I’m going to make this the last post about Calgary. I’ve condensed the last few days of pictures to just the faves, and thats just going to be it, haha! I think the science centre was the highlight of the trip anyway, so I’m glad it got its own post, but if I parcelled out each event into a separate post, it would be at least a week of this. So, behold, the rest of the pictures I have to share.

*** I should say first that I’m not sharing photos of our visit with Brady’s sister’s family for two reasons. One is that I forgot to ask and I’m already into the post, and the other is because I only have a few photos and the real action is showed in all of the videos we took. So there is ZERO burn here, lol! I promise! I will show you, though, the picture of the big kids after that visit. They had SO much fun, it wiped them right out, hahaha! They didn’t move for a solid hour.

That evening, we had a special pizza party. We first ducked out Walmart to buy chips for our party, and then we ordered Pizza Hut to be delivered to our hotel room. I was AMAZED at how fast they came with our food! We called right at supper time, as in between 5:00 – 5:30, and our pizza was in our room twenty minutes later. We pushed all of the furniture to the side and sat on the floor to eat. I had planned to put a movie on, to make it extra special, but everyone was solidly happy and entertained with each other that there was no need at all! We just enjoyed ourselves.

Rowan started feeding Solly Cheerios all on his own. It was SO cute!

Rowan was loving the pizza hugs. Just constantly, to daddy, “Hug! Kiss! Taste! Hug!”

The next morning we hit the breakfast buffet for the second time. The kids were SO happy and photogenic. It was a yummy breakfast, and a good lead into our day of shopping.

Shopping day was full and busy, so this is really the only time I pulled out the camera to take pictures. Brady took Dekker to the bathroom and we just waited nearby. For the life of me, I couldn’t get them all to look at once. Story of my life.

It was a successful Ikea trip, and Rowan was SO over it, so we didn’t make it to Cross Iron Mills like we had hoped to. But that was fine. We ate supper in our hotel and did some more swimming in the evening.

The next morning was our last morning at the hotel. We went to breakfast in our jammies.

They just loved running those halls.

Once again, we have a breakfast collage.

They drew so much attention as they ate breakfast each morning, and I really understand why. They were SO content with their cereal and muffins and melon chunks, and we were so proud to show their beautiful selves off.

When we left the hotel, I went to the front desk and made sure we were appropriately checked out. The woman behind the desk said she was sad to see us go. Haha! I know she very lightly wasn’t, because whats the difference? But she said they had enjoyed watching our family come and go, and that we seemed really happy, and that the kids were very cute. And she was right. We are happy, and they are cute. I told her I sometimes feel like we’re a bit of a sideshow, and that sometimes people must see us coming and just cringe. She was very reassuring that their hotel drew families much larger than ours, and that family is family. I felt very welcome, and like we weren’t an inconvenience, like I sometimes feel we are. It was a nice note to end on, for sure.

So, if you haven’t already grasped it, we HIGHLY recommend staying at the Staybridge Suites in Calgary. It was wonderfully accommodating in pretty much every way. We felt welcome and taken care of. It would have still been a good trip had we stayed elsewhere, but I don’t think we would have been as comfortable in a smaller space, and wouldn’t have slept as well. And we all know how sleep dependant our kids are 😉

This place is a winner. Born-approved.

Our first day in Calgary consisted of a trip to the science centre. We spent the morning and a chunk of the afternoon there, and left when the meltdowns began. But we have SO MANY pictures from that day, so be ready.

Ready?

This was a favorite right off the hop, sending a ball across different drums and cymbals.

Rowan hung out in the stroller at this point, but was obviously still very cute.

Brady helping the kids produce energy

And again

We weren’t allowed into any exhibit with food or drinks, and we had coffees. So for at least the first part of the exploration and playing, I stayed out with Solly and we supervised the coffees. He was good company.

This next part was a lot of fun for the kids. Just a bunch of heavy foam chunks in the middle of a wide open space to build and play with. They LOVED it! And Brady and I could just sit back and watch our lovely children.

