Fun times in Alberta!

We are back from our trip to Alberta! I'll start with the trip down there. We left last Thursday (the 23rd) and stayed in Salmon Arm for the night. We got there around supper time and got BP's takeout to eat in the room. Kendra picked me up and we went downtown to a wine bar type place to hang out and catch up, always great to catch up with old friends! AND I ran into Omar, Brian's old roommate and the officiant at our wedding - so random and fun to see him there, he lives in Edmonton and was just there vacationing with his family! The next day we drove the rest of the way to the family campout at Salem Acres Bible Camp. We had a great weekend with my family, even got to the do the canoe trip with the 4 of us while Adam (and Jasper) stayed behind at the camp. I wasn't sure he would be okay with staying behind but he did not seem to care one bit. Glad we all got to do it this time!

We drove to Calgary on Sunday after the campout wrapped up and hung out there until Thursday morning. It was very laid back, Mike and Annie were camping so we didn't get to see them. We hung out with Bobbi and Jer a few times which was fun as always, and I had lunch with Larissa on Wednesday. Thursday morning we drove to Coeur D'Alene for the night before heading home Friday. We actually had a pretty nice dinner at a restaurant (with a patio of course due to Jasper) but I didn't take any photos since we all looked so fried from all the travel :-S. Got home in the afternoon Friday and I spent the rest of the day unpacking, doing laundry, even got a gym workout in! 

Saturday was the first day of club volleyball tryouts. I was able to finally nail down the team I'm coaching, it's going to be the U16 team this year. I'm excited for the older age group but also a bit nervous to have older kids again, more pressure to win lol. I'm up to it, we got some good girls signed so I'm optimistic about the season. The tryouts were Sunday as well, I was helping out with the U15s as well. A lot of my girls came back which was good to see, happy they want to keep playing! That's always my goal as a coach, to be the kind of coach that make girls want to keep playing. Not everyone signed with Prism but a lot of them did, I hope they have a great season with their new coach:-).

Yesterday I started going through my kitchen stuff to see what I can give Lynsey for her new apartment. I'm so excited for her to start this new chapter of apartment living! We are driving down in three weeks, I can't believe it's so soon! Still have some things to gather but we've got a pretty good start. 

 

Baseball and Orcas Island with Kyle and Jenna, camping at Deception Pass

It's been a full few weeks since we got back from Oregon! We had a few days at home to get ready for Kyle and Jenna's visit, and on Friday they arrived for dinner. We went to the Mariners/Blue Jays game on Saturday (the 4th, very American activity on Independence Day:-D). Kyle and Jenna's kids wanted to get to the stadium early because they were giving bucket hats to the first 10,000 fans, so Nathan and I went down there with them around 11:20 (we got the hats, phew!). We got some food, walked around the stadium - it was the first Mariners game for all of us so it was fun to explore. Brian, Lynsey and Adam came later, right as the game started since we didn't think Adam would last the whole game. It turns out he did great! He was quite happy to sit there and have his snacks and the occasional wander on the concourse. We got very fortunate with the weather as it was sunny but not too hot (and our section was in the shade fairly early on in the game, too). It was a really fun experience, although the Blue Jays fans in our crew weren't too happy with the 11-0 blowout by the Mariners:-I. That's sports for you! You never know if your team is going to perform! I think they still had fun, in spite of the result!

Sunday Kyle and Jenna went to the game again but we didn't go this time - one baseball game is enough for this family! They were back for dinner and we took a walk to the Hartman Park afterwards, those kids seem to have endless energy! Monday we drove to Anacortes and took the ferry to Orcas Island. We had packed a lunch to eat at a waterfront park in Eastsound, the park wasn't as nice as I was hoping but we just hung out by the water for a bit before heading up to Mount Constitution. It was a bit hazy unfortunately so the views weren't as clear as I've seen at other times, but it was still really nice. We drove down to Obstruction State Park and walked down to the beach there for a bit before heading back to the ferry terminal. We had time to have a snack and a drink at the shop right there, and the Knelsen kids went to the gift shop. We went to a Thai place for dinner in Anacortes after we got off the ferry, a nice dinner to cap off our time with Kyle and Jenna. They got up at 5 the next morning and drove the whole way home, very ambitious of them! We had a great time with them and hope they come again, maybe next time the Blue Jays will show up a bit better for them (they unfortunately lost the Sunday game, too:-/).

Tuesday was spent getting ready to go camping on Wednesday. The camping trip actually went pretty well - I enjoyed it more than I thought I would! Brian had taken the boys camping last summer but I hadn't gone since our last big trip with the big group before Andy and Kristy moved back to Australia, so summer of 2022. I had been having some back trouble as well so I was just not looking forward to sleeping in the tent on top of all the work that goes into getting ready for camping. We had good weather, mostly sunny although not as warm as I would have liked. Everything went fairly smoothly and Deception Pass is just a beautiful campground with numerous beaches you can walk to and one that we drove to on Thursday morning that has tide pools, Rosario Beach. Unfortunately low tide was at 6:30am so we didn't get to see the best stuff by the time we got there at 10:30. It was still a cool beach. 

We got back yesterday and spent the afternoon doing laundry and getting everything cleaned up to put back in the shed for next year. I actually think I will go again next year, I slept much better than I thought I would. I have a cot with a memory foam mattress (known by the rest of the family as "the queen's bed") and I was fairly comfortable - I have definitely slept worse camping. The key for us is to only camp for 2 nights, even though it is a lot of work to set everything up for that short amount of time. It's still essential for my enjoyment for it to only be 2 nights vs the 3 nights we always did when we went with the big group.

Brian starts his new job on Monday! He is a bit nervous but I'm sure he will do great, it's always hard to start a new job. Hopefully he gets settled in and becomes comfortable quickly and he enjoys the new position. He has to travel to Virginia next week for a few days before we make our drive to Alberta, hopefully that all works out okay. I am happy to have nothing really going on for the family until our drive to Alberta on the 23rd! It's been a fun three and a half weeks, but I am ready for a bit of down time now before our next adventure:-D.