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~ Monster Trucks ~

After we got back from our vacation, I had one day of down time, and then back to work. I spent a week helping a friend of mine with a catering company. She got the contract for our local stampede to provide the food for all the corporate boxes in the grand stand, as well as run a concession. I was in charge of running her conession. It was an unbelievable week of working long long....long days and being very tired. Not a week I plan on repeating. However at the end we took some time on the grounds. Also working were two of my best pals Kristen and Diane. Here's us all pictures with a Crocodile that was on site.

Then we headed over to the monster truck ride. Basically strap us all onto a Monster Truck and then go crazy. So much fun....

Click on the last picture to enlarge it....check out Sarah's face.....it was a fun ride!

~ It's been a crazy three weeks! ~

Time to catch up....it's been an unbelievably crazy couple weeks. So, starting with the big family holiday.

It had it's high points and low points. Any trip with the kids can't all be good....especially a long road trip. But we did the best we could. Day 1 and 2 were spent in Invermere BC with my parents and sister. We've spent quite a few summers there on the Lake. But this was the last as we're going to start checking out other great places. The kids had fun at the beach and playing with the cousins that came. Wednesday morning we packed up and headed to a little petting zoo before heading out for our trip.

Day 3 landed us in Creston BC where is was 40 degrees. I had spent lots of time planning out our trip so that we wouldn't do too much driving in one day. However there was road construction and we took a lot longer to get to Creston that I had planned. We stayed at the Sunset Motel. A small motel that had very hard beds but a fun outdoor pool.

Day 4 we had the first of many unplanned adventures. Creston is a small place and we wrongly assumed that if we just kept going straight out of town on the highway that we were going the right way. We didn't think much of it really....until about an hour later when the towns we were going through weren't on the route I was watching on the map. So I finally took a broader look and we were going North instead of East. Wouldn't have been a big deal except this road was the windyest road ever and Tyler was really getting sick. So Brian is beyond irritated and now wanting to see the map, as I'm apparently incapable of reading the map. He got over that and we got back to our roles of MOM- Navigator, DAD-Driver. So we had to take a Ferry ride across the Kootney river to get back to where we needed to be. Was a very nice Ferry ride and ended up being a nice little extra for the kids. I had booked to end our drive in Princeton but with our little detour we decided to see if there was anything closer. We ended our journey that day in Osoyoos, which is beautiful. This area is the only desert in Canada and is full of vineyards. Osoyoos in sandwiched right between two incredible lakes. After dinner we walked along the lake and through rocks in.

Day 6 took us all the way to Coquitlam where we would be staying for four days. This day of driving was much better as we finally hit some open straight highway and could actually go above 60. However this day also had me having a melt down as the complaining and fighting and generally being miserable hit it's peak and mom lost it. But we also worked through that and everyone cheered up and stopped being bratty....including the daddy!!

We were all happy to reach the Vancouver area where we knew we'd stay for a while. We did something that we never do, headed to the mall. It was pretty rainy and cold in Vancouver, which I hadn't planned on for clothes. I'd brought everyone a pair of jeans but only one. Brian and I only had a long sleeve shirt for a jacket, so we both got new jackets.

Day 7 was a Saturday and we headed to the Vancouver Aquarium. Had we been thinking we would have done this on a different day as it was packed. But we enjoyed seeing all the marine life and watching a Beluga Whale show. We toured Stanley park that day and walked our legs off.

Day 8 we had good intentions of hitting sacrament meeting before heading out for the day...but that didn't end up happening. So downtown again we went. This time to Canada Place where the ships dock. There were two big cruise shipped there and the kids had fun looking at those. This day also held the second of our unexpected adventures. It took us a while to find a place to park because we had the topper on our van, and couldn't park under ground. So we finally find a place to park on the street and pay the parking fee over the phone. Then head out. We weren't at Canada Place too long, a little over an hour. Come back and the van is gone. Now we're in downtown Vancouver with the kids and the stroller and no van. So I talk to the restaurant right by there and they confirmed that not five minutes before our van had been towed. Upon closer inspection is seems we parked in a Tour Bus only zone. However this was not well posted and we hadn't noticed. Plus the parking charge system didn't have any problem charging my credit card for the parking fee, even though you have to enter a location. So we called a taxi, two actually because they didn't have a van, and headed down to the impound lot. Fortunately it was pretty close. Paid the impound fee and were on our way within an hour. That night Brian and I did a little re-arranging on our plans as we didn't have anything more we wanted to do in Vancouver, but did want to spend more time in Victoria.

Day 10 we spent the morning trying to fight our parking ticket. We had already paid the parking fee, the taxi fee and the impound fee. We weren't also going to pay the $40 parking ticket. So back downtown to fight the ticket. And OF COURSE just our luck all the civil workers in the city were on strike so there wasn't anyone to help us. So now we had to head to city hall which isn't very close. There I got the ticket dropped and we were off to the Ferry to take us to Victoria. Ferry ride was very nice and the kids had fun. We got to our hotel, had some dinner then headed to Island View Beach. This was a really great view, but smelled really bad. So bad in fact that Sydney spent the whole time gagging. That was a bit of over doing it, but it definitely smelled like fish. Later I went for a run, which was a mistake because it was getting a little late, and definitely too dark and I wasn't familiar with the path I was on. So I went the whole time expecting to be mugged at any minute. So lesson learned, if your nervous about doing something before starting....don't start.

Day 11 we spent in Victoria touring the Parliament Building and going through the Royal BC Museum. This museum was the whole reason for our trip. Brian and I were in Victoria last year for a business trip and we went to this Museum. We loved it so much that we said we'd bring the kids here one day. It's very satisfying to set a goal and accomplish it. Fortunately for us were were able to do this the very next year. The kids were so great in the museum. We feared that Owen wouldn't do well, but he had a great time. The Titanic exhibit was set up and was very interesting to see actual items from the ship. We then walked around the Victoria harbour and enjoyed the nice weather. That night we visited with Brian's Aunt Peggy and Uncle Jim who live just outside the main part of Victoria. We had a nice time with them and saw a mother and two baby dear while were were getting ready to leave.

Day 12 we were back on the Ferry and then had a day of driving. We took a different route home so avoid the windy roads. We again re-arranged our trip while driving and re-booked our hotels. I think the Best Western call centre knew me by name as I changed our reservations so many times. We drove through to Sicamous this day and stayed in a very nice room. The nicest of our trip. We figured since we were cutting our trip short by one day, then we could splurge a little on a room. It was worth it, King size beds and two separate rooms. Nothing like closing the door when you've slept in the same space as your children for two weeks

Day 13 was a long day of driving but worth it when we made it home.

So it was a great trip and we enjoyed showing our children some of the things we'd seen last year. We learned a few things and won't do some things again. But there are other aspects of our trip that we'd definitely do again.

More crazy life to share....but later.