing after walking in the sun for a couple hours. Just minutes into the water, Sarah began to cry and proceeded to be sick. Thankfully, all she ate was some Ritz crackers and a bit of water so the clean up was easy. Again, very glad Alicia had her diaper bag with wipes along.
The steam engine that first scared Sarah.
One of the last pictures I took before I was consumed with caring for a sick baby.
After the boat ride, we decided to keep walking to see how Sarah would do. She did get sick again (thankfully I ran her out of the house we were in!) and I was thinking our time out was going to come to an early end. We ate lunch on a boardwalk next to a General Store and then headed down a ways for an ice cream treat for the other kids. We finally decided that we had better go. It was tough to make a decision that affected all nine of us but Alicia and I agreed that we'd do the same thing for any of the other kids in that situation. As we were driving back, Sarah proceeded to empty the very last bit of what could have possibly been left in her stomach (not much). When we arrived at Alicia's I grudgingly made the tough choice to head home early. It was only 2:00 in the afternoon and we certainly were not going to be doing anything else that day. With some disappointed children and two sad moms, we packed up and headed out. :( Saying good-bye was not easy. It was one of those "stuck between a rock and a hard place" situations. My littlest one wasn't feeling good at all and needed to go home but my sister-heart wanted to stay and visit some more. *sigh*
I'd like to end with saying the trip home was uneventful but the weather was incredible! As we approached Olds, the sky was dark... almost black.
UNREAL! And a bit scary I must say!
The piles of hail were 2 or more inches deep! The water in the ditch in the median was
almost level with the highway!
I didn't get pictures of the torrential DOWNPOURS that we drove through! I was glad to finally get home and out of the crazy weather.
Despite the unexpected changes that happened this week, I am so glad I went and I can't wait to go again and spend even more time there!
