Edmonton

This past weekend we went to Edmonton. It was a really fun weekend. We stayed at the Wingate hotel - which is close to West Edmonton Mall. We got to Edmonton at about 4:00 on Saturday and quickly unloaded all our stuff into the hotel room and headed off to the waterpark at the mall. After getting over the shock of how much it cost to get in the place I had a great time ($80 for a family of 4....although they did give us a discount (less than $1) since it was only 2 hours until closing time). Jill really loves to play in the water. She jumps into the waves, does hand stands, and loves getting tossed around. Peirce wasn't quite so sure about all that and about ripped my head off trying to get up in safe territory away from the waves. We got him a tube to ride on and that was a little better - that is, once he learned to relax and just ride the waves. We rode on lots of slides and had a good time with that. Allen and Jill went on the corkscrew - which was really fun to watch. It's like a big toilet! You get dumped out the bottom of this funnel into a deep pool. Peirce and I were happy to ride on the more tame rides - and Jill and Allen lived it up on the more treacherous ones.

After we finished we got a bite to eat and then did a little shopping (although not quite enough for Jill's tastes) By 8:00 we were back in the hotel room and I was totally exhausted! The kids seemed to have a little more stamina - but they did finally relent and go to sleep. Allen made a quick run over to Uncle Bob's house to deliver a blessing outfit to his parents and I stayed and read. I read two books this weekend by Nicholas Sparks - Love at First Sight and The Notebook. I thoroughly enjoyed both.

Sunday we got up and did some swimming in the hotel. They had a waterslide in the hotel - and it was about perfect for Peirce. Jill got her nose out of joint a bit as some girls about her age decided they really liked Peirce and only wanted to play with him. Suddenly she was very interested in playing with him. LOL

We checked out by 11:00 and Church was at 1:00 so we had a little time to go have a good lunch. In Sacrament Meeting Peirce fell asleep within 5 minutes of us sitting down - which was a good thing! Virginia and Andy blessed their baby - which was the real reason for our trip to Edmonton. It was fun to see everyone and great to hold little Jeremy. Jill especially loved holding him. She's just dying to have a baby in our family. Nana Ackroyd gave her a lecture about how if we do have another baby she has to promise to be a big helper because having a baby is a lot of work. She's got that right! :0)

The roads home were terrible. If we had known they were going to be like that we probably would have come home the next day. All the way from Edmonton to Red Deer we were tense and nervous. However, after Red Deer it was just fine.

As much as it is fun to go away, I sure enjoy getting home!