Ed Sheeran - Taste of Edmonton - Fairmont Hot Springs

Despite being tired and busy all the time, this past week was pretty great!

Tuesday, I worked 9-5:30 then Keaton picked me up and we took our car to Southgate to catch the LRT downtown. Getting into Rogers Place actually wasn't too bad. James Blunt started pretty much right as we found our seats. He's really good! There was intermission after him, so we did a quick bathroom trip and we got popcorn and water. I was a little late running in as Ed Sheeran started, so I was freaking out a bit. But we got to enjoy all of it together. He was so amazing! For his last two songs, he came out wearing an Edmonton Oilers shirt and the crowd screamed so loud! 

I'm really glad we decided to go. It was Keaton's first big concert and he loved it too! 

On Wednesday, I worked 11-7:30 then we did the same as the previous night, parked at Southgate and took the LRT downtown. We got off at Churchill Square for Taste of Edmonton. It's a way for local restaurants to set up booths or trucks and serve samples of their best dishes. I wanted to go since last year when Keaton went with his family and it sounded so cool! 

I can't remember all the names of places we sampled from but we had:

-Pad Thai and Thai chicken wings

-Green onion cake

-Duck wings and mac & cheese balls

-Churros and soft serve ice cream (not pictured)

-Lemon Heaven lemonade and Grizzly Paw Soda Company root beer

We also got to walk around the fountains at the square and got to see the building that says "Take a risk. It's the most Edmonton thing you can do." which is super cool!

Thursday, I worked 9-5:30 again. I had to stay a bit late, so Keaton came into the store to get me. He noticed a pair of shoes that he liked and tried them on, since I had told him we should get him new school shoes soon. He agreed and liked the ones he tried. Meanwhile, there was a pair of black flats I had my eyes on, since my black flats are very uncomfortable (because they're from payless...) and because Winnie ate part of them. So with my discount, we both got some new shoes and we love them! Seriously, if you haven't tried Rockport shoes before, we both recommend!

We went home and got all our stuff ready to be picked up to go to the Gibb family reunion. Jackie and Eldon arrived and we drove to Peter's in Red Deer for dinner. We drove into the night to get to Fairmont Hot Springs in B.C. We arrived at the rental house around 1 a.m., so we quietly got ready for bed. 

Friday morning, we got up for breakfast and got to see our Gibb family members. We were going to do a hike at one spot but it was closed because of fire risks. We went back to the lodge and did a 2.8 KM hike that went around the resort a bit. We went back the rental houses and relaxed for a bit before having lunch. We went swimming later in the afternoon. The pools are natural mineral water pools, one cold and one hot. They were pretty great. And lots of the boys were jumping off the diving boards. After swimming we had dinner, and Austen, Caitlin, and Spencer arrived soon after that. Then we played our first round of Gibb family Jeopardy, organised by Aunt Terri. It was pretty funny and clever! I was put on the same team as Caitlin, and our team won the round! Surprisingly as we're the newest members of the family! We went back the pools for another swim. I wasn't feeling well, so I laid back in a chair and watched the sun set over the mountains and relaxed (it was a vacation after all!) 

We went back the rental house and played a couple rounds of Telestrations and the guys played Mud on the pool table in the basement before going to bed.

We got up Saturday and had our breakfast then played the second round of Gibb family Jeopardy, which was also fun. We chilled a bit then had lunch, then games were played. Some more swimming was had and Eldon took the GoPro this time and took videos of the guys jumping in the pool. And Terri even jumped off the high dive!

Dinner after that, with more visiting and chilling. Then we had our last round of Jeopardy! Again, a lot of fun doing that! I got asked to play some rounds of The Game of Things, which is actually a pretty fun game! Then to finish off the night, some more swimming. I mostly stayed in the hot tub though. Back at the rental house, we looked at the photos and videos that Eldon and Terri took at the pool and chilled before going to bed.
Sunday we got up and cleaned up the rental house and got ready for church.

So, a good thing about this resort was that there was a church building right down the road from where we were staying! How convenient?! They even asked Jackie and Eldon to give the opening and closing prayers and asked Keaton and Austen to bless the sacrament! The meeting was very good too. We only stayed for first hour since most of us had to get on the road to home or next destinations. However, that meant saying goodbye (for now) to Courtney and Tom, as they start their move to Toronto this week. It actually was rather emotional. But we are excited about their future with their baby on the way and Tom's new schooling program!

We went with Jackie and Eldon to meet Austen and Caitlin in Banff. I know it was Sunday but... Cows Ice Cream was in order! Mountains are cool and all, but nothing beats a little taste of home! We then took a quick drive to see the Bow River falls. 

We then hit the road for Calgary, and had dinner at Theo and Kenzie's new place, which is super great for them! 

On the way back to Edmonton, it worked better for us to go with Austen and Caitlin and get dropped off. And once arriving home, we unpacked!

*I wish I had some more pictures, but that's okay. There will always be mountain pictures and some more family pictures may still come later!*

**Thanks everyone who made the weekend so great! Can't wait for the next one!**

Like I said at the start of this post, even in all the craziness of life, we're still enjoying our fun outings and being married in general!