The Great Adventure - Day 24

This morning we slept in as commanded, and got out of bed around 10:30.  As soon as Grandpa saw us up, he started cooking bacon, eggs and home-made hashbrowns.  We also woke up to a pile of folded laundry courtesy of Grandma.  Man, they know how to spoil us!

Before we left just after lunch, we noticed one of our tires looked low.  Grandpa came to the rescue with an air-pressure meter and an air pump!

It was hard to remember to take pictures of the terrain as we travelled as it's all so very familiar to me being my home town and surrounding area, but I grabbed one here and there as I remembered.

We stopped in Falkland for a couple hours to visit a dear friend of mine and meet her four-month-old baby.  Desiree is one of those friends with whom you can go too long without talking and pick up exactly where you left off.  She's a real blessing in my life and I wish we lived closer.  Also Avaya is adorable.

Desiree also shares my dairy allergies so I don't have to miss out on yummy things when I'm with her because she always has the lactose-free versions of my favourites!

Her son, Eamon, came out to play after his nap and I couldn't resist putting my coat on him and taking a picture.  Hahaha...

We were back on the road shortly after 2:30 and heading up into the mountains.  It alternated between pouring and being sunny.

We came back down the western side of the mountains around dinner time into the flatter coastal lands:

Finally, right at 7pm, we pulled up home.  You're wondering where Day 25 went, right?  We deceived everyone.  We always planned to be home on Day 24 so we could have one day to recuperate before heading into work on Monday.  (And before we upgraded cars right before we left, we had that extra day in there in case our 12-year old car broke down in the desert or something!).

Thanks to Grandma, we don't even have to worry about laundry tomorrow now.  We were fully unpacked and through the pile of mail in our box within an hour.  Now we've been spending the last three hours catching up on all our bills and other dumb adult responsibilities that creep up when you're gone for almost a full month!  Oh, and spending a stupid amount of time on the phone with Rogers renegotiating my plan that changed without warning while I was away.  (Note - always ask when the deal they give you "expires" since parts of it seem to expire before your plan is even matured!).   Hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to just mostly relax.

And since we're on the topic of life tips, always clean your house before you leave on vacation so you can come home to this lovely, tidy sight :)

Also... take cucumbers out of your fridge before you leave.  They turn into slime....  (I didn't take a photo).

Okay, it's 11pm and there's nothing in our fridge but cucumber slime.  (Kidding - I cleaned it up).  Time to order some pizza and wings I think ;)

Also, still stay tuned for Day 25's post though because Nick tells me there is an 80% chance he will finish our awesome trip video by then and I'll post a link :)

The Great Adventure - Day 23

Leaving Calgary just after 8am put us in the Rocky Mountains by late morning, but their towering peaks were blanketed in rain and mist.  We tried to make up time after stopping for coffee in order to meet my dad in Salmon Arm by 1pm when, for the THIRD time this trip, we saw flashing lights in our mirror.  This time we weren't let off with a warning and we received our second ticket of the trip, though much cheaper than the one from Ohio.  Apparently we need to get MUCH more observant with highway signs because we thought we were going 8km over - not 18km....  $166 later.  Sigh.

We actually did get to Salmon Arm just a few minutes after 1pm and caught my dad up on our trip.  I let him buy me a sprinkle doughnut just like when I was a kid and showed him all our pictures.

Next we headed into Vernon to stay with Nick's grandparents for rest of the afternoon and overnight.  It was so very green!  This is the town I grew up in from age 3 to 24, and it is semi-desert.  What I like best about the weather is that we have all four seasons for reasonable lengths of time and they are distinguishable from one another.  Right now, it's definitely Spring!  (And yes, I like my 30-40 Celsius Summers here, too!)

We sat down with Grandma at the kitchen table while Grandpa made us one of the best meals of our entire trip.  Steak, potatoes, cucumber salad and BBQ'd garlic bread.  Okay, I may just be biased because steak is like my third favourite food, but it was still excellent!

In the evening Nick played computer games and I worked on some photo stuff while intermittently helping Grandpa with his puzzle.  We also did a ton of laundry!

We all spent the evening in the living room, working on projects and listening to the television.  And being offered more snacks than our bellies could possibly hold!

The grandparents headed to bed just after 10pm leaving us with a command to sleep in tomorrow morning, and we will gladly oblige :)

The Great Adventure - Day 22

Today we drove from Saskatoon to Calgary - a familiar trek that we do at least once every other year (and sometimes more often), but usually in the snow.  It was easy driving on the flat prairie so Nick and I took turns with the passenger catching up on correspondence.  We probably burned through a significant portion of our monthly data, but it was so nice to have mobile internet again that actually works!

We spent the night in Calgary with Nick's sister and arrived just in time for dinner.  Stevie (Nick's oldest sister - he has three if you're trying to count) made a fire and picked up some smokies and smores for us.  We officially hung out with all the siblings on this trip except Jessie, Nick's brother, who lives with Stevie in Calgary, but was in Manitoba when we came through.

Her roommates joined us and more friends came by as the evening went on.

As it got later, Nick and I said goodnight and headed indoors to relax.  We snuggled beside each other in Stevie's comfy bed working on our computers and being serenaded by guitar-accompanied singing from the living room late into the night as others migrated in from outside.  Apparently this is somewhat normal to Nick, but it was a treat for me :)

The Great Adventure - Day 21

Today was another relaxing day with family.  Tomorrow we will be back on the road, however.  We got up late and Nick went off to have a lunch date with his mom, and I went off to have a lunch date with his dad:

Later in the afternoon, I started to put together a narrated photo album of our trip - a more daunting task that I had originally imaged.  I've been working on it for hours already and am still on the first week!  Meanwhile, Nick and his sister made a little home-video re-enactment of a scene from Frozen:

If you're interested, you can watch it HERE.

In the evening we went out for birthday dinners all around.  Nick's birthday was last week, and his sisters' birthdays were also last week and this week.

The birthday crew:

We waited patiently in the car while the parents went to pick up an ice-cream cake:

Later that night were presents, dessert, games and hot-tubbing:

We gave Robyn her "sea to sea" gifts that we picked up in Portland, Oregon, (coffee) and also New York City (personalized M&Ms).

We bought Katrina's gifts solely from Disney Land (a Disney pin and Mickey Mouse hand oven mitt).

Nick got a new shirt and card game.

Later the family gathered around to watch the home video Nick had made for Katrina, and then they played Nick's new game while I headed out to the hot tub :)

And tomorrow we're back on the road heading West :)