questa | Alberta

March 25th: Made it to the airport on time, I somehow managed just one piece of checked luggage and no carry-on. Just me, my purse and my stuffed kitty. The stupid rivets on my jeans and boots set the security alarm off so I had to stand there while some chick waves the scan board over me and then demanded to know what was in my pocket. I said nothing but she poked it and said “Well what’s this then?” I glanced down and realized what it was. Pulled it out and showed her the piece of Kleenex I’d forgotten about.

I then had to sit, take of my shoes, wait while she scanned up and down my right leg and then asked if she could pat it down. Found nothing and sent us on our way.

The flight was pretty uneventful, my usual take-off panic, some turbulence and that was about it. His parents, Scott, his cousin and Aunt were there to meet us. Once I stepped outside the airport I was like holy FCUK!OMG!....first time feeling -15…not even sure wtf the wind-chill was.

Went and grabbed some dinner with everyone before starting the 4 hour drive to Sucker Creek…which was quite scary because late at night, possible animals, snow, ice, black-ice and blowing snow….we went very slow for a while :X

Got back exhausted but no sleep for us…the fridge had died, the water was icky so we had to boil it…got to bed around 3am….then up again at 8am to get in another car for an hour to drive to Old Smokie to go tubing for the day.

I borrowed some snow pants that were too big but we tightened em as best we could and it allowed me to wear pants underneath and I had stockings underneath those. Also borrowed some waterproof gloves and had an old jacket of mine and my cute, super long pink scarf.

Oh so sexy… :P

Haven’t been tubing before and haven’t even been sledding in years so I was a little worried about my knees. Saw the hill and was like pif! Easy! Then it was pointed out that was not our hill…walked around and then our hill was pointed out and I was like oh hell no :X

There was like 4 ways down, James and I started on the “easy” on first. That wasn’t bad so we ended up going down the fast ones, they even had a cool pulley system to haul your lazy ass back up XD

Learned a few things too…

~ Although cute, my pink scarf is not made for that kind of thing.
~ Wind-burn hurts like an SOB (It wasn’t noticeable at least but for the next 3 days my cheeks, chin and nose HURT!)
~ Even if you sit in your tub for ages and don’t need to walk up the hill you will still be in a lot of pain from holding on for dear life.
~ Goggles are awesome; they keep out the flying painful ice-chips and cut down on the BLINDING BRIGHTNESS.

Grabbed lunch and met a very beautiful kitty that lived on the mountain. Sadly never found out what his/her name was tho.

Played in the snow for a bit when we got back to his place, it was hard because I’ve never tried to walk in snow that deep before so I kept falling over while he was lolling at me and coming to my rescue while Daisy and Charlie were like…you weirdo… :P

Felt like we were camping for a few days because of the fridge and water but we got a new fridge and just got some bottled water. I also spent that week cleaning up his house because it hasn’t been lived in in so long. I’ve wanted to do it the last 2 visits but never seemed to find the time.

As it was I was only able to do the kitchen and bathroom, spend a couple hours a day on it. Next visit which sadly won’t be until this Fall (Summer is just too many bugs there and we are pretty busy here anyway) we will start on the basement and living room. The 3 bedrooms are fine. It’s slowly becoming a home…and a place we might live for a while depending on what’s going on next year.

The week was busy but too short, there was some animal stuff I will post about in a filtered post at some point…as much as I love that place I also hate it…well, hate how people treat the animals….I spent most of Thursday crying…it was that bad :X

Hung out with Brian, played with the dogs, cats and horses, met a new dog I named Baby…she ended up following me everywhere which almost got her killed by a horse and beat up twice by Daisy who did not want her near her property….me =\ She’s become very protective of me and poor Baby got her nose bit. Not fun and scary to see…

Remember Dora, the cute kitten that hitched a ride in my hood? Saw her again but it was like the ONE time I didn’t have my camera on me -_-! She looks good except she has no ears…outside too much in -40 = ears froze off…she’s also pretty shy but I got her to come to me and eventually she was cuddling in my arms. The other 2 found homes somewhere.

James and I do what we can, give them love, food and water….

Anyway….

No internet or cable was a nice escape from the world :P I did manage to check FB twice thanks to Scott and Michelle.

It snowed a tiny bit the first couple days and then it was bright and sunny, the last 3 days the snow was starting to melt and making some pretty deep puddles….

Got to shovel snow for the first time…James found it funny that I kept sitting down and doing it but I was tired lol! I also fell backwards down a lil hill against a fence and got stuck in this weird V shape…thankfully he did not run for the camera and instead pulled me out after lolling :P

Saw deer while I was there, one was even in the front yard of his parents place. But beauty turned to a scare when the deer was headed towards the gas bar and realized 2 rez dogs spotted it…it ran back into the yard and the horse fields. James and Scott ran outside to chase them off because Baby was outside and they would kill her. Although later she ended up making friends with them…

April 1st we got a ride from Michelle to Edmonton, I sat in the back with 5yr old Edmond…we both had our pillow pets and watched a DVD in the back…it was cute. The Northern Lights were finally visible but since I was in the back seat of the van with tinted windows going down a highway…they weren’t very impressive :P

We had planned on staying with his cousin but got a hotel room instead and omFg…BEST HOTEL EVER…the bed…the pillows…the sheets…the quilt…even the shower was godly. Sadly we got in late, got to bed around 2am and were up at 8am…still had the most comfortable sleep ever tho.

Checked out at 11am, went to visit Chris and Mel for a bit…mon dieu Edmonton is fugly…seriously :X Its dirty, ghetto and just ugh. Its like Surrey but 100x worse…And they call it Deadmonton for a reason…(murder rates +++++)

His Aunt and cousin dropped us off at the airport, this time James got the scan :P The dude right after him was a random pick for a full security check though so we got lucky. Plane ride was okay, ears were not happy with me…specially the right one.

It was strange to come back, so many people…so much noise…we both wanted to turn around and head back :X