May Long Weekend

Over the May long weekend, we took a family trip up to Edmonton. Wayne was supposed to do a fireside up in Spruce Gove, but it was canceled. We decided to go anyways thinking it would be a fun family holiday. We decided to get some family portraits done by an old friend, TJ Aneca, who now has a home-based business doing portraits. TJ sang on Wayne's first CD "Closer to Heaven" 10 years ago! She has an amazing voice and is now an amazing photographer.

We stayed with Wayne's cousin, Daina, the night before and then met TJ at her husbands' dental office (this is where her studio is set up). But it wasn't without some drama.... Azia woke up saying her tummy hurt and chose not to eat breakfast. She got showered, dressed and ready for pictures, but then felt really ill. Parker was occupying the bathroom that we were using and Azia got sick all over her pants and on the floor at Daina's house! LOVELY! Thankfully, she didn't get anything on her shirt and she had packed an extra pair of denim capris. We got Daina's floor cleaned up then headed to our shoot. On the way there, Azia got sick again. Luckily, Daina sent us with a bucket! This is NOT the way I had pictured our day going.

Azia bounced back pretty quickly and we did our shoot. It's so hard to know how these pictures were going to turn out with 5 fairly young kids. Parker was all too happy to pose, Cardiff wanted nothing to do with sitting still and Sawyer was sleepy, then hungry, then sleepy and not wanting to smile for the camera. When it came time to do some individual pictures of the kids, Parker had his own ideas of how he should look in the pictures. "TJ, how about this pose?" "TJ, what if I do something like this?' "TJ, take a picture of me now!" TJ was so great to accomodate his requests...she was excellent with all of the kids!

So a couple of days later, TJ posted some of our pics on her Facebook group and on her blog:

So far, I'm very excited from what I've seen! Can't wait to see the rest.

The rest of the day was spent at the World of Science centre and West Edmonton Mall. The kids were exhausted by the time we got to our hotel. We had been telling them all day that we would relax with a nice swim when we got to the hotel, however, when Wayne checked us in, they informed us that the pool closed an hour before. There was a YMCA across the street, but they would be closing in 15 minutes and the pool at Grant McEwan was closed for the long weekend. Needless to say, we were all a little bit upset! We convinced them to go to the hot tub for a short time and we would try to go swimming when we returned to Lethbridge. We had a very late supper (10pm) at the hotel's restaurant. Our server brought us some warm rolls to eat while we waited for our food. They were warm, but they were NOT fresh! They were as hard as rocks. Emmy would almost tip out of her chair after each bite as she yanked on the roll to get a piece off. Cardiff just ate the middle and left the shell! We were all laughing pretty hard...good times! I sat back and watched everyone laugh and have such a good time together just sitting around a table talking and I realized just how blessed I am!

After our very late meal, we finally got to relax...in our 2 different rooms! I booked the hotel using our Airmiles, but they only had 2 separate rooms with 1 king-size bed in each. Oh yeah, one of the rooms was a smoking room too! When we got to the non-smoking room, it was not a king-size bed, so they ended up giving us a cot and a crib to use free of charge. Wayne graciously took the smoking room with two of the kids and I stayed with Sawyer and the other 2 kids in the non-smoking room. It WAS a very nice hotel with the most comfortable hotel beds we've stayed in! We headed home the next day.

It was a fun weekend! I'm so glad we decided to go and spend that time with our sweet kids! I figure there will be lots of time for Wayne and I to take trips together, but the kids are only young once. I'd rather spend time with them on these fun, family holidays and make these memories now because they grow up way too fast. I'm sure there will be a time when hanging out with mom and dad won't be at the top of their lists!