It was fun enough that no one wanted to leave. Specifically this one didn’t want to leave…

Then, they made new maps, and created music with clouds. They really solidly enjoyed every game.

This thing was the BEST. I won’t lie. I was super apprehensive when the kids went in. I would never tell them not to, but a VERY short time ago, Dekker would have freaked right out in this kind of environment. I had visions of someone losing their cool and me having to squeeze myself through the maze (with Solly still attached to my) and drag someone’s wailing body out. But guys, that did not happen.

They actually loved it!

They even crossed paths from time to time, but neither was in any way dependant on the other. They just played. For probably close to an hour.

While Dekker and Laela did that, Brady and Rowan had some special together time playing games that were slightly more suited for the younger crowd.

Solly and I kept an eye on the big kids. Ok, I kept an eye on them. Solly slept. I smooched him. It was also nice.

Later that day, we headed home, and the little boys had short naps. But we had waited too long, and it didn’t prove to be an especially easy evening. That being said, we were determined to squeeze in some extra things that would be special and different, so we got everyone into their swim stuff and went swimming.

It was a wonderful kick off to our holiday 🙂 The kids were so happy, and we were solidly worn out in that sore and also rewarding way. Thank goodness for comfy beds!!

As I mentioned on Facebook earlier today, I have WAY too many pictures to share on one post. I think it’ll need to be a two part post. At least. Like it should really be more. Maybe it will be… Let’s just see how far we get. I should definitely be writing this stuff at the end of the post, but we all know I’m not going to come back up here and change it. Sooooo onto the pictures!

We’ll just start with getting there 🙂 In case you weren’t sure, our kids are AMAZING travellers!

I know, you’ve probably seen these ones already if you’re part of my Facebook or Instagram page. But if you’re not, here they are! Road tripping in the bus was way nicer than any other way we’ve tried it. It was comfortable, smooth, and honestly, it didn’t suck gas like we thought it would. It cost more than the minivan to operate, sure, but really not by much. We were pleasantly surprised.

Taking breaks along the way. He’s a pretty cute bathroom buddy. Loves those automatic sinks! Automatic toilets, not so much.

She is SUCH a beauty, and was incredibly pleasant the whole trip!

Rowan was a picture of static, lol! And I didn’t have the nerve to make him have a ponytail the entire time. But he seemed not to care, and giggled when he’d push it out of his face and it would persistently stick.

Solly was SO good, waiting long stretches without being able to just play on the floor somewhere. He enjoyed his milk breaks, and drank well, which is not always the case. That was a huge relief to us.

The drive itself was surprisingly seamless. We rarely ever go to Calgary, and the kids have never been. We are in Edmonton much more often. The roads have been less travelled by us, but they were fun. Driving through Drumheller was a highlight, with all of the winding roads and dinosaurs to spot. But while the drive was great, it was even better to arrive at our hotel!

I’ve gushed enough about our hotel, so I’ll leave that out for today. But seriously, the kids raced from bedroom to bedroom, literally running out their energy. They were SO happy!

As I’m sure you can imagine, getting set up and settled and getting food on the go is always a gong show upon arrival. The kids were all of exhausted and energetic and teary and shot and wired and all of the things. And hungry. And it was getting late. So we decided on macaroni for our first meal there.

This is how our seating worked. If you saw the quick YouTube tour I made, you already know this. The kids sat around the counter on chairs, and Brady sat on a tub in the kitchen, haha! I sat against the wall on the other end with Solly. Thank goodness we remembered last minute to bring the high chair that would normally sit on a chair. It just sat on the counter.

He was a pretty cute supper buddy.

Honestly, guys, I think thats all I’m going to put up today. The next day worth of pictures is just too huge to combine with anything else. But hey, the first day was pretty cute too, I’d say. If anyone wants to travel with us next time, just let us know 😉 We do have a bus now, so we’ve got the room!

About a month ago, I replaced my conch earring with a new purple one. I was probably two excited about it, honestly. I just hadn’t changed my jewelry in eight years, and it was fun to go totally different! It was a week or two before it got a bit sore on me.

