Trip to Canada

I`m finally getting back to blogging.  Our 12 year old laptop was dying a slow painful death, which made typing rather tedious.   With a baby, typing on our desktop was also a rather unenjoyable wrestling match.  So, now with the laptop out of our life, we began shopping for a new one.  After weighing all the options, we opted to just get a keyboard for our tablet and see how that goes.  It was the cheapest option too, which helped make the decision.  My only chance for writing is in the evening when everyone is in bed (and I`m endlessly nursing Celeste to sleep), so writing on my lap is most doable.  This keyboard has lighted keys, so hopefully won`t be too crampy, and I can catch back up.

I do enjoy writing, and although I don`t have the greatest writing skills nor vocabulary, it`s a good way to journal our life and share thoughts and also to sort thoughts out.  Anyhow, I`ll start with our trip to Canada in August and then see where things go.

We planned on leaving on a Thursday, but Greg`s work was pretty slow, so he asked his boss if we could leave a few days earlier.  This threw me for a loop, as I had planned to do laundry the day before we left so everything would be clean.  I also like to just pack all the clothes all at once, so then I'm not continually tallying how much of everything I have for each person.  Easier to just count out 5  shirts, 2 pants....for each kid, all at one time.  So, I frantically threw clothes in the washer and got started with the finalities.  We ended up leaving early Wednesday morning instead of Thursday after work, so got a pretty good head start.  Luke was awake at 3 a.m. and Greg was awake at 4 a.m., but after I had stayed up until 11 p.m. the night before getting everything ready, I was in no shape (or mood) to get cracking yet.  I was fighting a nasty cold, so my head was not feeling so hot.  We gassed up in Kalama at 6:30, so that was a pretty good start.

We drove all day, through the Columbia Gorge (we like taking that route on our way out, so we can see the sun coming up through there) and drove all day.  We stopped for lunch near my cousin's in Cheney, WA, although didn't get to see her as she was working and her family had plans.  We then carried on through Spokane and planned to eat supper in Sandpoint, ID at Panhandler Pies.  We usually try to stop there going one way or the other, so it worked out this time.  As we were turned north at Coeur d'Alene, we could see storm clouds in the distance and wondered whether we would get in the storm or not.  By the time we got to the restaurant, the wind and rain were getting bad.  The whole time we were eating, the doors on the restaurant were banging open and shut with the wind, and we were thankful we were inside.  After some warm soup and pie (and quesadillas for the kids), we got back on the road.  We then found that the storm was over, but there were trees downed everywhere, and the power was out all over.  When we tried to find a motel, there was no power, and we saw numerous workers out clearing debris off of the road.  James had just been asking what would happen if a tree was struck by lightning and then fell onto the road, and so we explained that it easily could have happened in that storm we just missed.  We were so thankful that God kept us safe and that we had stopped for supper and totally missed it.  We made it across the border and to Cranbrook that night, and stayed in a motel that we have stayed in before.  And then clunked off to sleep.

The next morning we had breakfast at a nearby restaurant (the motel had vouchers for a discount) and then got back on the road.  We stopped for a swim at Radium Hot Springs (my favorite) and ate our lunch of hummus and crackers and veggies on the tailgate of our station wagon.  Some kids walking by were awfully jealous of those back facing seats in the back of the station wagon.  Pretty cute!  Onward to Leslieville.  We opted to take the Lake Louise/Rocky Mountain House way, as the mountains are so gorgeous and there is so little traffic.  Driving through the Rockies is always so awe inspiring, and even though it was rainy, we enjoyed the last few hours.  Well, except Celeste.  She had pretty much had enough of the car seat by then, so we made some improvises.  We saw huge areas that had been in wildfires, and they were still smoldering in the rain.  We got to Dad and Mom's Thursday evening.

Friday and Saturday were just spent relaxing and resting, which is done best at my parents.  It's so peaceful at their farm, it's hard to get motivated to do much.  The kids played on the big swing, played with Mitts the dog and checked on things with Dad and Grandpa.  On Saturday night there was a service at church, so Greg and the kids went to that.  Isaac had come down with my sore throat/cough so I stayed home with him and Celeste.

On Sunday, back to church.  I stayed home again, as Isaac still wasn't feeling well.  While they were at church (my Dad was preaching), James saw an angel flying around up at the front.  He said it was about 1 foot high, and bright green.  It flew from side to side of the church and then vanished.  We all thought that was pretty neat, although not sure of its significance.  James is our boy who really ponders if God is real, if he is a Christian and so many other questions, and so perhaps God used this to strengthen James' faith.  He felt pretty excited about it, and felt pretty special that he was the only one who saw it.

We had a picnic that day after church for whoever wanted to come.  Lots of visiting and yummy picnic food.  And cousin time.  My nephew said, "I've never had a day go by that fast in my life, we just kept playing game after game after game!"  My kids haven't seen him in over 2 years, but they just picked right up and got along great.  Tired kids that night!

