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A Weekend In My Life: Vacation With My Family :)

Happy Monday Everyone :)


It's a civic holiday here in Saskatchewan today, but my husband and I are both working so we won't really be doing anything too exciting.


However, last weekend we were able to go away for a few days with my family to Calgary, mainly for shopping and to go to the zoo, and since it has been a very long time since I last did a day in the life post, I thought that's what I'd like to share with you all today.


On Thursday evening, July 26th, we got all packed up and ready to go, and ran to Wal Mart quickly to pick up a few things we needed to take with us. I started vacation shopping early lol, when I discovered a shelf of Christian fiction bargain books, and couldn't resist buying a few. I'll share which ones in the hall at the end of this post. 






Miss Katsa was not very happy we were leaving her. She always knows exactly what it means when the suitcases come out.


Friday, July 29th started out not too early for us, as I got up at seven and Neil followed shortly thereafter. We managed to get out the door around the time we wanted too, and we were on the road by 9:30 am.


The drive was not too bad at all, and we mainly just passed the time visiting and enjoying the scenery.





We stopped about two and a half hours in, at another city in Alberta, where we stopped at the mall for a quick restroom break, and ended up grabbing some A and W to eat once we were back on the road. After another quick stop for gas, we were back on the road, and were able to enjoy our food along the way. I really wish Canadian grocery stores would get the beyond meat burger, as I really like them, but don't like having to go to a fast food restaurant to buy them.




After a few more hours we finally arrived at our hotel: The Days Inn North Balzac, which is right by the Cross Iron Mills Mall, and unfortunately we had a bit of drama when we first checked in, which is why I have next to no pictures.


Neil and I constantly use expedia. We book pretty much every hotel we stay at through them, with the exception of Disney, and we always book our airfare through them as well, and let me tell you in all the years we've been doing this, this hotel was the first time we've ever encountered a problem.


The front desk claimed our reservation never came through, and told us they'd have to start a new reservation. Thankfully they honored the price we were quoted through expedia, but we'd also prepaid through expedia, and now we were going to have to pay for a new reservation. After a quick call to expedia, and more drama with the front desk, it got sorted out, and then we learned later on that the problem was definitely not on Expedia's end, as this was not the only issue we ended up having with this hotel.


Alas, it all got sorted and we were off to check out our room, and get unpacked.






I will say however, that although I wasn't a huge fan of the service we received here, the rooms were really nice, and airy, and had lots of light which is often a pet peeve of mine as I so often find that hotel rooms are really dark.


We got unpacked, and freshened up, and then decided to head over to the Cross Iron Mills Mall to do some shopping for the rest of the evening.



We always really enjoy this mall, although we did find this time that it was quite insanely busy. We browsed for a bit, going through some of our favorite stores like The Disney Store, and I also spend quite a bit of time looking at the Her Universe line in Hot Topic. We actually didn't end up buying too much this evening, as we knew we'd be back the next two days, and we were both feeling kind of tired from the long road trip. We stopped briefly in the food court to have a quick dinner, and for some reason which I really have no idea why, we ended up eating at KFC. Here we both decided on the veggie sandwich, and it just wasn't good at all. 



Compared to the amazing beyond meat burger I'd had for lunch, this just tasted really greasy and I wasn't a fan at all. After supper we ended up going back to the hotel room, and just finished the evening watching TV, and I read some of Tiny Pretty Things. We also made a quick stop at the Tim Hortons and Gas Station near the hotel so we wouldn't have to worry about getting gas on the way to the Zoo in the morning. 


Saturday July 28th started out decently early for us. We were meeting my mom, stepdad, sister, and nephews at the zoo later in the morning, as they stayed at a different hotel that us, but we wanted to get there close to opening. Neil had never been before, it was supposed to be a pretty crowded day, and it was supposed to be hot, so we figured the earlier the better.


We both got ready to go, had the free breakfast at our hotel, and were leaving the hotel by about 8:45 or so. Neil's definitely not a fan of big city driving, so I wasn't sure how this was going to go, but we made it in pretty good time, got our parking space, paid for parking, and headed in to have some fun.




We decided our first stop would be Africa and The Rainforest, cause I figured they would be more enjoyable while the heat wasn't unbearable.





On the way over though, I had to stop and take this picture on the bridge. I've always loved this spot at the zoo, ever since I went the first time as a young child.







The Africa area was not that crowded, and we definitely enjoyed getting to stroll through it at our own pace. We both especially enjoyed the new lemur exhibit, and thought it was a great addition.