Conch rings are a bit tricky in general. Maybe not every one, but mine is. Because I wear a ring in mine, rather than a barbell, if I sleep on it funny, I pay for it. When it gets pulled on like that for a period of time, it gets very sore, and takes a few days to “heal.” I’ve heard it described as a piercing that never really completely heals. I’ve had this piercing for ten years now, so clearly its pretty good and healed. But when I got sore in that spot a couple of weeks back, I assumed I had just slept on it wrong, and dismissed it.

Our life is busy, and the state of my earring is not at the top of my priority list, so I didn’t really think about it much, or how long it had been sore. Or why it had been sore.

About a week, maybe ten days ago, it started oozing a bit. I figured I must have really annoyed it with that hypothetical bad sleep, and once again, left it alone. But I couldn’t for long, as it worsened. It got much more sore, and was oozing a lot. I tried to clean it with salt water, but it did nothing beyond making my ear wet.

It was REALLY hurting me when we were in Calgary, and I hoped that the chlorine in the pool would kill off whatever was in there. It did actually bring very slight temporary relief, but the dried crust just came off anyway and we were back to square one.

I was so relieved to pull the big bottle of hydrogen peroxide out when we got home. I know thats not “the” method these days, but I know it worked back in the day when I had my earlobes pierced, and I was willing to take on the sting that would come with it. Again, I had some relief with it, but it was short lived. It went from oozing when I fiddled with it to a constant disgusting stinky ooze. (Aren’t you guys glad you’re reading this? Don’t you feel like you were there? Delicious, I know.) But it was pretty out of control. The purple was coming off of the ring, indicating it was a much cheaper piece of jewellery than I had originally thought. I was disappointed, but I was also in pain, and ready to be out of pain.

Do you want to know how hard it was to get that hoop out of there?? My ear was SO swelled up, there was no possible way I could just slip it off. And it was such a beefy ring, I wasn’t strong enough to bend it. With that, every time I bumped it or pulled it at all, it shot pain around. All below my ear was very very sore (I assume from the infection spreading) and my ear itself was now massive and red and VERY angry. I eventually used a nail clipper as a wedge and forced the ring to open juuust enough to slip it out. And MAN! That hurt SO MUCH!!!

I doused my ear with hydrogen peroxide good and proper, and got all of the crusties cleaned off. I dug out the ring I had been wearing previous to this purple one. The ring was still fine, but the ball had fallen out, hence the new ring. But this one would at least keep the pierced hole from closing overnight. Since my ear was quite so angry, I had to use the same nail clipper method to stretch the ring further open, but it worked and I got the new ring in. It was so painful. I popped some Advil and went to rejoin Bachelor night.

Within minutes, my ear was back to its normal size, or at least very close. It also didn’t hurt as much at all. By the next morning, it was still producing some nasties, but the entire night produced about as much crud as it had in twenty minutes the day before. We are officially on the mend!

So. I’m still rocking this old ring, just for another day or two, to get nice and healed up, and I went to a piercing shop today and picked up a new titanium ring and bling. I’m excited to put that one in and never ever change it again, hahaha! Even once every 8-10 years was NOT worth this amount of pain!

Moral of the story: Buy quality jewellery! I’ve never had a reaction to cheap metals, but apparently I am, and I do NOT recommend messing with them! So. Much. Pain. Beware mall jewellery!!!

I am SO pumped to share that Solly is starting crawl!! I put a video of it up on my Instagram so definitely check it out 🙂 I’d put WAY more videos on here if I didn’t have to upload them to YouTube first. Kind of annoying when they’re just quick little cute things. But this is a milestone I’m really excited about.

Yes, yes, I know. Once kids crawl, you can’t set them down and expect them to stay in one place. Sure, thats a bit of a pain. BUT! I love that he can get his own toys sometimes, and will soon be following us around the house. I love that he’s growing and changing and developing exactly as he should. He is our earliest crawler too, which is new and exciting.

The big kids are also SUPER excited for Solly to be crawling! Dekker keeps saying “We should cheer for him, so he knows we’re so proud of him!” So we cheer, and he stares at us until we stop. Its pretty awesome.

