This is just a short update as to why we haven’t updated – Phil and I safely arrived in Grande Cache (my hometown) Tuesday and have been busy ever since! It’s been wonderful!!!! It’s been great to be back, and we’ve decided once we are home we’ll do a large post of the last few days of our trip! So hang tight and we’ll update you soon

Day 9 started off with breakfast at Phil’s uncle David and auntie June’s house. We’ve actually only seen them twice in the 7 years we’ve been together so it was great to spend the morning with them. After breakfast we headed back to the house and Phil finished up the last of his work he has to do on this holiday, and Allie and I headed over to my Baba’s for another visit.

This evening we went out for our last dinner in Edmonton – All you can eat Pasta – it was delicious. I’m pretty sure we all rolled home. Thinking a head, we all work stretchy clothing that we might be prepared. The biggest eater was actually Phil, he had 3 bowls of pasta! It was a lot of fun, and we had a lot of laughs.

I’m am sad that our time in Edmonton is coming to an end, but have enjoyed every moment of it! It’s be so great to spend time with my cousins, and our family that is here.

Tomorrow we are off to Grande Cache!!

A wonderful day 8 was had! We started it off with breakfast with our friends Alissa and Taylor, which was wonderful, its so great to catch up with friends, especially the ones that its just comfortable to just fall back into things! After breakfast it was time for Lion King 3D – Allie, Katie and I watched it all the time growing up, and it was a lot of fun to watch it on the big screen!

After dinner we headed over for Banack family dinner. The Banacks are my aunt’s family and growing up I was definitely a part of the family, many of them haven’t met Phil so it was great that I was able to introduce my favorite guy to some of my favorite people.

The girls had a surprise night for me when we got home, which included chocolate fondue, face masks, and pedicures! It was fantastic, a lot of laughs and a lot of fun!

Here are a few photos of day…

Today was a glorious day! First of all, Phil and I were able to have a great sleep. Don’t get me wrong, we love the busyness of a roadtrip, and traveling is a lot of fun, but knowing that you are in the same place for a few days is nice, less stressful and relaxing. We woke up and Julie was making delicious omlets for us! After breakfast, Phil buckled down for a few hours of work (unfortunately when you are self employed its much harder to just not work for 2 weeks!) and the girls and I headed out to the mall. Our main reason for going was that my cousins celebrated their birthdays in the spring (19 & 21) but were traveling Thailand, so I never sent their gift, and then decided it would be more fun to go shopping or Pandora charms with them, so we ventured out and found some. At the mall we had lunch and wandered around, and finished it off with frozen yogurt, which is definitely my favorite.

Phil and I were meeting friends for dinner and off we went to Red Robins. It was delicious! After dinner I headed back to my cousins for “girls night” and Phil headed to Mikes for “guys night”. Perfection!

We decided that on the agenda for the evening was a fierce game of Pictionary, while having Nachos and cheesecake! Allie and Julie made up one team, and Katie and I were the other. I’d like to say it was a close game, but lets be honest, Katie and I skunked them!! To be honest again, I’m not sure how, I clearly am not an artists and especially have difficulties drawing animals, but somehow we pulled it together, must be the younger-sibling cousin intuition that we just ‘knew’ what things were.

After a long and hilarious game of pictionary we pitted in for a visit and then called it a night. So, here I am updating our blog

We finally made it to Edmonton, I wont lie, I have loved every bit of our trip, but was so excited to get to Edmonton and see my amazing cousins!! We had a wonderful breakfast in Leduc with with Phil’s Auntie Violet, and then head into the city. When we arrived at Allie & Katie’s place, I had the great surprise that Katie had come home between classes and I didn’t have to wait until dinner to see her!

During the afternoon, Allie and I went to see our Baba. I haven’t seen her in 3 years, and she is 85. I was happy that she seemed to remember me and she enjoyed seeing photos of our family. While we were there, the nurse let Allie and I know that it was “Happy Hour” downstairs so we figured we might as well go. Boy are we glad we did! There was live music, dancing and singing. Quite the adventure.

On the intineary was homemade pizza for dinner. Katie and I adventured to the store to get supplies and we all made delectable personal pizzas! After dinner we strolled over to the Corbitt Hall of UofA which is where Julie is taking her masters. It was in one of the most beautiful buildings on campus and I really enjoyed seeing it.

On our walk home we decided that it was ‘craft night’ and that we would head to wal-mart to get crafts for the evening. We all chose to paint and it was an adventure. Who knew we were such artist! It was a great way to end the day, we really enjoyed our 1st evening here.

Today was wonderful! The sun was shining, the weather was great, and the drive was perfect. We left Salmon Arm about 9a.m. and were en route to Banff today. We wanted to arrive in Banff late afternoon but otherwise were open to whatever came up along the way. As we were driving we stopped at the Enchanted Forest. Phil had been before, but I had never gone. So we stopped for an enchanted adventure. It was really fun to walk through and the nature walk was a great break for us and for Jasper from just being in the car all day. When we were done, we jumped back in the car and headed for Banff. It was a beautiful drive, and for me (Keltie) it really brought back a lot of memories of home. I grew up in Grande Cache, Alberta and the mountains surrounded my hometown, and seeing all the mountains brought back many memories and in some ways felt very comforting. Phil was in awe of the view, and kept remarking on the incredible beauty we were witnessing.

