I must say it's nice to be home. We're all unpacked, the fridge is replenished and the laundry washed.

We had a pleasant trip, although as most trips when you have a lot of activities planned, it wasn't the most "restful". It was quite the drive up, but nothing compared to a trip to Fort Nelson. The roads were good and Geneva was better. :D We made a few stops on the way, which included one at a rest stop by a very pretty river and another at a waterfall. Not sure what the name of the falls were, as I missed that part of the conversation before we stopped. But ignorance of the name certainly didn't wreck the view. We had originally intended on making it a camping trip, until our sense kicked into gear to realize it's not quite summer enough for that kinda outing so far from home. So we set up camp in a condo 15 minutes from Banff and about 45 from Calgary (give or take). Didn't arrive until after 6 pm, so instead of packing us all back into the van for another drive to here or there to do the tourist deal, we sat down to a nice meal and kicked around the place until it was time for bed.

Thursday as soon as we could gather ourselves together, clean, clothed and fed (rather the challenge with any number of kids) :), it was to the Zoo and not much beyond. After eating a hasty meal in the van we met Martin D. at the gate, as he had taken the day off to join us. It was a very good day for Zooing as it was sunny, clear and a slight breeze ta boot. The animals were all interesting and the smell not more than we could handle, I suppose that aspect even brought back memories of being on a farm (they even had guineas), woohoo. I'm starting to believe that taking kids to the zoo is more for the parent's personal satisfaction in having taken the kids, than for the kids' great enjoyment in it. This isn't to say that the kids didn't find it enjoyable. All I mean by this is that 15 minutes in the Africa area was enough for Calvin to exclaim that he was tired of Africa and more than ready to move on to better things, although we hadn't visited more than half the animals in the area. Yet an hour wasn't sufficient for the kids in the playground area (with the other gazillions of children who really only came for the joys the playground and mini train), when we adults were ready to exclaim that we were tired of the playground. I admit, if I was 3 feet tall, the playground had it's temptations, but as it was, we were afforded with some shaded benches and time to rest our feet. What more could we ask for? After the zoo we still had over an hour to the time we had made for dinner reservations at the Olive Garden, so we went to Martin's apartment to wait out the remainder of the time, as apparently he only lived a few minutes from the afore mentioned zoo. Then to dinner we went. Very good dinner, parted ways, grabbed some stuff at Safeway and off for sleep, beautiful sleep.

Friday was a trip to the science centre, which was far more kid oriented. So needless to say there was tons of kids, running around like mad, touching everything, and everything was allowed to be touched. We then saw a showing of The Forces of Nature at the theatre in the centre, and it was back for more sleep, which I felt in great need of.

Saturday we packed everything up and traveled to Edmonton. Sadly for the last two drives the roads were good, but Geneva was worse, haha. By this time she had had enough of traveling and wanted nothing more than to be out. The kids occupied themselves with sleeping, reading, drawing and listening to stories on audio while I crocheted and Belinda read. We dropped by Dor and Jord's to visit and see their beautiful little son Amos. What a cutie and his hair couldn't be any softer. :D
After our visit it was over to the B's where we were to spend that evening and the next.

We had a very pleasant Lord's day and after worship returned to the B's for a turkey dinner and fellowship with not only the B's but Dor, Jord, Amos and Martin. It became a late night but I think we all thoroughly enjoyed it.

Monday it was once more packing it up and home again home again. Stopped by Mount Robson on the way, very pretty.

One trip down, next one set for the end of July and until then I'll enjoy storing everything it's place and having extra room in the van for whatever, whenever and wherever we need it.

Jode