Road Trip Day 6

Day 6, July 7/2012:

Gracie and Lily got us up at 5 am, but luckily settled back in until 7 after their pee! This part of the time change sucks because they are pretty routine girls!

Breakfast was had and then the boys went crop touring and into town to get fence posts, while us girls went and got water for the cistern! Just another thing we have soo differently at home. With the cistern water, that would be water for showering/cleaning, etc. It is not drinkable. They have a well on the farm, but it is not good water. We have to drive about 15 to 20 minutes to get water.

Brent and Jenna have 4 pigs. Lily saw her first pig! What a riot! She did not know what to think of them! Gracie wasn't phased at all!

When we all got back we went fencing- we brought the dogs along too! Luckily I popped an allergy pill before going because we were in a hay field and black flies were buzzing around!

The other big thing around here are ticks! I had always thought that only animals had to watch out for them but both of the guys ended up with ticks on them, but Jenna and I were good.

We got the fence up and repaired another one so the cattle can be moved in tomorrow!

On our way back to the farm we saw Pelicans! Another thing I was surprised to see here!

We made burgers for lunch and the guys finally came home, turned out they got the tractor stuck in the swamp!

So after lunch Mike went hay bailing and us girls and Brent went to pull the tractor out!

Two songs came to mind to describe my day! "The Truck Got Stuck" and "Ticks".

Once the tractor was out, Jenna and I came back and lounged in the sun for a bit!

The guys went to town to get some bullets and once they got back we went gofer hunting! I've never seen soo many gofers! Jenna and I sat in chairs in the back of the truck with drinks in hand as the guys had their beer and guns in hand! Im pretty sure some of the gofers were left laughing because a lot of them were just missed!

We had pulled pork for dinner and then Brent went bailing and Mike went touring on the quad!

When Mike got back we started grooming all the dogs. Brent and Jenna just got a new dog that was a drop off! She is a border collie cross and seems well natured!

We were all tired and went to bed early!

Weekend Rewind!!

I am taking a little break from the the Road Trip Recap!!! Today I am going to tell you what we did when we got home and how our weekend went down!!

We got home Thursday at 5 AM! We went right to bed and then I was up before 10 AM. I have spent the weekend catching up on that missed sleep! Soo glad we drove right through because had we stayed over in the US and came home Friday we would have been stuck for a while because one of the Michigan borders was shut down because of a bomb threat, which means security would have been crazy and long wait times!

M slept until around 12 and then we emptied the truck onto the side deck. I wanted everything washed before bringing it in!

We also decided it was best to give the dogs a much needed bath!

Gracie couldn't stand to be soo clean!

The rest of the day was spent doing LAUNDRY!!

We also decided we better put up the pool because we are in the middle of another heat wave!!

It is not much, but enough to get wet in!

We had a pretty lax day to say the least!!

Friday we HAD to water the front lawn! It was is dead. Very very dead!! But everyone else`s is too!!

We worked on more laundry. M decided it was best to turn his fire pager back on and within 45 minutes he was off to a hay wagon on fire!

We were going to go into town and get groceries, but I didn`t feel like trying to figure out what we needed on my own, so we survived one more night with no groceries! M didn`t get home until supper time and dove right in the pool!

We had dinner and then off to ball. The boys have been on a losing streak lately, clearly they need to snap out of it!

Saturday we finally got some groceries. M ended up getting a couple of medical calls in the afternoon. The pager has been pretty busy since he got home!

Saturday night we went to M & J`s for an outdoor movie night!! We watched American Pie Reunion. I had made Cake Batter Krispies to take over for a snack!! Another awesome Pinterest find!! They turned out to be the best rice krispies EVER!!

Sunday we decided to get everything completely unpacked and put away!! We also tidied up the house! M`s parents were coming home from their trip and we decided to have them over for dinner. But first we had to go to the farm and see their reaction to their new kitchen that was finished while they were away! It looks awesome!!

I tried two more recipes off of Pinterest for dinner last night!

I made these:

PIN

but skipped the salt and Rosemary and used all seasoning and parm cheese!

and these honey glazed carrots:

PIN

Both of them turned out good and I will be making them again!!

M ended up having to play ball in town last night for a friend, so dinner was cut short. We then decided to pick up the groceries we forgot!!

That was our weekend in a nut shell!!

Now M is back to work!! I still have until Tuesday!!

Road Trip Day 5!

Today we were up at 7 and got everything packed up! We can't seem to sleep past 7 because it is like 9 am, even though we are hoing to bed later!

My hair worked!!

Today we had a photo shoot with the very talented Whitney Cowan at Edworthy Park! Alison had arranged for this and we are very grateful! Not only did we get to meet another awesome Calgarian, but we had a blast! Whit was sooo much fun!

We LOVE LOVE LOVE them!! My walls are awaiting them!! You can check out her blog with our session HERE!!

We saw a sneak peek and love it! She totally captured US!  Only downfall was the amount of mosquito bites I got, but in all honesty Whitney had it worse as she stepped in a crazy amount of mud, ended up with not one but 3 creepy crawlers on her! She took it like a champ! I wish I had my camera too!!

Gracie was actually having fun too! She is sooo weird on this trip! Not a traveller! Yet she isn't one to stay home either!

I was very impressed with how active the community is! Tonnes of trails, which we do not have at home! We have a few trails but after you do them a couple times they are boring!

Its getting warmer as we leave Alberta. We are up to 28.

We saw bison today and in all honesty, just as we were warned, the drive to my cousin's is pretty boring! Although we thought it would be flatter!

