Breaking in the Minivan

Last week we took the littles on a road trip to Vancouver for my little brother's wedding! We split the drive there into two days. The first day we traveled a whole eight or so hours to Merritt. The kids did great! I enjoyed the mountain views while we drove through Jasper. Camilla packed her little toy camera without me knowing and asked me for it once we hit the mountains. For a good chunk of our drive we heard it power on and then she clicked away, ohhing and awwing at her surroundings. I think we could have stopped at seeing mountains this vacation and she would have been happy.

"Oh! I HAVE to take a picture of that!" she would say. Click. "Mom! Look at that!" Click. Everytime Mr. Stannix and I heard that shutter go we would chuckle to ourselves. I may end up giving her my old point and shoot when I finally upgrade. 

Driving through the mountains is always magical to me. I love the breathtaking views of those snowcapped mountains. Another favorite part of the drive for me was when leaves suddenly appeared on the trees and all was green. The contrast to back home was crazy.

The clock in the van automatically changed at the right spot (according to the GPS). The kids were getting restless, so we pulled off in Valemount for some lunch at A&W. They drank their juice, nibbled a few french fries and ran and ran. 

On the last leg of the trip, Joseph started whining quite a bit. Ketchup chips were the only thing keeping him happy at that point. We pulled into our hotel not long after with a very red toddler. He was glad to get out and stretch while Daddy checked us in.

We hit up the pool first thing. It was all the kids could talk about since we left. It wasn't as kidfriendly as I remembered it, but Camilla eased her way into the 3ft deep pool and walked around a bit.

With a lot of coaxing we got Hyrum to go down the water slide. After a few times he fell in love and Daddy took him a good five more times before we went up to our room. Joseph enjoyed it well enough and while we swam in the pool he would point to the slide and say, "Ooo-Hoo!" I could only convince Camilla to go with me once, and she hated it. It was "too dark and scary".

We then dried off as best we could and put on our shoes to head back out to our room. We were greeted by a nice little downpour of rain. Daddy went next door to grab a pizza for dinner and I bathed and jammied the littles. After their bellies were full they were easily tucked in and fell asleep before 8:30. Mr. Stannix and I went to bed shortly after and enjoyed almost twelve full hours of rest to prep us for the last bit of driving the next day.