We had a blast in Edmonton this past weekend, and unbelievably enough the weather was nicer there than it was here in Kelowna. In fact, on Friday we’d boarded our flight to Edmonton and were waiting for final takeoff clearance when they closed the runway and sent us all back into the terminal to wait out the snowstorm. Fortunately, we ended up being only about an hour late. This has been a weird winter in the Okanagan.

But of course, you don’t go to Edmonton in January for the weather. We were there to check out all the activities in West Edmonton Mall (we even stayed in a Roman theme room at the Fantasyland Hotel, which came with a round bed…check out the photo gallery) and meet up with some people we hadn’t seen in a while. Leslie (my former college roommate and bridesmaid) came up from Red Deer with her husband to meet us for a birthday dinner, which was awesome. I couldn’t believe they were willing to drive three hours round trip after working all day just so they could buy us dinner. You don’t get better friends than that.

We also mooched a free dinner from my cousin Terry and his family, whom I hadn’t seen in at least 10 years. I know I’m short, but so is everyone else in my (and Chris’s) family and I don’t usually notice it too much. But these four cousins each towered over me by at least a foot — where’d those genes come from? Anyway, it was great to see them and I hope they make it to Kelowna sometime soon.

Justin had two good days with Grandma and Grandpa Kingwell, but apparently by the third day he was missing us pretty bad. He sure was happy to see us at the airport — he smiled and even came up and hugged us. What a change from a few months ago, when I came back from London and got the cold shoulder from a toddler who was mighty ticked that I’d gone away and left him for a week.

Back to the old routine…