33 Fun Things We Did In Alberta

Wow... it's been so long since I've posted on here, I think I may have forgotten how to blog. We had such an awesome time in Alberta! Even the long drive there and back was actually bearable. There were a couple of moments of insanity when we had to pull off the highway before World War III broke out in the van, but for the most part the travel was fine (thanks in part to the DVD player we had installed, but mostly due to the fact that Jesse is still in a carseat and is unable to unbuckle himself as of yet).

I have about 800 pictures on my camera right now so I will be sharing pictures soon - probably lots and lots. I was hoping to go through them tonight but I just spent the last hour putting together one of Brett's Lego toys that I promised would be ready when he wakes up in the morning. I'm still functioning on Alberta time and haven't been up much earlier than 8:00 AM since we've been home. Of course this will have to change before school starts on Tuesday as Samantha and Brett have to leave to catch the bus at 7:45 AM. I took Samantha shopping for a new alarm clock tonight, since her old one had stopped working. Samantha is NOT a morning person, and her only concern after bringing the new alarm clock home was, "Do you think it will be loud enough?"

But I digress...

I wanted to mention some of my favourite memories from our trip. We were really lucky to be able to spend so much time with relatives on both sides of our family - and we got to see a lot of friends as well. I enjoyed this vacation so much and was very sad to see it come to an end. Here are just a few of the highlights:

1. Staying in Barnwell at Grandma & Grandpa Jensen's house
   
2. Seeing aunts, uncles and cousins from all over Southern Alberta
3. Jesse constantly asking to go "picking" in Grandpa's garden (all the kids went a few times, but Jesse loved it the most)
4. Going on a wagon ride with Uncle Arden's horses (and a few flat tires on the way)
   
5. Playing the "Chocolate Bar Game" with Aunt Nola and everybody at G & G Jensen's
   
6. Leaving Barnwell at 6:30 AM so we could drive to Calgary for Scott's golf game with Kevin & the boys
   
7. Staying at the Bieber's new house and Jayce asking us, "So... how's it going?" over and over again
8. Having a whole entire house to ourselves in Edmonton while we hung out there for a few days (thanks Mark & Marie!!)
9. Mini golfing at West Edmonton Mall with cousins Leah & Dillon and then watching the Sea Lion show
   
10. Kim & Patrick's chili and homemade bread
11. Lunch at the Purnell's and then shopping with the girls at South Edmonton Commons
12. Russell and Andrea introducing our kids to a Wii for the first time - after they went for a dip in the hot tub in their underwear since we didn't bring any swimsuits (just the kids, of course...)
13. Copper chasing Samantha around Mark's backyard
    
14. While in Edmonton, finding out that Mona & Jarom are engaged to be married in May 2008
    
15. Scott's team winning the golf tournament in Edmonton and getting to see a lot of old friends from his University days
16. Spending a few hours with Ashley at her house when she was 9 months pregnant and ready to pop
    
17. Seeing Nathan & Laura and their 3 boys in Edmonton
18. Pancakes & OJ for breakfast at Brian's and meeting his family for the first time
19. Dinner at Peter's in Calgary with the Biebers and some other friends from Edmonton
    
20. Boat rides, biscuiting, and wakeboarding in Waterton Lake while we were at the Stewart's cabin for 2 days
21. Hiking Bear's Hump in Waterton National Park with our cousins and the Dalziels
22. Scott eating grass in attempts to make the kids smile so we could take pictures of all 10 Hill grandchildren in Lethbridge
23. Playing street hockey with Parker, Matt, Sara & Hannah at their house
24. The tour of Karri & Dave's new house and kayaking in the lake right behind
25. Samantha playing Polly Pockets with Maren & Josie while Brody and Chase played with the boys in the backyard
    
26. Parker & Matt playing games with us at night (Saboteur, Loot) when the younger kids went to bed
    
27. Dinner in Raymond with the Jensen family at Julie's Dad's house and eating Carlos & Julie's fruit trifle (I NEED to get that recipe!)
    
28. Uncle Carlos teaching me how to cut fancy Hawaiian apples
29. Dinner at the Ormston's new house where our kids were on their worst behaviour ever and getting a little "vacationed-out" after a couple of weeks of absolutely no routine whatsoever
    
30. Visiting with Uncle Tom, Ruth and the McKee cousins and hearing Clinton tell his bear hunting stories
    
31. Staying up chatting with Grandma & Aunt Susan until 2:00 AM when she surprised us and came to Barnwell on our last night there
    
32. Eating Taber Corn as often as humanly possible during the 18 days we were in Alberta (and wishing we had brought some cobs back to London with us)
    
33. Listening to our vacation theme song, "Alberta Bound" at least 6000 times in the van on the drive there and back home
    

There are so many more fun things I could talk about, but I'd be here all night. The one good thing about coming home was that we got to bring back some jars of Aunt Susan's homemade salsa.

Alberta Bound

We are packing up for our big road trip to Alberta and plan to leave tomorrow evening after Scott is done work. We are so excited as we have been planning this trip for months now. This week we have been bust running around getting ready. On Monday we had a DVD player installed in our van to help entertain the kids for 30 hours of driving! We even have wireless headphones so that Scott & I can listen to our own music while the kids watch non-stop Disney. Or should I say, Scott can listen to his music while I read Harry Potter! :)

I'm not taking my laptop on our trip, but I will still try to update the blog at least once or twice a week while we are away.

On a totally different subject... Jesse got stung by a bee today! He was out on the balcony, and I was in the kitchen, so I didn't actually see it, but Brett said there were three bees flying around and one stung Jesse when he was sitting in a chair. He was in quite a bit of pain and had a huge red bump on the bottom of his big toe. I quickly googled "bee sting treatments" and decided to try a home remedy - making a paste out of water and baking soda (after checking that he wasn't allergic and that there wasn't any stinger still in his toe). It worked like a charm and within 15 minutes he was running around pain-free, although the bump was still visible. How did I ever live without Google???

I took some pictures of Jesse recovering on the couch, but I will have to share those later because it's now 1:48 AM! I always do this before a big trip - stay up way too late making sure everything is going to be ready for the next day. I really need to get some sleep so that I'm not too tired to read, I mean, drive tomorrow.