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!

Reading Week!

We got back from Kalispel on Monday. We got back late, cause we stayed in Cardston for the movie. On Tuesday, the kids and I unpacked and cleaned things up. Then on Wednesday the girls went to Cheer Camp in the morning. DJ and I ran to Lethbridge to get some things and came back. Then we packed up and got everything ready to go to Calgary. We went and got the girls at 2pm from the school and headed for Calgary.

My cute girls at their cheer camp!!

They were all excited to go to the hospital to see their Aunt Jill. I was anxious to get back to see Jill and David too. We stopped and picked up some Subways in Nanton so we could eat it as we drove. We got to the hospital around 6pm. The kids were excited to be there and maybe a little wild. They saw the circle door and took off running around it. Pretty funny! I watched them and then we kept going! The kids saw their Aunt Jill and ran and gave her a huge hug!! It was good for my kids and Jill. Loved seeing it.

They loved this revolving door!

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My kids and their Aunt Jill!

They love their Aunt Jill so much!

We just kind of pick a spot in the family waiting room and take it over! Between the Paxman's and the Williams' , there was always quite a few of us there. The kids stayed out there and I was able to go in to see David. At this point they had taken him off all sedation and taken the cooling line out of him (not sure I mentioned that, it was to put his body into a hyporthermic state, to take strain off his brain), and they took out the drain line from his head too. The doctors warned us that it might take a while for him to come out of the sedation.....anywhere up to 2 weeks. So he wasn't awake but it was nice to see him without so many lines coming out of him. I was able to sit in with him for a while.

I went back out to the waiting room so others could go in too. We stayed for a bit and visited with everyone. Then the kids and I decided to go, so we could go to my friends house to stay the night. I've had so many people text, message and call me to send their love and offer any kind of help. It was very much appreciated. I took Nikki's offer up and we went over to her house to stay for the night. She has two boys and they were super excited to see my kids. So they all ran around and played for over an hour. It was fun to catch up with Nikki and watch our kids play together.

My four kids with Nikki's boys. Brayden is 8 and Brandt is 6. They were a lot of fun!

Then we all went to bed. The next morning I wanted to get going at a good time. We were going over to Cody's place to help him move. They sold there house (in 1 day), and had to be out 20 days later. Kind of crazy. They found a place to rent just around the corner. So we went and helped them finish moving. Then we helped clean blinds and things, in the new house. We were there all morning. Then we went to Costco for lunch and I got a few things for the kids to do at the hospital.

We went back to the hospital to spend time there. My cousin, Joey, and my Uncle Gary were both there too. My kids thought Joe was so much fun. He was so good with them! I was able to go in and sit with Jill by David's side for a while. Jill and I had a good talk and I enjoyed being by David. He kept cringing and he would clench his teeth. I felt so bad for him. He wasn't fully awake though. We then headed for home. I'm glad we were able to spend some time at the hospital.

Then on Friday and Saturday the kids and I worked together to clean and get things done around the house. Nothing too exciting but it was nice to be home together for a bit. Richard and I were getting ready to leave for 7 days starting on Sunday. I will do a post on that next!