Easter Long Weekend

Medicine Hat Trip, Easter 2007 Hello everyone, and welcome to my first blog of my South East Asian Adventure. However, this entry will actually not be from South East Asia. This is just a practice blog to make sure I know how to use the blog site, know how to upload pictures, and just to make sure everything works as it should :)

So here's the story of my Easter vacation!

Glenn and I drove down to Medicine Hat on Friday morning (April 6th). The drive was nice, and we didn't encounter any horrible weather, which is really a treat for Highway 2 (you Albertans know what I'm talking about!). Sadly, Zippy's lease is coming up at the end of this month (for those of you who don't know, Zippy is my car), so the drive was a way to spend some quality time with my four year friend, before we say farewell.

We arrived at my parent's house in Medicine Hat to find that the MacGregors had already arrived. Don and Yvonne MacGregor are long-standing family friends who came out for a visit over the long weekend. They are both really nice and very friendly people, so it was great to have chance to visit with them. Also, Kudos to them for taking the 11 hour drive from Manitoba to see us all!! Friday night we had a lovely dinner of homemade pizza and beer (Pizza at my parent's house is always delicious!) and we spent the night visiting and playing games.

Over the next few days, we had a really nice and relaxing visit with my parents and the MacGregors. The food was amazing, as always, which of course is one of my main reasons for going home ;) Also, this is the first Easter in 4 or 5 years that I've been able to spend with my family, so I suppose that was a good reason to visit as well :) We spent many of the evenings playing board games and cards which is a family tradition that I really enjoy. On Tuesday night (April 10th) my parents and Glenn took me out for an early 23rd Birthday dinner, which was absolutely fantastic! It was nice to have a birthday celebration before I leave, since my real birthday will take place while I'm in the Philippines volunteering.

I also got a chance to visit with one of my very best friends who lives in the Medicine Hat area, Sarah! We had a nice long lunch at Moxies where we discussed life and she taught me how to knit!! It was excellent. We also had brunch with her and her husband Miles on Tuesday which was nice. It's always exciting to be able to catch up with a friend when you live so far away from each other :)

Glenn and I flew home on Wednesday evening. I had a fairly emotional goodbye with my family (mostly just emotional for me since I'm such a sap!), since I won't be seeing them for some time. Luckily I took a lot of pictures of them which you can see on this site, which will help whenever I miss them! Overall it was a fantastic Easter Weekend and I'm really glad we got a chance to go home before I leave :)



I have now finished most of my preparations for my trip...I leave in 5 days, so I'm really getting excited now. All I really have left to do is pack up my backpack and get on the plane. Hopefully my 31 hour trip to Manila goes smoothly, and I'm not too cranky when I arrive :)

That's all for now and I'll be writing again in about a week from the other side of the world... Cheers!

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