Spontaneity Isn't Usually My Strong Suit...

As much as I'd love to say I'm a spontaneous person, I'd be lying. I love to have fun, but I'm borderline OCD when it comes to planning. When I plan a trip I have most of the days already planned with what I'm going to do, where I'm going to eat, and the rest of the days reserved for being spontaneous. I like a balance of both
I've been trying to plan a Vegas trip for months now with my brother and sister-in-law. Trying to recruit other people to come, figuring out the perfect time to go, what hotel to stay at (Flamingo, duh), etc, etc. A few weeks ago I thought we finally had our plans set. Then my friend's car ran into a deer the night before we were going to officially book the trip, and all of her trip money went right out the window
I've made no secret of my love for Vegas. I would love to live there one day (after NYC, of course). I've been every year since 2008 (once even twice in the same year) . There is no way I'm not getting to Vegas this year. After our plans fell through my brother, sister-in-law and I started trying to plan another trip, but nothing was working out. My cousin Starley, who I've been to Vegas with twice (once to see her get married) is going in June and was trying to convince us to go the week she was going.  Turns out that of all the days in June,  Kelsey has training for work two of the days that Starley would be there. Back to the drawing board it was. It was looking like there would be no immediate Vegas trip for us, which made me an extremely sad panda
I was at home on my lunch break on Monday when my brother stopped in to help me go pick up an elliptical my Mama and I had bought. While I waited to hear back from the lady I was buying the elliptical from,  Kenton and I were discussing our lack of Vegas plans.  I flippantly mentioned how we should just go to Texas during those days we had already booked off, for when we thought we would be in Vegas. Kenton immediately got on the phone with Kelsey to discuss. Kelsey looked up prices of flights, they were deemed too expensive,  and just like that a decision to drive down to Texas, to the San Antonio area where my Aunt and Uncle live, was made
I've driven down twice before, in the 8th and 9th grade. Each year we spent two weeks down in New Braunfels with my Aunt and Uncle. The first year we also went to Corpus Christi for a few days. I've been wanting to get back to Texas for awhile now, but just never had the chance. Fortunately, the previous two times I've been my Dad was in charge of all the driving, now its up to the three of us. At the very least, it should make for good blog material.
Did I mention that this trip is only two weeks away? Oh, and that we still haven't even talked to my Aunt and Uncle about coming? This is completely out of my nature! And I'm kind of loving it. Though I have already made a list of all the places I want to visit and re-visit. A leopard can't change it's spots...
 Oh, And I'm still getting to Vegas this year. Come hell or high water. Even if I have to go by myself! 

Weekend Shenanigans with the Tiny Humans...

Saturday was my niece's dance recital. She was in the 'tiny tot's group with all the 3 and 4 year olds. They sing a song, do a dance (or not, in some of the children's cases) and that's that. So many months of dance comes to a head with one little dance. Graycie sang her heart out. But dance... not so much. One of her friends from daycare was right beside her during their dance and they fooled around more than anything, touching each others faces and looking at each other and bursting out in laughter. It was adorable nonetheless

