We finally did it, took a road trip to Saskatchewan last week. I'm not going to lie I was a little concerned packing up a two year old and venturing out on an 8 hour road trip (well that is if you drive the speed limit... and my husband does not) to visit my aunt and uncle at their cabin at Gull Lake, SK. H was amazing and despite the fact that she will NOT sleep in her car seat no matter how long she is strapped in, I couldn't have dreamed that it could be that easy. I know people have been doing just that since the beginning of time, but nothing sounds more terrifying to me then a toddler screaming at the top of her lungs for hours on end. All my frantic packing of toys/games/movies/crayons/stickers/snacks ext. was plain over kill. Note to self, all you need is the travel DVD player and snacks, end of story.
So after a decade plus of my Aunt Karen's nagging about going to visit them at the lake we finally made the trip. I was a little worried about how H would react to all the dead animals hung on the walls (the result from Uncle Mac-A-Tony's two trips to Africa where he shot anything and everything that moved.... I'm not going to go there because between him and I we all know that I think it's just a total waste of life and we have agreed to disagree on the issue) but surprisingly, beside Scooby the dog, the creepy African animals were a total highlight for her. I bet she is the only 2 year old I know that can correctly identify a Koodoo, but I will have to admit the Zebra was her hands down fave. We did a bunch of things while we were down there including taking H on her first boat ride, and she had an absolute blast, the child is a dare devil and had the biggest grin plastered on her face the whole time. We ended up cutting our trip short due to my second cousin Michelle dying last week of a brain tumor, I knew that my aunt really wanted to go to the funeral but did want to kick us out either. Three days of listening to Tony and Karen get after each other and listing to the Dam gossip was about all I could handle anyway, so despite her disappointment we left to go help Lynne pack up for the big move to Edmonton.
We got to Kindersley Friday night, and I was fully expecting to be there to help clean. I had braced myself for the atomic level of nastiness to which I had anticipated her place to be in. Being that Mitch had neglected to tell her that Hailey and I would be going with him to help out, she didn't have much of a head start to make sure the place would be safe for a very curious toddler. When we rolled up to the trailer and walked in I was in total disbelief to find that not a single box had been packed.... seriously should I really have been that shocked? after crapping my pants a little, it was go time. Mitch was incharge of the heavy lifting and I hit the kitchen like there was no tomorrow. Poking my eyes out would have been a lot more fun, but we did as much as we could before we got outta dodge. They arrived today (it's Monday) and after a snafu with getting the keys to the new place, she is finally in. Too bad that the new place is a dirty sty, but it will be scrubbed clean and Lynne is pretty excited about starting a new chapter in her life.
Well it's been a busy few days, and we are going to help Grandma Lynne tomorrow start getting settled. So it's off to bed for me!
L
