Monday, June 15, 2009

First Family Road Trip

On Thursday morning, we left for our weekend away to Alberta. We were heading to Lethbridge (1200km trip each way) for my cousin's wedding. We had a great weekend together as a family, as well as getting to hang out with the extended Dekens family in Lethbridge.

Before heading out, Kai was very interested in Koen trying out some apple in one of those mesh things. I never used anything like it for Kai but Koen seems to like it!

We drove to Revelstoke the first day and it ended up taking about 7 hours. We basically drove 2 hours and then would take an hour break for the kids to eat, diaper changes (Koen, not Kai. Kai is sooooo perfectly potty trained, I love it!), run around etc. While driving there, Kai said, out of nowhere, `I hope the rosemary is okay!'. He is such a little gardener and loves his responsibility of watering the garden. This cabin was so cute and I would recommend it. It sleeps 6 comfortably and the beds were super comfortable. It was also quite affordable at $50 a night and gave Kai a bit of a camping type experience. It comes with a fridge, microwave, and wireless Internet:) While the kids slept, Gary and I watched a movie on our laptop on the rocker. We were eaten alive by bugs and I have about 75 bites that are driving me crazy right now)

Koen is grabbing everything and anything in front of him now.

Eating dinner in our cabin. I made a couple dinners and froze them before we left as well as a ton of muffins etc. I find that our tummies (and wallets) do so much better when we bring our own food on holidays. We did go out a couple times on the trip though and Kai loved it. At this campsite they had amphibious argos which are vehicles that travel on land and water. Kai was so excited about them and when we walked by them the 3rd time he said, `Are you thinking what I'm thinking?!'. Where did he learn that?

Stellar Jay. We saw Mountain Goats, a bear, wolf, and deer. The first deer we saw was dead on the side of the road so every time we saw another animal, Kai would ask `Did it get dead?'.

Lake Louise!!! Who doesn't love Lake Louise? We spent about 1.5 hours here running around and accidentally giving Koen's arms a sunburn. Bad mommy. Bad, bad mommy. We saw a couple here in their wedding gear taking pictures of themselves. They were on their honeymoon and wanted some beautiful pictures at the lake. I took their camera for a bit and took some pictures for them:) Maybe Gary and I will take our wedding clothes next time...

The boys.
I feel like we have taken so many family pictures and we have yet to get one that I like. Maybe when Koen is a few months older he will actually look at the camera, Kai will smile, and I'll remember to engage my ab muscles:)
Kai really wanted two timbits. I told him that might give him a tummy ache. He said, `But I love tummy aches!'. Kai was such a good traveller, I could not believe it. He didn't complain and he just looked out the window, asked 10 billion questions, watched some Diego, ate some food. Good stuff. Koen is at such a difficult age as he is facing the back and needs to be breastfed and changed. He cried a lot and I just wanted to hold him, but alas, safety first! He is such a good little boy and I think he is so happy to be home. Today we transitioned him from his large cradle to the crib. Kai used to have 2 two hour naps at this age and was VERY scheduled which is good for someone like me. Koen is a little more `flexible' and if we get one good nap out of him, I'm happy.

I don't know how Kai survived on such little sleep. He didn't nap at all and was up til about 9:30pm each night and woke up at 5am in the morning. Crazy kid! He made me nervous a couple times when he had a tummy ache and said he had to `spit up'. Fortunately, there was no spitting up:)

A whole bunch of different Japanese tourists kept asking to have pictures taken with Kai. Kai was not into that so they probably have some terrible pictures of an almost 3 year old lying on the ground.

Kai thought this was a robot and kept yelling `Robot! Go fishing!'. Kinda funny, kind of embarrassing as he kept running back to the robot and yelling.

Super daddy!

Kinda funny?
Lethbridge was great. We hung out with relatives (not posting pictures because not sure if its okay to post their kids etc) and slept in the most comfortable beds in a super quiet and lovely hotel. It had an indoor water park too which was Koen's first time in the pool. He wasn't really a fan. At all. The wedding was beautiful. I have tons of relatives in Lethbridge and it was great to see everyone. Jordan (groom) had his 3 brothers in his wedding party and I always love the speeches from siblings and parents... it always makes me cry.

We took 16 hours to get home on a drive that normally takes about 12. Oh well, BC is too beautiful to not stop and enjoy. Gary and I got along great and talked a lot about kids and cameras...I think he may have convinced me to sell my 20D and get a 40D. Oh boy.

I can't wait to do a ton of road trips with these boys...Grand Canyon, Alaska and northern BC, Yellowstone etc. Gary and I both grew up doing large road trips and we're pumped to continue the tradition. I think 3+ is the best age for this so in 2 more years we'll prob. do our first big one. Yay for 2 teachers with 2 months off. Guess we'll just do photos for one or two weddings that summer:)

The road behind..

and ahead.

The seat behind me:)

Whenever I see light coming through clouds like that I always think of heaven. We are so thankful for a safe trip and the ability to do so. Hip hip hooray!

6 comments:

  1. Nice pics, as usual. Glad that Kai made it so well....and Koen, well I guess 5 months not the ideal travelling age.

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  2. LOVE Lake Louise!
    That's so funny - I always take pictures of the sunlight filtering down from the clouds like that too and say that it's God speaking :) Great pics!

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  3. i love road trips to Alberta! we haven't done one since our first summer being married, but look forward to doing them again in the next couple of years, hopefully (we both have a majority of our relatives out there).
    great pictures, as ever. glad Kai was such a great traveler!

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  4. Great post! (Am I the only one who can't see all the pictures?)

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  5. I hope all the pictures turned up okay....I can see them all. Not sure why that would be.

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  6. Sounds like you had a fantastic time. I loved looking at the pictures of your adventures! The ones at Banff are breath taking!

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