"Hey, it's good to be back home again . . . "

Since I've been a map geek for as long as I can remember, I couldn't resist making my own of our journey west and back - you can view it here.   I'm also a 70s and folk music geek,  so I couldn't help but sing John Denver's, "Take me Home Country Roads" throughout our journey.  Now that I've returned, his "Back Home Again" is the new theme, much to A's annoyance.  No, we don't live on a farm - far from it, here amidst city sirens and big trucks that shake our house when they drive by.  But, it still feels good to be back in our own space.

After 33 days away, we pulled up to our house last Thursday, late afternoon.  I loved Ai's reaction as he excitedly walked into the kitchen, yanked off his shoes, looked around and loudly said, "Hey! This house is REALLY nice!  And it's OURS!"  And then the three took off exploring and were back to being delightful children again.  Not fully, but certainly in the following days,  I remembered that parenting isn't quite so hard as it felt in the past days and weeks!  My kids had been operating on overtired-mode for a long, long time and a controlled environment for bed and naps has done us all a lot of good.

Overall, we had a good time away.  I'll be posting more photos some time in the next week of our stay in Vancouver.  But as for the van ride home, the actual driving went really very well considering that while I was driving, S was thousands of miles away heading down to Mississippi.  The bus they chartered ended up having big problems - overheating when they did more than 70 km/h or 50 km/h on hills.  They had to turn off the air conditioner to help the engine, so you can imagine how unpleasant that was - all before the alternator went and left them stranded at a truck stop . . .  Poor them, but poor tired S (who returned home Sunday at 4:00 a.m. and then this week drove to Riverton one day and then drove to Steinbach Thursday morning to catch a small flight to Pauingassi for two days!).

A number of friends have commented that they wouldn't drive alone (with or without the kids) half the distance I did.  My 94 year old Grandma commented that she could never do that.  I laughingly reminded her that after World War II, with three children three and under, she had returned alone on the train from Quebec to her parents' farm in Saskatchewan - all while the children had whooping cough!  "Did I do that?," she asked in amazement.  Yes, you did.  "Well isn't that something . . . "  So in comparison to Steve and Grandma, my trip was super easy and I just so happen to really like driving.  Aside from the kids not sleeping when they travel, they really do very well on road trips.  They play together in their seats or alone most of the day and I often don't even resort to putting in a DVD.  It's the end of the day when we bust out of the van that is tortuous.  I knew I'd reached my limit in Swift Current when to try and keep control of my temper,  I coined a new word and played with its definition:

Motelicide:  the act of doing away with one's own children, usually as a result of the insane or chaotic behaviour they display upon arrival at a motel along with their subsequent inability to go to sleep regardless of how tired they are.  

Something like that, anyway.  In our case, the definition would have to extend beyond motel rooms to any place that isn't their own beds.  And of course I toyed with how I was feeling motelicidal, etc.   Very dark humour - pretty bad, I know.  No prize for me in any "super mom" competition.  But it really did help distract me so I didn't show my irritation (I think?).  After many nights of the kids sharing a room together, giggling in the dark, pulling each other's covers and whispering potty-related words in the darkened room, I was just done.  But that really was the worst of it.

The kids had a fantastic time visiting S's parents at their motel on Lake Osoyoos.  It was nice to catch-up with S's aunts, cousins and their kids, all of whom stay at the same motel.  

We stayed 3 nights with them before we continued east on the Crowsnest Highway.  Omi and Opa kindly gave the kids $5 to buy something along the road, making my 6+ hours consist of 5 minute intervals where Iz asked, "Can we buy our tweat now?"  What a relief to pull into Cranbrook before the last stores closed so we could move on from that!  Aside from having to give Ai a time-out on the hallway floor for an hour so his sisters could fall asleep without him jumping on their mattresses (!), I had a really nice time that night visiting friends who used to live in Granisle:   Becky, Matt and their very cute son.

Iz made herself right at home!  :)

Tuesday was a long day through the mountains and the prairies - but oh, it was beautiful. We made lots of stops as we had to see "The World's Biggest (off-road) Truck," the Frank Slide and lovely Henderson Lake Park in my old stomping ground of Lethbridge.  As an aside, since stopping at both the Hope and Frank slides en route, Ai's now fascinated by landslides, frequently requesting to watch them on YouTube.  That just feels a bit strange.  Anyway, as you can see from the photos, I don't worry about hair care when we're travelling . . .

With 8 hours of road to cover that day to get to Swift Current, Saskatchewan, it made for a long one especially as we hit enough road construction to add another hour to the total.  I was happy for diversions like giant wind mills to keep the kids interested and counting.  It was amazing how they went on for miles and miles, as far as one could see . . .

It's no surprise I was short of patience after we checked into the Safari Motel, aptly in the Gorilla Room.  Thankfully, we had plans to stay at my Uncle Will and Aunt Cheryl's the next night in Redvers, 15 kilometres from the Manitoba border.  Otherwise I would have opted to keep driving the next day and do the 11 hour drive to get home - would have been brutal.  As was, the roads through that part are the basis for all those Prairie jokes, where one can see for miles and miles with nothing new on the horizon.  But the donkey pumps that now (sadly) pop up through southern Saskatchewan made for some more fun counting in the van, with A petering out at 267.   I also busted out the secret weapon, our new "I Spy" travel card game.  Seeing that there really was hardly anything to see, it stretched the game on for hours - something I originally thought was bad timing on my part.  In fact, it kept Ai and A busy looking at oncoming traffic until we pulled up to our house in Winnipeg and finally spotted the elusive 'cat' across the street on their porch.  Hooray!   I'd never analyzed road kill so much in an attempt to help them finish their game . . .

Anyway, we arrived at Will & Cheryl's by dinner and had a wonderful Wednesday night/Thursday morning with them, aided by the addition of cousin Autumn and her three.  I'm glad I didn't miss out on the chance to see them.  My kids had a blast and since they stayed up till 10:30, once bedtime came around, they were out when I brushed my hands gently across their foreheads.  Gotta like that.

Having a good time with them helped us all return home tired, but happy.  I definitely am glad to be back, thankful that though we've only been in Winnipeg a relatively short time, I can describe it as "home" with some integrity.  I'm so thankful for the time spent with family and a handful of friends, for the beautiful places I was able to show the kids and for the other wonderful experiences they had.  But I'm also thankful that upon our return, we've had new friends happy to have us back, brightening our days with play dates or visits.  Anyone who's moved away from home knows what a gift that is.  We've also had eight full days here and in that time, we've been to eight different parks with all but one within walking or biking distance, and five of which had wading pools and/or splash pads.  I overheard A say to a friend that "We're back home, but its been so fun it still feels like we're on holiday."  That's a good feeling.  It's nice to remember that while Winnipeg could never trump Vancouver in terms of natural beauty (anymore than new friends can trump old ones), it's still a pretty decent place to be.   It certainly beats living in Cereal, Alberta or Foam Lake, Saskatcheman, whose names alone would be a downer.  And incidentally,  I was bit far more by mosquitoes in my sister's back yard then I've yet been bitten here.   It's been a good year that way, lucky me.