So if you ever have a chance to get to Calaway Park if you’re in Calgary I totally recommend it. The park itself is completely kid friendly and geared mostly to kids between the ages of 2 and 11! Lanae could ride on at least 5 rides on her own and probably somewhere around 20-25 with a parent. Jake and Sam could ride on at least 25-30 rides on their own and a bunch more with parents! I couldn’t believe how much fun we had. We got to the park at 10:30 and started riding at 11:00. We didn’t leave the park until 7pm (which was closing time).

The kids had such a blast and it was definitely a highlight for them. I would love to do it again in a few years when the new baby is old enough to enjoy and before Sam becomes “too cool” to help his younger siblings on some of the rides.

Sam’s favorite ride was the roller-coaster. Unfortunately it went too fast to get any good pictures so you’ll just have to imagine a similar coaster to the red coaster at Playland in Vancouver. Jake’s favorite ride was the mini-coaster and the mini-hellavator (yes they had one just like the big one at Playland, except smaller)! Lanae’s favorite ride was the boats that went in a circle. I didn’t get a good picture of that one but it was pretty tame and the three of them could ride it alone.

Okay so since we’ve been back from holidays for awhile now and I’ve actually managed to edit all our photos I thought I’d better blog a little! We had a wonderful time and I am so looking forward to doing a big family vacation every two or three years now that James does not have to save his vacation time for new babies (after this year anyway)!

The kids were amazing on the way in and we actually made really great time. We left for Calgary at 5:30 on Saturday morning, August 3rd and arrived at my Aunt’s house at 7:30pm. We probably stopped for a total of 2 hours which means that with the time difference we got there in 10 hours! It definitely pays to leave early and avoid the crazy highway traffic.

We celebrated Jake’s 4th birthday on Sunday with a walk, some family time and a birthday cake. The cake is supposed to be Aipom’s head (for those of you who do not have children interested in Pokemon, that’s one of the characters)! Jake was very happy with his cake but not excited about the walk at all as you might notice looking at the picture of Sam trying to play football with him. We also had the chance to meet with my Dad’s uncle Harvey and Aunt Sarah (whom Jake is playing cards with). We used to visit them when I was a little girl and they still look exactly the same.

So in two sleeps, as James and the kids remind me, we are heading out for our first ever Davenport only family vacation! When Sam was a couple months old we did go on a short family vacation to Kelowna which was very fun but we have yet to do this with just our kids since then.

I wouldn’t consider myself an experience road-tripper, even though I did haul the boys across Canada, through the States, two summer ago when I was 6 months pregnant with Lanae in a trailer with my in-laws. But I would say we have a few things figured out. The kids are excited to go to Calgary and have made maps for us to follow. They are set with their DVD player (thanks to our good friends the Tams) and travel games, books, etc. We’ll see how well these three little munchkins do with 12 hours of driving.

We have a plan to visit my aunt for few days, who lives in Didsbury. Then head down to Calgary for a day of shoppping, a day at the zoo and a little reunion of sorts with Carmen, Jon and Brennan Jarvie along with her sister Heather and family as well as Mike and Debbie Wiebe. A lot of fun packed into 8 days!

We’ll let you know how things go when we return and if you think about it pray for us that it would truly be a great time of family bonding and much needed relaxation before the craziness of the new school year begins again!