It was a very low key weekend due to the yucky weather we've been stuck with for the past few days - rainy and gloomy. It poured rain all weekend, and by yesterday night the rain turned to hail, freezing rain, and then snow. I spent most of the weekend cooped up inside of the house, staying out of the rain. You haven't seem my hair curly until you've been stuck outside in the rain with me. It's not pretty! 
I did run into 'the city' with the 'Twin' on Saturday night for our monthly town council meeting with the Beaver Cove ladies (our splurge group). Due to being on the Whole30 I wasn't able to eat a single thing at the restaurant we had picked at our previous meeting. I was prepared and packed snacks for the drive and, honestly, wasn't even tempted to cheat while at the restaurant. It's now Day 8 and we're going strong - only 22 more to go!
I didn't even bother trying to leave the house on Sunday since it was so nasty outside. Toni was at her weekend job in 'the city' so the girls were at the house for the day. They definitely kept me entertained all day . We watched Tangled in bed - it was quite the task convincing them to watch that instead of Frozen for the millionth time but in the end I won. Later on in the day I tried to take an afternoon nap since the gloomy and depressing weather just tired me out. I put HIMYM on repeat on Netflix and settled in to my bed, only to have Graycie come downstairs and stand outside my door yelling 'Auntie' over, and over, and over. She finally took the hint (or so I thought) and headed back upstairs. I finally closed my eyes again thinking I was in the clear. I wasn't. She made another appearance downstairs, again saying 'Auntie' over, and over, and over. The next thing I know I can see her hand wiggling under my door, as if she could somehow get in that way. And then. Oh, and then. The cutest thing ever happened. She stuck her mouth up right to the tiny crack in my door, put on her best Anna voice and said 'Auntie, do you wanna build a snowman? And ride our bikes around the hall?'. She even made her voice sound all squishy like Anna's. I started laughing so hard I almost cried, and by this point I was completely awake and finally told her she could come in. She comes in and I ask her what she wanted. She replies 'Umm. Ummmmm. One time can I sleep with you?' and then 'And I love you'. And then she left my room. She melts my heart
I was hanging out upstairs later on with my Mama and SIL. Mama was in a cleaning mood on Sunday due to the weather and while cleaning out junk drawers she came across some ring cleaner. I decided to clean up my rings, and while doing so, my niece Rae looks at me and says ' I think some people would call you a popular kid'. I looked at her strange, chuckled, and said ' Why do you say that'. Her response was  'You clean your rings. Your pretty. Your always drunk. And you go places in the world.' Cue the laughter near tears again. Lets focus on the 'Your always drunk'. That kid. I don't know what I did to convince her I'm an alcoholic but she always brings it up! I haven't had a drink in almost two weeks thankyouverymuch! And by 'go places in the world' she means that I travel. Though I haven't done much of that lately either...
The next thing I know she has a measuring tape from one of the junk drawers and proceeds to measure my waist, then says 'Ooooh, you only weigh 48 lbs!'. Okay Rae, I'll take it
Those two girls can test my patience more than anyone, they are constantly at each others throats, they use to many words like 'butthead' and 'stupidface' and yet when they do things like above I forget everything I just listed. They are the best nieces I could have asked for! Now if Kenton and Kels would get working on making me another baby niece or nephew to snuggle I would be content

Oh, and just for all you people out there actually experiencing Spring, this is what I woke up to this morning

So if you all could send some of your good weather this way it would be very much appreciated! 
Happy Monday!

Life Lately...

Stopping by quick (and late, as per usual...) to give some quick updates on life lately. You can thank my lack of caffeine the last 4 days as to why I am not able to string together full paragraphs and make a post about anything in particular
//I'm on Day 4 of the Whole30 and I haven't killed anybody yet. Emphasis on the yet part. I'm going through mega caffeine withdrawals* and those can be known to make people do crazy things. Speaking of crazy things...
//Background: I live in a tiny, tiny town. The 'city' I once lived in and worked in for 4 years can barely be called a city, it's so small. Nothing crazy ever happens around this area of SE SK. Until Monday, when there was a homicide in 'the city'. After using my crazy  ninja detective skills I discovered that the murderer was a customer that my sister had served and chatted with while at her weekend job on Sunday. And then bumped into again that night as she stopped for a smoothie before heading home. He murdered someone the very.next.day. It gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking about it
//Saturday is my 3 1/2 year old niece, Graycie's, ballet and tap recital. Rae never participated in her recital when she was the same age because she was basically kicked out for not being able to concentrate and follow the teachers instructions. I work with children and can't imagine how they expect 3 year old's to follow along with a routine. This is what I expect to see on stage:
But hopefully more clothing...
//Vegas is calling my name, yet I STILL don't have a trip booked. Things kept coming up with the group of people I was planning on going with and the actual booking of the trip never happened. I'm about to the point that I'm going to go on a vacation all by myself!
//I almost got a puppy on the weekend. I saw a picture of one on Facebook, named it (totally normal) and then contacted the lady about it. By the time I contacted her the puppy had already sold :( . Now I'm on the hunt for the perfect puppy. Kirby is technically supposed to be shared 50/50 with my Mama, but she is my Dad's baby so there is no way she is ever going to be mine. If someone wants to send me $590, I found the cutest long haired chihuahua not to far from here -  I'll even name it after you! 
//It's been a crazy, stressful week of work. I was supposed to have an important meeting tomorrow morning for a yearly process the Centre has to go through, and I found out this morning it has been postponed. Halle-freaking-lujjah. I literally felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. It's funny how things have a way of working themselves out!
* Yes, I am aware that I can drink black coffee while doing the Whole30. I am a HUGE coffee lover (read: addict) but I cannot stomach black coffee. Give me french vanilla creamer or some caramel syrup please and thanks. Obviously, those are out of the question for the next month so as much as it pains me, I am quitting coffee for the rest of the Whole30. Please pray for me

