Hey kids,
You’re both sleeping right now. Soundly so. You’ve both had a big, exciting day, and I’m frankly amazed you made it as long as you did. You normally don’t pack this much into a few days, let alone a few hours.
We’ll see how you do for the next few days…
We started early, all of us up before 7:00 this morning. I’d packed for our trip last night (and we’ve since determined that Daddy sucks at remembering certain important things), but we still had some last-minute things that had to be done at the last minute (turning off computers, internet, turning down the hot water heater, to name a few), and the packing of the last few things. I then packed the car — in the rain, I might add.
Then we bolted to Sunterra for breakfast. This is our Saturday tradition. Every Saturday, we’re there when they open at 8:00 to have a good, hot breakfast that will usually keep us going for a few hours. (Well, most of us. Mommy’s current diet means she has to bring her breakfast with her, and it’s just never enough.) After breakfast, we did a tiny bit of shopping, and we headed out to North Glenmore Park.
Today was the Race for Pace. This was a charitable event to raise funds for the Pacekids Program, which helps disabled kids. Amber, our next-door neighbour, informed us of the event, and it seemed like it would be a lot of fun. Y’know, in the rain.
I joke, I joke! It didn’t rain … that much. It did rain, but nothing like when we woke up, which was a fair pounding. The rain had let up during breakfast. That said, the park was very wet, the ground very soggy, and we all got reasonably damp. Except in spirits. Once the two of you got your superhero capes, you were off like gangbusters. We did the 1 km Superhero race (Mommy and Monkey completed it; Choo Choo and I cheated a bit, only because you’re a bit of a slow walker, still, Choo Choo), which ended in a crowd of cheers, and medals on your necks.
You played games and won prizes, too! The best was a “game” that originally started as an inflatable pool filled with shredded paper, in which were buried toys for kids to find. But it quickly evolved to a game where the kids threw around clumps of shredded paper (both in/out of the pool, and at each other), and pretty much ignored all the toys that were supposed to be “won”.
After some slices of the 100th Anniversary Calgary Stampede cake, we headed back to the car, buckled in, and headed back to Sunterra (which, in our defence, was on the way out of the city) to get Choo Choo some diapers (which we’d forgotten to buy when we were there), hooked up the in-car DVD player (Kiki’s Delivery Service was the first movie up), and then hit the road.
It rained.
It rained off and on pretty much the rest of the day, really. It’s raining right now. It’ll be raining tomorrow. I really hope it stops raining.
Anyway, we stopped in Canmore, rather than our usual habit, which is Banff. Mommy found a nice restaurant she could eat at, which turned out to be a wonderful place with good food, and colouring books. You two and I had grilled cheese sandwiches (mine also had ham, salami, and dill pickles, mind you) while Mommy had a spinach salad.
We tried to find a playground afterwards, but it didn’t work out so well — the nearest one was further away than we’d planned. But we did find a toy store to stop at for short while.
Finding Nemo was the next movie up, which carried us through Banff National Park, and well into Kootenay National Park. Choo Choo, you finally fell asleep as we approached Highway 93, and stayed asleep for about an hour, waking up at the Lodge, where we’ve often stopped for a short break. (In this case, it was a rather urgent potty break.)
The rest of the trip went as it usually did — not anywhere near as fast as we’d like it to go. But soon we were out of the mountains, much to Choo Choo’s relief (your ears were apparently hurting), and turning south towards what Choo Choo had started to call “Fairy-mont”. (My spelling, of course.)
After the obligatory stop in Invermere for groceries, we blasted to Fairy-mont, and checked in at the Mountainside Villas, barely minutes before Grandpa, Granny, and Tia Nicole arrived. We got the keys to our “new” house for this year, S7. Normally, we’re in B6, but it wasn’t available this week (this week being a traded week, since the timeshare schedule this year put us into Monkey’s first week of Kindergarten). S7 and B6 are similar, but there are notable differences. For this week, however, I’m sure it’ll be fine.
The both of you ran amok around the house, running up and down stairs, jumping on beds (you’re still mystified at the Murphy bed; you have no idea where the bed keeps disappearing to). We had dinner (though both of you failed to eat much), you read some stories, and after a significant amount of struggle, we got you both to bed, both still far too excited to be here, and both passing out within minutes of hitting the pillow.
Mommy and I made a run to the hot springs afterwards, and put some more thought into what we’ll do this week.
Y’know, if it ever stops raining.
