We are back home from our huge trip up to Canada, then Whitefish! I will pick up where I left off!
Quarantine marched on . . . and it was mostly pretty good honestly! Brian was working, the kids were entertaining themselves pretty well. I definitely got a bit antsy by the end, but our situation was pretty good so I really can't complain. We had great weather, but Adam still had a hot tub stint every single night (even a few times during the day!). Lynsey baked some cakes and Nathan got good at ping pong (now he wants a ping pong table!). We did have a few visitors (shhh don't tell on us!). Bobbi and Jer came to hang out in the backyard that last Saturday we were there, and Mary and Dave came on Sunday. It was nice to be able to get at least some visiting in during our quarantine! We did of course get lots of visiting with Brian's parents which was nice. Mike and Annie came over Wednesday the 30th, and then hung out Thursday (Canada Day) until we left for Slave Lake around 3pm. We were originally planning to drive to La Crete the whole way on Friday, but we had our negative test results from our Day 8 test, and we really just thought we were safe to drive part of the way Thursday, even though we were technically in quarantine until midnight. We got away with it, although we did get a check in call while we were driving (I'm sure she must have heard that we were driving, oops!). I guess she didn't care enough to call out any enforcements, seeing as our quarantine was going to be over in 7 hours anyway. Off to Slave Lake!
I included a few pictures of Adam with his teachers that I forgot to add last blog post, he is going to middle school next year and I really wanted him to have some pictures of these special people that made his elementary school experience so great<3. I can only hope he will do as well in middle school!
On to the La Crete leg of the trip! Our night stop over in Slave Lake was perfect, we loved having two shorter legs instead of one long one. The hotel was inexpensive and perfectly okay, would have been even better if our room's shower was functioning properly, but they did their best to accommodate us by letting us shower in a different room (couldn't switch rooms because this room was too small for us). We made it to La Crete the next day around 1:30. We had lunch at Mom's with Mom and Gert, it felt a bit strange to be at Mom's condo. It did suit her perfectly though, and it didn't take long for me to feel at home there. Adam loved the location with the big park being across the street, and he wandered back and forth between the house and the park. Melanie was at the park and saw Adam, so she came over to say hi! I went over to the park and visited with her for a bit, so good to see her again! We got to the campout later that afternoon and got set up in our trailer, it was just okay. A bit smelly and old, but hey - it was NOT a tent! It was so fun to see everyone again! I admit Friday was a bit of a surreal day, I didn't connect with everyone right away and felt a bit like a stranger. It was like I had been gone a lot longer than two years. Thankfully, this feeling did not last all weekend.
Saturday was a good day. Hard in some ways, because I finally faced some of the feelings I had been squashing down about Dad passing away, but much needed. Before the memorial started, we all went to the graveside to see Dad (and Bernie)'s graves, then we went to the Heritage Center for the dinner. The memorial service was really good - so great to be able to celebrate Dad's life. So many people had so many nice things to say, Dad deserved to have some kind of service honoring his life - even if it took until15 months after he died. Melanie was an angel to took Jasper in during the memorial service, so I hung out with her after the service for a while. We drove around and chatted, and once again I was floored by how much La Crete has changed in the last 20 years. An emotional day, but a good day.
Sunday was a lot of fun. I finally jumped into the volleyball action and had a lot of fun! Nathan was so funny, our little mascot on the side lines calling out the score and trash talking the other team lol! We hung out at George and Karen's until the evening and went to Becky and Gordie's for night. I was so happy to be in a real bed! Monday we had lunch at Mom's and then came back to Becky and Gordie's for supper. Tuesday we went to Tina's for lunch, which was surprisingly comfortable. I am always surprised at how at home I feel there knowing the tension and differences; of course it always helps when Mary and Dave and Mom are there as well. We had a wiener roast in Becky and Gordie's yard for supper that evening, and off we went to Calgary on Wednesday morning! Ezra went with us because he was going to a friend's house in Calgary, and we met Mary and Dave for lunch in Slave Lake. All in all it was a pretty good trip back to Calgary after a great time in La Crete!
One thing I wanted to mention is that I was really worried about how the Covid related conversations with my La Crete family would go, because I am not on the same page as most of them. As it turned out, it was not an issue at all! The topic came up a few times of course, but it quickly moved on and never became an argument or in the least bit contentious. So grateful for that! And everyone was SO nice to Jasper! I was worried that they would be annoyed at my wimpy inside dog, but everyone was very kind about him and treated him very well - so appreciated that!