Procrastinators Unite...

Today's post is inspired by Dara at The Southern Thing. While in the middle of writing up a post of my own,  I got sidetracked reading her post, Procrastination: the action of postponing something. I immediately lost all motivation to finish my first post, and started working on a whole new post about procrastination. Ironic, right?

1// Folding & putting away laundry. Sometimes I have to rewash my clothes just because of how wrinkly they get after 6 days of sitting unfolded in a laundry basket. Side note: I have NO idea how to iron
2// Responding to emails/text messages/blog comments/etc. If I see a comment/email/text but am not able to respond right away, chances are you are not going to get a response for, oh, at least 3 days
3// Painting my nails. It's such a tedious task, and weekly manicures are (unfortunately) not in my budget. When my nail polish chips I will just repaint over the chipped areas again and again, until my nails finally get to the point that they look like I let a 2 year old paint them. Then, and only then, will I finally redo them
4// Picking up the mail. I live in such a small town that mail is not delivered door to door. Instead, we have to go pick it up at the post office. That usually ends up only happening about twice a week. Three times if I'm feeling super ambitious
5// Sending out gifts. My friend Mallory had her second baby last April, and she finally got her baby gift in October (I think). One of my old coworkers had her baby last July and her baby gift is still sitting on my dresser at home... If I participate in a swap of some kind you can count on me being at the post office on the mailing cut off day, paying double to try and get that package to my swap partner sooner so they won't know what a procrastinator I am
6// Pinterest projects. I love to be crafty and have Pinterest boards full of projects I want to do and even have most of the materials just waiting to be used, but usually don't end up with many finished products 
7// Publishing blog posts. As mentioned, I was in the middle of writing a post about doing the Whole30 when I decided to put that post as a draft and start a whole new post. That was over 5 hours ago, and I am JUST now finally pushing publish at 5:00 pm

Last 10 Photo Dump...

I decided to jump back into blogging full force after taking a month long hiatus (and lookie here at my 4th post this week!) but the ideas haven't exactly been flowing through my mind yet and the words haven't came as easily as I would like
So I took a look at Kay's '36 of the best blog post ideas' and ran with one. Here is the last 10 photos from my iPhone (going for newest to oldest). I'm going to apologize in advance because my life has been super boring lately due to the LONGEST WINTER EVER so the pictures really aren't that exciting. Sorry. I promise I won't mention another thing about this horrible Winter. I'm lying
1//  What I woke up to on Wednesday morning. Spring in Saskatchewan. Sigh. It does look kind of pretty but since I haven't seen the sun in 6 long months I'm over pretty

2// I made my Mama Bear's 'famous' rice salad on Tuesday. My Dad's side of the family requests that she make this for all of our get togethers. I'd been craving it for weeks and finally got around to making it on my EDO

3// Graycie got her hair did by Grandma in an 'Elsa braid' and had to model for me. Don't you just want to squeeze her?!