Now the hunt for the baby gate begins. We have a bit of an interesting situation here where the gate will need to go, so it might be a tad tricky. Factors:

The staircase is wider than average. Gates for this situation do exist, I am aware.

The posts that our gate will attach to are not directly across from each other. Is “adjacent” the right word? If it is, they aren’t. So any gate that we put up will be slightly diagonal. Which is tricky.

To play off of that previous factor, our house still feels very new to us, and the idea of screwing some big chunky diagonal gate into the beautiful posts of our railings is a bit of a kick in the stomach. It feels a bit like it needs to be perfect for us to want to punch such a big hole somewhere that it couldn’t easily be repaired, if at all, in the future.

Lastly, this gate will be at the top of the stairs directly when you enter our house. So something jimmy rigged is possible, but would likely be a temporary solution.

I feel like our best bet will be to have a gate made, likely by the man who built our railings. But that will be both expensive and time consuming. We’ve always sort of talked about that being what we’ll do, but of course we didn’t prioritize it when 3/4 kids were fine on the stairs, and the other one wasn’t mobile. Now he is, and we’re behind.

Either way, we will find something soon. I am still SO happy that Solly has finally figured that cute little crawl/shimmy out. We all are, over here. Small victories.

Usually, my first day back from a trip is busy. I clean up the kitchen (because it was inevitably left a mess from us packing frantically the day before we left) and do TONS of laundry. I put away as much as I can, and at least a good chunk of the cleanup would be done. Then, Brady comes home and helps with what is left, and the trip is all taken care of. Done and done.

I highly recommend doing this a different way.

This morning, I took Dekker to school. My mom came to be with the kids, like she often does, and then I invited her to stay for the day. So I spent a lot of the day sitting, visiting with my mom, and sipping coffee. It was SUCH a nice day, and far less stressful than my usual first day back.

Beyond the general enjoyment of having a day like today, my mom and I had some wonderful, exciting, motivating conversations. I have so many ideas and so many goals but I feel a bit directionless. No decisions were made exactly, but it was really nice to be able to talk about some things and really just say a few things out loud to someone I love in a judgement free zone. I love my mom.

My husband is now on his way home, and Dekker is home from school. In a couple of hours, Jerilee is coming for Bachelor night!! We have SO MUCH to catch up on, so no spoilers!! I hope you all have great evenings like the one I’m anticipating 🙂

Our drive home from our holiday was actually better than the drive there. I feel like it often goes the other way, but it was a very pleasant surprise! There were fewer complaints regarding the length of the drive, no complaints about food or fatigue, etc. They ate when we said it was time to eat, took bathroom breaks and got fresh diapers when opportunities arose, and played with their toys well. Seriously, each kid had a mini magnadoodle. Thats it. And they were content and happy. It was really really awesome.

We got a later start on things, so unfortunately, we didn’t get to stop in Drumheller for the dinosaur museum. It was too bad, but we knew we would be pushing out luck with it. Now that we’re home, and the drive was quite so well received, and bedtime has been a bit of a throw down, I’m glad we didn’t take those extra hours to stop. Then the meltdown would have come while we were still on the road, which is not ideal at all. This was a good choice. Instead, we drove slowly through the town and picked out the dinosaurs 🙂 which they liked. So I call it a win.

About an hour from home, my mom texted me and invited us over for a quick supper, so we could have a visit, and also not have to make food. Win! We accepted right away and after dropping off our cooler at home, we drove right over. We mad macaroni, hot dogs, and fruit salad. It was delicious, and the kids were thrilled.

As I mentioned, bedtime was a bit of a gong show, but its over now. Brady is unloading the last few things from the van, and soon we’ll run a tub and enjoy a soak. I’m so happy to be back, with my own tub, and my own bed! Trips are wonderful, but home is just the best. I love home.

Dekker goes back to school tomorrow, and I think maybe I’ll do laundry, but thats all for now. No big time commitments this week, so we’ll take it slow getting back into routine. Why rush?