We also drove by the salt flats in Chaplin! Looked like snow!

We had our first argument on the trip today too, although it was not directed at each other but more out of frustration trying to find somewhere to eat! We don't really like Swift Current! Poorly laid out, lousy service and to top it all off I spilt my ice cream in the parking lot before getting in the car! I was already working on a short fuse out of hunger and driving frustrations! M managed to cheer me up though!

We caught up to a crazy storm as we approached Moose Jaw!

We are hoping Wanda (the GPS) can get us there as my cousin doesn't have an address, but she gave us GPS co-ordinates! Yup! They live on a farm outside of Regina? I think! Luckily Wanda accepted that, but she doesn't seem to know any street names! She instructs us to turn left on unnamed street and turn left off of unnamed, unpaved street? So in my opinion she is just taking us on another adventure!

It is flatter now! As we got off the hiway and drove through a village called Pense - we were waved at by several people! Such a friendly place!

Went through a neat old town called Lumsdun!

Well Wanda was right and got us there and no name streets do exist! We felt like we were in the middle of no where, and lost cell service somewhere!

Overall it is not as flat! Maybe Manitoba?

We made it!! Thank you Wanda!

We stayed up and visited for a bit, and then got settled into bed.

Road Trip Day 4: Canmore/Banff & Meeting Alison!

Went to Canmore and Banff today! Had an awesome day! I will forwarn you - picture overload!!

I could totally pack up and move to Canmore! I loved it! Real estate prices weren't bad either!

We saw elk in Banff! Just stunning! I love observing wildlife and having a chance to photograph them is just right up my alley!

Mike spilt the dog water when stopping at a pull off - the girls were not impressed! They think Daddy is a crazy driver!

We are pretty sure Gracie is homesick! She is just not herself! But Lily is making up for the lack of her enthusiasm! She is spun!

Sooo apparently when you get a flat tire on the highway, around a bend, you empty your vehicle on the road to ensure you don't get hit! Its true! It happened! Not by us obviously, but someone placed a cooler, helmets and other objects to create a traffic break so he had room to change his tire. It just led up to a lot of chaos and almost accidents, as well as a car in the ditch!

We cannot believe all the housing in Calgary! All built within I would say 10 to 20 years! The architecture is great! But Canmore still has my heart!

Mike is demanding a car wash! He cannot stand a dirty truck and I will admit it is very dirty! After our off road excursion in Montana! I don't see they clay coming off easily!

Car washes are not as common here! At home they are pretty much on every corner! We found one but we had to wash it ourselves. Alison called it a wand wash? Lol

Back to the hotel we went to get ready to head to Justin and Alison's!  I attempted a trial run for my hair for our photo shoot on Friday - it flopped! Lol!
As we headed over to Alison's we got a crazy storm just out of the blue! Hail and all! It came down fast and hard, flooding the roads. But just as we pulled into their drive way the sun was beaming and a double rainbow appeared! I promised her sunshine and warm weather! Both of which she should have for a while now!

Alison made a great pasta dish, salad and bread! We broke into a bottle of skinny girl cosmos which I had never had! Needless to say I will need to find it at home!

Typical Cruz decided to show Gracie and Lily where the fun was at in Calgary! They went mudding in the back yard! They had a blast! But the mud - it was everywhere! So after dinner we had to preform operation dog wash x3. The girls wanted no part in this! But after we brought them in they were all pooched!

Gracie broke out of her homesickness and made herself right at home! We are pretty sure she didn't want to leave!

We had a great visit! I'm sooo glad we were finally able to meet! She is honestly soo sweet! Im lucky to have such a great friend! Justin and Mike had a lot in common as well including their hate for pinterest, video gaming and they both thought it was weird to meet "a stranger". Alison and I reassured them we were not strangers and that we knew each other very well! I wasn't even nervous to meet her! Usually Im nervous to meet new people, but in my eyes Alison wasn't new! We have been close  friends for a couple of years, just so happens we are thousands of miles apart! We discussed "road tripping to Dominican, but I was sure to leave her with some incentive to come to Ontario with Stratford's Rheo Thompson Mint Smoothies! They are to die for!

All in all our time together was tooo short, but it wont be the last of it! Miss you guys already!!

Today was filled with sooo much fun! Awesome part of our trip!

Road Trip Day 3!!

On the road again early! Will be making it to Calgary today!

Mike had to clean the windshield after last night's drive!!



Have to keep an eye on the road these deer are everywhere! We just saw a dead one that had taken the mirror off a car or truck!

Mike hit a bird and unfortunately it didn't survive!

Saw our first truck with a shot gun rack.

We stopped for a bathroom break in a sketchy area. Forgot that nothing is open today.

Saw a random bull on the side of the road not fenced in!

We are back in Canada!

Crossing the border was bizarre! We pulled into a garage and the one and only guy drilled us on what we had, where we were from, etc. Sooo different from what we have at home!

It is windy here but cooler! Only 24!

Only 18 in Elkwater Town Site/Cypress Hills. Once again beautifully landscaped - reminds me of The Muskoka's!

Saw the worlds largest tepee.

Saw elk.

Made it to our hotel! Looks shabby on the outside, I was worried! They are in the process of renovating it. Luckily the inside was done! Our room is nice and roomy!

When we arrived the girls had a warm welcome from various staff! One of them got even got down on the ground and have them a good loving!

We had a late dinner and off to bed early! We were tired!! Meeting Alison tomorrow!!!