Oh Canada! Part 2

At last!!  We made it to my Mom and Dad's apartment in Winnipeg!   3 days, 24 hours, close to a billion miles, I think, but we made it!

 

This is right when we parked the car in front of the their apartment.



Of course, their apartment building was easy to find because my mom was pacing out front - probably for a few hours.  How fun to see her!!  That's an understatement.  She had dinner all ready for us - with all of our Grandma favorites.  She had Canadian shirts for all the kids and chocolate Canadian coins.

In their apartment - my mom's picked up some Canadian pride

 

 

We chatted and chatted, and got a tour of her apartment building.  Not ever being around apartments - this kind of blew my kids' minds.  You get to ride in an elevator every day!  You have a trash chute!  You have underground parking!  Minds blown.  By the end of the week they had covered every square inch of that building, and walked around like they owned the place.  They mildly stood out, since the minimum age to live there is 55, but that didn't stop them. 

Logan taking my mom's "bag lady" cart around for a spin

in the parking garage.  How else would you get your groceries up

to your apartment?  Things I have never though of. 

 

Our first night they took us to Assiniboine Park - which is a huge city park, bigger than Central Park.  



Reunited!  Totally worth the drive.

After the park we headed to my parent's mission office.  We got to see everyone's desks, the big transfer board, the President's office, where they do all their skyping, and lots of miscellaneous coats, shoes, suits, etc.  

        







The kids loved being in the office - and playing office!  Bailey would call Emily,
while Tyler was faxing something.
I don't know why it looks like there is something in my mom's hair - there really wasn't! 
It's a camera problem, not a hair problem.  Sorry mom. 

Now this is where the story gets weird - Derek was supposed to be on a business trip, right when we had planned to be in Winnipeg.  Of all places his meeting could be, it was in Toronto.  So, bright and early the first morning we were in Winnipeg, he flew to Toronto.  This left me and the kids in Winnipeg with my parents for a whole week!  We missed Derek, but we got to spend a way longer time in Winnipeg than we'd planned, since now he wasn't taking this time off.



   Monday morning our first stop was the Dollar Store - we needed bug spray.  I will say this, Winnipeg has it's share of mosquitos.  It's share, and then some of everyone else's share too.  There's a mosquito problem in that city.  So off we go to the Dollar Store - just to get some bug spray.  But, here's the thing - my kids forgot they had ever seen a Dollar Store in their lives and they kind of freaked out - they started grabbing stuff like crazy!  We ended up spending $40 that trip, and didn't get any bug spray. 

 

We left looking like the Dollar Store had thrown up on us. 

 

   After our wildly successful Dollar Store trip we headed to The Forks - the "it" place to be in Winnipeg.  It's called The Forks because it's where 2 rivers - The Red and The Assiniboine rivers come together.  Our first stop was an observation point so we had a great view of the city. 

 

 

 

 

We at lunch at the awesome Forks Marketplace.

 

Next we got ready to board a boat tour that took us on both of the main rivers in Winnipeg.

 

 Waiting to  board

 This picture makes me laugh because it sums up both my boys to a T -
if Logan doesn't want to smile, or anything else for that matter,
he's not going to.  And Tyler's always there trying to be so helpful.

 On the boat!

  Tuesday was rainy and cold, so we decided it was the perfect day to go to the Children's Museum.  My kids LOVED this place - we stayed for most of the day - and they could have stayed longer.

 

 

 

 



 



Tuesday night I took all of my family's laundry over to my mom's apartment.  I thought when we were there for lunch or dinner, I'd throw in a load.  Wednesday morning I came back to her apartment to find this:

 

 

A full week's worth of my family's laundry - DONE.  In one night.

She must have been up all night switching and folding laundry.

 



 Wednesday we headed to a Mennonite Community Visitor's Place - think Nauvoo for Mennonites.  It was all preserved from years and years ago.  We learned lots about Mennonites - that's because we pretty much started at knowing nothing about Mennonites.



 

 

 

  On the way back to Winnipeg we found a little deliciousness called Tim Horton's.  These are literally on every corner.  My hotel was 3 miles from my mom's apartment, and there were 3 Tim Horton's between the 2 of us.  They're famous for their donuts - and we agree, famous they should be.  We consumed many a donut that week!

