Calaway or Bust...Part Troix

We are all back home now, safe and sound, and getting back on track after all the unpacking and laundry. Trying to eat healthy while on the road was a bit challenging, and we packed the electric cooler full of things like fruit, yogurt, and Mike's beef jerky he made before we left. We always take those little boxes of cereal and paper bowls on trips like these so the kids can have cereal or a muffin for breakfast in our hotel room, saving money for us on one meal for the day. Needless to say the van was packed full of our back to school supplies and clothes (oh, lord, the clothes! new wardrobes all around!), the electric cooler and the dry goods cooler, the stroller, luggage, and extra paraphernalia that a family of 5 needs to have to survive a week together.

The trip rounded out with a visit to Calaway Park, and it was a beautiful day for riding the rides. Charlie had been quite miserable the entire trip, with sleeping in the hotels being a bust for her and a weird, unexplainable rash she picked up the day we left home. So I was at my wit's end with her since she wanted up the entire time and wouldn't leave my side. She could only ride on about 4 rides, so if we ever go back it will be when she's old enough to really enjoy it all...and so will Mike and I when we can watch the kids have fun rather than have to join in ourselves!
Of course my camera battery crapped out at the beginning of Calaway, so we had to rely on Mike's, Brad's, and my Blackberry's for the pics...not so good but oh well!
The kids rode all day, finally tiring out after Mike and Brad took Brandon on the roller coaster...dragged him to the roller coaster I should say. He was freaked out, but glad at the end of the day that he went on it. It was all he could talk about.
One thing mentionable about Calaway was the absolute absence of adult managerial supervision. Not once did we see anyone over the age of 20 operating any kind of ride, game, or just walking around supervising the park. So odd, but we felt like the place ran very smoothly regardless of the presence of adults. The nice thing I liked was the lack of  "carnies" around to operate the rides; you know, the ones that leer at the teenaged girls in their tank tops and short shorts.
We went back to our hotel in Airdrie that night, and the kids swam with Mike in the pool before bed. We packed up so we were ready to go the next morning, and after breakfast headed to Edmonton for a few more stops before going home.

One of the stops we made was to Chuck E. Cheese's for the kids to have one last hurrah. They had alot of fun playing around, and Charlie liked it more than anything the whole weekend. Even though it was noisy there, I'd definitely go again. They had a neat system at the door where you got stamped with a number assigned to your family that could only be read under ultraviolet light, making kidnapping almost impossible as no one could leave without being "scanned" first. A good thing to have with 'x' number of kids running around and I didn't worry as much about Charlie wandering away from my side. It was the most relaxed I had been after being in huge crowds all weekend long.

Now that that's all over we have a wedding next weekend to go to in Biggar, and some visiting to do at the lake before summer is over. Some of the flowers in the yard have had it so I'll get rid of them as well, and clean up the front a bit, when it's not so hot that is!