Canada time!

 Our first adventure of the summer was a trip to Canada. We woke up bright and early last week Tuesday, battled the early morning commute and took a "quick" 3 hour flight up to Edmonton. The kids all did really well on the flights to and from Edmonton. Our DVD player died 15 minutes into the flight, so it was all about survival the rest of the time:) Actually the 2 ipads we brought along kept everyone well entertained. Morgan had her Littlest Pet Shop figures that kept her entertained for a while. Hudson and Brooklyn did well as long as they could switch seats every 30 minutes and I'm pretty sure Brooklyn had to go potty at least 3 times:)

Happy to be on the plane finally!

In Edmonton! We had a great thunderstorm one evening. Hudson was pretty scared of the thunder, but we had fun watching the lightening from inside.

It became a nightly ritual that all four kiddos would cuddle on Opa and Oma's bed to eat their fruit and watch a show or two. This was about 8:30 at night but it looked like 6:30. Since we were so far north it wasn't really dark until 11:30 at night. The kids had a hard time believing it was time for bed the first couple nights.

One morning we took the kids to a dinosaur park just a few minutes from Kevin's parent's house. Here are every one's most ferocious dinosaur's face. These pictures show some happy kiddos, but this was one of our hardest mornings. We had some crabby kids and lots of mosquitoes to deal with. However, the park did an amazing job recreating many different kind of dinosaurs. I would love to go back next time we are there to do a little more reading at each of the displays.

Doesn't she look ferocious!

Digging for bones!

We were able to visit with Omama Bodewitz on Saturday morning. We chatted with her for a while in her apartment and the girls covered her arms with stickers. Opa picked up the boys early so they could go to an Eskimo's Fan Day. The Eskimos are the Canadian league football team in Edmonton. Hudson has an Eskimo's shirt that was Ethan's so he was jazzed to be able to wear it and go meet the "Eximos". After they left the rest of us took Omama out for lunch. It was really great to see her for a few hours. Much like they used to be with my grandma the kids were very calm and super sweet to her, it was fun to see.

Saturday night Ryan and Jessica and Makena had us over for dinner. It was a real treat to see so much of them while we were there. The kids loved playing with Makena, especially Morgan, she is my little mommy!

Our best cousin picture...I think Morgan is pouting because she doesn't get to hold Makena and Makena wanted nothing to do with posing for a picture with her cousins. So we brought in Opa and Oma and got a much better picture:)

Uncle Ryan used to keep his 4-wheeler at Kevin's parent's house, but he now keeps it at his house. He was gracious enough to bring it out on Sunday so the kids could take rides. They loved it! This was also the day the weather turned crazy cold, but that didn't stop them from loving their 4-wheeler rides.

We also got to visit with Kevin's Opa and Oma Schenk. Hudson chased Opapa around the house with a dinosaur and he loved that Opapa was so scared! Brooklyn told Omama to follow her upstairs so they could play and after a few minutes she had her put her to bed for a nap:) It was special to see them as well. I think one of the highlights for the older two was our trip to the indoor water park at the West Edmonton Mall. It is a huge water park with a lot of different slides and a wave pool. It's pretty sad that the first time my kids really played in waves was at an indoor water park, despite their multiple visits to the ocean:) I was amazed at Ethan and Morgan's courage going down all the slides they were tall enough too. The very first slide Kevin took Ethan on was pitch black the whole way, but we got off with a smile. He loved it! Morgan did great too. I think she liked the wave pool the most. I was really glad we had swimming lessons before we left because she is an independent swimmer now!

All in all we had a great visit. Everyone slept well and stayed healthy and we had lots of fun with family! Thanks Opa and Oma for a great time!