We had big dream of a large family vacation to California, but we didn't save enough money, so we decided to change the destination to a little closer location. So we chose South Dakota, well our time line was such that we would be right in the middle of Sturgis bike rally, the biggest bike rally north of the Mississippi, so we changed again to go to Kelowna. Well, Kalinda ended up getting ankle surgery in July, and we knew that she would be in a lot of pain and would miss out on too much so we changed it to camping along the river in Devon AB. That is quite the change, I know....
Our journey commenced Monday August 13 with a truck and trailer full of stuff. Our first stop was Glendon at the perogy park where there is a tram that the kids love to ride. Even Kansas took a ride. Mommy was denied any such pleasure.
Our next stop was the Ukrainian Village heritage site. We did the quick tour and found out life in Alberta in the early 1900s. We saw the grain elevator, the police station, the train station, a gas station, a blacksmith and a school house. The kids got to take a ride on a horse drawn buggy for the large tour of all the different homesteads. We ended with some Ukrainian food. It was worth the stop.
We made it to our campsite in the Lions Park Campground in Devon just in time to set up and do some small scale exploring of the camp grounds. Luckily the park was right next to our camper, but the bathroom was not (poor mom).
Tuesday, we tried the bike trails around the park, which were a bit too hilly for our kids so we just biked around the camp ground. In the afternoon we rented tubes and Macie, Wade and Daddy floated down the river for an hour. That was a blast. Our tubes got tethered together so no one would get separated. Daddy's tube did not have a bottom in it so his bottom got wet, which the kids loved. Thanks to Wade for carrying Daddy's sandals on your tube and keeping them nice and dry. After the tube trip, we found a beach area to play in the water for a bit. We forgot Kansas' bathing suit so she wore the only suit she had, her birthday suit.. :( We got back to camp around 530 and ate a tinfoil dinner after which the kids played at the park till it was too dark to think so they wondered back to our site.
Wednesday, we went to the city and checked out Telus World of Science the dinosaur exhibit.
we also watched the panda bear IMAX movie. The kids loved the whole thing, the movie, the exhibit, the hands on science exhibits, and the space area. I caught both kids touching copperlite. ;)
After that we tried our luck at West Edmonton Mall. Poor Mom hiked a few Kms up and down that mall, even with the wheel chair we borrowed. We took a photo of big foot, a hockey player, a beautiful princess with her horse, and some creepy dude trying to be a cowboy.
Before bed time we tried our luck fishing on the river. It was hard to find a good spot, so we just got some practice in, no fish. We did catch a Macie, some salid, a few sticks and some branches.
Thursday was pack up and head home, it was a short trip but we had lots of fun. Always glad we do things like this even though they seem overwhelming, its always so worth it.
