While I know you guys have been seriously enjoying having Brady writing the blog this weekend, he has passed the reins back to me! I’m SO happy to be home with my family, but I truly enjoyed the breath of fresh air in Edmonton! It was both productive and relaxing. I loved it. I’ll break it down for you in short form.
Jerilee came to pick me up around 7:00am Saturday morning. We made a little stop in North Battleford to drop something off and then continued on. Finally the sun started coming up. It was SO dark for SO long! We stopped for Starbucks in Lloydminster. I got a vanilla latte and a breakfasty treat with chunky sugar on it. On we went!
Edmonton was way easier to get into this time! We usually spend a lot of time slowly moseying through construction, but not this time! We headed right to the mall and while we didn’t go nuts like we usually do, we did a lot of walking and shopping and backtracking with very little stopping.
I had a pretty specific list, and neither of us went too crazy. It was a controlled day of shopping. But we both burned out pretty early. We usually hit the Old Spaghetti Factory on the first day of our Edmonton trip, but we were done at the mall quite a bit before supper. Rather, we decided to go check into our hotel and get our hot tub on, and worry about supper later.
Except that the hot tub was broken!!! Aaaaahhh! We were SO disappointed! And our feet were SO tired, haha! I know, I know, first world problems.
So rather than soaking in the hot tub, we went and lay in our beds and just took a break. Finally, though, it became time to get some food going, so we weighed our options (for way too long) and finally settled on Montana’s for supper. It was a very good choice. I ate so much, and didn’t regret one bite. Delicious! We fought the fatigue hard that evening and forced ourselves to stay up until 10:00. Because yes, we are old people now.
Being old paid off, because we got a good sleep and felt better in the morning. We snagged some muffins and oranges from the breakfast room and ate upstairs while we slowly got ready for the day. Now I say “get ready” loosely. Jerilee and I both used to waste at least an hour “getting ready” when we first started going on these road trips. Since then, we both like makeup WAY more, yet the less we put ourselves together for these trips, haha! So this time around, I “got ready” by wearing clothes and putting on deodorant. Win!
We saved Ikea and the box stores in south common for our second day there. I can confidently say that day #2 was much more successful! My best purchase was probably 12 hand soaps plus a couple of mini gifties for $35! Woot! I also found something for Waverly I’ve been looking all over for! The fourth Gap location finally had it! I got myself some new clothes that actually fit my non-pregnant body, which feels like a big deal. Its not a secret that I hope to have more kids in the near future (Lord willing!) so I don’t really put in heavy effort to fit regular clothes in between. Plus, I’m quite fortunate that my legs and hips don’t change much, so maternity jeans are just “always jeans” for me. But buying a few regular shirts felt so good! None of them sag under the boobs or are unreasonably long. I’m happy with my finds. Ikea was also a win, where I got a couple things I’ve been waiting to get for the kids for Christmas, plus some little kitchen things, an outdoor entrance mat, and succulents! I kill pretty much every plant that walks in the door here, but recently, my surviving succulent had a baby!! So my confidence convinced me to buy two more, lol! We’ll see how the fare.
We hit up Olive Garden for a late lunch, where I ate my body weight in gnocchi soup and breadsticks, before hitting the highway. We were both fairly tired and the ride was quiet until we realized we needed to be pumping some better music! “Good music” turned into road trip playlists on Spotify which turned into 90s playlists and then to one hit wonder playlists. It was SO fun. If you want to feel like you were there, listen to “What Makes You Beautiful” by One Direction. Ya, it was quality music, lol!
We got home around 10:00pm. We made great time! Brady was super on the ball, and opened the garage up as soon as we were backed into the driveway. We hauled in my bags, and my husband – love of my life – goes “Wow, is this all you got?” Ack! He’s a good man. I love him. You guys do, too. He’s pretty epic.
Jerilee headed out and I think she hit the sack almost immediately. I, on the other hand, had a bubble bath waiting for me!! So I did that first, and then went to bed.
What an amazing weekend we had!! Love you tons, Jerilee! Merry Christmas trip to us!!