4// Poor Rae needs to live in a bubble. While visiting her Dad on the weekend his cat got spooked by a dog and scratched up Rae's face and arms. After a trip to the ER she made her way back to O-town. I sent this picture to my brother to show him that her injuries weren't quite as bad as we were imagining them to be

5// Picked up these NEW K-Cups while in Target last weekend to give them a whirl. Not quite as caramel-y as I would like but still pretty good. And of course it was drank out of my favourite mug

6// Laughing at myself over looking like I had been in an accident (so of course had to document with a selfie), when in reality I just had two of my tattoos touched up 

7// Mama Bears brand new and FIRST EVER tattoo. Pretty sweet to watch your Mom get her first ever tattoo. (Unfortunately something my possible future children will never get to experience). It's a memorial tattoo for my Grandparents and she was a complete trooper while getting it!

8// Our amazing tattoo artist, DJ, working on Mama. He has done my last 3 tattoos, at least 4 of my brothers, one of my sister in laws, and now my Mama's. 

9// Went for drinks with the siblings last Friday in GE, the village both my siblings live in. Stopped at Toni's house after to see Sally (one of the kittens) and had a look at these two favourite childhood books that found there way back to us. These were our copies when we were young, were given away (boooo) to our cousin's children when we were older, and then when our cousin's children's were older they were given back to Toni for Rae. I'm so happy they weren't just thrown in the trash, just looking at these books brings back so many amazing childhood memories

10// Last Thursday I invited Kenton and Kels over for supper (Toni and the girls were there too of course) while the parentals were away (they don't appreciate good Mexican grill) and made copycat Chipotle burrito bowls. HEAVEN IN MY MOUTH

So there you have it, my last 10 photos. Nothing to exciting, but that's small town life for you! I love the idea of this post, and will probably do it again in a couple of months to see the difference in life then compared to life now. Thanks for the great idea Kay!

I Never Thought I'd... (A Linkup)

Yesterday I was in the middle of writing a post to link up with Kathy with some Humpday Confessions. While writing that post I was also browsing through Facebook (multitasking is my specialty), when this happened. The humpday post was saved as a draft and I quickly wrote a whole new post in the 30 minutes left of my lunch break. I completely strayed from my 'normal' blogging style when writing that post, but just needed to get my thoughts out regarding that subject. My blog, my rules. But after that post, today something lighter and more fun is definitely required
I had read Juliette's post yesterday about turning her 'I Never Thought I'd' post into a link up, before my 'World's Toughest Job' post was even necessary, and decided I wanted to play along. So here we go:
I never thought I'd... end up back living in O-town after graduating College. Oh, the decisions made by 21 year olds...
I never thought I'd... be back living with my parents at 26. The housing market in my area is insane and even though I've been saving for almost a year now, I'm nowhere near being able to buy my own home. I'll also let you in on a little secret: I don't want to live in this town for forever, and buying a home seems so permanent. The thought of it gives me hives
I never thought I'd... grow so far apart from some of my 'best' friends
I never thought I'd... be unable to sleep in on weekends. I could sleep in until 2 pm on weekends while in College. Now, 8 am is 'sleeping in' on weekends
I never thought I'd... actually visit NYC. Now I dream every day of getting back there

I never thought I'd... make it through this brutal Winter (it's not over yet...)
I never thought I'd... become friends with a stranger I met on the internet and then meet them in person. Then I went on my first blate with Kate (who needs to get back to blogging!) when I visited the Twin Cities
I never thought I'd... try and be a runner. I always thought I'd only run if something was chasing me. Two 5K's later and I'm still 'trying' to be a runner
I never thought I'd... want to subject myself to something this horrible, but starting Monday I'm going to give the Whole30 a whirl. I may die from wine withdrawal


I never thought I'd... put my life out on the interwebs for all the judgmental people in my small hometown to see. I still cringe every time I realize someone IRL knows about this little space of mine

HIMYM gifs just speak to my life

World's Toughest Job...

