A little Dip

That evening, we went to visit with some friends. Joel and Emily. Emily was a co-TA with Tyler a few years ago and has since finished her degree at UofC, moved back home to Ottawa and gotten married. She invited us to her parent's house so we could have a BBQ, visit and take a dip in the pool. The kid's loved it. I wished that we had water wings for them, because they're not comfortable in the pool without them, but they enjoyed splashing Tyler and Max figured out that it was super fun to slide down the slide into dad's waiting arms...or jump off the diving board. Tyler was fortunate to have to tread water, water for Max to get to him.





It was a great time, and everyone was exhausted by the time we got home. Exhausted and excited to go on the train the next day!

Museum of Civilization

After heading back to the hotel for Logan's nap and some lunch, we hit up the Museum of Civilization. We got lunch from a little pizza place across the street from our hotel. The kid's and I went for a walk to pick it up while Tyler caught up on some emails in the hotel room with Logan napping. Here he is waving to us from our hotel room balcony.

We were on the 21st floor and had a great view of Parliament to the left of our balcony. It made me a bit dizzy to be out there and I was paranoid for the kids so they were only allowed to go out if we said so. But it was cool to be so high up.

The museum of civilization was cool too. There was a lot of stuff about First Nations and also Japanese innovation. My camera died shortly after arriving, so I had to use my phone to take a lot of the pictures. The quality of photos is really poor, but what do you do?





Our favourite part of the museum was the kid's area. We spent most of our time playing there.
They had a stage area with props and costume for the kid's to use and pretend to put on a show.




There were little shops and a boat to play on as well as a house that looked like it was from an oriental village where Lucy and I got to do some origami. She made a lotus flower, and I made a boat.

Logan loved swabbing the deck with a mop, and wearing his tool belt. The kid's picked out a bunch of flowers for me at the flower shop, and we got to figure out how to spell Lucy's name in hieroglyphics.





There was also a little bookstore called Lucy's books, but most of the books were in french, so I couldn't read them. Well, I could read them, but we wouldn't understand them.







The kid's were exhausted by the end and both Max and Logan fell asleep on our way to dinner. What a good big sister. She has often had to sit in between two sleeping brothers since we've been out here. Usually with Max leaning right on her.

So much fun in one day, and it wasn't even done yet!

Canadian War Museum

So, the computer is finally hooked up, and internet is running. It's the update of the century. This is mostly for my sake, but read if you want. Maybe get a snack first though. And use the bathroom.

Our first (and only) full day in Ottawa was definitely FULL! We hit the Canadian War Museum in the morning and loved it! Seriously. It was beautifully set up, and captivating for my little kids AND Tyler and I. It was exciting and humbling at the same time. Definitely something my dad should see some day...he would love it. We spent about 2 1/2 hours there and rushed. I would recommend my dad taking all day. It was amazing, because it showed war throughout time. It start with 'the early days' and talked about the First Nations and the type of wars they would have had, and moved through history to present day. Ine act section you visited, they had a backtrack playing with sound effects. After a while you really got to understand what it would have been like to live in a time of war. It was deafening sometimes.

They also had really cool props everywhere that you could touch and try on. It was really interactive, and the kids enjoyed that.



This lady was giving a demonstration about medicine in WW1. She talked about a tourniquet, and what to do with a head wound. It was completely fascinating but the kids were a bit nervous.


There were signs and demonstrations everywhere with quizzes. One of them asked if you would qualify to be a soldier in WW1. You had to be a certain height, and they'd measure your feat to make sure you weren't flat-footed or didn't have too high of an arch because there was lots of marching. There was also a vision test. It was neat to see what qualified you.





There were also bunkers and trenches set up that you could go through as well.
One of my favourite parts was seeing Hitler's car. His actual car. The glass was broken from bullet shots and everything. Really neat.





They also had these arctic gloves for war in the Northern Territories. I laughed because my dad has these exact same gloves.
A launched tank...pretty cool.
In the basement of the museum was a giant garage full of tanks and army vehicles. More than you can imagine. (Well, I don't know how much you can imagine...but imagine a lot.)
This guy was doing a demonstration on war food. We got to try 'hard tack' which was awful. It was like sucking on a tasteless rock, hoping your saliva would soften it enough so you could chew it. That's old school. They also had this lime juice that every soldier would get a shot of a day for calcium. Apparently they figured out how to can lime juice and it was cheaper than lemons or oranges. Funny thing is, my mom has this in her pantry all the time because she likes to add a shot of lime to her water. Apparently the Canadian Military has the reputation as being the BEST fed military in the world. They had some good eats. Not compared to every day...but I like that we keep our soldiers well fed.
It was really cool to drive past parliament over and over. The kids said, 'But the government isn't ACTUALLY real!' Uh...yeah. It is.
They also had these bikes locked up that you could rent all over. Seriously, Ottawa is a cool city.

