A visit from BC friends

Our eldest daughter has her orthodontist in Calgary, so we decided what a great opportunity to meet "half way" with some friends from BC.

 Took the oldest girls out for NY Fries of course

 The orthodontist office has a nice selection of coffees and teas while you wait ~ yeah!

Changed her elastics from blue to a stylish purple



 Hung out on the waterslides and the wave pool at the Southland Leisure Centre in Calgary.  I spent a good chunk of time in the steam room.  Too bad some people didn't put a proper swim diaper on their baby ~ the dreaded brown floaties shut down the hot tub for the rest of the day...

 They allow trains up to 5 long on the blue slide... discovered the most fun ways to go down.  Backwards, tummies, etc.

 

 Showing off some "good posture" in the mall parking lot

 Off to Cross Iron Mills shopping area to the Bass Pro Shop.  This is 1 of 2 shops in Canada and is full of real animal mounts and awesome scenes.  We didn't purchase anything, but it was fun playing the shooting games (see below!)

 

 For 25 cents you could shoot at the green dots and make things happen in the wildlife scene... a fox peeks out, a squirrel goes up a tree, etc.

 Mr. D and Ruth played a safari shooting game and we all had a good time laughing

 Ruth got to be an expert at the pump action rifle.  Mr. D was more precise and had better accuracy scores.

 See the sheep on rocks behind them

 We want one...

 Lunch "farmer" style

 Professional mall rats by the end of the day

 Took them for their first taste of Yogen Fruz

 I think we need this table for family gatherings... huge!

Had to laugh at these 1 Direction dolls ~ Press their belly buttons and they let you know "you're so beautiful "



 Someone was happy with the 40% off Lego sale

 Others were shopped out...

 and busy talking to random friendly girl

 Time went by too fast and we needed to say the dreaded goodbyes once again.

 Lined up according to age 15-9 years old.

 What can I say about this gal?  Mrs. Schmuckman (no not her 'real' name).

A person who would actually give you the coat she was wearing. That's just the way she rolls.

Someone who would think nothing of going out of her way to help a friend.

Someone who grabs extras of a "steal of a deal", knowing you may want some of it too.

Someone I could call to "go to such'n'such a place and pick up ? from a random girl".  She'd be totally fine with it. You don't meet many people like that!

Someone who drives to Calgary to meet up so the kids can see their friends again.

Someone who understands dietary needs and goes out of her way to accomodate.

Someone whose honesty is refreshing.

Someone you can rely on.

Someone not afraid to try something new ~ "hey, I just heard of a guy with some chickens.. he said he'd show me how to butcher them and I can take them home."  Why yes... then go learn!

Someone who treats all people, no matter of status or age with respect.

This gal has energy to burn!

One thing I have learned from Mrs. S is that there is no time like the present to do what you want to do.  To explore and try something new. ( Buy a tent camper and take the kids!) To go the extra mile when you may not get anything in return.  Thank you and sorry you got sick too!

  We still had fun... right?  Ha ha

 

 

So glad the world is just getting smaller and smaller.  The more people we meet ~ the richer our lives become.  The joys of friendship are more than worth the pain of being apart.

 

Easter Celebrations Part 3

Part 3 saw a trip to an Aunt & Uncle's place that I had only visited once before as a young teen.  I remember loving their house and something about the stair case and the attic play space.  My girls were not disappointed!  They also fell in love with that staircase attic play room.  I think we may have instilled a love for older character homes in our girls!

No Unger gathering is complete without a treasure hunt.... too bad the wind didn't stay away.

We were divided up into groups and had to look for clues to our secret treasure

We had fun trudging through snow and racing to spots to beat the next guys.  

At the end we all individually looked for our goody bag in the machinery that was housed in the shed.

We spent the night at my folks new rental digs and then had our own little egg hunt.  Papa and hubby went out loaded with bags of plastic eggs to hide.

Some of the hiding spots were pretty clever!  The most obvious spots were often over looked.

Somehow Nana found a giant bag of brussel sprouts?

Dividing up the loot ~ yup, our family tends to keep things "fair"

Now for some reason the "let's get the burrs out" turned into a full fledged dog grooming session.

Ummm, Perogy Pantry perogies, our own cabbage rolls and a meal to celebrate!

Girls love to try out weird settings on their camera's, so I included a goofy Miss Mei.