 

 



Thank you Tim Horton's!

 Thursday morning we went to Birds Hill Lake.  It was this great man made lake.  It started out chilly, but by the afternoon it was lots warmer and the kids had a great time playing in the sand and water.  Next, we explored the Winnipeg Forest.  This thing is amazing - it's right in the middle of this giant city, but you feel like you're in the middle of the forest. It's 700 acres big.  There's wildlife, trails, and quiet. 

  

 

  Friday we headed back to Assiniboine Park and went to the Nature's Children's Park. This was the best park.  Ever.  It had the most fun playground. 

 



 

After the park we headed to the train that takes you all through Assiniboine Park.

 

Almost every afternoon we headed back to the hotel and logged some major pool hours.

 

Friday night Derek flew back to Winnipeg.  We decided to celebrate Tyler's birthday a few days early to celebrate with my mom and dad.  Tyler picked an Italian restaurant at The Forks for his birthday dinner.  

Of course Grandma was on top of making sure Tyler had a birthday cake. 
Happy early birthday teenager!

Saturday we headed to the Lake of the Woods.  Wow is all I can say. 

 

Ontario - 2nd Province

 

This lake is 1700 square miles big and has over 14,000 islands.  14,000.  That kind of big is mind blowing.  We went on a boat ride, the MS Kenora, and toured a tiny piece of this amazing lake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On board the MS Kenora

  After we got back to Winnipeg Saturday afternoon, we had to say goodbye.  We were going to get a few hours down the road Saturday night.  Was it hard to say goodbye!!  We had such a great week, got spoiled like crazy, and got to spend days and days with my parents. 

Thanks for the best week ever mom and dad!

 

We loaded up the family van, 4 kids, and a bunch of treats - and headed back on the road.

 

These kids - ready for another 24 hour drive home!

 

Oh Canada! Part 1

Disclaimer:  This post is LONG overdue ... but here it is nonetheless.  It's one of those posts that's so big and important, that it's overwhelming.  So overdue - yes, but better late than never right?

 

Before my parents opened their mission call, we told them Derek and I would go visit them wherever they got called.  If it was somewhere we could drive to, the kids would also get to come along.  So when we read "Winnipeg", a major family road trip was booked!

This was definitely the longest, most ambitious road trip we'd tackled.  Up until this trip, our longest road trip was a 2 day drive, maybe 15 hours.  This was going to be 24 hours.  One way.  But we were pumped and ready to take on this massive trip. 

Not too bad considering it was 6 people for 2 weeks!

Mango, the monkey, hanging from the handle is my personal fave of this picture.

 

 

4 happy kids 5 minutes into this adventure

 

We decided to drive to John and Sandy's the night before we officially began our trip to get a bit of a head start.  The next morning we got up early to hit the road - Rapid City, SD was our destination for day 1.



 

  John told us about a shortcut to get there - love his map!  Completely foolproof! 

Except that we couldn't read his writing. 

 



Montana - 1st state

 

 

Wyoming (trust me) - 2nd state

 

South Dakota - 3rd state

 



We had planned on getting close to Mount Rushmore on our first day.  We thought the 13 hour drive would prove to be enough for one day, so we were planning on seeing Mount Rushmore the next morning.  As we got closer and closer, and the kids were doing so awesome, we thought we might be able to visit Mount Rushmore that night and attend the nightly program.  We had heard that every night they do this awesome program.  We had ruled it out, thinking there was no way we could be there in the evening.  But our 13 hour car drive was no problem, the kids were doing great, and we were rolling through Keystone, SD about 30 minutes before the program was about to start. 

  We were so excited that we were able to go the program!  We told the kids, who hadn't had dinner yet, this program would be WAY better than eating, and we would eat as soon as were done paying homage to the presidents.

  So we went to Mount Rushmore, all amped up that we were going to be there after such a long car ride and see the program.  Let me just say, Mount Rushmore was incredible.  It was a million times better than I expected.  I thought the carving would be awesome, but envisioned a little wooden boardwalk that takes you to the best view and that's it.  I was not expecting a great, state-of-the-art, total techy facility.  From the parking garages, to the Avenue of Flags, to the amphitheater, to the Visitor's Centers, to the Presidential Trail, that let you see the carvings from different angles - this blew me away.  We got there in time to explore everything before the program started.

