Weekend at West Edmonton Mall

Chris took Friday off and we headed to Edmonton after Luca was done school at noon. The boys were so excited to stay in a "skyscraper" and go to the waterpark at West Ed.  We packed them a little lunch in their lunch boxes to eat on the drive up and after dropping Loki off at the kennel, we were off!

Levi managed to stay away until about Lacombe (almost an hour and a half). Luca watched a movie, made funny faces in a sticker book I bought for the trip and played with the little halloween toys I packed for the drive.  He asked if we were almost there about a hundred times- he was obviously excited!

When we got to Edmonton, we headed straight North for NAIT to meet our beautiful sister in law Carrie. She is an instructor at NAIT and had some coupons for us to use at West Ed.

Chris was excited to return to his alma mater and check out the new Instrumentation wing that has been built since he graduated. (Wow, very nice! I joked that had it been that nice when he was there, perhaps he would have spent more time at the school! But, we WERE newlyweds and both students at that time, so neither of us wanted to spend more time than we had to at school!)

Luca in Auntie Carrie's office at NAIT

After exploring the new area of NAIT and going to Carrie's office, we headed to our hotel on the edge of downtown with an incredible view of the river valley. We checked in and headed to the 27th floor. The boys were thrilled!  They were eager to go on the balcony but once out there, were a bit tentative and stayed away from the edge. For a while anyway! It didn't take long for "no fear Levi" to get as close to the edge as possible.

After exploring the hotel a bit, we headed out for some supper at Chris' and my favorite Edmonton restaurant- Tokyo Express. It is a bit strange that me, the no seafood eater, would love a sushi resturant but they have THE BEST teriyaki chicken and rice bowls there. Whenever we are in Edmonton, we stop there for a meal. Unfortunately, these restaurants are only in Edmonton, not Calgary and we rarely make it to Edmonton.

Anyway, Chris and I had chicken and rice bowls and we ordered a bento box of assorted things for the boys to share. They had veggies, tempura fried sweet potatoes, broccoli and shrimp, chicken dumplings, chicken and rice and a small bowl of fruit. They loved it! Luca gobbled up the tempura shrimp right away (seriously, that kid loves everything!) and the dumplings. He loved the sauces that came with it too. Levi was a bit more slow to try things, he mainly stuck to the chicken and rice.

This one is just funny. This is what happens when I ask little boys to pose for a picture.

A bit better but still goofy!

After supper we headed to West Ed to explore and show the boys where were were going to swim. They were fascinated with the size of the waterpark and all the slides!  We walked towards the "pirate ship" (an exact replica of the Santa Maria) and were excited to see that they were allowing people on board to check it out! I have never seen the public be able to go on before, it must be a new attractions they have allowed. So, for $1 each, we went on the ship. They boys thought it was great and Chris and I were curious to get an up close look at the ship that we are so used to seeing from a distance.

My dad tells me that my grandpa got to go on the ship when the mall opened 30 years ago and the ship was unveiled. Neat.

We had been telling the boys about the dragon that breathes fire at the IMAX in West Ed so we headed there to check it out. As luck would have it, it was not operating due to maintenance. Oh well, I think they would have been scared anyway. It'll give us something else to do next time we get to Edmonton.

Since the mall wasn't busy and we weren't in any rish to get back to the hotel, we decided to take the boys to see Galaxyland. We decided to let them go on a few rides in case we didn't make it back on Saturday.

After a few rides, it was back to the hotel to get ready for bed. The boys were thrilled to get to sleep in what was dubbed the "transformer bed" - a sofa bed. Luca thought that a couch that turned into a bed was pretty awesome! We had some awfully excited boys who didn't go to sleep til well after 10:30 that night!

After a short night's sleep, we got ready to head back to the mall to swim. We arrived just as the mall opened at 10 and went in where we met up with my sister Sarah and her boyfriend Mike.  We all got changed and hit the pool! The boys we into it right away and had a great time at the kids' park and the small pool. Luca loved the waves in the wave pool and he is getting so much braver in the water. This time last year he wouldn't go very deep and clung to one of us in any water. This time I had to remind him to stop and stay close to me. He also has no fear of putting his face and head under the water. Levi, however, was afraid of the waves and preferred to just splash around in the little pool.

Sarah and I took Luca on the tube ride, which he quickly stated that he was "not doing that again!". Levi on the other hand absolutely loved it and went on it numerous times in a row.

We spent about 3.5 hours at the water park before deciding to head out for some lunch.

We went to the Olive Garden and had a great lunch of soup, breadsticks and pasta.  After lunch, we decided to go back to the mall and get the boys wrist bands for Galaxyland.

They went on more rides and were so excited to get to do more! On Friday night we had just bought enough tickets for them to each do 2 rides. The wristbands allowed them unlimited rides.  They spent at least an hour in the play park and came out looking absolutely wiped! It had been a busy day!

Bumper Cars!

We headed back to the hotel with 2 very tired but happy boys.  When we got into the car, Auntie Sarah and Uncle Mike (who isn't yet an "official" uncle but we hope will be soon!) gave the boys police hats which they proudly wore and made wonderful siren sound effects while we were driving!



Sunday was full of plans to ride the LRT - the boys remembered the "electric train" from last summer when we went to Edmonton for Tom and Lisa's wedding- and go visit Uncle Shawn and Auntie Carrie.

Unfortunately, these plans were ruined when I awoke at about midnight in the worst pain I have ever experienced.  Soon after I started vomiting and didn't stop until about 7 am.  We are assuming that I had food poisoning as it came on so quickly and was so violently ill, but I hate to think that the source was the Olive Garden!

(Side note: I've been having stomach/ digestive issues for quite some time and it was suggested that I lay off wheat so I had been eating a wheat free diet for a week and then had breadstciks and a large bowl of pasta so I'm also wondering if it was my body staging a revolt against the wheat? I see my Nathropathic doctor again in a few weeks and will be discussing this with her.  I will be so sad if the answer is going to be to give up wheat permanently but I also don't want to risk going through that misery again either just to eat some bread and pasta!)

I have never had food poisoning and certainly don't want to relive that night ever again. By about 5:30am or so, I was crying that I would rather be in labour than the pain I was in. My stomach hurt so bad and the heaving was taking every ounce of energy I had. Every time I took a sip of water, up it came. It was absolutely horrendous.  At around 6:30am, Chris went in search of Gravol in the hopes that I could keep it down and get some rest.

I did manage to keep some down and had a bit of a sleep while Chris took the boys to ride the LRT. When they got back, he packed up and we got ready to go. We all loaded into the truck and Chris made a quick stop at Wal Mart to get me a pail and a pillow and the boys something to eat since we were heading home right at lunch time.  I took another Gravol and thankfully slept most of the way home, with just a few bouts of nausea on the way.

We got home and I headed straight to bed where I napped off and on all afteroon and evening. Finally around 6pm I was able to eat a few crackers and drink some tea. I went back to sleep and woke up this morning feeling better but like I had been run over by a truck. What an awful experience.

Even though our Sunday was cut a bit short, we still had a fantastic little get away in Edmonton. I hope it helped to make up for all the summer weekends that I was on call and we were unable to do much for travelling and get aways.