Waskesiu Lake

We did not spend Canada day in Saskatoon this year either, I guess I will never know what they do here for Canada day!

On Sunday morning we got up at 9am and started looking at what we would like to do for th day online. We read on the Saskatoon website that there is a thing going on at one of the parks and that you can take the bus there, and of course zozo really, really wanted to go on the bus. KIDS it is so hard to figure them out! It was a very hot day, so after a little while we decided to head to a place called Waskesiu Lake in Prince Albert national park; I am so glad I do not live there, because I cannot pronounce that! It is a 3hrs drive from here. By 11:30 am I had the house tidied up, the kids dressed, a hotel room reserved, all dressed, packed and ready to go. We got the only room left in the whole town. We bought some snacks for our car drive and for the beach at the grocery store while hubby got us breakfast from Tim Horton’s. I asked him to get me ice coffee! It sucked. But I had to pretend to like it, because hubby told me it would suck but I did not believe him!

We got there at about 3am, and were very disappointed with our hotel room! It was horrible! NO CABLE! And the window covering was a horizontal blind! It was clean though, so I guess it is what matters. I guess they have nicer rooms, but since we got the last room we had to settle for very basic. They did have a nice continantal breakfast, and a nice patio to have breakfast on. and the staff were mostly friendly, so it was not all bad.

The town was cute, and the beach was great, there were lot of people! I didn’t get to actually swim. The water was freezing cold! Well it was ok when you got used to it. But still we only stayed in knee deep. It was fun looking for fish, but they are so fast we could not get any in our net. We built few sand castles and mountains then squished them. Passed a football around, boy do I need to practice! After dinner we went back to the beach and played at the playground for a while. Watched the fire works and went to bed.

On Monday morning, we checked out of the hotel, went to the beach and stayed for few hours. We met few people, the kids played and we chitchatted with the adults. We played more on the sand and in the water, still didn’t swim because the water was even colder than the previous day, but it was fun still. Then at 2:00 we had lunch and came back home. We are all tanned now, finally! It is already July and we were all pale!

It was a fun weekend, I am so glad we didn’t stay home. We were bored out of our minds on Saturday morning. This is why on Sunday we decided to get away. We are very lazy when we stay at home, it takes us forever actually get out, but at the hotel we were all dressed and ready to go out by 9:30.
We did not get to eat a red and white cake though….and I really wanted to order a cheesecake after dinner. It looked sooo good! But hubby guilted me out of it! Annoying Rami, I still want that cheesecake! If I do good and make it to gym everyday from today until Saturday I am so having a cheesecake on Sunday! I will not share with Rami; he cannot even have one stinking bite!

Our vacation pictures

medicine lake in Jasper. It is very cool, because it drains in some seasons and is full in others..

the mud slide that kept us waiting for three hours, aparently we were lucky..they eventually had to close the road and it would have taken us alot longer to get from banff to kelwna

Leaving the prairies of Saskatchewan

stuck in traffic for three hours due to a mud slide

At sunpeak Resort in B.C.

Leaving Banff

Riding horses in Kelowna, the horse were so cute!

The kids and the donkey at theVancouver zoo

A deer we came across in Jasper

The mountains in Jasper

Bolbol looking for interesting rocks by a lake in Jasper

Finally back home

I cannot say I missed my dingy apartment, but it nice to be back “home” I guess. Our trip was great. The kids were better than great. They behaved so good considering they were stuck in their car seats for so long. We drove for a total of 4500km in those 11 days.

It was good being together as a family, without a computer, work, and phone calls in between us. We did have friends with us for the first 3 days of our trip. Which was even more fun. But they had to go back to Calgary when we drove to Vancouver.

We spent two days in Kelowna. I would not mind living there. It the warmest place in Canada, and it is beautiful. With a huge lake and surrounded by mountains. Why could hubby not have gotten a job there instead of Saskatoon?
We went sailing, horseback riding and shopping there. I was surprised when my son rode a horse all alone and was not scared. I guess it is time for some horse riding lessons eh?

Vancouver was ok; I am not too crazy about the dark skies and rain. So I am not in a rush to move there, although hubby’s friend is badgering him to go work with him there. Thanks, but no thanks! We went to the zoo there. The zoo is not big; I am staring to think that the Toronto zoo is the biggest in Canada. It was fun; the kids are so into animals these days. We went to aquarium and took the ferry to Vancouver Island. Where there was a tiny mall beside a casino. I went shopping while hubby went into the casino. He actually won $2500! Which he is feeling guilty about, when the heck did hubby become so religious? And I know you are thinking I probably spent a lot in the mall, but not even one penny was spent there. The mall was so tiny there were no stores that appealed to me, not even the bookstore!

Of course Banff and Jasper were as amazing as ever! We saw two dead bears on the side of the road :o(poor little guys! And we got to see two bears walking around eating whatever off the ground. We also saw two deer fighting, MEN! No matter what species they are, they will never grow up!

We stayed at six different hotels. They were all nice. After our last mini vacation in Edmonton and that horrible hotel we stayed at, I had to be careful. In Edmonton we stayed at the Hilton, it is only 2 blocks away from the horrible hotel we stayed at last month, and only $40 more. But man what a difference!

