Whirlwind Weekend in E-Town!

This past weekend the whole family met up in Edmonton for Scott's graduation from Kings University. Mom & Dad flew straight from Mexico; Adam flew from Ottawa; and Jeff, David and I flew from Vancouver. The grand reunion. 

It's kind of pathetic (in the best way possible) how excited we were all to see each other. Some of us had only been apart for a week or two... 

Anyway, we got up to all sorts of shenanigans this weekend, and there are many photos to prove it!

Thursday evening David and I stayed at Jeff's house in Vancouver as we were all flying out together EARLY Friday morning. We went to Original Joe's down the street for some dinner and a couple games of pool. We hit Safeway on the way back to grab some snacks for the plane. (Naturally, in my daze at 5am the next morning I forgot the snacks by the front door... NUTS!)

Friday we were up at 4:30am and on our way to the airport to catch our flight at 6:45. The flight was smooth, and we arrived in Edmonton to grab our rental car by 9:00 or so. From here, we went to pick up Scott for the last time from his house he'd been staying in for the past couple years with some roommates. We got the grand tour, before continuing on with our day. 
With our fourth passenger in the car, Jeff took us on a "Tour de Edmonton" past some of his favourite spots from when he was living there years ago. We jetted over to the hotel for an early check-in, and then planned the rest of our day!

A woman working for the CBSA was swabbing some bags and putting the things in the drug detecting machines! Just like Border Security! Sadly, all the tests we saw came back negative. I was excited. 

Or fancy mobile for the weekend! A Dodge Charger. If I was in the market for another car I'd consider it. 

This is the only picture I took in Scott's house. THIS is the oven they dealt with for the past few years. I can only assume this is what he cooked his holiday turkeys in. Straight out of... some decade long ago!

After getting settled in at the hotel, we decided to head towards West Edmonton Mall. We had 5-6 hours to kill before picking up Adam at the airport. We had some Cactus Club lunch and then did some shopping and browsing at the mall. {I know this mall is big, but it seemed larger when I was younger... Maybe I missed something this time?}. We still had a few hours, so we meandered our way towards a glow-in-the-dark mini-golf place in the mall! It's small and dark, but we had a blast with the 4 of us. 

The main courtyard in our hotel. Our balcony overlooked this area. I can only assume they made it all cool like this with palm trees and fountains so that you'll forget you're in Edmonton while you're there. 

Yummy Cactus Club lunch!

I guess this mall is pretty big...

Fine... they have a pirate ship and a sea lion show... it's pretty great.

Chilling with the wizard at the mini golf. Where, by the way, I tied for first place!

Pearly whites!

After mini-golf we were all done with the mall, so went for a hot-tub at the hotel. Finally we were ready to go pick up Adam from airport after his flight from Ottawa. Never have I seen him so excited to see us! We all were famished and ready for a drink and some carb-icide. Naturally this led us to the Olive Garden. I was smart and just ordered the house salad and a side plate. That way I got to munch away on something light, while being force-fed everyone's extra food that they couldn't stomach! 

Sorry Jeff... you let me take the picture!

After dinner we were out and about already, so obviously it was time to hit the casino!(?). I had never been to a casino before, but I had some cash in my wallet so I was good to go! Adam won a bunch of money in the first 5 minutes in Blackjack, and ended up walking out with $80 more than he went in with! I spent $5 on slot machines, which I lost quite quickly. I went to find the boys, and found them gathered around a Roulette table. It was time to go, so I threw $10 in bets on the roulette table and my number hit! Black 28! I won $36 on that one little chip! That put me up $21 and I was feeling quite successful. (Adam and Jeff went back again the next night, and Adam won $400 in Blackjack... WHAT?!)

The rest of the night was relatively low key for David and I. We hung out at the hotel while the boys went out for drinks, and greeted my parents arriving from Mexico at 11pm or so. We had some drinks in their hotel room before heading to bed. 

That brings us to Saturday morning! Wow Friday was a full day... We went for breakfast in the "Atrium Cafe" in our hotel. It is a buffet breakfast, but it's pretty well done and nicely set up! Scott was dropped off for his grad rehearsal, and then the 6 of us had some time to kill before we had to be there. There's not a lot to do in Edmonton, so we decided to go bowling! (No regrets). We got a game of bowling in where I lost MISERABLY. I forgot how terrible and inconsistent I am at these things! 

Some healthy options at breakfast buffet.

Granny style after missing so many times. For the record... I guttered this ball too. So sad.

Scott's grad class had about 150 students, so the venue was a church and we were all able to attend without purchasing tickets! The ceremony was nice (a little long at over 2 hours), but the valedictorian spoke brilliantly! We took some quick family photos after the ceremony, and then we were headed back to the hotel! The rest of the family went to the Lion's Head Pub for lunch/drinks, but David and I were ready for a nap! I CRASHED for half an hour or so, and woke up nice and refreshed to meet them at the pub!

Edmonton's resident Kangaroo. This is seriously the size of a wallaby... Bugs Bunny? It was rather intimidating as I approached it and it just stared at me. I feel it figured it could take me. 

All the sibs! 

A happy graduate!!

We didn't eat much at the pub, as we were going to dinner with a bunch of family (26 people) to an incredible Italian restaurant called Porto Fino (I think). I was much too focused on the delicious food and wine to pay attention to the name of the restaurant! Our meal was served in... 7(?) courses with wine on the tables. By the end we were all stuffed beyond belief.
We had another full (in more ways than one) day and were ready to hit the hay by the time our dessert was demolished! We went back to hotel and hit the hot-tub for a bit and then hung out with Scott on our balcony until sleep took over. 

First course: Tomatoes topped with mozzarella, olives, spinach and basil. 

Last course: Panacotta (?) topped with fresh whipped cream strawberries and mint. YUM!

Sunday morning Adam flew back to Ottawa and we went to IHOP for breakfast with the rest of us. From here, Mom Dad & Scott went to the airport to catch their flight. That leaves Jeff, David and I. We had to check out of hotel at 12pm and our flight wasn't until 7pm! We had 5 hours to kill (... I say that a lot...) before we had to be going to airport and returning the car rental. We went back to the bowling alley and played two games, in which I still lost miserably, but my score was higher than Saturday at least! After our rounds of bowling we went next door and played some more mini golf at another glow-in-the-dark "monster" place! Super fun and very difficult at times! There was an arcade in the same area, so we played $20 worth of games there and earned enough tickets to buy a MINI deck of cards.

Bowling names

Sweet mini-golf!!

They played all sorts of great tunes while we golfed. Everything from Def Leppard to Outkast.

Jeff & Dave playing air hockey.

Deal or No Deal. most intense game at the place!

Big win of 40 tickets!

"Big" purchase with our tickets...Our mini deck of cards and my terrible beetle ring. 

After goofing around at these places, we went back to our hotel as we remembered they had dart boards in the pub! We had some lunch and played darts for a couple hours. I am so uncoordinated... I hit the board most of the time though! (Celebrate the small victories). After this, we visited two of Jeff's friends from back in the day and then went straight to the airport to end our trip. We were home by 9:30pm on Monday night and crawled straight into bed after picking up the Sher monster!

Playing some Sleepyhead while waiting for plane to take off. Mini cards are great for air plane! Can play 3 person games on a tiny tray!

Horrible picture of an incredible view of the Rockies.