Our pizza party last night was SO fun, and the three older kids slept well through the night. Solly, not so much, but that seems to be the trend for him here. Thats one thing that I’m very much anticipating about going home tomorrow, haha! Getting back on track in the sleep department! But until then, we’re enjoying our last day here.

We enjoyed our free hot breakfast downstairs, like we did our first morning here. Its just really yummy, with lots of variety, and nice people nearby in case you need absolutely anything. It was a tasty morning, followed by a trip to Ikea. We didn’t do too much damage, but we got a tv stand, some blinds for two upstairs windows, a cozy throw blanket and pillow, and some little odds and ends. Ikea carries these little tea light lanterns, and they currently carry them in purple, and Dekker insisted that Laela and I each get one. It was cute. I always get a handful of napkins and things like that. Overall, it was a successful trip! Solly was getting pretty loud toward the end of it, but the ergo saved our lives, as it often does. Rowan wasn’t far behind needing a nap, so we left and drove back to the hotel.

We were going to fill the rest of our afternoon with some more shopping, but I’m not sure the gang is feeling up to it. They’ve asked for the pool, so we’ll probably try for that one last time, and perogies and sausage are on the menu for supper tonight. I think it’ll close our trip off perfectly.

Happy Sunday, friends. I hope you’ve had a really sweet weekend.

We SO enjoyed our second vacay day!! After a similar night to last night (Solly waking up a few times, but the big ones sleeping in nicely) everyone woke up happy and ready for the morning. We had planned a brunch with Brady’s sisters and their families for 9:00am, so we tidied the place up a bit, sliced some strawberries, and got organized. It turns out one of his sister’s families couldn’t make it after all, but right around 9:00, our company arrived and the brunch party began.

It was SO fun! Their three boys played with our kids in the best way. Very much a “making up for lost time” kind of way. It’s been roughly a year and a half since we saw each other, and a LOT has happened in that time! Rowan has surpassed six months of age, we gained Solly, Dekker is in school, Laela talks, etc. We all ate waffles and strawberries, drank chocolate milk and coffee, and visited. Their boys lovingly dove into the kids, and helped them dress their waffles in whipped cream, scoop them berries, and advocate for them if they had a request that we had missed. Once the bulk of the meal was over, the six kids (everyone minus Solly) ran into the kids bedroom to play. They wrestled, played hide and seek, ran laps, and played HARD! It was so wonderful to hear! I was so pleased that our kids weren’t very shy at all, and I’m always so blown away by their cousins, who are SUCH good kids, and invest so much energy and love into their little cousins. They have great radars for when to play and when to leave alone if someone is feeling standoffish. But really, everyone was just ON today, in the best way. It was a fabulous morning. Thank you, again, SO much making this morning happen! We were so happy to see you!!! <3

While the morning was a total blast, our kids were spent afterwards (as expected) so we put the little boys down almost immediately. Dekker and Laela were also tired, but not to the extent that we’d make them nap. Especially not on a vacation. But we got everyone snuggled up on the couches and watched a bit of Netflix. It was a nice rest.

Once the littles woke up, we packed everyone into the van and headed to a nearby Walmart to buy some travel snacks, and some chips for supper. Just a little outing, but it was good to get some fresh air while exposing our children to the scariest Walmart we’d ever been to. It was both enormous and stinky.

Back at the hotel, we attempted another trip to the pool, but it was pretty short lived. Our first one had been a great success. We were the only ones there, so it was a nice way to break the kids in. Today was not so quiet and still, which is obviously fine, and expected. But it was a bit different. I’ve had a hard time through this trip, witnessing lots of kids with zero supervision taking things from my children, or being super inconsiderate in general. I don’t say anything, because I don’t want to be that overprotective parent, but today, frisbees were flying at my children’s unsuspecting faces, other kids were standing at the end of the water slide (actually ON the slide) so no one else could use it, etc. and not one parent even offered a fake “look out for others” comment, or anything like that. I had a hard time with that. That, and just the general loud, echoey, splashy pool setting had our kids pretty overwhelmed. So we left, and that was fine.

