We left Florida bright and early in the morning on the 16th to Winnipeg. It was nice that Ken, Andrea and Dad got up at 5am to send us off and Ken left us a couple of bottles of water and two double chocolate cookies on the hood of the rental car for us to eat. We went through New York, got to see the sights from a distance and then off to Chicago for a three hour layover. We found our gate F12, had a bite to eat and played some Angry Birds and got caught up on our emails. It was 20 minutes before our flight was to take off and they were still not calling us for boarding so Craig headed to the board to see if the plane was delayed. Now we are in a rush as they changed our gate to F1 and if you have ever been to O'Hara Airport it is a fair distance away. We made it just in time to board the plane, thank God.
We arrived in Winnipeg at the scheduled time and had the best Canadian Customs officer ever! No seriously, she was great and we only had to pay $60.00 duty/taxes. From there we picked up the Edge from Park 'n Fly and drove to Carman to see my mom and Hannah. Yeah you could say Hannah was excited to see us, she usually doesn't sleep on the bed with us but that night she was between us all night long.
The following day we headed to Waldenway to pick up the pointers and do a little shopping in Winnipeg with my mom. We did not have the radio on and didn't know that there was a weather warning out, it was a bit windy in the city. We started to head back to Carman and noticed that the wind was a little strong and by the time we were on Hwy. 3 we couldn't see a foot in front of us. We joined up with some more crazies on the highway and started a convoy to Carman. By the time we got to to Sperling the wind calmed down a bit and my eyes were strained and my palms were sweaty. We made it back to mom's safe and sound, exhausted but safe.
The week was filled with visiting friends, doing last minute shopping, getting Molly's blood recheck (everything is on the way back to normal) and selling our Edge. The dealership, Steeltown Ford in Selkirk, bought the Edge back from us which saved us the hassle of trying to sell it ourselves. We apologies if we didn't get to see some of you while we were in town.
We left Winnipeg to head back home on Thursday, woke up at 3am and was at the airport with everyone about an hour later. We were flying West Jet out of Winnipeg to Edmonton and the crew in Winnipeg was great. We had 3 large dog crates, 2 action packers, one large suitcase, one small suitcase and of course our carry-on. They helped us by getting a flatbed trolley for the dogs and Craig and I put everything else on two smaller trolleys. After checking in the dogs and our luggage we headed up to security as time was running out. Of course they stopped me with my camera gear, had to check everything, and then the second announcement came for us to board. At the end of security there was a crew member waiting for us to accompany us to our gate.
We had a couple of hours in Edmonton, had to claim ALL of our luggage and re-check in at the airport. What a hassle! No help from anyone, no flatbed trolleys for the dogs so Craig made 6 trips upstairs with the luggage as I stayed down with the dogs. We finally were on board and on the way home, tired and exhausted we made it back home only 1/2 hour late. Sheila and Cat were there waiting for us with their vehicles to help us get everything home in one trip, great friends.
The rest of the day was spent unpacking and Friday was spent trying to get the truck started and doing some grocery shopping, in the evening Jim, Sheila and Marg came over for a visit. Yesterday there was a hip-hop presentation at the community centre from 2 - 4pm so we went to see the dancers. The kids were out of school this past week so the community brought up a couple of hip-hop dancers from Edmonton to teach the kids and adults. The first presentation was the adult square dance club, a newly formed club in town. From there it was the kids turn to entertain us and some of these kids were really good. The final presentation was the adult hip-hop dancers. All the dancers were great and it was a fun afternoon spent.
There was a polar bear sighting about 5kms from town, posters everywhere to warn the community. Kinda exciting and scary at the same time. Would love to see one in the wild, just enough time for me to get a picture and then leave...quickly. Will keep you posted if there are more sightings.
Tomorrow is a big day here and since this post is getting long I will do another one tomorrow. The pictures today are from the dancers and an example of how much snow there was along the house.
Talk soon!
