July 31- Lunch with Cousins and West Edmonton Mall

Today was a hard day for us. We finished loading up the van today and said good bye to Paul's parents at 830am. Hugs were given and some tears were shed (well Kerri almost did, but she held them in!) Jasper grumbled at us like he knew we were going. I think he enjoys the extra 8 hands to pet and play with him. Mary sent us this picture of poor Jasper at the front door waiting for us to return.

The highway was clear, and the weather was beautiful for driving. Along the way, we saw a tanker truck with a picture of a young boy on it. At first we thought it was a missing child, but as we got closer, we saw it was one of the new Report Impaired Drivers ads from MADD. We hope it helps. 

Our first stop was Drayton Valley where we had lunch with Kerri's cousins Jason, Cinthia, Aiden and Kendra. We only had a moment with Jason as he had to get to work, and we were behind schedule because of construction, but it was nice to see him for the short time. Lunch was at Kahl's and it was really good food and a great visit. About 130 we left and headed to the big city: Etown- otherwise known as Edmonton.

The drive was just over an hour and it was real easy to find the hotel....especially since it was in the biggest mall in Canada (if it still is). We decided to stay at the Fantasyland hotel while in Edmonton. How nice to park the van and we could do so much without driving anywhere.

Cassel and Hannah decided to go to the water park and spent a good 2 hours fighting with the tsunami waves and sliding down the huge watersides. While they were splashing away, Paul and Kerri wandered through a few stores. We were able to shop for birthday presents while the kids were away. That is always so much fun!

At 6pm, Kerri and Paul got the kids from the park and then we all went to find something to eat. Luckily, almost everything we wanted to do or store we went to was in the area around the hotel. 

After dinner, we wandered around and looked at some stores. We found a pet store with the cutest Panda Pups- never heard of that breed before, but they are cute! And expensive!

One store called The Supply Sergeant we spent about half an hour in while Cassel, Hannah and Paul all checked out the army supplies, weapons and LARP supplies. LARP is Live Action Role Play and this entails costumes and weapons for whatever game or character the person is.

(The Supply Sergeant's window display)

We decided to go watch the movie Grown Ups 2 at the Cineplex. That movie was very funny, and just after 1030, we made it back to the room. Everyone is happy to just relax now and play on their iPADs, laptops and iPods to relax and take a load off.

This dragon is at the theatre!