Alberta Bound

Jesse's eldest brother and his family live in BC, past the mountains where I dare not go. This past fall when I was planning Christmas gifts I realized just how long it had been since I'd seen my nieces, and how much they must have changed since then. This, along with Jesse's desire to go snowboarding in the mountains resulted in the following trip. What started as a simple plan soon became a full blown family reunion. Yes half of us are here in Oak Lake, but that's only half. 

Lunchables come with chocolate.....

We started the trip at Mom and Dad Thiessen's house with a Birthday Party for Elias.

Two years old as of January 28.

From a child's eye.

Jesse's family has a thing about packing into small spaces. I used to try to get their attention and move everyone to a more logical spot for things like gift openings. Used to.  

    After one day in Calgary, we all headed out to Castle Mountain Ski Resort where we rented a cabin on the hill for a few days. The boarders and skiers spent their days on the hill and were delighted to have hot lunches at the cabin. The rest of us spent our days at the cabin with the kids, which was mostly uneventful aside from Suzie getting a piece of Lego stuck in her nose. The evenings, for the most part, were spent as one big group. By the end of our stay, I think I'd lost some of my hearing. 21 Thiessens = loud.
    Sadly I was so busy with kids, food prep, and thinking my hubby was gonna die, that I completely forgot to take any pictures of our time at the hill, but I think it is safe to say the a good time was had by all.
    After Castle Mountain, we headed back to Calgary. Some went home right away, and a few of us stuck around for a few days of Calgary tourism.

Building Lego men at the Lego store in one of the Calgary malls.

Couldn't convince him to stop fiddling with his ear long enough to take a picture.

 Found an awesome blog on the net, which led us to this playland in Okotoks. 

Good Daddy :)

Waving at Liam.

Just chillin'.

Somebody jumped on me......

Help....

After Playtopia we went for lunch......Elias didn't make it.

A little shopping.

The underwhelming new science centre....

It made for some good pictures, but I wouldn't say it was worth the admission. 

"Painting" with water on slate.

A little indoor play area.

Jesse, massaging his tired cheeks after laughing so much at Liam with the sound toys. There was one where you'd talk into a microphone and it would play it back to you distorted in some way. Then you could record again and play them together.....I've never seen Liam (and Jesse) so hysterical. 

Electrical bits.

I'm sure that we did some other blog-worthy things that I didn't get pictures of, but since it is now August when I'm actually getting around to writing this post, I just don't remember them. I do however remember leaving tired and satisfied, and being grateful to get home again - which in my opinion, is the best part of a holiday.