On Our Way Home

After a busy morning of tours of a rehab center, visits to Grandpa and getting all our stuff packed, we headed to the airport.  Once we got through security and to our gate, we settled down for a bit of a wait... unfortunately, it turned into a way longer wait than we'd planned!  Our flights ended up being delayed all the way home.  We had to get creative to keep the kids happy and not frustrated... thank goodness for the play place in Minneapolis that the kids were able to play on and get some of their energy out!

This is just one of the delays that popped up on my phone... 

 We were grateful for their tablets and pre-loaded movies too!

I tried to get a nice picture together with Emma... but about 10 pictures later all I had were silly faces and crossed eyes!  ha! ha!  What a silly girl.

We were all SO tired by the time we made it to Calgary.  There were huge lines getting through customs.  We were glad our luggage came out fairly quickly though.

We'd considered just getting a hotel in Calgary for the night, but Lennard and I were both feeling okay, so we just decided to load up and get home.  Super long day, but we're so glad we were able to go and see Grandpa.  So worth it!

Getting Creative

The kids were thrilled when Aunt Alicia pulled out the big legos for them to play with.  They got pretty creative!

By the afternoon, they had some chill time and watched a few shows on their tablets.  With so many meetings and touring different centers, etc. Lennard has been kept busy with Alicia doing stuff for Dad.

 Emma and Rigel did a bunch more drawing.

Then, for a treat tonight, we all went out to eat at HuHot.  It was delicious.  We wish Grandpa could have come with us though!

Time at Aunt Alicia's

Omaha ended up with a huge snowstorm over night so we weren't able to get out and go to church.  It took most of the morning to shovel off the driveway, although Lennard managed to get their snowblower running, so that sped things up a bit!

The kids found all kinds of ways to entertain themselves... this foot massager was a popular choice!

 Lots more discussions about Dad's health, but Lennard made time to play with Scamp too!

Rigel was great and helped Emma with some drawing tips.  She loves anything creative, so this was great!

We spent time at the hospital with Grandpa too... just didn't take any pictures!  Lots of doctors and lots of decisions.

Getting to See Grandpa

Lennard was up bright and early with Alicia to go visit their dad.  Emma was up early, but Ben and I managed to sleep in a bit.  We got ready for the day, had some breakfast and then watched a movie for a bit.  The kids sure loved getting to hang out with Aunt Alicia!

 Scamp was pretty high on their list of favorites too. 

We were able to take the kids and go visit Grandpa up at the hospital for a bit.  It was a bit tricky keeping the kids from being 'bored', but it was good for them to get to see their grandpa.  I think it was even better for Grandpa to see his grandkids!

Ben loved getting to play with Scamp.  We had a pretty relaxed afternoon, visiting and making phone calls and getting some things figured out for Lennard's dad.  It's been good being with family.

Impromptu Trip

The kids have been off school all week for Family Day and then Teacher's Convention, etc.  They have had fun with play dates, etc.  Lennard was in Red Deer overnight for some meetings Tue/Wed and then had a Flying Club thing in Lethbridge Thursday night.  Just a normal week for us... until today! 

Lennard went off to work and I was having a super lazy morning.  I hadn't got out of my pajamas yet when I got a phone call from Lennard saying that he thought that we needed to go to Omaha to see his Dad.  We've been really worried about him all week as he was admitted to the hospital last weekend.  Alicia has been calling with updates and it's been on Lennard's mind a lot.  It's hard living so far away and not being able to just go whenever.  Well, it finally got to the point where he felt we needed to fly down there.  He looked up flights and told me that I had half an hour to pack for everyone so that we could get to Calgary and catch the flight!  To say that it changed my lazy morning would be an understatement!

I raced through a shower and got dressed while Lennard got all the suitcases out from the garage.  Then, I instructed the kids what they needed to bring me from their rooms so we could pack!  It got a little hectic!  The kids were SO excited that they finally got to go see Grandpa!  They'd been asking all week if we could go.  They were also thrilled to get to use their suitcases again and ride on a big airplane.

As we were pulling away from the house, I was making phone calls.  My parents - so they could watch Buddy; the Elementary school - so I could cancel work that I was scheduled for on Monday; Mindy - to let her know we wouldn't get to Lethbridge today to sign the guardianship papers for Tyler; Primary teacher - as I was supposed to sub on Sunday, etc.  Thank goodness for cell phones!

