Vancouver Vacation....Part 1!

Back in the beginning on January, Richard was invited to attend a class on boilers in Vancouver. This was through Bartle and Gibson. Since I'm apart of the company too, I was able to go too. So we decided to make it into a vacation to celebrate our 14 year anniversary. I was kind of nervous and very excited. I got someone to drive bus for me and got my mom to watch my kids for the first four days and Shelly to watch them the last four days. But then life happened and David had his accident. I wasn't sure if we should go. But then the week before we were to go, he was starting to do a little bit better. Richard's mom was good with coming and staying with our kids for the whole week. So we decided to go ahead with it!!

We got up Sunday morning and we all got ready to go. We drove the kids up to Cardston and then came back through Lethbridge (Richard forgot his wallet) and picked Megan up. We were heading to the hospital first and giving Megan a ride. We got to the hospital and Richard and I went in to see David. We quietly said hi to him and then quietly talked to my dad. I noticed that David kept on clenching his teeth and flinching like he was in lots of pain. So I got up and started rubbing his arm and talking to him. I kept telling him that the nurse was coming in to give him some pain medication. I took my hand away and all of the sudden his left arm came up and he was searching for my hand. So I put my hand in his and he held my hand and rubbed it with his thumb as I talked to him. Then the nurse gave him the medicine and his whole body relaxed. I felt bad that he was in so much pain but it sure made me happy for him to realize I was there for him. Made me really happy, actually.

We then left for the airport. It was a little crazy when we got there. We didn't give ourselves enough time but the plane was delayed for 45 minutes. So we ran to the security line to find it was HUGE! I didn't think we were going to make it. Then they finally opened up two more lines so we got to go through. Richard set the alarms off cause he had his cell phone in his pocket. They made him put it in a separate basket and send it through. We were grabbing our stuff, including our belts, and we ran to our gate. We got there and they hadn't started boarding yet. I went and grabbed some stuff to snack on in the plane and they started boarding. Then a lady came up to me and told us Richard left his cell phone back at security. She came and found us (she was behind us in security). Super nice. So Richard had to run all the way back to get his phone. I watched everyone boarding. They kept asking me and I said yes but my husband was coming. We were basically the last ones on the planes. Sheesh! Talk about cutting it close!

Then we were on our way. For some reason the flight was making me super light headed. Richard said it was bothering him too. The scenery was super pretty looking out the window. It was a good flight and we made it to Vancouver in one piece. Flying isn't my favorite thing at all!

There's our plane we went on.

Selfie on the plane!

Flying over the mountains.

We got into the airport and went and got our bags. Then we went over to the car rental place and picked up our car and headed over to the hotel. The hotel was only five minutes away from the airport.

This was taken from the deck of our hotel room.

Look at all those cars!

The rest of the group was going to the Sharks club for dinner. It was paid for by the company that sent us over. But we opted out. Didn't feel like going to a bar club. So Richard and I went in search of a good seafood restaurant. We found one. It was the boathouse. I got the fish and chips and it was absolutely delicious! Loved it! So good.

We got back to the hotel and I was feeling very light headed and dizzy. I think I got vertigo from flying. I felt terrible. So I went to bed early. I woke up in the morning feeling much better. We got up early cause all the guys were having breakfast down at Denny's at 7am and then they were getting picked up at 8am for their class. I went and had breakfast with them and then headed back to our hotel. It was only 7:45....so I had lots of time. I relaxed and then around 10am decided to venture out on my own.

I decided to go check out the Metropolis Mall. Someone told us it was huge and a good place to go shopping. So away I went. I didn't even get lost! Ha ha! I made it and wrote down my parking spot so I could find it afterwards! I was there probably for 4 hours. It was HUGE! I had fun looking and then I went to the Disney store and had fun buying stuff for the kids. So fun!

Then I headed back to the hotel to lay down and rest. Since I was tired of walking everywhere. Richard called me and told me I could come pick him up. So he gave me the address and I put it on my phone and it directed me to him. I picked him up and we decided to go find the Temple. It took us about an hour to get there. But it was so pretty. We got out and walked around the Temple and the grounds.

We were hungry and decided to try out a Chinese food place called The Flamingo. Someone recommended it to us and it was delicious. Best Chinese food I've ever tasted. We got there and didn't know what to order. The owner came up and started talking to us and we told him to order for us! So he did and it was so good! Glad we went!

We made it back to the hotel at a good time. The kids were able to facetime us just before they went to bed. DJ was a little sad and was missing us. We talked to them and tried to cheer DJ up. He was super tired. Cause he was fine the rest of the week! We relaxed that night and watched TV.

Tuesday morning Richard got up and went to breakfast again and to his class. I stayed behind this time. Didn't feel like getting up that early! I did walk him down to the lobby so he could get stuff out of the car and gave me the keys back. I grabbed a muffin and juice from the store there.

I didn't do much that morning. Just relaxed and read my book and watched some TV. Then I went and found a Walmart so I could buy Big Hero 6, that was released that day. Richard called and said he was done. So I went and picked him up at noon. It was so nice out that day, so we decided to go to Stanley Park for the day. We got there and went to the Vancouver Aquariam. We spent all afternoon there. It was a lot of fun. We enjoyed watching some of the shows there too. We just really enjoyed spending time together and seeing different things. Plus it was so nice outside too. We took a lot of pictures, so we could show our kids too.

Richard by all these cool looking tiny jelly fish!

Oh look....it's Dory!

These crazy eels that come out of the ground. It was so weird to watch!

Richard by the shark!

Cool looking sting ray!

Richard checking out the lizards!

Me by a cool looking parrot!

I think these were called the spotted sting rays.

Richard by the parrot!

Had to take a picture of the McCaw birds!

Checking out all the cool frogs.

An ugly huge fossil of a fish.

More jelly fish!

The beluga whale spitting water up.

Spitting water at the crowd!

Both of the Baluga whales jumping up!

Oh look, there's the penguins!

Watching the dolphin swim around!

Touching the neat stuff in this tank. We were allowed too!

This seal kept barking really loud. It was not happy that the keepers took the other seal out. It was very comical.

More jelly fish!

Dolphin jumping up out of the water!

The Vancouver Aquarium was so much fun to explore!

Then we drove around Stanley Park a little. It's so beautiful there. We stopped and took some pictures of the water and just the pretty scenery. Then we stopped and had supper at a restaurant by the ocean. I think it was called the Tea House. The food was delicious. I had a salmon and it was mouth watering! Loved it! So yummy. We had the perfect view. As we were eating our delicious dessert, I noticed the sun was starting to set. So I ran out to the edge of the water and took a bunch of pictures. It was a beautiful sunset!

This is as we were driving around Stanley Park.

Neat to sea all these huge boats in the harbour.

My cool picture I took!

The beautiful sunset!

So pretty, perfect way to end our fun day!

It was such a fun day together. We both really enjoyed ourselves and just had so much fun. The kids called us as we were driving back to the hotel. We talked to them and told them goodnight. It was nice to talk to them every night. Worked out great!