And their off!!

I don't have time to post pictures right now, but we're having an awesome time in Ottawa. We flew and landed safely (hallelujah for Logan's Gravol nap!), after a VERY tearful goodbye at the airport with so much family. We squeezed in ad many hugs and last-minute waves as we could. although we were delayed by half an hour, all went well. The kid's loved spotting our luggage on the conveyer belt and loved riding in a limousine to the hotel even more!
(it was the only vehicle that could fit all of us and all of our luggage in one trip!). Lucy felt like a princess.
We tried to have a quiet evening at the hotel, since everyone was adjusting to the new time zone. (not adjusted yet). We went for dinner at an authentic poutine restaurant across the street. It was amazing!! This is no New York Fries or A&W poutine people. I had traditional and Tyler got the pulled pork poutine. They had about 20 different kinds and a nice couple that we struck up a conversation with let us try a bite of their curry chicken poutine. Tha was some spicy curry! I'm excited to have met such friendly people already. We ended dinner with Logan throwing up all over himself and me, so we nixed our plans for swimming and instead went back for a tub. Fortunately the nice couple entertained Lucy and Max while Tyler and I cleaned Logan up.

Everyone slept fairly well (I am NOT used to hearing traffic at night!) and woke up ready for an exciting day in Ottawa.

Today's plan: Canadian War Museum, Museum of civilization, dinner with Joel and Emily, and swimming. We'll see if we're up for squeezing all that in.

Best Comic Standing

I think Max is the funniest person I know...and he doesn't even know it.

Today as we're driving into Calgary they are practicing their whistling and all of a sudden Max says, 'Lucy! If we whistle we will DIE!'
Me: 'What?!'
Max: 'because we're only breathing IN!'.

We kept driving to our destination and Lucy notices a beetle-like bug crawling up the window beside her. Lots of protests and stress ensues. 'Mom! What is it!? I think it's a scorpion!'
'it's not a scorpion.'
Lucy: 'Max, what is it?'
Max: 'I'm not sure, how about I tell you ALL the animals. (sweeps his arm in front of him), 'Ladybug, Grasshopper, Centipede...'

Tonight the kid's are fighting and not listening and I say, 'if you two don't stop fighting you won't be allowed to play with my iPhone for for 3...Years!' (Tyler snickers from down the hallway).
Lucy thinks for a second and then responds by saying, (not snooty or with any attitude), 'well, I'll be 9 by then, so I'll probably have my own iPhone.' as if to tell me she has decided she can live with that consequence.

Feeling it

The countdown couldn't be more official now. We're staring down our last 4 days in Alberta. And I'm feeling it. I've said it before that I try REALLY hard to focus on the to-do list and not on the reality of departure, but every now and again it's there.

We went down to Cardston this weekend so we could go see Janeen in her show, 'Happy Day's (at the carriage house theatre now through August, it was awesome, everyone should go - shameless plug). We went to see the show and to say goodbye. It was the first goodbye for immediate family.

Today we are in Okotoks for my nephew's baby blessing and I know a lot of goodbyes on my side of the family will be happening today. And I'm feeling it. It's like an itch you can't scratch. It's inevitable and I can't push it off or away or out of my head any longer.

In 4 days we will live 2898 kilometers away from all if our family.

According to Jeff Foxworthy, Canadians measure distance in hours. That's 4 hours by plane. 30 hours by car. Too far to measure by foot. That's a long distance considering it is about a minute by foot to Grandma's house currently.

I'm feeling it.

Keep The Sabbath Day Holy - addendum

Have you ever noticed that nothing makes you laugh harder than the things that come out of a 4-year-old and a 6-year-old's mouth?

A Few days ago we were reading in the Pearl of Great Price for family scriptures and talking about how a lot of the stories will be in the Old Testament too. Tyler then proceeded to tell the kid's the story of Balaam and his talking donkey. Last night, as we call the kid's to come for family scriptures, Max runs down the hallway saying, 'Dad, can you tell us another joke from the Old Testament?'. I'm not sure it was intended as a joke book. Then he said, 'I can't WAIT to read the Old Testament!' again, not something I expected my 4-year-old to say.

Lucy and I went and saw Wicked yesterday with Grandma Janielee, Ali, Sarah, and Tyson. Her and Max are going for a sleepover at my parent's house tonight. Lucy was hesitant to go and see Wicked, and when I asked her why, she said, 'I'm worried I'll forget about the sleepover!'. Obviously having 2 fun things planned in one weekend is rare for us!

On the way to church today, Lucy says to Max, 'Don't pick your nose on Sunday!' I would like to make that an everyday rule.