Speaking of hotels, what they hell is deal with the stupid sheet tuck in. has anyone watched the Seinfeld episode when George is complaining about those tucked in sheets and asking the maid for one tuck in and one no tuck. He is right; those damned tucked in sheets are sooooo freakin’ annoying! I know, I know you can untuck them before going to bed. Sometimes you forget, and you are in bed all sleepy and you have to get up and untuck them, or be annoyed all night long trying to move the blanket around. Sheet tucking should be banned!

O and I got to finish three books on our drive. From Banff to kelowna we got stuck in traffic for three hours due to a mud slide. We were lucky it was only three hours; I heard it was worse the day after. I was so glad to have my books to read then, I would have gone crazy just sitting there. At the end my friend and I decided to walk down you know for exercise, but the minute we started walking the traffic moved.

Speaking of exercise, I planned on working out at the gyms at the hotel. I am so not a morning person, I got up early twice to workout and I barely had any energy to finish the 30min of cardio, so I gave up. We ate so much junk food; I am not going to eat out for at least a month to clean my system out of that junk. So needless to say, I am as fat as I was before I left, if not few pounds more. But as of today I am officially on weight loss mode and have to need to, and I will inshallah lose those goddamned 10lb before I leave to Toronto and maybe Jordan in mid July.

O o o..one more thing! I got home at 7:30 last night and I actually unpacked right away!! Not the next day, not a week later, or a month later like I used to do. I unpacked on the same day and I even did two loads of laundry. I am so proud of me! When I came from Jordan last summer, my bags sat on the floor for at least one month!

Ok I done now , for real, wallah!! I hope I did not bore you guys:) What? Me boring?? No way eh?

Phew! all done!

I am so glad I am not a travel agent. That is no easy job!!

I just finished booking our hotels for our upcoming trip to Vancouver. It took me forever! I have never planned a trip with multi stops. We usually go to one place stay there for few days and come back.

After our last hotel stay in Edmonton, did I talk about how horrible the hotel was in my last post?? Well it was bad, horrible, nightmarish, ok maybe not this bad but bad enough to make me paranoid. So I had to be more careful. I wanted something that was at least three stars and I wanted it in nice areas.

So there it is all done now we will be driving from Saskatoon to Banff, staying there for one night. That is a 9.5hrs drive! We leave Banff and drive to Kelowna, we stay for 2 night there. That is a 7hr drive. From Kelowna we drive to Vancouver. We stay for 3 nights in Vancouver. We leave Vancouver to a resort near Kamloops. We stay there for two nights. Then we drive to jasper, stay there for one night and then come home to Saskatoon. Total drive is 37hrs. We will need a vacation after our vacation.

Three of the hotels have an exercise room, none of the hotels in Jasper or Banff have one but we are only staying there for one night so it is ok. I have this plan to get up very early, at 6:30 and go workout before we start the day. This way I can shower and get dressed early too so I do not get hubby whining about how long I take to get ready. MEN! Do you think I can do it?? I am not a morning person! But I will try; all for the sake for losing some fat and gaining some muscle, so all my cute summer outfits will fit good again. Which will be worth it, sa7? I can do it, no more lazy Sam! Just think of the burst of energy I will get waking up so early and working out!

Our friends may join us from Calgary, but I am not sure yet. It will be fun going togther.

Now I have to call our travel agent to book tickets to amman. yikes!

Our Trip to Vancouver

Our Trip to Vancouver is fast approaching. Hubby is taking 10 days or so off. We plan on leaving on Saturday morning. Hubby won, we are renting a van for our trip. I would have liked to rent an SUV, but we were as cramped in that as we were in the car, and for such a long trip you do not want to be cramped.

The first eight hours of our trip will be pretty boring, driving in the prairies of Saskatchewan and Alberta *yaaaaaaawn*. We will drive from Saskatoon to Banff; a 9.5hr drive. Did you know that King Hussein had a home in Banff?

From there I still do not know where we will go. I need to book hotels. We will probably stop at radium hot spring for few hours. It is so refreshing. I cannot wait! I think we will stop at Kelowna, and few other places. The drive from Banff to Vancouver is not that long, but because we want to drive around the mountains it will be slow.

I have never been to Vancouver, it is on the ocean and I love the ocean. Maybe we’ll go to the island and to the beach.

The one cool thing is I will have ten computer less days! I’ll miss my blog! And my baby center friends. How will I live without my computer? If I want to order pizza, I usually come online to find the number and the info.

The only thing is that we are scared of is running into bears!! Man those things look so cute and cuddly, but they are huge! Did you know that a 20million year or so ago bears were the size of dogs? In the information booklet you get when entering Banff, they have information on what to do if you run into a bear. Are they kidding me? Do not move while a huge 1000lb bear is charging at me at few km/hr? Gosh I’d probably pass out if a bear charges at me! Well let’s hope that we do not run into any bears or cougars. Nice wild life is ok and the kids will love it.

O and their goes my weight loss efforts! No gym, and eating out for 10 days! I guess I will have to find a way to workout everyday before going to bed. Pilates, some weight training or hopefully the hotels will have exercise rooms! Where there is a will, there is a way :o)