Off to Canada!

Brandon's Grandma Palmer passed away and we really wrestled with the decision of whether or not to go up to Canada for the funeral. The kids really didn't want to miss school and we had been having some car troubles where our battery died a few times. Also I was just terrified of driving for 14 hours with the kids seeing as Ava usually struggles just driving to St. George. But in the end we decided we would go.

The kids were absolutely amazing in the car! Don't know why we've ever done this before, but we downloaded movies from Disney Plus onto all their phones/tablets and each kid had their own headphones to use. So the drive was super peaceful for me and Brandon. We just chatted up in the front of the car and did cross word puzzles together. It seriously was pretty heavenly.

Brandon doesn't love stopping for anything but we convinced him to let us stop and take a picture by all the state signs.

We made lunch and ate it in the car and didn't even stop driving once till we needed gas. We stopped in Dillon, Montana and Brandon noticed the City Hall was right across the street so I made him pose for a picture by it. His family got snowed in here once, even though Brandon doesn't really remember it.

We made it to our hotel in Great Falls, Montana. We were lucky that Tara's family decided to stop and stay with us! It was so much fun for the kids to have cousins there.

Ate at Wendy's. I love taking pictures of the state signs inside different Wendy's that we go to.

We had fun swimming in the hot tub and pool.

The water slide there only runs on weekends so the kids were pretty bummed about that.

Jackson was scared that this hippo mouth was going to close on him.

Our kids are so funny and Ava, Jackson and Kallie were all begging for the floor spot.

Poor Sam woke up with his eye swollen shut. The breakfast was yummy and so much fun to be there with cousins.

The kids still found a way to have fun on the water slide even if it wasn't running. They ended up climbing up the inside of the water slide (now how often do you get to do that?!?) and then just ended up climbing over the fence right by the big sign that said don't climb over the fence, and just going down the slide over and over, even with no water running down it.

Eventually they got in trouble. I think someone saw them on the security camera. But they had a lot of fun while it lasted!

Jackson begging for Hi Chews in the gas station.

We caravan-ed with Tara's family to Calgary. 

Made it to the border. Mckinley was so excited to see that everything was in English and French.

Stopped for a picture by the Alberta sign.

We stopped in Lethbridge for lunch at Costco. Had to get poutine of course! It was yummy!

We ended up going straight to Blaine's house for pizza and to see Karen and Leslie. We didn't know it, but Dallin and Lincoln's families were there too.

We all headed back to the hotel to swim together. This water slide was functioning and the kids had the time of their lives with it.

Thursday we kind of had the whole day to ourselves. Dallin and Lincoln went off shopping, Tara went to Banff. Our kids just wanted to swim and even though they didn't have any cousins to swim with, that's what they did.

Then we decided to take the C Train into downtown, mostly because we were chasing a Taco Bell that we saw on the map.

Taco Bell ended up being in a mall and it was super expensive so we didn't even buy any food there, but we had a great time looking around in the mall and the kids thought it was so fun to be in a big city.

It was Remembrance Day weekend in Canada so there was this giant Canadian glad hung up in the mall.

They wear poppies to remember those who have passed. We all got to wear them for the funeral.

The kids thought this was so cool how you could see people's footprints walking on the level above you so when we went upstairs they decided to make a heart shape with their feet and I went down below to take a picture of it.

When I was down there taking a picture this guy walking by pointed up at it and said "are you orchestrating that?" He ha, it was fun.

The mall had these beautiful gardens and a big pond with coy fish in it. Jackson was in heaven watching them swim around.

It was fun to ride the train.

We ended up at Wendy's. And boy is it different in Canada. Every restaurant sells poutine. DQ, Wendy's, McDonald's, they all do. But Wendy's doesn't have any meal deals like we do so lunch ended up being pretty expensive.

After lunch we decided to go and drive by the house that Brandon lived in for the first few years of his life before his family moved to the states.

And then we took a drive to the Calgary Temple.

We decided to hit up Peter's Drive In before the viewing that night and it really isn't very good at all. The shakes especially. It's so funny how everyone talks up this place so much. It's just nostalgic for them all.

We went to the scenic lookout. I was really wanting to go earlier in the day but man, it was beautiful at night with all the city lights! So glad we were able to do this!

The viewing was great. It was fun to see family. Ryan's family and Chandra and Jordan had all arrived by then so we got to see them all. Then back for a squishy hot tub sit at the hotel, ha ha.