In Banff we are staying at Best Western and its really close to downtown. Once we got into town we headed down town to tour around. Banff has to be the most pet friendly place we’ve ever been, Jasper was welcome in every store and in many of them even got treats! Phil and I also couldn’t make it very far before someone wanted to stop us to say hi to him, again, Jasper didn’t seem to mind.

We decided to go to a local restaurant for dinner and headed to ‘The Meatball’ and it was delicious! Phil had the Spicy Penne and I had the Chicken and Brocolli Carbonara – MMMmmmmmm!!! We were both so impressed with our meal, it was the perfect meal to end our day.

After dinner we headed up to the Upper Banff Hot Springs, which are so relaxing! It was a perfect ending to a perfect day!

Phil and I are both finally feeling relaxed, and like we are starting to really be able to enjoy our holiday rather then worrying about work/home/life etc. This is great as we still have 9 days left of holidays so we want to get the most out of it!

And of course some photos of our day

Today didn’t have quite as early of a start which was great as both Phil and I are pretty well exhausted. It was nice to get a good sleep before starting the drive. We left Abbotsford and headed to Vernon to meet with Phil’s Auntie Mary for lunch. After lunch we went to great park to let Jasper and Marley (Mary’s pup) run around. Then Phil and I zoomed off to Salmon Arm for dinner with his Grandma. We hung out with her for the evening and then pitted in at our hotel. Its kind of nice to not have the demands of life and to be able to just hang out and relax.

We know that right now the updates are not near as much fun as we promised, but hang tight and we know that over the next few days the updates will be much more exciting

There has been so many days that I sit down to write this blog and just as many days I do not know what to write. Today I write a small post to let you know that we are going away, and hope to blog our trip as we go like we did 2 years ago on our roadtrip. We are going to be gone for 2 weeks, and traveling over 3000KM and are excited that its going to be us, Jasper and the road!

So stay tuned, we’ll have some (hopefully) fun updates as we travel.

I was cleaning out my inbox and found this note that was sent to us around Christmas…. it actually reminds us both of the people we wish to be, and that sometimes we impact peoples lives without even knowing it… so I thought I’d share it with those of you who still read our blog.

Hullo Phil and Keltie,
Please read this together:)

In one of the greatest times of need in my life you both took me into your home and treated me like family. I will forever thank Jesus for placing you on my path, He knew the two of you were exactly what I needed. You were a welcome calm when my life became a storm. You helped me take the steps I needed to become a man after God’s heart.

Keltie, though my stubborness has often cause unrest between us you were, and still are, the sister I needed to keep me humble and appreciative. You were patient with me when I was bullheaded, and were always interested with the highs and lows of my life. I could not have asked God himself for a better big sister!

Phil, you are quite, contimplative and kind to a fault. Your consistancy and solidarity of character I could only compare to Jesus. You work so hard for your family and never complain, I would be a wreck in your shoes yet you take it all with a constant smile on your face. I pray in the future you and I can have more conversations about God and His teachings instead of just when we need to prove a certain ex-girlfriend, and her mother, wrong;)

I pray the Lord blesses your marriage and family with eternal joy and fulfilment. I also pray that through all the struggles you will face together that you praise God through it all, every step of the way.
Marry Jesusmas, Phil and Keltie!

Traditionally we ring in the New Year with a housefull of friends! We play games, eat food, hang out and enjoy the love and laughter of friends. This year it was quite, subdue and we had just a couple friends over, it was a perfect way to bring in the new year.

For years and years, I’ve been a doer. If I physically can do something, I have. Have always thought “why not?”. However over 2010 I realized that the reason why not was that I would burn out. I’ve learned this year that I can’t physically, emotionally, mentally do everything that comes across my plate – or that other people think I should take on. I have to be more selective and then with those items I can offer my all. I think this new attitude will be good for me, I will have a different outlook on what I commit to, and what I pass on, and will not beat myself up over it.

I’ve also learned this past year, that sometimes friendships change, or don’t grow, or finish. There are people in my life, that if I don’t call I’d never hear from them. For some this has worked, because I know that if I needed them, they would do anything to help! For others, I’ve realized I’m just trying to do it because… I should. For years, I had so many friends – so many people to see – to hang out with. This year when Phil and I sat down to talk about what we wanted to do this year differently, we decided to develop friendships deeper and to let other friendships go, if the season of them has changed. At first this scared me – but I’ve realized that I may have been trying to hold onto relationships that weren’t there anymore. So now, both Phil and I are looking forward to not feeling the need to accommodate everyone, or to spread ourselves too thin but will be cherishing and nurturing growing, positive relationships.

This is a big realization for us (especially for me). I think Phil had it down when we met – have a few select friends that you know really well, and hang out with. At 18 my theory was the more the better. So, now we’ve found a place right in the middle. Our biggest realization is it is important to take care of ourselves, and when we are spread too thin, and worn out, how can we achieve that?

Anyway, this was a bit of a ramble. I hope you all have a great weekend!! And I hope you don’t get the cold that is floating around – both Phil and I have been hit Oh well, it’s that time of the year!!