Yesterday, while on my earned day off from work, I was browsing through Facebook when I saw a video being shared over and over and over again by friends and family, titled '24 People Who Applied For The World's Toughest Job Were In For Quite A Surprise'. I normally don't click on these links, for fear of viruses, yet with all the shares my curiosity got the better of me and I clicked on over to You Tube to see the 'surprise 'these people were in for

This is the video being shared, if you haven't seen it already:



Halfway through the video I started getting a suspicion that it was going to be about motherhood. I watched the entire video, smiled at the sweet words to these 'interviewees' mothers,  them immediately showed it to my Mama (and my Dad happened to watch halfway through as well). We all agreed it was a great, inspiring video to show Mom's how valued they are. That night, while eating supper together as we do most nights, my sister brought up the video and we once again discussed how great it was. Not once did we discuss the fact that the video called motherhood the 'toughest job'. To us, it was just a sweet video to show the value of mom's everywhere

Today it has been shared over and over and over, once again, by more friends and family. Everyone had positive things to say regarding the video. Until. A friend of mine shared the video below, along with a comment that this video was in 'retaliation to one of the stupidest things seen on Facebook this week'

 

The friend of mine who shared the above video is one of my best friends since Kindergarten (and also a mother). However, just because we are close friends does not mean we always see eye to eye on things. In fact, we usually have differing opinion on almost everything. I commented back that if she was talking about the video about Mom's then she must have no heart (a running joke between us - not actually meant as a snotty comment). She responded that she was in fact talking about the 'Mom' video and that 'a Mom is farthest from the hardest job on the planet'. Her comment got a 'like' and another woman (also a mother) agreed with her. I'm not one to start  'wars' on Facebook or other social media sites, so I left my single comment as that and moved on to discover what else was new in the land of Facebook. However, I do have strong feelings regarding the video, and believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Here is mine:

Let me preface this by saying, for those who are unaware, I am not a mom. However, my job would share many of the same points on a job description as a Mother's would (you know, if motherhood came with a job description...). For those who don't know, I'm the Director of a childcare centre. I went to school for Early Childhood Education and spent many years working 'on the floor' (as we call it) with the children. Yes, now most of my days involve paperwork, phone calls, dealing with parent and staffing issues, and putting out small fires (not literally) to keep the Centre up and running, but I put my blood, sweat and tears into many years working on the front lines with the children. I know firsthand how exhausting it can be to devote your time to taking care of tiny humans

For those who feel that motherhood isn't the toughest job there is on this earth, maybe that's true. But every other job out there an individual can simply walk away from it when it gets to tough. When the pay isn't enough to equate the amount of work being put in. When co-workers, or customers, are just to much to deal with. A mother doesn't have that luxury. Sure, they can take a holiday or take their kids to a sitter or a daycare and get some peace and quiet and time away from their children. But they will never be able to 100% walk away from the 'job' of being a mother. (And if they do - they do not deserve the title of 'mother'). A mother's 'job' does not end when a child turns 18 and goes off on their own into this great big world. A mother constantly worries about her child and the decisions their child will make in their life

The 'toughest job' video did not single out stay at home mom's as having the toughest job. The emphasis was strictly on motherhood as a whole, whether you stay at home with your children all day or work outside the home, it is all tough. Nor did I find that the video dis valued the role of a Father. The video was made with Mother's Day in mind, not to discredit the job of fatherhood. Perhaps in June a new video will make the rounds regarding fatherhood...

Maybe my opinion on the subject is swayed by the fact that I was lucky enough to have an amazing and supportive woman in my life since birth, my Mama Bear. She's been my cheerleader, protector, caretaker,  and has always supported me no matter what. Now that I'm 26 (and my two siblings are also grown) she is not 'retired' from the job of motherhood. It is a job she will keep until her last day, and one I imagine she will continue to excel at until the day she takes her last breath

Motherhood may not be 'the toughest job on the planet' but Mother's deserve credit where credit is due. This post is for you Mama Bear!

