The sun has finally decided to come and it almost feels like a crime to be inside writing this post but it’s been too long and I’m excited to tell you all about our trip.
Before I get started Happy Father’s Day to all dad’s out there and especially to my dad, my wonderful husband and daddy Maddeaux!! You have all taught me so much and I would be lost without you. Henry and I are so lucky to have such wonderful men in our lives! Sadly hubs is away this weekend but he’ll be back next week so we can have a little celebration then :). When you’re away for work as much as he is you just learn to roll with it and celebrate things whenever it is convenient. The year before last he worked over Christmas so we picked a weekend that worked for us and that was Christmas in the Maddeaux house. Weird I know but we make it work.
Wednesday I came back from spending three weeks in Alberta with our families. Chris drove down to Edmonton so that we would have our car during our trip and so that we could pack it up with stuff for the way home and then Henry and I flew. I always feel like our car is bursting at the seams when we return from trips to Edmonton. There are very few places to shop in our little city whenever we go south we have a LONG list of items to pick up.
This was my first time flying alone with Henry. I was a little apprehensive but he had been so good at Christmas that I figured it would be ok. The morning of my departure hubs dropped me off at the airport and then started his long drive to Edmonton. Sadly our flight got cancelled due to issues with the hydraulics. To make a long story short I spent five hours in the airport with little H only to have to pick up my baggage and then get into a long line and rebook my flight for the next day. And of course Murphy’s law I had not used the baby Ergo carrier because I figured it was just a quick flight and no layovers. . . Boy was I ever kicking myself!! My arms and back were seriously killing me. Plus is was super difficult to hold Henry and pick up my baggage. A HUGE Thank You to the people who were kind enough to give me a hand.
Thankfully the next morning things went smoothly. And yes, I did bring my Ergo carrier! Lesson learned – never fly without it.
From there we drove to Lethbridge to visit Chris’s family. Chris’s sister will soon be moving to California so it was nice to see her and her partner before they leave. Also great to have a reason to go to California! I’m just sad this move didn’t come sooner during my mat leave. I have visions of spending parts of my year off in California. . . instead of cooped up in the house with -40 like what I actually did. Despite the rainy weather we had a great visit and were able to get some family photos taken. We hadn’t had any taken since our wedding and there have been some pretty important new additions since then. 🙂
I love this picture of Henry with Chris’s parents!!
We were sad to leave Lethbridge so soon but we may get another visit in with them very soon! I’m hoping so 🙂
When we drove back to Edmonton my childhood friend and her family met us there. She and her little boys came to visit me last summer towards the end of my pregnancy. At that point we hadn’t seen each other for 5 years but had kept in touch via email, letters, Facebook etc. but when she arrived it was like we just picked up where we had left off. This trip we finally got to meet her husband and for our boys to meet. It rained most of their time with us so it was a little crazy three little boys (3, 18 months, 9 months) and my niece (5) running around the house but super fun. A little surreal to be sitting around with your childhood friend and your own children. Guess we’re grown-ups now 😉
These photos were taken on the one sunny day we had during their visit.
Of course I didn’t have my sunglasses on – hence the scrunched up face. . .
After my friend went home we spent the rest of our trip running errands and visiting with my family. We made our mandatory trip to Costco to stock up on dry goods. I REALLY miss having a Costco nearby.
I visited David’s Tea four times . . .
I replenished my supply of some of my staples (Jesse’s Tea, Organic Buttered Rum, Orange Blossom, Cinnamon Rooibos Chai, Crème Caramel);
picked up a gift for our house sitter it is so cute I almost went back to get one for myself but I exercised restraint 😉
and I got a few of the teas from their summer collection for iced tea. I’m really loving the Mango Fruit Punch and the Pink Passionfruit.
We got to visit with Grandma 🙂 Henry’s heavy and squirmy now so he’s a little hard for her to hold but they got in a good snuggle before he started exploring her place.
Spent lots of time with my niece Cefeena! She LOVES Henry! She is such a big helper always playing with him and taking him his sippy cup. She is such a girly girl! I brought down a fairly large selection of nail polish and she had me giving her pedicures and manicures every other day. 🙂
Love these two!!
Got in lots of quality dad time. For a long time my dad and I have had a Saturday morning breakfast tradition. Whenever I’m in town we have a standing 8am date at the Artisan Bakery for coffee and a breakfast croissant. I appreciate and look forward to those breakfast dates!!
I also raced in the Albert Women’s Half Marathon. A big thanks to hubs and Henry who got up early and braved the cold at the start line. It was a beautiful course through the river valley with a number of challenging hills.
Waiting for the race to start. It was so cold that morning!
During this trip I actually left Henry with someone other than his dad awake!! I know that may not seem like much but up until now Henry has only been babysat once by a friend and couple of times by my parents but each time I’ve put him to bed and so they haven’t had to do anything or even see him. The first step was leaving H with Chris’s mom for a half hour. The second time my mom watched him so I could have a few hours of girl time with my sister. Yes I was constantly checking my phone to see if he was having a meltdown but both time he did awesome. My mom even took this photo so show me that he was totally fine! 😉
Haha what a silly boy!
After a wonderful visit with everyone little H and I were supposed to come home on Wednesday. Again we were hit by some bad luck and apparently WestJet had no record of our ticket even though we had received a confirmation email and number. They only had the one flight going up to Yellowknife so we had to wait another day. Then of course that would be the day that Edmonton has tornado warnings. . . I totally felt like the universe was telling me that I shouldn’t fly alone with little H. Thankfully the next time everything went smoothly and Henry was a dream on the plane. I felt so lucky!!
It’s nice to be home and back in our own space but we’re definitely missing everyone already.
Anywaz that’s it for now. Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! xoxo
How did you spend your weekend?
Hayley Runs and Eats 