Hanging in "The Hat"

Day 16 continued:

We arrived in Medicine Hat chez Karen, Chris and Vaughn around 6:00pm to a homemade gourmet meal. What a treat! I should have known she would go all out... I have been salivating reading her blog lately!!! We did some catching up, bathed the bébé after dinner and I got to read the bedtime story! When it was adult time, we were introduced to the card game I had heard so much about called "Killer Bunnies" (it's as mean as it sounds!) We kept Chris up way too late so he could beat us (all that darn cabbage!) and finally turned in around almost midnight.

Day 17: Karen was kind enough to obtain free passes to her step class for us at the gym where she volunteers. Yes, volunteers. Six months after she had a baby. She is amazing, this lady! We don't have the baby excuse and our bodies didn't know what hit them! Darn lunges! No, I think it's the plank that I'll be feeling tomorrow. Hello abs! I had forgotten you were there!

After the class, we went home for a quick shower before Vaughn's swimming lesson. Since Karen has been going on her own, she has had no documentation of this event. Naturally, I had to take 10,000 pictures! It wasn't tough to shoot this adorable model... and his tongue! (Check out Mom's pipes!!!! I'd like to have those pre-baby!)

While Karen went to the dentist, Jeff and Ash toured the stampede that just arrived in town. We saw a gator show (here Mic is demonstrating the strategy used by the Natives to tie a gator's mouth closed when they were alone in the jungle: tuck his mouth in between your chin and chest, which frees up your hands to take the rope that would be between your teeth and tie his mouth shut. Right. Now we would know what to do if we ever passed a gator on the road... keep driving!)We visited the petting zoo, ate fries for $8.00 and checked out the art exhibit. No rides for us this time... our visit to Wonderland in Toronto last summer was probably my last attempt at being a ride warrior! What a wimp!

We picked up delicious DQ for dinner (we wanted to give the chefs/hosts/parents a break from cooking!) and after "The Pooper" went to bed, we played a super fun spin-off game of Cranium called Pop 5. Jeff and I were allowed to be partners, which meant for more crazy fast problem solving. Who sculpts "Hungry, Hungry Hippos"???? Thanks for letting us win, Houghs!

Day 18: Yep, it's the abs that hurt.

Jeff was startled by a floating baby head in the bathroom as we got ready for the Medicine Hat Stampede Parade. We stopped in at Starbucks for my eye-opening juice (thanks, Amanda!) and found a steep parking spot. We arrived just as the opening bagpipes were passing! We watched horsies, sparkly floats and a toilet go by...

On the way home, we stopped in to check out the giant teepee (that I had also heard so much about!). FYI, the teepee was from the 88 Calgary Olympics site and tranferred to MH after.

We headed home for some quick lunch, got packed up and held a photo shoot before getting on the road again. (Please note the strategically placed logo!)

We really enjoyed our seventh stop! Thanks again to Karen and Chris for putting us up (or should we say, putting up with us!). It was just great to see how nicely your family has settled in to your home. We are also happy to know that you aren't that far away! See you soon!