are you ready for this?

"this" being a relatively small sample of the 1,487 pictures I took on our recent road trip home to Canada?

Don't worry, I'll take it slow. We'll take one day at a time.

Todd has three weeks off each year during residency. He has to take an entire week at a time and they have to be during different rotations (which are three month blocks). Oh, and we have to tell the department in July when we're going to use all three weeks for the coming residency year.

Annoying? Yes.

But, I try to remind myself that most real life jobs don't get three weeks of vacation time, so just deal. Sometimes it works. Then, when I could really use a three day weekend - I feel a bit bitter again.

Moving on... During this last year, it just so happened that neither of our families had any trips/reunions/weddings/significant gatherings planned. So, back in July 09, we took out a calendar and picked three random weeks. Last week was one such blessed time. We made the 11 hour drive over, up and across the border to visit Todd's family in Southern Alberta.


(note: of the three weeks this year, we've spent TWO in Southern Alberta and one here in WA.... I'm feeling the need for a couple of trips to Cali this next year!... just wanted to get this on record. ;)


Anyway, to the fun part... pictures. Here's a look at our first day. A day of driving.

As you can see from the two pictures above, Cannon and Ryder started out bright and early as happy campers. I don't think Ryder got much sleep the night before. He was very giddy about heading north.

Our boys travel extremely well - only stopping when we need gas. Ryder has great bladder control for a little guy. :) And they play happily (for the most part) along the way. It does help that we have a stash of road trip activities that seem new to them every time we break them out.

Don't get me wrong - they do love to bug each other... stealing each other's "lovies" is the biggest of all transgressions. That game got real old, real fast.

The above - the beloved dinosaur felt board. Cannon played with this 90% of the time, I'm sure. And Ryder would yell over at him with all of the correct names as Cannon would call each one either a t-rex or pterodactyl... And whenever the water dinos would make their way up into the sky or the airborne creatures would find themselves swimming, Ryder just had to tell his daddy all about it and how silly Canny was for considering such nonsense. Funny guy.

Ryder's prize possession this trip was the new "dirt track" McQueen. Oh my, we have WAY too many Cars cars. But for the trip, the $3+ was definitely worth it!

And here's Todd - being his cheery self and loving my camera. The poor guy was going on little sleep, after standing in on a 23+ hour surgery the day/night prior.

This was our view after we got through the gorgeous tree-covered mountains near home.

Occasionally we'd see some green.... even the little green we did see was a heck of a lot more than the no-green, dirt brown earth we drove through back in November.

Ahhhhhhh, the border crossing. Ryder always loves this part... showing our "pass-a-ports." It always makes me nervous.

The wildlife across the border can be entertaining. Here we have a few mountain goats with terribly hideous shedding fur coats. But we had some excited little boys in the backseat!

Fernie is where Todd grew up snow skiing with his mom and siblings. Todd's mom has some mad ski-skills, thanks to her upbringing and years on the BYU ski team. We're excited for her to help us teach Ryder next year!

Goodbye, BC. Hello, Alberta.

And welcome to the Crowsnest Pass. Nothing exciting. Just documenting our journey.

A smiley peekaboo boy in the back seat.

But we weren't all smiles. Even as champs of road trips, they get a little worn out by the day's end.

Worn out or life-less or bored out of their minds... take your pick.

Even our first signs of Lethbridge didn't bring any comfort to the restless team.

See what I mean? Look what I'm dealing with here, folks.

But don't worry, I just ignored the groans for a while and snapped away.... the first of MANY grain elevators along our path to Raymond.

Flat farmland. That's pretty much all you see in these parts.

The grain elevators, cows and horses only do so much for an antsy toddler and preschooler. But once we saw this sign....

And passed back a yummy snack, the mood seemed to change a bit.

Anticipation was in the air.

As for me?

I just kept taking pictures.... loving the sunshine I have missed for so very long! And I admit it, I've missed these open fields, too.

See? Flat. Open. Fields.

But I was entertained. Here's a quick shot of me with the outskirts of Ray-town in the background.

And alas, the welcome party... in part.

We had one happy little 20 month old so very excited to see Nana.... and another nearly four year old who wanted nothing to do with my camera or stopping his running legs and giggles long enough to give many hugs.

I like road trips. It was a good day. A really good day.