Bonjour!

Wow!  What a summer!  Major holiday photo overshare coming up but it was just so good.

Starting with the flight!  Flying with Bastien was always just so terrible (see here, here, here and this somewhat terrible holiday here).  But give this kid unlimited tv, unlimited goldfish and I think he’s the happiest person on the plane.  You know, with Bastien I always wondered if he was really that difficult or if it was just me, but no… he was really that difficult.  In comparison, Alex is a breeze.

I really wanted to turn this trip into an adventure since it’s essentially the same trip we do every year.  This meant making everything special including stopping on the road when we saw buffalo or visiting this giant ox and cart in Paradise Hill.

We made ice cream and home made orange julius, went swimming and my little collector Alex continually gathered up these little rocks and dumped them out.  Over and over and over.

We went on boating adventures to different beaches, went off-roading in a  golf cart, played golf (my dad claims Bastien played 5 holes!?!?) and went fishing.  Some of us had hooks and some of us may have just had cute little alligators.

We went on swampy bug-laden nature trails, let Bastien steer the boat (his specialty is a donut at high speed), found beaver damns and climbed sandy hills.

We then headed to Edmonton where we’ve always only gone to the airport.  This time I wanted to explore a little so we headed to Fort Edmonton where the boys loved the train and tram.

Then we headed to West Edmonton Mall.  I hadn’t visited in probably over 15 years, and frankly the mall scene there kind of overwhelms me (it IS HUGE) but the kids LOVED it all.  Bastien definitely got more out of it than Alex who was still too small for most of the rides and watersides but it was still fun.

And of course we got to meet up with our British cousins.

And then we were off again!

Phew!  Until next year!