We warmed everyone up in fresh jammies, and called in some pizza. Once the food (and dessert) came, we pulled out all of the furniture in the sitting room, plunked down on the floor, and had a pizza party. “Party” as in we ate on the floor, haha! Party time!!! Ok, it sounds lame, but it wasn’t. The kids were thrilled to have pizza and chips, and then chocolate chip cookie pizza for dessert. It went over beautifully. I had expected to put a movie on to make it just that much more special, but they were thrilled with exactly what we had, so there was no need to add a distraction. It was just family time, and I LOVED it!

Everyone is tucked away now, which is PERFECT! After yesterday being such a big, wonderful, but long day, the kids really needed to have some routine back, so they were in bed right at their usual time. Well, its one hour later than usual, with the time difference, I suppose, but nothing crazy. Just Solly is left to finish his bottle and hit the hay. Thats when the real party begins, and Brady and I get to the eat the leftover cookie pizza…

It was a truly lovely day. Tomorrow will be busier again, out of the hotel more. I think it’ll be really fun. But it’ll have to work hard to beat the fun of the last two days! I hope you guys are having as good of a weekend as we are!

Today is our first full day here! I’ve been good at taking more pictures than usual, and using the camera rather than my phone, but of course we forgot the usb to transfer them onto the laptop. Merp. So I guess you can anticipate a photo post once we’re home, but until then, you’ll just have to trust me when I say the kids are super cute.

Our night was what you’d likely expect. Solly was up more than usual, likely thanks to a healthy mix of being overtired, being out of routine, a new place, and teething. But he ate and went back to bed just fine every time, so that always helps a little. Brady and I felt pretty tired in the morning, but the other kids were super happy and had really enjoyed sharing a room! We got ready in the most basic sense, and headed down to the main floor for breakfast. Our confirmation email from Expedia said each room only got breakfast for two guests, but the hotel said it was for everyone checked in, so that was an unexpected win. It was even more of a win that breakfast was yummy! We would never have needed to bring breakfast food, but now we know. There were little omelettes, sausage patties, bagels, muffins, waffles to make fresh, hash browns, fresh fruit, cereal, with milk, coffee, and four different juices. Not to mention, someone who appeared to be the hotel manager was hanging around the tables the entire time, visiting with the guests, grabbing chairs/moving tables around, clearing dishes, etc. It was really relaxed and nice. We were some of the last to arrive but there was still a lot for us to choose from.

After breakfast, we went back to our room to get organized and a bit more ready before heading to the science centre.

The hard part is always getting into where we’re going, because we have small people traipsing through snow, and then trying to get out of their coats all at once, with everything falling onto the dirty floor, and someone crying, someone wandering, and at least two people asking questions. Its fun, and we love our family, but getting in and getting out usually takes about as long as we spend at whatever activity we’re heading into.

We really really enjoyed the science centre. At first, we only saw things that were over our kids heads, but very quickly after that, we began to find our feet and the kids got SO comfortable and excited! Its hard to explain all of the events without the pictures to go along with them, but it was really fun to watch our kids explore. Specifically Dekker. Six months to a year ago, he would NEVER have done some of the things he did today, and suddenly he is so much braver, and inquisitive, and curious. It was really awesome.

Sadly, our outing didn’t last as long as we had hoped, because Rowan was just finished. He is SO chill, but he was completely spent, and crying about absolutely everything. There was no way we could find a snack and keep on trucking. He was just plain old finished. So we left, and grabbed some lunch on the way to the hotel.

Lunch is done, and neither Solly or Rowan are sleeping well at all :/ Our first day of a trip tends to be like this, where everyone is just too wound up, but grossly overtired. Hopefully by tomorrow, they’ll have settled in a little bit better. But for the rest of today, we’re just going to rest here. Watch a movie, maybe (apparently they have some kids dvds in the lobby for guests to borrow) or just play links for a while. We’ll feel it out with the kids 🙂 But really, its been a lovely day! We’re so happy to just be together, just the six of us, and regroup. We really really needed this!!