Next leg - quarantine free days in Calgary! We got back to Calgary around supper time on Wednesday and hung out with Brian's parents the whole next day. Stella came over for dinner, and Terry and Marilyn stopped in in the evening for a bit as well. It was a nice catch up day to get some laundry done and hit up the Superstore for those Canadian goodies we like to bring back! Friday morning I went for a walk with Larissa and met her beautiful daughter! It was so fun to catch up with her, and I even got to hold her baby<3. That afternoon we headed to Bobbi and Jer's for a fun afternoon/early evening get together. Always a good time at the Sampsons! Saturday morning we took our time packing up and headed to Whitefish around 11am. It was a great time in Canada, but time to head back to the US of A!
On to the last leg of our trip - our time in Whitefish! We left Calgary at 11am on Saturday the 10th - a full 3 weeks and one day since we landed in Canada. I was a bit worried about this part of the trip - would we all be completely done and wanting to go home? Would we enjoy the activities our friends wanted to do, and would they even be possible for our family? Turns out it was all okay:-).
We had a pretty smooth border crossing, not many questions asked. We get to our condo in the heat of the late afternoon only to find out that our condo did NOT have air conditioning as the listing suggested:-(. It was an ongoing thing over the next few days trying to get the property management company to admit they misled us and really should give us some compensation; in the end, they did take A/C off their list of amenities (thereby admitting they don't offer it) but at the same time insisting that these little box air coolers were considered A/C. Nice try. Whatever, I tried to move on and still enjoy our time! It did cool off okay at night, but still not what I would have booked had I known. Oh, well - worse things have happened!
The Daveys and Vanees arrived a similar time to us and we ended up connecting briefly that first night. The next day we went to book some resort activities, only to find out we probably should have booked a bit ahead of time as there wasn't much space left! It was okay in the end as we all found activities we wanted to do (Nathan really wanted to try ziplining so I went with him, and Lynsey wanted to do the ropes course so she did that). Brian even decided to try and take Adam on the ropes course! He made it through, although Brian said it was a very stretching experience for him! I'm glad they got to do at least one activity. Nathan really enjoyed the ziplining, I'm so proud of him for doing something that was so far out of his comfort zone! And my comfort zone honestly lol! One thing I forgot to mention at the start was that the Vanees had access to an indoor pool through their house, and Brian and Adam made a lot of use of that over the few days we were there which worked out really well. They usually swam a couple of times a day. That night, we all had dinner together and hung out - it was a lot of fun!
Monday was our white water rafting day! The weather was perfect, and our guide was really good - it was a lot of fun! Nathan enjoyed it at first, but he did get a bit nervous at some points. I tried to reassure him that we were completely safe but it was just a bit much for him! I'm not sure he would do it again any time soon, but I do think he enjoyed at least some parts of it! Lynsey certainly enjoyed it and did great - even I liked it! It was just thrilling enough to be fun, but not too thrilling:-). We had some dinner together and hung out again, my thoughtful friends even had some birthday cheesecake for me as dessert! All the kids had gone to the Davey's condo to watch a movie, I'm glad Lynsey was able to hang out with some friends and have her own fun away from us. She's a teenager now, she needs those moments!
Tuesday was supposed to be a waterpark day, but the weather wasn't the greatest. The Davey's and Vanee's decided to go to a family fun center, but our kids weren't interested so we just hung around the condo for the day. We went to the pool, lazed around, it was perfectly fine for us. We were all so ready to be home. To be honest, this wasn't really the ideal vacation spot for us the way it was for the rest of our group, so a day at the condo was perfect! We just don't have a lot of activities we can do as a family unfortunately - swimming is the main one, which is why the all inclusive resort was such a hit. And why we were so thankful for the Vanees swimming pool access at our fingertips! It really was such a nice thing for Adam. For dinner that night, the adults all went into Whitefish (we were staying up on the mountain about 15 minutes from town) for dinner. It was absolutely delicious! Great meal worth the long wait it took to get our food! The town of Whitefish is actually quite beautiful, I think if we were ever to come back (which we would really only do if it worked out to come through on the way back from Alberta) we would want to stay in the town. All in all, it was a fun few days because we were with friends, but not something we would ever choose if it was just us.
Wednesday morning I got up early to start getting ready to go, but we still only got going around 9am! It just takes so long to get out of a VRBO, so many housekeeping things and food things etc. The trip home was pretty uneventful. Adam had his moments for sure, but overall not the worst! We came home around dinner time and got to see our new floor - so happy with it! It's beautiful! They do have to come back and do a few things, but overall we are very happy with the work. I spent all day yesterday putting the office room back together and doing some dusting and organizing, laundry, all the post trip things, and more of the same today. We also got our new table last night which I am also really happy with! So many changes! Still have to put the living room back together but we are getting close to organized after being gone for a month.
Whew! What a trip! So many good memories made! Would I do another 4 week trip again soon? Nope, probably not. But I'm glad we went and did what we did:-). Now, on to the rest of summer!
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