We tried to just relax most of the trip, but towards the end, things got busy.  We went to visit my sister and family, then my brother and family.  We had a potluck for the "girls" of us who grew up together.  We went to see an Herbalist who looked at our blood (that will be a whole other post of itself).  We got to see my cousin's family who moved to Michigan from Washington 4 years ago, and we haven't seen them all this time.  That was great to catch back up.  While we were at her parents, I had Celeste sitting on the grass in front of me playing with a plastic spoon.  She isn't a very good sitter yet, and toppled over before I could catch her.   When she did, the spoon poked and cut the roof of her mouth.  Even though it was the blunt end, there was still a lot of crying and a lot of blood.  We were finally able to get her calmed down and the bleeding stopped (I knew they couldn't do anything in the ER anyhow) and headed "home" to my brother's house where we were spending the night.  In the car seat she started crying again and proceeded to cry harder than ever until 2 a.m.  I had only seen a small cut in her mouth, but in the morning when I could get a better look, saw that there was another much bigger cut in another place.  Poor little thing.  We had finally given her some teething tablets that calmed her down enough to sleep.  I was so frazzled I didn't know what to do.  Thankfully it healed up good.

Greg was getting sick by now, and although the next day was my cousin's wedding, we made plans to head for home.  We ended up staying for the wedding and then heading out right after.  That would give Greg an extra day to recover once we were home before he had to go back to work.  We went to Red Deer and then headed south towards Calgary and south from there.  We stopped for supper and then headed west.  Now, I'll have you know that I've been looking for a moose the last 3-4 times we have gone to Canada.  They are such huge, amazing animals and I wanted to show Greg and the kids. My eyes have been peeled every trip, but no moose.  Just after we got on the highway to head west, a big bull moose lumbered across the road right in front of us.  Greg had to screech on the brakes (he wasn't close enough to hit it but wanted a picture) and hopped out and snapped a picture of him.  My day was made. Happy Rachel.  The kids all got to see it too.  We kept on driving through the Crowsnest Pass and ended up at the same motel in Cranbrook again.  Off to bed.

The next morning we had a long day ahead of us to get home.  Drive thru McD's for breakfast and as we were driving out of the parking lot, we see a car turning around quickly who suddenly high centered itself onto a curb.  Greg went over to help them and the man was so embarrassed at what he had done.  Then the wife confessed, "We were so busy checking out your station wagon that we weren't paying attention to the curb."  Oops!  It was a small car, so Greg was able to help them get it off the curb and then lent them some duct tape to tape the loose trim back on the car until they could fix it.  We plugged along uneventfully home at 10 that night.  Whew!  Enough is enough.

We drove our station wagon so that Celeste could sit up in front.

The kids in the rear seat get a totally different vacation than the rest of us!

At Panhandler Pies in Sandpoint, ID.

On the road

Kids on the road.  Still smiling!

Relaxing at Dad & Mom's

Helping Grandpa in the hay field

Baling

Celeste was happy with Grandpa (she was fussing for everyone else)

Cute little Hutterite girl

Catching up with the Lampinen kids (who we haven't seen in 4 years)

My moose!

Goats on the roof!

Christmas Vacation (if you can call it that!)

So we're back. Home that is. Late, late last night we finally crossed the threshold, tired and worn. We got to bed quickly only to have a big boy puking in a couple hours, and a baby with a fever who wouldn't let me put her down. And my arms were too tired to even hold her. Greg helped the ill big boy all night, and I tried to keep baby girl comfortable, trying to get some sleep in between. And then we wonder why vacation is so exhausting.

The trip started well. We were on the road by 0430, and we got a good many hours of driving in before the sun even came up (photo of wind generators in the Columbia River Gorge at dawn). We felt the thrill of a road trip (with the addition of 3 little bodies snugly tucked in their car seats with blankets and animals to boot) which consists of hot coffee in the travel mug, good music playing, snacks galore and breakfast on the road while watching the sun come up. We made good time, although by late afternoon, baby Elise was starting to get sick of the car seat. So, I sat back there with her trying to keep her happy as we tried to make our destination. Being it was Christmas Eve, Santa had come a night early so that he wouldn't miss 2 little boys who wouldn't be home on Christmas Day. This gave the boys some new toys to amuse them on the journey. We made it up to Cranbrook, BC for the night (which was where we wanted to get to) and found a motel and then headed to the only restaurant open in town that late on Christmas Eve, being Denny's. We enjoyed stretching our legs and heading back to the motel to catch some winks.

The next morning we got on the road, and survived on power bars, since it was Christmas and nothing was open. We later found a Tim Horton's that had a drive thru open, and that was like an oasis in the desert. Fresh hot coffee and some breakfast sandwiches and we were good to go. The roads were all fine, so we were thankful for that. The boys were troopers the whole trip, but I can't say the same for baby girl. Fussing the whole way. I'd just get her to sleep and then something would wake her (like a burp, or a noise or pretty much anything), so I was pretty frazzled by the time we reached Dad and Mom's that evening. My brother and wife and nephew, and sister and her son were there, and we had our traditional Staudinger Christmas Eve dinner (they kindly waited a day for us). This consisted of rice pudding and fruit soup, meat and cheese trays, crackers, smoked oysters, homemade eggnog and treats. After that and opening gifts, we relaxed and were just thankful to be there.














