Pulling into Winnipeg was just what the doctor ordered after a few days on the road. Our first day there, June 19th, was a day to lay low and relax. We made our typical first-day run to the local branch of the Winnipeg Public Library to stock up on reading material and to burn some audio books for the next few legs of the trip. In fact, we ended up scoring this amazing reading of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by actor Jim Dale that was nominated for a Grammy. We never ended up listening to the last disc or so of the set, but I suppose we still have it on hand for the next trip! It really is one of the best audiobooks we've ever heard. Max also fell in love with a basketball hoop set up on an island in the middle of my mom's cul-de-sac. We started out with a soccer ball but eventually upgraded to an actual basketball after a shopping run on the second day. Considering Max had never previously shown any interest for actually playing basketball (that I know of), he certainly spent an awful lot of time out there. I suppose I'm ignoring the day or two he spent running around our driveway with a ball and our recycling bin after seeing the Globetrotters earlier this year!
The most interesting thing that we ran into in Winnipeg that persisted for the rest of the trip was Leo's first bout of homesickness. It seems that over the first few nights of the trip, he had grown quite attached to falling asleep with a parent in bed with him (the typical arrangement in a hotel room was Henry + parent in one bed, either Leo + Max or Leo + parent in the other bed, and Max or parent on a sleeping mat on the floor) When we tried to put Leo to sleep in his own bed (albeit with Max in the same room) in Winnipeg, there was an awful lot of crying. It was the first time that we saw the trip taking any kind of toll on any of the kids. It was a tough pill to swallow, knowing that we were slated to be on the road for at least another 6 weeks.
One of the best things about how we structured the front end of the trip was that weekdays were spent driving and weekends were spent stationary, visiting in various cities. We were definitely able to do it up in Winnipeg over the weekend from the 20th to the 22nd. Things got underway on the Friday with a trip out to Fort Whyte Nature Centre. Unfortunately, even though we were aware it was supposed to be cool and drizzly, we stepped out of the house at 9:30 and decided on the spot to ditch the warmer layers as it was heating up nicely. By the time we got to the Nature Centre 15 minutes later, the rain had started. Boo. While I grumbled and pouted, the kids were generally unfazed. OK, maybe they weren't into the skeeters, but they were definitely up for a day of exploring outside of a van. We wandered through the marsh boardwalks and tried to score some dipnets to fish some cool stuff out of the pond, but we had to settle for doing a bit of birding instead. The big finds were some goldfinches and some other, larger yellow birds (they may have been some sort of warbler). We checked out the prairie dog, taxidermy and aquarium exhibits inside and then enjoyed a delicious lunch at the cafe. Here are some of our pictures from the day out:
I mentioned in the last paragraph one of the good things about the timing of the trip. One of the bad things re: timing was that for the first couple of weeks, we had to keep reminding ourselves that other people had jobs and that summer hadn't truly gotten underway yet. In Winnipeg, this meant that we had to wait until the weekend to hang out with my brother Murray, sister-in-law Kathy and niece Hannah. We were pretty excited, but first, we decided to scare up some treats at the St. Norbert Farmer's Market.
Henry kicked things off by getting dolled up in his Saturday best
Then, we hooked the kids up with all sorts of lemonades and slushes (Holly adds - The apple cider slush was SO good). It was a super hot day!
We checked out the local talent at the performance stage while munching spring rolls. This is not the best picture of the musicians, but there's something about the very little we can see of Max that suggests that he was cooking something up with Leo.
We had an awesome visit at Murray, Kathy and Hannah's place! Hannah and Henry got along really well and I think all of our boys enjoyed getting a little girl time in. Here are some pics from the evening:
Fun with family in the awesome playroom-basement!
A delicious meatball and corn dinner the kids devoured.
Henry and Hannah got their Play-Doh on with a bunch of fun tools.
Uncle Murray demonstrating A Link to the Past on the Super Nintendo. Max and Leo have been very interested in the story of The Legend of Zelda lately, for some reason. Uncle M earned some serious cool points here.
A cooperative family round of "Busytown: Eye Found It!". Grandma tried as hard as possible to keep us from getting to the picnic before Pig Will and Pig Won't ate everything but in the end, we ended up winning anyway. I think the only thing left at the picnic was ketchup or something.
The big outing on our last day in Winnipeg was to go to the Red River Exhibition. It was Family Day, which meant that all kids got in for free. The weather was sunny and hot and the kids were ready for some rides. It didn't take them long to hit pretty much every ride in the kids area. I'm pretty sure that Max and Leo did some jungle-gym-type rides 5-6 times over in quick succession. It was a fantastic day to spend out at the fair! Big thanks to Grandma for treating the boys to all-you-can ride bracelets and tons of treats!
Holly is one of the biggest fans of caramel apples out there! No, she's not topless in this picture.
Leo taking Henry for a spin on the bikes. Henry might be enjoying himself.
The little ones dressing up like pigs at the pork display. Leo and Henry are definitely the other white meat. The highlight of this display for Max was a contest to win a year's supply of bacon. He talked about the bacon contest a lot over the next few months.
Max got to sit in the cockpit of this sweet ride. It was parked, so you couldn't use your day-pass bracelet to take it for a fly-by.
Grandma putting Henry on a military ATV on display. I'm pretty sure he's going on as opposed to coming off as he's smiling, not screaming.
Um, yeah, so it's possible that at the Canadian Forces demo/display, Max and Leo got to hold various firearms and Leo fell in love with a grenade launcher. Or maybe it was all a dream...
Grandma, Leo and an all-natural blue raspberry slushy in the stands for an awesome trampoline show.
Yep, alllll natural.
SELFIE TIME!
Max and Henry love going on the swings. It was cool that they had a version at the Ex that allowed the kids to pair up.
Henry almost made it out of the park without passing out. Almost.
After the awesome trip to the Ex, we returned home for one last dinner and some more Hannah-time. After dinner, the nine of us all headed out to a great local park to burn off the last of the kids' energy. It certainly did the trick as the kids packed it in early enough to allow us to finish packing the van for the long drive ahead. The goal was to get to Drumheller, AB in two days. We had a feeling that the town might be busy so we booked ahead and nabbed a motel for what seemed like a high price. Regardless, we knew we had something to shoot for, it was just a matter of getting there. Before moving on to the second-longest leg of the trip, here are a couple of pictures from our last evening in Winnipeg.
How many Stardoms can you fit inside a child-size tent??
Uncle Murray and Auntie Kathy are both like the Pied Piper when it comes to reading books. All of a sudden, the house gets really quiet and the kids start to listen really well.
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