We got to Calgary, found parking and got checked in without any issues.  They had us sitting all over the plane, but once we got to the gate, I was able to get the seat assignments changed, while Lennard went and grabbed something for us to eat.  He'd barely got back when it was our turn to board!  Whew!  What a morning!

 The kids loved the moving sidewalks.

 We had some dinner in Minneapolis at Panda Express.  Yummy!

 The kids were so tired, but just wouldn't give up.  We tried multiple ways to try to make them comfortable, but it never happened.

 We finally put a movie on the iPad for them.  (I forgot to pack headphones...)

Unfortunately, our flights out of Minneapolis were delayed and instead of getting to Omaha at about 10:00ish, we were WAY later.  (We didn't get in until after 2am)

 Lennard might be smiling here, but it was a long wait to try to keep kids happy.

We were so grateful for Don & Alicia coming to get us at the airport.  They arrived just as we got to the luggage carousel and within 10 minutes we had our bag and were on our way.

Wedding Anniversary

Back in December, my mom and dad told us that the only thing they could wish for for their 45th wedding anniversary would be to have every single one of their children with their spouses to be in the temple together.  It so happened that their anniversary fell on a Saturday, so we all found babysitters and ALL made it to the temple!  It's the first time we've all been there together.  The last time was before Roger was married, so Trisha wasn't there.  To make it even more of a special day, my oldest nephew, Brendan, surprised us all and was there to receive his own endowments today too. I'd been told that there was a possibility that he might be there, but a number of the rest of the group were totally surprised to see him sitting in the chapel beside Matt & Shauna!  He's made some pretty huge changes in his life and it was great to get to see him take the next step in following the Covenant Path.

 It was SO cold outside that we had Nysha snap a few photos of us... all bundled up! 

 

The 'Original' Murray Family

 Happy 45th Wedding Anniversary, Mom & Dad!  We sure love you!

After the temple, we all headed down to Ming's for some dinner.  We took over the one side of the restaurant! Dad loved his fortune that he got.  He thought it was pretty appropriate for today.  

Get Air

The kids have been asking to go to Get Air in Lethbridge for months and months.  It's fairly expensive, so we've always said it had to wait.  Today, we had a bunch of stuff we had to do in Lethbridge, so after the kids were done Champs, we headed in.  We picked up Emma's replacement glasses from Costco and Lennard got some reading glasses as well.  Then, we surprised the kids and took them to Get Air!  

They were SO excited!  We paid for us to jump with them too and we quickly discovered how out of shape we both are!  It was a lot of fun though!  We didn't get many pictures as we couldn't have anything in our pockets, but we did get some video (and then put the phone away).  We were there for an hour and we were all tired by the end... although the kids wanted to stay longer!  We'll definitely have to come back.  

We got lots of video of Emma... but no pictures!  oops!

One Month Down

Well, January is finally done... not that it's been horrible... but it hasn't been wonderful either.  There has been way too much sickness this past month and I'm hopeful that now that we're all healthy - we can stay that way!  

We had all our regular activities this week with piano and dance, but the kids had a PD day on Wednesday.  Emma had her Jr. Choir party at the school.  They are done choir for the year (which I'm not overly happy about).  This was their big party with bouncy houses and lunch, etc.  

I managed to get to the temple with Shauna on Thursday morning and then I got to go to my Book Club that night.  We read, "Mrs. Mike".  It was a good book - all set in Alberta.

The kids went to Lego League/Crafty Critters on Friday after school for an hour and then we pulled them out to go to the RV show in Lethbridge.  We were quite disappointed with the show this year.  It was extremely small and not a lot of selection.  We did get a few ideas for some upgrades/modifications we'd like to make to our trailer though.  Small things, like a USB charging station and a different towel rack.

The kids had Champs on Saturday and Lennard worked on his plane most of the day.

Today we had my parents over for dinner and then I got a Sunday afternoon nap!  That hasn't happened in a long time and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  When I woke up, Buddy was sound asleep on my legs!  Lennard and Ben went over to Holland's house to watch the Super Bowl with a bunch of guys.  Ben was the only kid there and he thought it was pretty awesome!