The Avenue of Flags

Do you love how I'm taking a picture of Derek taking a picture?

See how much we loved it?  :)

The main attraction!

Amazing.

 



Almost as amazing, these smiles after 13 hours in the car!

Maybe the smiles are because they're out of the car....

 



  The program was in the outdoor amphitheater which seats 3000.  They say that it's full most nights through the summer.   They showed this awesome video of how the carving was done, how the presidents were chosen, and why America is the best country in the world.  It certainly has you singing "I'm proud to be an American" by the end of that video!  At the end they call up any current military or veterans.  I was amazed at how many veterans were in a group of 3,000.  I would guess about 100 people went up.  Some were able to participate in the lowering of the flag ceremony.  It was awesome.  By the end of the program, it's dark enough that they light up the mountain.  It was awesome.  We loved every second.

 

 

I have become Mount Rushmore's biggest fan.  Everyone should go - it's incredible.  And it will make you really proud to live in America.

So I mentioned how we hadn't fed our kids any dinner - that was necessary for the upcoming story - when the night took a major turn south.  So our awesome night at Rushmore was over, the kids were starving, and we pacified them by telling them we were going to check into our hotel, and then we'd get dinner from somewhere non fast-food (our first day on the road and we were already sick of fast-food, that's unfortunate).  So on the road we go to our hotel that we had already booked. Already booked, not knowing the geography of South Dakota mind you.  We booked a hotel in Custer, thinking it was close to Mount Rushmore - yeah, it's not.  It's 45 minutes away.  Just so ya know.  So we just keep driving and driving, and we're starving and starving.  "But we're almost there!" we keep promising.  Now mind you, we left Mount Rushmore at 10:00.  To drive 45 minutes.  At 11:00 we get to Custer, get checked in, and the kids are about to eat each other.  So Derek decides that he will go out and "hunt and gather" us some dinner.  Off he goes, to the very, very quiet streets of Custer, South Dakota.  Nothing is open.  Nothing.  So Derek does his best "hunting and gathering" he can under the circumstances - the Common Cents gas station.  Derek came back with the best he could do - 3 hot dogs, 3 Hot Pockets, and a bag of chips.  Poor Logan fell asleep before Derek even came back.  When we saw his poor offering, all we could do is laugh.  To make it worse, the microwave in our room didn't work, so we had to nuke the Hot Pockets in the lobby.  I took one look at the hot dog and said, "no way.  Who knows how long that was sitting out."  Tyler took his chances with the hot dog, took one bite, and said, "That is not food.".  Miraculously, no one got food poisoning. 

    The next day we headed off again - first stop, Wall SD.  Wall is famous for the Wall Drug Store.  This thing is a tourist's souvenir paradise.  It's 76,000 square feet of all the cheap junk you can handle.  They also have a "backyard" for the kids to play on.   I wouldn't go out of my way to stop here, but if you're passing through it's worth walking through.

 

Their café served buffalo burgers - which Tyler really wanted to get once he knew we were going through South Dakota.  This makes up for the mysterious hot dog the night before right?

Our next stop that day was going through Badlands National Park.  Neither Derek or I had ever been there, so it was fun to drive through.  It's like no place else.  When I go through Yellowstone, or Arches, or Badlands, it amazes me how these type of places exist.

 

 

The best part of the Badlands happened to Derek.  On the drive there, Derek told us how much he wanted to see a bighorn sheep.  It had been on his Bucket List for a long time, and considering what an outdoorsman he was, he was shocked he'd never seen one in the wild.  He then regaled us with tale after tale of times when people promised he'd see a bighorn sheep if he went to this certain place, at this certain time, or people who had just seen one minutes before Derek showed up - only to be disappointed.  So he had really high hopes of seeing a bighorn sheep while we were in the Badlands.

