springtime with Tawnia

It's springtime in Alberta and Tawnia had to come and see all the lilacs in bloom.

We didn't let her relax for long before heading north for some adventures.

Aria loved having Tawnia next to her in the back seat for the drive.

After a morning session at the Edmonton temple, we went to West Edmonton Mall -

the largest mall in North America.

A ridiculous amount of stores, a skating rink, a pirate ship and sea lion tank, 

a waterpark with lots of slides, a hotel, an amusement park with multiple rollercoasters, and 

Dragon's Tale Black Light Mini Golf!

As we headed back to Nana's house after our long day, Aria wasn't sure whether to sleep or eat.

After church on Sunday we took a walk by Pigeon Lake.

The last time Tawnia was here it was frozen over.

We dipped our toes in - although Aria wanted to swim like a mermaid. 

Monday was a bit more relaxing, and included barbecued pineapple.

Tawnia had time to sew some fabric bags that I had cut out - her sewing skills are improving.

Tuesday included dinosaurs, penguins and butterflies. Oh my!

 

We saw lots of butterflies - including a giant adorable blue one.

We almost didn't get to see the butterflies because of a function, 

but thankfully it ended.  

And then we almost didn't get to see the Canadian Wilds section due to a fire, 

but thankfully they were able to put it out, or we wouldn't have seen 

the mountain goats and bighorn sheep with their babies!

As we were watching the bighorn sheep Aria said,

"They just eat plants. Not girls ... or fairies."  

We stayed at the zoo until it closed, and immediately went to Aaron's ballgame afterwards.

Milkshakes from Peter's and pizza when we got home made it a pretty fabulous day.

I had to babysit on our last day together, but thankfully they got picked up early and Aaron got off work early too, so we were able to squeeze in a little shopping and some Vietnamese food for dinner.

Come back again later soon!