This past weekend my family (mom, dad, reno, p.j, emma, and jordan) and I made a quick trip up to the great white north for my cousin Kaselle's wedding.
The Beautiful Cardston, Alberta Temple :)
On Thursday October 14th Jordan and I met the rest of the family in Brigham City at midnight to start on our little adventure. We drove all night switching drivers as they got tired. We only stopped for gas, and driver changes which made for a very long night with very little sleep.
When Friday rolled around we made a pit stop in Cutbank, Montana. We checked out a local western store, had some breakfast at McDonalds, and took a few pictures next to the big penguin. After that little break we headed on through to Canada, crossing at the Del Bonita Border. We got through the border ok, except for the fact that Jordan had forgotten to sign his passport! But, luckily the Border Patrol was very understanding, and let him sign it really quick in the car before we entered Alberta. From the border we traveled about 30 km until we arrived at our final destination, the Stewart family farm. We arrived there at about 11:30am, had some lunch, and took a nap! When we woke up from our nap we all took a ride on one of my grandpas big tractors. We took a tour of the farm, and my dad even let me drive it! After that we got all ready and headed into town for some world class shopping, well kind of. We went to Atkins (where we saw the cutest little hutterite dolls), the bargain shoppe, and extra foods. Jordan had so much fun learning all about Canada, and the Canadian way of doing things. One of the funniest things was watching him try to figure out how to get a cart at Extra Foods, because you have to insert a looney, and a key in order to get it to work. He thought that was pretty strange. Then we packed up all of our Old Dutch Chips, Nanaimo Bars, and Big Turks and headed back to my Grandparent's house. We had some yummy chili for dinner, watched a movie, and headed straight for bed, we were all pretty exhausted!
On Saturday we woke up around 9:00am and had bacon and eggs for breakfast. We then showered and got all ready for Kaselle and Rod's wedding. The Ceremony started at 1:00pm and was held at the West Stake Center in Cardston, Alberta. We were a little late getting there, but everything worked out anyways. When I first saw Kaselle walking down the aisle with her dad I felt so emotional, and almost started to cry. She looked so beautiful, and very happy. I am so happy for her and Rod, and I know they will have a great life together.
When the wedding ceremony was over Reno, P.J., Emma, my dad, Jordan and I all headed over to the Remington Carriage Centre to take a tour of the 2nd Largest Carriage Museum in the world. My dad took us all on the tour, and told us about all of the different carriages, how much they cost, and what they were used for back in the day. My dad is probably the best tour guide because he used to work there, and knows all of the ins and outs about each carriage, and each horse that is used. We had a lot of fun, and learned a lot of interesting facts.
My dad is the one on the Left with the yellow/tan Jacket on :)
After our tour of the Remington Carriage Museum we went to Reddi Mart for some great Canadian Slurpees, and candy bars. Then, we went back to the church for the dinner. They served roast beef, mashed potatoes, creamed vegetables, and green salad, and strawberry shortcake for dessert. It was all very delicious! After that they showed a slide show presentation of Kaselle, and Rod as babies which was really cute. Then Faith, McKenna, Shelby, and Taylor went on stage and sang any man of mine by Shania twain, then a few people gave speeches for the happy couple. When the dinner was over it was time for the reception and the dance. They served Cheese cake, and had a live dj which I thought was really neat. We all had so much fun eating, dancing, and catching up with all of our family and friends that we hadn't seen in a while.
My favorite part of the whole thing was when the song "I don't wanna miss a thing" by aerosmith came on and Jordan asked me to dance. This was one of the first songs that we ever danced to, and it is very meaningful to both of us, so I thought that was very special :)
When the wedding was over we helped clean up, and were at the church until midnight! Even when we left there were still people there cleaning things up, I bet they were there until one or two in the morning! We drove back to my grandparents house and went right to sleep.
The next day was Sunday, and we still hadn't been to Lethbridge! So, Jordan, Emma, and I grabbed some breakfast, jumped in the truck, and headed to Lethbridge. When we got there we saw that the mall didn't open until noon, so we went to walmart and did some shopping there, then headed over to bestbuy, and played a game of rockband while we waited for the mall to open. At 11:45am we drove over to the mall and began shopping! We all got a lot of cute stuff from all the different Canadian stores, then we stopped by the Cinnabon shop and bought my mom some cinnamon rolls because she LOVES them! When we were done at the mall we were all starving so, we went to the Swiss Chalet for some lunch, then headed back to Cardston.
When we got to Cardston we met my family at Mings, chatted for a while, and then headed back to the farm to pack up the car and be on our way. We left at around 5:00pm, and arrived in Logan at 3:30am. We all slept for a little while at my apartment, then grabbed some breakfast, and went to Brigham City to pick up the truck, and my car. Then, we headed to Smith and Edwards for some more shopping! When we were done shopping we went our separate ways, Jordan and I back to Logan, and the rest of my family back to St. George.
All in all we had a blast on our quick Canadian vacation. I love going to Canada and seeing all of my wonderful family and friends. I think Jordan also really liked it up there, and was even talking about moving up there as soon as he is finished with school. I would like to move up to Canada and be close to my family, but we'll just have to see where life takes us :)
