I Might Be Wiping Away Tears Just Thinking of Them

This past weekend we went to Edmonton, Alberta (Canada) to see some family.  Well, actually, I guess you could say we went to see a football game, and the family just all happened to go to the same game...I'm confusing even myself now.  Our family doesn't live there, they too had to travel to come watch the game; they just didn't have quite as far to go as we did.  Their drive is about 5-6 hours, our was 9 1/2 (ish).

Trips with kids, as anyone with children can tell you, are definitely two sided.  There's great fun times, having the kids experience new things, such as a huge waterpark, and there's the horrible stressful times, such as when the mother (you) breaks down while in the hotel parking lot and exits the car to sit on the curb while others drive by.  Not that that happened at all.  Or maybe it did.

We only went for three days.  No, that's not quite right.  We had three days total on the trip, which means we spent two days travelling, and one actual day in the city.  So that is the first thing I would have changed about this trip if I could have.  At least, at LEAST, one more day.  One more day would have allowed more relaxing visiting, as well as some shopping.  Because I have a shocker, I went to the world's largest mall, and didn't shop.  All I bought were some swimming shorts since I forgot mine at home and some cheap food court Chinese food for lunch.  So exciting!

The kids LOVED the water park, like I knew they would.  They didn't stop laughing while we were in the wave pool as they got blasted by wave after wave.  And they liked the little (crowded) kiddie pool with mini-slides.  The bummer was that the kids' playground complete with slightly bigger-kid-friendly slides was closed for construction.  So that was why the only remaining kiddie pool was crowded.

After a couple hours playing in the water, we went back to the hotel and everyone except for me, the kids, my mom and my sis-in-law went to the go-carts/batting cages.  I was so tired, partly from lack of sleep in a strange bed and partly from swimming, that I just wanted to relax before we had to leave for the football game.  It was nice to get time to visit in a little more intimate setting, not with a gaggle of people around, everyone trying to talk to everyone at once.

The hard part was the leaving.  Since we had a longer drive, we wanted to be gone by around 9.  We got away by 9:30, and that still felt too early.  Every time that we either go up to visit, or someone comes down here to visit, the goodbyes get me.

I love where I live now.  It just feels right.  I don't miss the city that I used to live, but I DO long for the people still there.  Our family and friends.  I wish that while I was there, living minutes away from them, that we had taken time to see them more, do more, visit more, ANYTHING more.  Because now it's not like I can just call them to come over for coffee, ha!  And sometimes e-mailing, or talking on the phone or skyping just isn't the same.  (I have to admit that skyping slightly weirds me out.  Maybe I'm too old-fashioned...)  But it's still something and I'm glad we have it.  And I'm glad for cars, that make it so we can travel that distance without too much effort.

So here's to my family and friends.  I LOVE and MISS you all so much!