After a VERY long six weeks and two days Oaklee and I are finally with Ryan again. Not that I was counting or anything. We are all three very happy to be together again. Here's a little bit about our journey up here and the days spent here so far.
Grande Prairie is about 22 hours north, and a little west, of Salt Lake. So we set out Thursday afternoon with my mother in law for the first leg of our journey. Here's Oaklee all geared up to go in her Canada shirt. Poor girl didn't know what she was getting into.
After a stop for dinner and a change to pj's for Oaklee we were back on the road. In all honestly Oaklee was an angel. She couldn't have been any better.
We spent the night in Butte and then Friday morning got up and were in Alberta by early afternoon. We planned to stay a few days in Cardston to see all of Ryan's family.
A lot of whom Oaklee hadn't met.
We stopped in the duty free store and gave Oaklee her first taste of Canada. I hesitate to say, as soon as I took this picture she threw the flag down on the ground. I'm sure it wasn't personal....
This is a bad picture but it's the only one I got of Oaklee meeting her Great Grandma Enola for the first time. We also got to go out and see their farm which was so much fun since I have heard tons of stories about the farm.
On Saturday we went to Waterton Park which was SO beautiful. This picture cracks me up. She was so happy to be sitting in the rocks. We got a few sideways glances though because right behind her was a sheer drop to the lake.
Us with Nama at Waterton.
Oaklee loves her swings, even in Canada. And yes, she's swinging with a chip. Like her father, she prefers to keep food near by at all times.
On Monday we started the last (and very long) leg of our trip, Cardston to Grande Prairie. Oaklee wasn't as good as the first part, but really I can't complain. She did pretty good for what it was. I did have to bribe her with some oreos though, as you can see:
And this is what happened when we ran out of oreos. She has hard life.
Tuesday morning Ryan got off work and we FINALLY got to see him. You can't tell it by this picture but they were both very happy. We had all three had a very long night, Ryan at work, and us driving.
Then we headed over to what will be our temporary home here. We are staying in the basement of Tiffany and Kent Manville and really I couldn't ask for a better temporary home. They have a beautiful house and we have tons of space to ourselves. Plus the bed we are on is freakishly comfortable. I'm trying to figure out how to steal it when we go. Here's Oaklee telling you with her face how amazing the bed feels:
Ryan is off work until next Wednesday so we decided to take advantage and get as much fun out of our daddy time as possible. Today we hit up the local rec center for some swimming. Oaklee is a water baby so she loved it.
The rec center here is WAY impressive. Here is the big water slide that we didn't get to go on because Oaklee got scared by some waterfalls and we had to leave. Next time...
This picture is too small to get all the details, but the kiddie area is super fun. Oaklee's too small for all of it, plus she didn't like how noisy it was, but still, it was cool.
Here she is doing some back floating with dad, notice in the big pool away from all the loud noises of the kid area. Silly baby.
So far my only complaint about Grande Prairie is that I can't find Vanilla Coke! How depressing this town is if they don't have vanilla coke. I'll keep searching. Other then that I am thrilled to be with Ryan, but trying to get used to being away from our family. That part pretty much sucks. But Skype helps! Besides the lack of vanilla coke here are a few of my observations so far:
- There are street signs to get to Alaska, WHAT?
- I'm going to say at least 98% of the population here owns a camper. EVERY driveway has one.
- The drink sizes at fast food places are HUGE. Do NOT order a large, you will never finish it.
- You have to pay to get a grocery cart. You get your money back when you return the cart, but still.
