Where are we going this weekend Mom?

As beautiful and lush as northern Alberta is, there is one major drawback, winter.... Its long and depressing and the kind of cold that just gets into your bones and won't go away. It makes us tough and stupid at the same time, running around in light shoes and hoodies when it gets minus 2!!! But the one silver lining above all others is how much the winters make us appreciate our summers - especially the weekends....

I can't think of a single weekend, rain or shine last year that we didn't go off somewhere with the van. It might not have been overly long trips, but they mattered just the same. Garage sales in St Albert were a frequent target. The game was called "deal maker of the day" - whoever made the best deal or got the best bargain was crowned king (or queen) deal maker of the day. Katie usually won, due to her cuteness, people would end up just giving her stuff for free. But Keenan took the crown one sunny day, with a next to new full sized air hockey table for 5 bucks. Now that was a deal, one problem tho' - how the hell do you get an air hockey table AND the kids (I think there might have been a dog in there too) all in the back of the van. Now the roof rack I had scored (see last blog) had not been installed at this point in time... so our options were limited, but after much repositioning and the borrowing of some power tools, we made it work, with the toothy smile of a 8 year old conquistador grinning from ear to ear. Awesome...
Whether it was trips to the city, friends, the lake, even just uptown for ice cream, everyone factored it into their weekend plans. Saturday mornings were greeted with Katie asking "where we goin in the hippie van today mom?" And I almost always had an answer.
This summer will undoubtedly bring more of the same. Subtle spontaneous adventures, never planned, never elaborate and always attracting a ton of attention as we get to our destinations... (I've lost count at how many folks are snapping shots with their camera phones while they pass us on the highway)

See you on the road kids!!!