Life's Whirlwind Adventures

Calgary Zoo, twice in a week, my life is on an up swing.  I went the first time with the girls from work and it was fantastic, so I thought it would be a great trip to take with the boys.  Then I realized that I had been a neglectful mom and had never taken Lil Man to the zoo before, and I can't even understand how that happened. So Sunday after the family reunion we headed to the zoo with our cousins, Graham, Carla and their two girls!! There are so many sights to see at the Calgary Zoo, the newest exhibit is the Penguin exhibit.  Unfortunately, they closed down the Australia Exhibit (back in 2010) and that made me sad. I didn't exactly like the Australia exhibit, it was never my favorite but the kangaroos were neat and some of those night creatures were creepily intriguing.  Our first stop at the Zoo was the Penguins, it's right when you come in, so it makes it easy!! Those lil penguins are so darn cute.  The little tuxedo wearing acrobats! The rock ho...

The Schnell family is a very close family that enjoys holding family reunion events at least once a year if not twice a year, I am so blessed to have been brought into this family.  Just to be clear, this is my husbands maternal family and I really, and truly love them all. After all my gallivanting around the world, ok North and Central America, I came home in time to celebrate birthday's for two uncles.  So we had a mini family reunion the first weekend in May. And I got to drive my new car down too!!! For me family is so important, I love all my family and I cherish the time I get to spend with my family. It's not as frequent as I would like, but when we do it's always a good time.  So to all my family, new and old, blood and chosen, I am very grateful to have you in my life and I love you all!!!

So since taking a picture of the sun would have been cliche, I decided to find the next best thing.  A light bulb, no joking, but I did find some great plants that had some great sunlight shining on them, so those were my submissions for Week 20!! Also Lil Man playing at Sylvan Lake and the treacherous stairs that inflamed my sciatic nerve.

Good bye Explorer Remember back on Good Friday I told  you my car had been involved in a hit an run?  Maybe you do maybe you don't, anyways it was involved in a hit and run and then the insurance adjuster told me they were writing off my Explorer, there was just too much damage. I had an idea of a car I was going to get, it was just going to be a car to get me through until we had some more of our bills paid off.  I had looked at the north end car dealerships and had found a Kia at the Kia dealership.  It was a Forte and it looked ok, nothing fancy, but it seemed to have the added features I was looking for, but it wasn't a car I loved.... not by a long shot, but it would have done the trick. When we checked our mail upon our arrival home from Vegas there was a customer appreciation invitation for MGM for the following day.  The kicker was, if we bought a car that day we would get a free trip to Vegas!!! Now this may seem like a fantastic deal, and reall...

The day after the wedding, is always one of those anticlimactic type days.  All this anticipation for this big day has built up, the day comes it's wonderful and then it's over and now everyone involved in the wedding has to come up withs something else to look forward too. I suspect that's why after people get married they are bombarded with "So when you going to have a baby?" type questions. Hubby and I just sorta of hung out, we went back to Ross I had to get a couple more items, and I was looking for something for Chandler.  We hung out by the pool, said good bye to Nellie and Rhi because they were leaving that night.  Hubby and I contemplated hoping the plane early but it didn't work out so we just sort of did a little walking tour of the south end of the strip together. I really and truly enjoyed our trip together but I was so happy when we were boarding our plane to Calgary to head home!! I was done with vacations and I was ready to sleep in my own be...

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...