And as I said, I believe everyone is entitled to their own opinions. If you have a different opinion on this subject, please comment and let me know. This world would be a ridiculous place if everyone always agreed on everything

“People can tell you to keep your mouth shut, but that doesn't stop you from having your own opinion.” 
― Anne Frank

My Life in Numbers...

I've been in a bit of 'rut' lately, and not just when it comes to blogging. The fact that it is supposed to be Spring and it still continues to snow and be in the negatives is not helping me get out of said 'rut'. I'm super sad due to the fact that by this time each year I usually have a Vegas trip booked for mid to end of April. This time last year I was sitting in the Minot airport, waiting to board a flight to Vegas (which is also where I was when I heard about the Boston Marathon bombings). This year I am sitting in my bed (it's my Earned Day Off from work), watching Once Upon A Time reruns, and checking out Allegiant vacation packages, while also trying to get a blog post published. I tell ya, some Vitamin D would really do my mind, body and soul some good!
This life 'rut' I'm in also means I'm super behind on reading and commenting on blogs. While trying to play a little bit of catch up this morning I stumbled upon Erin's "My Life in Numbers' post and decided to take a page from her book and ease my way back into blogging 

4 - Number of titles held at my previous job
126.2 - Number of Kilometre's driven every day to and from work for 3.5 years while at my previous job
11.5 - Number of months at my current job 

7 - Number of homes I've lived in since birth
1, 285 - Population of the town I was born and raised in 
61,180 - Population of city where I attended College
2 - Number of years spent attending College
3 - Number of vehicles I've owned since age 15
2  - Number of vehicles I have bought on my own
61,028 - Number of Kilometre's on Eleanor, my 2012 Chevrolet Equinox
7 - Number of times I've been to Las Vegas
4 - Number of times I've stayed at The Flamingo in Las Vegas
3 - Number of days I spent in New York City
1, 450, 356 - Number of tears I've cried since I left New York City
10, 088 - Number of Kilometre's driven to New Braunfels, TX and back home again, twice
4 - Number of European countries I've visited
5 - Number of animals currently living in this home
2 - Number of (organized) 5K's I've ran
3 - Number of months until my next 5K
347- Number of pictures on my 3 week old iPhone
26  -Number of birthdays I've celebrated
6 - Number of Mini Eggs eaten for 'breakfast' this morning
2 - Number of books I'm currently reading
100- Average number of books I read in a year
10 - Number of tattoos on my body
173- Number of posts on this blog since 2012
27- Number of draft posts waiting to be finished 
10- Number of IRL friends/family who know about and read my blog (That I know of...)
178- Number of Instagram 'followers' (I hate that word)
215 - Number of Twitter 'followers
41 - Amount of $5 bills saved since the beginning of the year
Whewww, for a girl who hates numbers and all things Math related (having the last name Mathison must be some kind of cruel joke...) that was a looot of numbers for a Tuesday morning!

Wednesday Wedding Recap...

As mentioned, last week I was in Edmonton, AB to see my cousin CC get married. Over ten years ago we were in St. Albert, AB, where my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Merrit were living at the time. CC was around 14 years old and introduced us to her boyfriend, Dylan. I never would have thought that when she told us, at age 14, that she was going to marry him, that 10 years later we would be watching the new parents get married. Their dating anniversary is April 2nd and they wanted to keep it as their anniversary, which is the reason they were married on a Wednesday
It had been almost 6 years (did not seem that long until I started counting back!) since the last 'Mathison' wedding, when we also traveled to Edmonton for Bobbie-Jo's wedding.  My cousin Boonie got married two years ago but she had an extremely small wedding with only immediate family, so a big family wedding was much needed. Unfortunately a lot of our large family couldn't make the wedding, but we had a great time catching up with those who were able to attend. Kenton got a lot of heat for not having a ring on Kelsey's finger yet, so hopefully all that pressure will finally get the ball rolling for those two - we need another family get together to look forward to (fingers crossed everybody!)
The bride and groom were gorgeous, baby Kace stole all of our hearts, the twoonie bar probably made a killing, and Kels and I made some new Aussie BFF's. Unfortunately picture taking and drinking do not go hand in hand so I didn't get as many pictures of family (and the bride and groom - epic fail on my behalf) as I would have liked.  One of the brides cousin's on her Dad's side took photos all night long and kept getting everyone together for photos so hopefully I'll get to see them one day soon

