Spring Break Vacation

For our Spring Break we were excited to be doing the Alberta tour!


Sunday, March 7th- We left and headed for High Prairie. We were off to see Great-Grampa Babkirk. He wasn't at the lodge when we arrived and we quickly learned that he was out at Jimmy and Evelyn's place. We visited with them all for about 1 1/2 hours, and boy did the time fly! They were talking about some funny stories from the past- Bill and I could listen to those for hours! The girls sat quiet and good as gold, and were very polite. We didn't even have to give any reminders! We praised them up and down for such wonderful behaviour when we hopped back in the truck.


We then carried on to Edmonton and to Auntie Bev's place. The girls were sure excited to see Megan and Mindy! Bill and I went up to bed and the next morning we discovered that our girls had a good ol' party in the basement with Megan until midnight (or so). Ainsley was supposed to sleep with Mindy, but jumped ship when Mindy was sleeping, to follow the aroma of popcorn.


Monday found us at the mall with money to burn...the girls, that is. We went to Old Navy and thank goodness Meg and Min were with us because all of a sudden the clothes Bill and I picked out were THAT much cooler when Meg and Min gave the nod. In the afternoon we took the girls to the Waterpark. We had so much fun splashing in the waves and riding the slides. I never knew so much water could come out through your nose! I manged only 2 wedgies that day, so all was well! We were pooped out and starving at 5:30 so we reluctantly ended our day. We went to Fat Burger for supper and had the most amazing hamburgers ever made. Bill and I were in bed by 9:00, but I think the girls had another fun night in the basement...


Tuesday we headed down to Okotoks and had a wonderful visit with Dee and Lyle for the night. The 5 kids always play so well together. I think the only time we saw them was supper time and bed time.


Wednesday we headed for Fort Macleod and spent the day with Great- Gramma Parks. She had fun filling the girls up with treats, treats, and more treats. The girls enjoyed going through all Gramma's beautiful photo albums. Seeing me when I was little and of course giggling at my style of clothing back then made for a lot of laughs. They always enjoy seeing themselves as babies and toddlers too. Dakota had a fever and slept and layed on the couch for most of the afternoon. We were supposed to be going skiing the next day...but I was starting to think more of a visit to the doctor's.

Sure enough, we postponed the ski trip by one day and got Dakota some meds for her strep throat and had a day of rest.



Friday came early for us and we bundled up and were off to Nakiska! We had a wonderful family day on the slopes. Bill and I worked with Dakota and Ainsley on the 2 bunny hills and let Mckenna get reacquainted with her skills. Bill and Mckenna then went off to try some of the easy runs while I worked on snowplowing, stopping, and turning with Ains and Kota. Bill came back and said that we would be able to handle one of the Bronze runs so off we headed. I partnered with Ains and left the daredevil with her dad. Ains and I rode the lift together and we both concentrated on looking straight ahead at the tree tops, rather than down. Thanks Auntie Bev...your advice worked well!!! We were certainly not very graceful getting off the chair. I wiped out and took Ains down with me...but I wanted to make sure that she got off the chair and didn't keep going around. We will have to work on that next time. After the girls and Bill finally managed to help me up, we were on our way. Again, Ains and I were partners and I left the daredevil with her dad. When we got to the bottom, we decided it was lunch time and that Ains (and mostly Dakota) needed a little more practice on the bunny hills.

We devoured our lunch and then hit the slopes once again. We wrapped up the day around 3:00pm and all agreed that we can't wait to ski again! (I think it took my shins about a week to recover from the ski boots.)



When we got back to Fort Macleod, we headed out to the farm to visit Bon and Ray. Erin was able to come too. We always have such a great time out there. We left around midnite, and when we got back to town, Gramma and Grampa W had returned home from Mexico.



Saturday was an enjoyable day visiting with everyone. We even got to cheer Uncle Cole and Uncle Geo on as they played hockey. Then suddenly...it was Sunday morning and time for the trip home. We had a wonderful getaway and were sure happy to see everyone.



Funny story...on the way home, we stopped for lunch at the McDonald's in Red Deer. On the the way to the truck, a woman in the parking lot commented on the jacket that Ainsley was wearing. (Bill's Olympic jacket that he wore in '88 when he ran the torch.) I told the woman where she got it and why she likes to wear it. This in how the conversation went as I'm walking to the truck and she is walking to her vehicle:

Woman- I actually one 2 bronze medals at those games.

Me- Oh yeah...that's nice...in what?

Woman- Downhill skiing.

Me- Oh, good for you.

(I wasn't even thinking about the full impact of what she was saying- I was in tired travel mode!)
I then take the dog for a quick walk and in the meantime, the woman goes over to the truck, gives Bill a couple postcards, tells him that she loves seeing young children have the spirit of sports. When I get back to the truck, Bill fills me in on this. How nice, I think...I look at the cards...KAREN PERCY LOWE! I couldn't believe it! I was super excited, and thinking that I totally blew the opportunity to say a couple more intellectual sentences than what I had said. UGG! Anyway, the girls thought it was cool that they had just skiied on the hill where THAT woman had won her medals. You never know who you'll meet at McDonald's...