   On our first stop out of our car, we were out walking around, when Bailey said, "What's that?"  I look over and see some animal.  I didn't know if it was an antelope or what, but I was really hoping it was bighorn sheep.  I overheard people talking, and they were saying it was a bighorn sheep.  So I run and get Derek - and tell him there's a bighorn sheep.  He starts running over to it, but all the while telling us there's no way it's a bighorn sheep.  As we get closer we see it definitely is a bighorn sheep.  We're all so happy that Derek finally got to see his bighorn sheep.  Check it off the list!

  Then, from across the road, comes 5 more bighorn sheep!  They meander across the road, on to our side, and walk RIGHT in front of us!  They just stood there, some even laid down.  There was a big crowd of people, all of us with our jaws hanging open.  It was so awesome to see them so up close.

 





 

 

  After the Badlands, we hit the road again.  Destination:  Bismarck, North Dakota.

 North Dakota, our 4th state

  

 Now here is why Derek is such a fun dad.  After driving and driving we pull into Bismarck, tired, hungry (again!) and super sick of the car.  We start calling around for hotels, and everyone we call we make Derek asks if they have a pool and what time they close.  I'm so tired, I couldn't care less if there's a pool - but Derek is a man on a mission.  And it turned out to be harder than we thought.  One closed really early and one was closed for maintenance.  But Derek was not to be denied his pool time.  We kept driving around to different hotels until we found one that had a pool.  We checked in, and the 5 of them hit the pool.  I did a pizza run.  But it did turn out to be an awesome pool, and just what the kids needed after such a long day.

 

 

 The next day we were Canada bound!  We were super excited - this was the day we got to see my mom and dad!  We stopped for lunch in Grand Forks, ND and realized we were only across the river from Minnesota.  Of course we popped across the river to add another state to our trip.  Logan was the proudest - he didn't say one word the entire time we were in Minnesota!  A full 3 minutes!

 

 

Minnesota - 5th state

 

Next stop - the Canadian border!!  As we pulled up to the border crossing, my kids were nervous as cats!  I don't know what they thought might happen, but they were worried!  We pulled up, answered a few questions, showed our ID's, and were happily on our way. 

 

Back on the road again .... but this time in Canada!!

2nd Country!!




And ... Manitoba - 1st Province

 

 

 

 

 

Emmy's E-mail

I got this email from Emily today (yes, she emailed me from our kitchen table, while I was in the kitchen).  Made me smile, so here it is:

It was hard walking home from school today. I had to walk by myself in 88 degrees,  too. It was like a volcano! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Tyler wasn't being a great help either. He said, and I quote, "Beep, beep, Emily!!!!! ha ha ha ha "  Man, I wished that kid had pegs on his bike so I could ride on them. That would be nice. .          

                                                                    Love ,

                                                                                 Emmy

School Year Themes

Last year our family had a theme for the school year.  It came from the Family Proclamation.  We used the paragraph that said that successful families are built upon faith, prayer, love, compassion, service, repentance, forgiveness, respect, and wholesome recreational activities.  We focused on one each month of the school year in our FHE's.  Loved it, loved it.

So this year as school was coming I started thinking about what our family school year theme should be.  I hadn't found anything I loved before FHE last night, so I thought maybe we could brainstorm one together.  And therein lies the problem ... we brainstormed some good ones, we brainstormed some bad ones.

 

Here's a list of the good ones the kids came up with (some took some coaching):

Be Courageous

I'm Trying to be Like Jesus

Golden Rule

Do a good deed every day

Try your best

Don't be greedy, be grateful

Be kind, Work hard

Be Kinder than Necessary

Go the Extra Mile

We say and do kind things

Kindness Matters

 

And here's the not so-good ones:

Don't hurt anyone

No plagiarizing

Kindness begins with you

If you're not sick, try your hardest

And our best of the worst ... drum roll please:

No burping or smoking

 

 

Needless to say, I'm going to pick our school year theme, without help from the peanut gallery!  I'm going with President Hinckley's 9 Be's.  9 Be's ... 9 months in the school year - it's definitely meant to be.  And definitely better than we could come up with on our own.  

