Life's Whirlwind Adventures

I've lived in Alberta for 8 years, for 5 of those 8 years I've said I should go to Zoo lights, to see what this is all about. and for 4 of those years I have never gone.  And each year I kick myself for not going.  I love Christmas lights so I really want to see these light displays!! But this year we went!! I was so excited!!! It was a chilly day, but we went to The Fine Diner for lunch.  The food was great the atmosphere was upscale but the service was not the best, we got the feeling that they begrudgingly let us in with our kids.  I mean the waiter only gave my friend and I glasses of water the kids were not given glasses of water.  So if you don't have kids I'd say go, the food is worth it, if you do have kids maybe pick another location!! After lunch we headed to the zoo.  We arrived early so the kids could see some of the animals!! I think they enjoyed the crisp out door air, it was fun watching them move around the zoo and we were able t...

To all my mom's in Red Deer, I'm going to tell you about some of my favourite kids parks in town.  Red Deer has many parks, it's one of the great things about this city, there are lot's of green spaces and lot's of playgrounds around for you and kids to enjoy!! Some are very busy and some are less busy so it depends on your child's age and how many people you want to be around while at the park. Two of the best known parks for kids in town are Bower Ponds and Rotary Park. These two are great areas, but they are very well known and a lot of parents go to these parks so they are often very busy. They also seem to be built for pre school to school age children, if you have young toddlers they are going to need your assistance on the park, not going to be a relaxing place for you to sit and visit. Plus with all the bigger kids being there you are going to have to be very aware of what is going on.  For me personally, I like to relax while my child plays at the p...

The first day where my body seems to want to sleep in I had to be up early, as I had to head over to the Bellagio to get my hair done and start prepping for the wedding with my beautiful sister. All the bridesmaids met in Courtney's hotel room then we headed down to the salon so we could make our appointments.  Courtney got a manicure done and when she was finished we all had our hair styled.  Courtney looked absolutely stunning, she has the nicest ebony colour hair and it's long and they had a half up do done for her!! After the hair was all styled and pinned into place we headed up to Courtney's suite for the dress and make up portion of getting ready. After ordering some room service the girls began the process of doing make up and getting into our dresses.  It was fun and Courtney's other bridesmaids were great to hang out with, I knew Pam from before but this was the first time I had met Courtney's friend and sister in law Trinity.  She was very nice ...

So after a full twenty four hours in Vegas you would think we would have become accustomed to the various differences in time and various need for sleep.  But no, even though I was in bed by midnight, almost three hours past my regular bedtime (I know lame), I was up at the crack of dawn.  That wasn't even bad my hubby had only arrived back to the hotel at 4 in the morning, complaining that he hates this town because he got lost, and he was up and wide awake at 8 am.  I had laid awake for an hour, trying to will myself back to sleep which became a useless task. So let's begin this day!! Saturday wasn't as full as Friday was, catching the bus in Vegas is simple but it can be a little time consuming and they only allow 5 people in a cab, apparently that's a state law.  So Saturday morning we went shopping again, ok i went shopping and hubby begrudgingly followed me around.  We only walked a couple blocks down the strip to Ross so that I could buy some items I was...

Sleep what's sleep?? This is especially true in Vegas!! I was so tired when I finally fell asleep the day we arrived in Vegas yet, I was up at 7 like normal, and wide awake.  So I got up and headed down to the gym and did a workout. After that workout I met Adrian back in the room and we got ready to head out for the day.  First stop.... OUTLET shopping!!!  Where i bought almost nothing, seriously, I bought nothing!! My husband on the other hand bought tons and tons of stuff!! Ok maybe not tons and tons, but he did buy a significant amount of things.  Well ok he just spent more money than I did. After wearing our shoes out at the outlet mall we headed off to the pool at the Wet Bar in MGM.  It was an experience, but it was a lot of fun!! There was music and a pool and table and lot of booze!!  I think it was a pretty expensive afternoon, but the boys from the wedding party were winning and spending their money as fast as they won it.  No wonder no on...

Our family day was spent driving out west to see some of the sites of the Rocky Mountains.  I have been to and through the Rocky Mountains hundreds of times, but I have never been to them west of Red Deer.  So I asked my husband if we could go out to get some pictures and just spend an afternoon together, it ended up being the whole day but that was ok too. We actually slept in on Monday so we got off to a later start than we had planned.  But after feeding little man breakfast, packing snacks, getting water and finding all the clothes we needed we hoped in Hubby's truck and were heading out west.  We live so close to the mountains, and I love the mountains, I am literally in awe of them all the time so I couldn't tell you why we hadn't done this before, but I am so glad we did it this day and I hope to make it happen more frequently from now on. Out on the David Thompson Highway we had  a destination of Nordegg in mind.  It's really just a tiny...

May long has forever been a weekend of great apprehension for me. It's the weekend that is supposed to kick of summer and for the most part I always find it falls flat.  If I go camping it rains or, worse, snows.  If I stay in town it's hot out and I wish I was at the lake.   Never since I was sixteen have I had a great May Long weekend, it's kind of like New Year's Eve, so I decided to make a change this year.  I decided I was going to go to Vancouver to visit friends.  I found a great deal on Westjet and I booked my flight, made arrangements with a girlfriend to set up my jewelry to do show one night and it was all set to go.  A week before the trip one girlfriend said she couldn't do the show anymore so I asked another friend who said she was willing.  Then it was about planning out my trip, setting up things I wanted to do while I was there.  Some of the things that topped my list were going to the Ocean and Stanley Park.  I also w...

So this was the day we did our first big tour of sight seeing.  It was a busy day and I am pretty sure we saw half the island.  Unfortunately, many of the images we saw this day were not captured on film or camera as my camera decided to be a pissy pants and die on me after the beach.  I was not impressed, but I had my camcorder so I made due. Little Man and Little Guy were awesome travellers for the day, they did not fuss and rarely did they cry, which is frankly amazing for Little Man since he hates to be in the car.  It may have been better because the roads were bumpy so he was bumped into sleep and Little Guy kept him company in the back seat when he was awake. The day started with getting the children ready, having breakfast, getting ourselves ready and making lunches.  Stacey cursed the humidity in the air as it played havoc with her hairstyle. I pulled my hair up into a pony tail and was content with that.  Once the preliminaries were compl...