On Saturday we caught up on sleep, and just visited. The kids enjoyed all the "new" toys at Grandma's, and they also got outside to play in the snow and with Mick the dog. I'm horrible at remembering to take pictures, so don't have very many to post. Sunday was chruch and all the Staudinger's met for dinner. It was so good to be with my cousins and aunts and uncles who I grew up with. Familiar in an unfamilar way, since I now am married with children. The kids enjoyed playing with their cousins too. I found Luke on the stairs with another cousins boy who he hit it off with (they became friends once they found they had something in common - they are both 4!). I heard Luke ask him, "So, do you live in Canada?" and the boy thought for a while and then replied, "No, I live in Sylvan (the town)". Wish making friends as an adult were that simple!

Sunday night I commented to Greg that we had had a very nice day (which I hadn't expected since their were so many unfamiliar people and places to bring the kids to). I spoke too soon. Elise fussed all evening until 2 am. Then promptly at 2, James started throwing up, and continued all night. Fun stuff, especially when you have limited clothes and are not at home. Monday we spent recovering, Tuesday we went to my sister A and her husband N, with cousin F (20 months). They have a new house, so that was fun to see their digs. The boys got snowmobile rides, so they were pretty impressed. That evening was Grandma's viewing, which was an uplifting time spent sharing stories and singing hymns.

Wednesday was the funeral, and the coldest blusteriest day I've seen in a while. The temperature got down to -10F that night, with a good stiff wind. The burial was pretty short, due to the weather, and I have a newfound awe and respect for parents of little kids with that weather. We are pretty wimpy when we have to put a fleece coat and rubber boots to get out of the house. Up there the kids pretty much always need at least a hat, snowsuit or pants/coat, mittens, boots (all of which require a good 10 minutes per kid to put on)














Thursday we had the luxury of a breakfast date, as Mom watched the kids so we got have a few minutes together. We later headed out to my brother J and his wife R and their baby R (22 months) house, where also R's sister was staying. We had an enjoyable evening (New Year's eve) at some of their friends house for dinner, but it was rudely interrupted shortly after midnight when Luke started puking. All night. Their little guy was also crying much of the night, so nobody got much sleep. M (R's sister) had to get to the airport (a 4 hour round trip drive) and we didn't want to leave and drop her off until we were sure Luke was feeling better. Greg and J ended up driving her there, and then we headed out for home after that. We drove all evening, meeting up with another cousin and her husband from WA that were also heading back. We travelled with them for the evening, and then much further since the town we planned to stay in had no motel rooms left.





After a short night of sleep due to our late driving, we got going and drove most of the day. We saw a few frozen lakes, where I took this picture. The wind swept ice was so beautiful, especially the cracks in the ice. Luke longingly wanted to skate (we didn't get a chance to use his new skates on the trip), but we really weren't able to stop. We did stop to stretch our legs at Cabela's in Idaho, and then continued on. Got home late, and thus concludes the trips details. We did have a few hours to visit (which is our favorite road trip thing to do), so I'll post some conclusions in a future post. We love reliving past trips, as well as learning new things, and sharing new experiences as a family. It's so good to get away, but so good to be home in our own beds again (even if you aren't sleeping because of a fussing baby!)

Here we are, home again...an enjoyable, full trip. Finding that line between jampacking it with fun and relaxing as much as possible is always a struggle. We saw as much family as possible (2 new nephews were the draw in the first place, although we had seen Ray already), found a few Canadian items that I wanted, and then were still there when a dear friend was killed suddenly. Ron and Gail Ramsay are friends from church who I boarded with a total of 2 years while in college, etc., and last Thursday Ron went out riding a horse and didn't come back. They found him later, but it was too late. He had quit his job a couple years back, and he and Gail had fulfilled their dream of buying a horse ranch where they broke horses, had riding camps for kids and boarded horses. They were an excellent example for me of what a marriage should be, as they always honored and respected each other in everything they did. They would always say "treat your husband like a king, and he'll treat you like a queen". Their roles were always very well defined, which I believe also added to the strength of their marriage. They never had any children of their own, but took in dozens of foster children over the years. I don't know what Gail will do now, but your prayers for her would certainly be appreciated. We then made our way back home, with Mom also driving with us. (she came to help Rebecca whose baby is due today) It is a good thing that it is a 2 day drive home, because when we left, my heart was feeling rather homesick, but as the road went along, the thoughts turned to getting back home to my own house, and finishing my summer projects. It's good to just drive and think though, and be able to sort everything out, pray a bit and visit with my husband who I never get that much of a chance to in everyday life. Luke rode with Grandma most of the way, so that was exciting for him, and then she could listen to his cute but endless chatter.