 

 

 

 

 



Temple Groundbreaking

    Today our family went the groundbreaking ceremony of the new temple.  "Went to the groundbreaking" is a tad misleading ... we went to the church and watched it broadcast to us.  Our ward got 3 tickets ... as in 1, 2, 3 tickets.  So needless to say Derek and I weren't at the top of that list to get tickets.  Unlike my sister, who got tickets!!!  Unbelievable, I say.  Neener, Neener is what Jen says.
    On to the good stuff though ... the groundbreaking ceremony was so awesome.  Apparently I'm still on my Education Week high because there I was taking notes!  But it was awesome.  Elder Bednar spoke and gave the best talk.  He told us that when deciding where to build a temple the number of wards or stakes or any other metric isn't taken into account.  It is based on the hearts of the people. 
    He told us that he knew when the temple was announced we cheered, when the location was announced we were excited, when the groundbreaking was announced we made plans to be there, when the dedication is given we'll be there, when the temple opens we'll flood it.  But ... he said the real test of our gratitude is how often we'll go to the temple in one year, 2 years, 3 years.  Will we take it for granted?  Will it be too easy to put off?  We're so thankful for the temple now, but the real test is how much we use it in the years to come.
    He also said that as he was here he noticed the affluence of the community.  But he wanted to remind us of the saints in Africa.  He said these saints aren't starving, they get one meal a day.  But their tithing is helping to build this temple.
   Another speaker, Elder Richardson, told us how it would take 3 years to build this temple.  He said that in these 3 years a lot of work will be done to build this beautiful temple.  In that same time frame, we should be doing a lot of work on our personal lives, to be ready for this temple.
      It was such an awesome ceremony.  I was thrilled to have my family with me as we prepare for this temple.  The next few years will be exciting to watch this being built.

First Day of School Duds

I told Tyler I needed to take him shopping to buy clothes for the new school year.  He didn't really need anything, but I did want him to wear something new on the first day of school.  I told him we needed to go to Walmart to buy him a bike lock, then we could go to Fred Meyer's to get him a new shirt for school.  No, I'm not proud that I wasn't willing to take him to the mall, or even a store that only sells clothes, but Fred Meyer was close to the other errands we were running.  Here's our conversation:

  Tyler:  So we're only going to Fred Meyer's to get me a shirt?

Me:  yes

Tyler:  Can't I just get a shirt while we're at Walmart?

Me:  Well, I want to get you something nicer than Walmart.

Tyler:  Oh no, I'm happy to get something at Walmart if we don't have to go another store.

Me:  Ok, we'll see if there's anything there.

Needless to say, he walked into Walmart, grabbed the first shirt he could get his hands on, and was pleased as punch to not have to step foot in one more store than necessary. 

Kindness Matters

    I just finished reading the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio  It was such a fun, quick, uplifting, inspiring book.  The premise is about this boy named August who was born with severe facial deformities, who decides to go to 5th grade at a traditional school, instead of being homeschooled.  At the end of the book there is a 5th grade graduation where the principal speaks of kindness.
Here are a few of my favorite lines:

Quoting the book The Little White Bird, "Shall we make a new rule of life ... always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary?"  The principal then goes on to say, "What a marvelous line isn't it?  Kinder than necessary?  Because it's not enough to be kind.  One should be kinder than needed.  Why I love that line, that concept, is that it reminds me that we carry with us, as human beings, not just the capacity to be kind, but the very choice of kindness." 

 

Throughout the book one teacher has a Precept for each month that the kids focus on, here are my favorites:

When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind. - Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

 

Your deeds are your monuments. -Inscription on an Egyptian tomb

 

Kind words do not cost much.  Yet they accomplish much. -Blaise Pascal

 

Do all the good you can,

By all the means you can,

In allthe ways you can,

In all the places you can,

At all the times you can,

As long as you ever can.

John Wesley

 

 

   I love these thoughts on kindness, because kindness most definitely does matter.  This book has given me a desire to be kinder than necessary.

Spring

Bailey wrote this poem in school, and it sums up Bailey to a T. No editing added. 

Spring spring spring

Spring is so green. 

In the green spring

You can sing sing sing

Sing on the swing

Swing swing so you

Sing on the swing 

And stay outside all day

Ok I love spring

Because it is green