Thursday Things I Love - Alberta Trip Recap

Hellooo! I'm back! The family and I got back on Sunday night after a 3-week visit back home, to Alberta.

Well, baby J and I had a 3-week visit. Peanut had a month-long visit as she drove out a week earlier with Granny and Grandpa, and Hubby only had a one-week visit, because he can't take any more time off than that.

And 3 weeks was long enough. It was exhausting! As the parents out there know, it's always tiring traveling with little ones.

It's even harder when you're trying to fit everyone in, often scheduled to do 2 or even 3 different things in a day - every day!

But alas, such is life when you live far away from friends and family. And it was definitely worth it because we loved visiting and had a great time!

Here are some of the things I loved:

Girls night out in Calgary: I got together with some great friends, who were both bridesmaids at my wedding. It was great to go out kid-free, almost like the old days (with less alcohol and a much earlier night!).

We shared some amazing sushi at Sushi Bar Zipang and went for drinks at a trendy bar/barbershop nearby.  I loved my English Milk Punch!

Halloween! Peanut has been waiting for Halloween for months! Lucky for me, she still fit into the beautiful princess dress Grandma made for her last year.

She got to wear it twice. Once to a daytime event in Downtown Edmonton, then again trick or treating. I got to dress up as a skunk, and lucky for us, it was warm enough not to need a snowsuit for the second year in a row.

First snowfall. Though it was minimal and didn't stick around for long, it was enough to be playing outside for over half an hour.

West Edmonton Mall: specifically, Galaxyland, the mall's indoor amusement park. Peanut was actually tall enough to go on a few rides this time, but what she liked best was their enormous kids' play area.

Think McDonald's playground, but 5 times bigger. The place was 4 stories tall, with some slides that were 3 stories! Tons of fun for us parents too! I didn't even sneak out to go shopping like I originally planned (besides, stuff in Canada is super expensive!)

First hockey game! My sister-in-law scored us box seats for 16 friends to a hockey game for Hubby's birthday. It was Peanut's first hockey game, and she loved it!

Our friends brought their daughter who is almost the same age, and the two had a great time together, watching the Zamboni, running around, and eating popcorn and cake. Oh yeah, and watching the Oil Kings play too.

All of our favorite foods: we really miss the food in Alberta, so we visited some of our old favorite restaurants, and tried some new ones.

And one of the highlights was the delicious Alberta beef we had at a friend's house that was prepared perfectly. The beef in Wisconsin is just not worth eating (luckily the cheese makes up for it!)

• Golden Bird for Vietnamese. I've never had better spring rolls (aka egg rolls to those South of the border)
• Tasty Noodle for Dim Sum and Chinese. I had never been here before, but I actually ate there 3 times in the 2 weeks I spent in Edmonton.
• Dream Tea House for bubble tea
• Costco food court for poutine.
• Famoso for fire roasted pizza. 

Visiting with family and friends. Obviously, this was the whole purpose of the trip (that and getting our work status for the US renewed, which was successful by the way!).

We got to attend my father-in-law's retirement party, ate many dinners lovingly prepared by our loved ones, and got to spend lots of time with friends and family.

I wish it could happen more often, but I'm also glad to be home to get a chance to do some relaxing and cooking!