Time to catch up on the rest of our trip! We took it pretty easy on Friday, I had lots of laundry to do and had to take Nathan down to the Harry Hays building in downtown Calgary to pick up his passport. We went to get some ice cream after, I had promised him I would take him in lieu of his 5th grade promotion day. It was a fun outing together:-). Saturday, Lynsey and I went to watch Ezra's basketball game with Mary and Dave - they won! Mike and Annie were over most of the day and we hung out, played some games, had another nice dinner together. Sunday morning we left for Three Hills, had lunch with George and Karen and Mom at Gert's house. Kyle and Jenna were there, too which was nice, I always like it when I can catch up with some nieces and nephews:-).
We made our way over to Liz and Dave's in the afternoon and got settled, since that was where we were staying. Poor Jana hadn't had her baby yet so she didn't come over, but a bunch of family came over for some of Dave's smoked brisket - so delicious! It was a fantastic meal, so love these family gatherings! We are pretty sure Adam thought it was the family campout, as we were all sitting outside on camp chairs, eating together. He asked for a fire later but was content with some graham crackers instead (the part that he likes about having a fire!). It was a really fun family day, I'm glad so many of us were able to gather together. It was a bit like a substitute campout for us!
Monday Gert left to go to Invermere with her kids, and we had a lazy morning at Liz and Dave's. Jana and Alex were going to Old's so Jana could be induced so they dropped off their little doggie Henry, him and Jasper had a fun time together! At first it was all fun and games but Jasper did get a little bossy at one point and started requiring Henry to submit:-/. He did eventually but all the barking was a bit annoying. We went to Mary and Dave's for lunch and to hang out, went to the toy store for a bit. It's so strange, I lived in Three Hills for a year but that town doesn't feel in the least bit familiar. I guess it was a pretty short time really long ago, but you would think there would be some kind of nostalgia! Maybe if I walked around the Prairie campus. Anyway, we went back to Liz and Dave's in the afternoon and had dinner with Liz (Dave was gone for work). It was such a nice visit with my family! So happy my Mom was able to come out and we could see her, too.
Tuesday morning, we got up early and got ready to go. Our goal was to leave by 7:30, we managed to pick up Lynsey (who was staying at Mary and Dave's) around 7:45 so not bad! We had planned to take Stoney Trail to the east of the city and head down south through Idaho, however something happened with our Google map route. Next thing we knew, we were at Highway 2. At that point, it was faster to just take Highway 1 and go west through BC, rather than tackle the Deerfoot at rush hour. So, we decided to do that. Oh if we knew then what we know now! It was an adventurous day to say the least.
Our first issue happened about 10 minutes outside of Lake Louise. We had made plans to stop there for a quick bathroom break and keep going, as we were making good time - long ways to go yet! We saw there was some kind of issue up ahead on Google maps but we thought maybe it was construction, we didn't have enough service to look anything up online. We had a potential different route we could take, Google at the time said it was about 5 minutes slower. At the time we didn't know what was ahead so we just stayed the course. Not 5 minutes after that option was available to us, we came to a grinding halt on the highway. Sandwiched between cars and a cement barrier. There was literally nowhere to go. We sat there for a while and then we were finally able to get the information that the highway was closed up ahead due to an accident. Ugh! Stuck there for an hour and fifteen minutes. We even had to pee on the side of the road, no one really knew how long we would be stuck there! Thankfully we did get going after that hour and fifteen minutes, a setback but we would still be home before midnight so all was well.
We are cruising along and get to Salmon Arm, and see that there is another slowdown at Sorrento up ahead. Feeling a bit uneasy, but realistically there is no detour to even investigate at that point in the journey. We were just desperately hoping that Google was somehow wrong and forged ahead. Sadly, Google was not wrong:-(. We took backroads to get around a large section of the back up, and ended up right near the front - it was indeed yet ANOTHER road closure due to an accident. It sure was our day! I'm a bit hysterical at this point, like we are going to be home at 3am! Thankfully this road closure wasn't quite as long, but it did set us back almost an hour. It was closed in both directions and seeing the back up the other way, wow! We ended up driving until we got to Kamloops and stopped at this very bizarre pizza place in the industrial part of town. The guy was really nice and the pizza was good, but it was an interesting experience for sure! We were the only ones in there. Anyway, it was a nice stop after a stressful afternoon. We ended up having no other big issues after that and got home at 11:59pm - JUST before midnight. We let Lynsey drive from the border home so she could get some night driving experience. She did great, although it was a bit stressful when we came across some night crews doing work around Marysville, leaving a very narrow lane to drive through. It was good experience for her and she really did very well.
The next few days we mostly got caught up on life! We set up the pool, got Lynsey to her volleyball camp Wednesday and Thursday, it was a busy rest of the week. On Friday, I took Nathan to Derby Days where he met up with his friend Felix. He had a lot of fun, I was able to catch up with Felix's mom which was nice. I probably wouldn't have stayed as long as we did but both Nathan and Lynsey (who was with her friends) had a good time so that's all that really matters! Saturday we did NOT go to Derby Days and took it easy at home.
Yesterday was Lynsey's club volleyball tryouts. It's kind of weird, the season doesn't actually start until November or December, but they are having tryouts now to secure their teams. Lynsey had a good camp so she had a few coaches already interested in her, but we were really hoping both her and Arabella would get on a team together. It was a bit of a long shot but we were hopeful! I was helping run some drills during the tryout, it was a bit of a chaotic experience. There seemed to be some tension between coaches and the club administrator that was running the tryouts, it was a bit disorganized for a while there. In the end, both Lynsey and Arabella made a northend 17-1 team! This means that we have to drive up to south Everett or to Edmonds College for practices (all the tournaments are the same for both locations). It's a bit further to go, but we knew competition for that top 17 eastside team would be very stiff so we said we were open to both locations. I was hopeful that I could get on as an assistant coach, and thought the head coach was receptive to the idea (she doesn't have another assistant and Tony, the club director, seemed keen to have me do it) but she said she thinks parents should just be parents. I was pretty disappointed, but I'm not giving up yet. She still has to find someone else, and Tony talked to her and told her to talk to Sabry before writing me off. No idea how that will go because I don't know what Sabry actually thought of me, but I have to believe he wouldn't be too harsh! I also emailed her today just telling her a bit more about me and why I love coaching, and that it worked pretty well last year for me to be coaching Lynsey's team. I imagine she's probably had issues in the past with parent coaches, apparently she used to be a club director. Hopefully she will at least hear me out and choose someone based on merit, not solely rejecting me based on the fact that I'm a parent. If she has a better option in mind then great! The top priority is that the girls have the best coaching possible, even if that's not me. I'll figure something else out. Maybe I will enjoy just being a parent, knowing that the coaching is just find without me:-).
Whew that was a long post! The next week is a bit more relaxed which I am looking forward to. I just want to take it easy and enjoy some summer days by the pool, now that it's set up and ready to go:-).
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