 

Champagne was served immediately following the ceremony while the wedding party had photos taken 

CC had toys and colouring books and crayons to keep the little ones entertained. Graycie and Harlow plopped themselves down on the floor and coloured away while the adults enjoyed their champagne

Rae and Papa Bear - doesn't he clean up nice?!

Uncle Merrit and Auntie Cindy (with Bobbie and Paulette hiding behind them) doing their Welcome to the Family toast to Dylan

Kelsey and Kenton stole my phone and took a 'selfie'. I told Kenton I was going to tell everyone the reason his hair is so long is because he is growing it out for locks of love. The truth is the more we bug him about it the longer he plans on growing it 

A decent picture of Mama Bear and Papa Bear only happens once every few years so this had to be showcased

Graycie Bear and Kirstin before Graycie snoozed the rest of the wedding away 

Me and my favourite 3 year old

The beautiful bride, CC, getting ready for the bouquet toss. There's a super cute story that goes along with that tractor you see in the background. One of the flower girls rode in on the tractor pulling 6 month old Kace (the bride and grooms 6 month old son) behind in a wagon. The best part of the story is that CC won that tractor when she was 4 years old at an event in her hometown, and one of the other children in the running for the wagon was none other than 5 year old Dylan, the future groom

Dylan about to toss the garter

There he is, baby Kace. This little man stole all of our hearts. It's an 18 hour drive up to High Level where CC and Dylan live so this was most of the families first time meeting the little man. He is the happiest baby I have EVER met and I can't wait for the next time I get another snuggle 

Toni and I had to take a 'selfie' 

Me and Mama Bear - many, many drinks in....

Dylan's mom is originally from Australia and I believe 5 years ago his parents, sister and two brothers moved to Australia. This is his brother Rhys' girlfriend, Lauren. We met her in the bathroom, heard her Australian accent, and proclaimed her our new BFF

Hanging outside the venue with Rhys and Lauren, and Dylan's auntie. Kels and I may have invited ourselves to visit them in Australia, and to their wedding (they're not even engaged...)

Close to the end of the night - Rae lasted through the entire night of dancing

I love weddings and getting the family all together and this one was definitely one for the books. To say the next day was a struggle would be an understatement. To top it all off it was our only day to hit up West Edmonton Mall before we made the trek back home. Next time we need to have more time to recuperate from hangovers before being expected to go shopping and take the girls to Galaxyland!

Friday was a sad day having to leave Edmonton behind and start the long drive back home. We didn't get as much visiting in with our Alberta family as I would have liked, but we already decided that an Edmonton/Saskatoon trip  is needed for this Summer

On the way back we stopped at Vegreville to see the 'Easter Egg'. Whenever I was little we always stopped on our way back from visiting our Alberta family, so Papa Bear made sure to stop so the girls could check it out. Photo credit for this one goes to Kelsey

The girls posing in their brand new dresses at the Egg

We also have family (on the other side) in Saskatoon so we stopped in for a quick visit while passing through on the way home. Graycie was fascinated with something in Uncle Butch's front yard
Getting back to 'real life' after 4 days off work (and a weekend thrown in there to) is HARD. I'm still recovering from the wedding and have yet to unpack my suitcase. I haven't done laundry in almost two weeks so its a good thing Spring has decided to come out and play for awhile - I've been taking advantage of pulling out some Summer clothes while I avoid the mountain of laundry 

I Instagrammed this picture on Monday, and the only change to the suitcase is that I needed my makeup case and toiletries. Otherwise, everything else is still the same. And yes, champagne is necessary for any form of traveling...