We had a great eventful road trip weekend!
On Friday, I had to work 9-5:30, then I went home where Jackie and Eldon were having the sister missionaries over for dinner. Keaton and Austen were both there too. After dinner, we cleaned up and Jackie and Eldon and Austen went to visit some friends for a bit, while Keaton and I went skating! We only stayed about half an hour or 45 minutes, but it was still decent. I haven't skated in so long and I just happened to have found a pair of skates in my size at Value Village one day for $20! So that was a nice outdoor date for us to enjoy. We went back home and started to watch Fresh Prince when we heard someone come in. That's because Caitlin and her sister had driven up from Washington that day for Caitlin to move here and be closer to Austen. We helped her bring her stuff in and they came to watch Netflix for a bit before going to bed.
*Little background as to why we planned to go to Lethbridge: my friends Julianna Ceron and Riley Benoit are two awesome girls who I spent most of young women's with back home in PEI. Julianna and her family moved to Lethbridge in 2014 and Riley moved out there in 2016. Riley joined the church 7 years ago and the Cerons basically "adopted" her and have supported them both for so long. Anyways, they both received their mission calls before Christmas. Riley was originally called to the Canada Halifax Mission but was reassigned for Canada Toronto since she has family in Newfoundland. Julianna then got her call to Canada Halifax and leaves next week, while Riley leaves Feb. 22. They were set to give their farewell talks in church, and I was lucky enough to have the weekend off so Keaton and I could drive down to hear them. Here is how that all went:
Saturday, I got up and started to get ready for the day since Keaton and I were getting engagement photos done. Before we left though, Eldon and I took my car to get it washed and he checked on some things when we got back home. Emily Bates came over to do my makeup for photos, then Keaton and I had lunch. We met with our photographer Emma Patterson and her assistant Nicole at Whitemud Park in Edmonton. She photographed us for about an hour or so. That's all we needed though, and we trust she got some good ones!
(Sneak peak! There will be more to come!)
We drove them home and stopped at Keaton's apartment for a few minutes before heading out for our road trip. I drove first since Keaton wanted to work on some calculus. We stopped in Red Deer to eat at Peter's Drive In, which was pretty good! I had a chocolate strawberry Oreo milkshake and a double cheeseburger! Keaton had the same burger and chocolate banana Oreo milkshake and got us fries to share. We put Keaton's phone in the holder attached to the windshield and watched Mockingjay Part 2.
I drove until Calgary and we stopped again for a bathroom break, then Keaton took a turn driving. After Mockingjay, we started Star Wars 7 on the tablet, but it started to die so we had to stop. When we arrived in Lethbridge, we went to the church where Julianna and Riley's farewell party was to be taking place, but we got there too late and everyone had already left! So I suggested we just go to the Ceron's house. The girls thought we were just coming on Sunday, so when we showed up at their door, they were surprised and came to hug us! We had gotten there at about 9:30 and left a little before midnight since we had to stop for gas. But we caught up on so much stuff! We then went to stay at Keaton's great uncle and great aunts house. We pretty much got settled and went to bed because of long hours of driving.
After we got ready Sunday morning, we went to the church and found some seats with the Cerons. We also had one of Keaton's former roommates Kaden and his fiancé Krista come meet us for church! Riley and Julianna gave kick butt talks. They didn't seem nervous but they told us they were! After the meeting, I was also able to see Mikayla Barfuss who served in the Canada Halifax Mission and she is so great! The five is us had a good chat and got some pictures. Keaton and I then left and went to Kaden's apartment to have some lunch and visit his brother Tanner. We had some leftover pizza then headed out. We drove to Taber so we could visit the graves of Keaton's great grandparents on the Gibb side. That was really great to see and support Keaton with that.
While driving back to Calgary, I asked Keaton if we could take a different way to stop in Vulcan and see the Starship Enterprise. He agreed and we got to do that! I don't watch a lot of Star Trek, but this was pretty awesome!
When we got to Calgary, our first stop was at Aunt Tiffany and Uncle Ryan's. (They are Jackie's sister and brother in law.) We chatted with them and their kids and got to meet their dog! Our next stop was Theo and Kenzie's for supper. It was really nice of them to have us over and have some funny conversations!
Next stop was quick to see the Calgary temple. It was my first time seeing it and it's so pretty! It was dark out, but the temples are always so lit up, it was still nice.
(I love him a lot)
Our last visit before heading home was at my cousin Amber's house where we saw her and her husband Blake, their son Thexan and her mom, my aunt Annette. My cousin Caitlin and her fiancé Adam and their daughter Emma came shortly after too! We stayed about an hour, both of us getting to hold little Thexan and Emma!
We left there around 8 and started to watch the new Annie movie on Keaton's phone on the drive. We stopped in Red Deer for gas, but then headed home. We decided to go right home where Austen and Caitlin were finishing up Les Miserables. Keaton and Austen left in their car to go to their apartment in the city so they could be ready for school in the morning.
It was a really good weekend!! We had great experiences and lots of laughs and love. I'm also so happy for Julianna and Riley and their decisions to serve missions. I watched them grow close in young women's and now even closer before they are separated for 18 months. I'll miss them a lot, but that's why we have email and letters to send!
<3
