Happy New Year! It is officially 2022, hopefully I can remember that when I'm signing things:-/.
We made it back from our trip to Alberta, and all things considered, I feel very lucky that we did! Let's start at the beginning. Our trip there was pretty smooth, it was very cold in Calgary but we got our rental vehicle okay and off we went to Brian's parents' house. We went to Bobbi and Jer's on the 26th and had a great time visiting with them, and then the 27th - 29th we were just with Brian's immediate family. It was cold so we played some games and hung out, ate a lot. We did get to go sledding a bit on the 28th and 29th as it warmed up to -16 degrees Celsius (still cold, I know!) - the boys enjoyed that. I met up with my friend Larissa the morning of the 30th and did not enjoy driving on the skating rink that was Crowchild - I am always reminded of why I was excited to move away from Calgary when we visit in the winter lol!
We left for Three Hills on the afternoon of the 30th, had a great time visiting family there. Dinner at Mary and Dave's that first night and most of us went back to Liz and Dave's for night (Lynsey stayed with Mary and Dave the whole time). We went to Gert's the next day and because it was Adam's birthday, we had some cupcakes to celebrate. We did the ice cream cake for the gathering at Liz's the next day. It really felt like such a whirlwind - so much visiting with family in a short time, and I was pretty exhausted by the time Sunday the 2nd rolled around. My Mom was there which was really great, glad we got to see her. Such a great visit!
We were a bit anxious for our trip home for several reasons - the weather in Seattle had been snowy and cold while we were gone, and there were a ton of flight cancelations the week leading up to us going home. We knew there was a chance of that, AND we were nervous about our Covid tests at the airport because we had seen so many people and we knew there was a chance we could test positive. We all felt fine, but these days with Omicron, that doesn't necessarily mean anything! Everything was fine with our flight status when we left Three Hills at 11:15am, and our drive to Calgary was pretty uneventful. Dropping off the van was easy, and we got to our testing appointment exactly on time. So far so good! The testing experience was easy, everyone was super friendly and we didn't have to wait. While we were waiting for our results, we learned that our flight was delayed by an hour, not a big deal - at least we knew our flight was happening! Waiting for the results was so nerve wracking - we had talked about what we would do if one of us were positive but honestly it would have been such an inconvenience. We only had to wait 15 minutes and we got our negative results, YAY! A thousand pound weight was lifted off my shoulders.
Checking in was fine but I forgot that we had to fill out these meaningless attestations so we had to do that (have I mentioned that I miss traveling in pre-Covid times? Because I do - I miss traveling in pre-Covid times). We made our way through security without too much of a problem, but American security in Calgary always feels a bit more intense than going the other direction. The metal detector was picking up the underwire in my bra so I got a thorough checking. Not a big deal, at least the officer was really friendly. I was just so tired and tense, I guess the negative Covid tests hadn't erased all my anxiety! Customs was okay, the officer was surprisingly friendly (every so often you get a chipper officer - definitely not the norm!) and all was smooth there. We got to the food court by our gate with lots of time to have lunch, and that is when I started to actually relax. So many variables, so many things that can go wrong. Now I could finally breathe!
Our flight was fine but when we got to Seattle, we had to wait 20 minutes for a gate (this tends to happen when the flight is delayed). We finally got a gate, and then we had to wait for our bags for a long time. Turns out we were waiting at the wrong carousel because they didn't update the board with the right carousel, so we trudge back to the right carousel and collect all our bags (who knows how long they had been circling). We got the shuttle back to the van and it was ready to go thankfully. The roads were pretty good but it was a messy drive. We picked up Jasper at Maggie's, got some pizza, and we were finally home at 7:30pm. Such a long day. But again - we made it home! And I was definitely grateful for that.
The last few days have been about trying to get back into the swing of life. The kids didn't have school yesterday because the roads were still really slippery in a lot of neighborhoods. There was a late start today but they did have school - sort of interesting because I actually think the roads and sidewalks were worse today than yesterday. So slippery! Hopefully by tomorrow things will improve, there was definitely some melting that happened today, but it didn't completely melt so there will be some ice. Hopefully the majority is gone by end of day tomorrow. Good old Seattle snow, such a royal pain in the butt!
Here we are 2022 - let's see what happens!
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