Calgary

A couple weeks ago Justin had 2 conferences to go to right in a row. One was in Calgary and one was in Banff National Park. So, instead of being 34 weeks prego at home with the 3 crazies from Wednesday morning to Monday late night and then have Justin be gone AGAIN the next week Wednesday morning to Friday night I decided to pack up the crew and go with. I was nervous, yes, but the kids had a great time and so did I. It is so much nicer that they understand when I talk to them and I can reason with them. It was a BUSY couple of days, but we stayed at a hotel in Calgary with a yummy breakfast and a pool with a water slide so the kids were in heaven. I had no clue what I was going to do during the day to pass time until daddy got back, especially since one of my Calgary friends was headed to Edmonton the exact dates I was in Calgary and the other was laboring with her 5th child. The nerve ALYSHA!!! :)While Just was at his conference I took them swimming (yes, ALL 3 by myself...a first!) and to lunch the first day and we all tried to "nap" but being in a hotel room is just too much fun for that right?! Ugh. Then the next day I took them to the new (and over-priced) Science Center Children's Museum which they LOVED and then to a friends house to just hang out!!! (Thanks Ashley! Just what this tired mama needed!) So yes, it was busy and tiring, but I think everyone had a great trip.

Enjoying lunch at Tim Horton's. :) The residency pays for our food and lodging too, so it is a pretty fun time for the kids to go out to eat several times! We went to Tim Horton's, Little Caesar's, Boston Pizza, and Moxie's, and of course McDonald's for lunch on the last day.

Maybe I should send this in to Tim Horton's advertising agents? Makes you want one, huh? I mean, eh?

How they "slept". 3 kids on a queen. Sometimes we had to build a makeshift bed on the floor for the one who kept waking up...ahem...Kate. We put them to bed and then went into the bathroom and read for 15 mins or so until they were asleep. HA! I sat on the (closed) toilet one night and the other in the empty tub so Just would have a place other than the floor to perch on. Anyway, after they fell asleep we would come out and turn a light on and read. 5 in one room isn't ideal, but we did it. Let's just say I was VERY ready to go home and have their own beds, and not have to hear Zach cough and grind his teeth all night! Ugghhhh...that noise gives me the SHIVERS!!! Yuck! What do you do for a 5 year old that grinds his teeth?

Honestly I didn't take my camera out much because I was busy playing mother hen gathering my chicks. Trying to keep them all in eye sight was hard. We would have stayed longer but I was getting tired!! They had a really cool water table, a big jungle gym/climbing area, a theater, a bunch of blocks and magnet shapes, experiments...it was a pretty cool place. Not as cool as the big city ones I've seen in the States where they have the entire building as a Children's Museum, with a fake grocery store and mini real life stuff, but cool enough.

The kiddos did this one for a while. Dropping balls down the tubes and then using a bag on a pulley to get the balls back up.

And this was Zach's dream! This kid LOVES tools and doing projects. Just like his Dadd--wait...his mommy! I remember back in elementary school one of our centers was the take apart center. It had old radios and electronics that we could just go at it and disassemble. It was awesome.

So other than that we did a lot of swimming, water sliding, eating, and not much sleeping. I was very ready to go home after the 3 nights, even if it had to be without Justin. There is just something great about home. Structure. Familiarity. Even Zach said "Isn't it great to be home?" :) Although I would have LOVED to be in Beautiful Banff...kidless...