After Africa we visited the Rainforest, which is one of my favorite areas, but didn't spend too much time as it is of course always really humid in here, and it was already starting to get really hot outside by this time.



By this point we were both starting to get a little hungry, and my family wasn't quite on their way yet, so we went off in search of something to eat. Unfortunately, we had a hard time finding anything at any of the kiosks that wasn't deep fried, and neither of us was feeling that after the previous day. I knew if we walked back over to the cafe we'd probably find something, but as were not in that area we decided just to get an ice cream to share for now, and eat something more substantial later.



The Giant Panda sundae was cute and adorable, but I thought it was a little underwhelming for the 6.50 price tag. At Disney, a 6.50 sundae is usually way too much for even two people to eat, and this was basically the same size as a small sundae at Dairy Queen.

After our ice cream, we visited another one of my favorite areas, The Dorothy Havre Gardens, and I got some cute bookstagram pictures.




We proceeded to check out the butterfly gardens



And then headed back over to the front of the park to hopefully meet up with my family. Unfortunately, they were still a little ways away, so we ended up ducking into the Canadian Wilds while we waited for them.




My favorite part of this area is always the otters, but it was super crowded in there, and I didn't end up getting any pictures this time.

From here we met up with my family, and proceeded to go through a few of the exhibits that Neil and I had already been through this morning, and let me tell you that it was sooo hot.

We decided after a few exhibits that it was time to let the boys ride the carousel, but I won't share my pictures from here as they all have my sister and her son in them and she's not crazy about the idea of their pictures being plastered on my blog.

From here it was finally time to see the main event: we were off to see the new panda exhibit.

Of course it was extremely crowded in this part, but Neil and I both loved getting to see these beautiful animals, and my older nephew was fascinated.







After finishing in the exhibit, my brother's son, my older nephew, wanted to spend some of his spending money in the panda gift shop. He was very aware of exactly how much money he had, and wanted to save some of it for the main gift shop at the front, and so he ended up getting a t-shirt and a small stuffed panda from here.

From here we proceeded to go see the tiger, but he was feeling a little shy and was mainly hanging around the back of the enclosure. He was such a majestic creature though, and we all really enjoyed getting to see him. On the way back to Africa, my nephew bought himself a tiger slap watch with some more of his money, and this thing quickly became a bit of a pain in the butt. He was a little bored in the garden section of the zoo, and so he kept playing with his watch. All of a sudden I noticed it was missing when he stopped to play at one of the stations, and my husband, sister and I ended up having to backtrack to find it which thankfully we did.

After this, my mom could tell that the boys needed a break so we decided to head over the cafe for lunch. Unfortunately, neither my husband or I does well with eating in the heat, and so neither of us were feeling even remotely hungry at this point. Instead we just sat and visited with the boys and my stepdad, while my mom and sister went to get all of their lunches. This was definitely the break we all needed from the heat, and after this we decided we had time to do one more exhibit before we needed to be on our way. It was unanimous that we were on our way to everyone's favorite-the penguin plunge.



Unfortunately, with this one I really wish they had monitored how many people they were letting in at once. I would have gladly waited in line for awhile, if it meant you'd be able to actually move once you got into the exhibit. Thankfully, we were able to get the boys a spot at the glass to see what was going on, but it was just so crazily crowded.

From here, we gave my nephew a few minutes in the gift shop, where he picked out a t-shirt that had a panda on it with a bunch of penguins, and said something about how he was starting to fit in with the locals. He also found a dinosaur necklace he loved, but was out of spending money, so my hubby and I picked it up as a treat for him.

From here, we all headed out and headed our separate ways back to our hotels. Thankfully the traffic wasn't too crazy, and we made it back to our hotel in pretty good time. 

Neil and I got freshened up, and headed over to Cross Iron Mills again, and while I didn't end up buying anything tonight, he found himself a couple of pairs of jeans, and we decided to pick up some Asian food from the food court to take back to our room.



We spent the evening watching some tv, and we both ended up heading to bed fairly early as the seven hour day at the zoo had tuckered both of us out.

The next morning we checked out, and were told that everything was fixed with Expedia, and that our credit card would not be charged for anything for the room.

We enjoyed our free breakfast, and headed over to the Cross Iron Mills. The mall didn't officially open for almost an hour, but Neil wanted to look around Bass Pro Shop, and they opened an hour earlier than the rest of the mall.



He looked at the hunting and fishing stuff for a bit, and we ended up getting a couple of treats to take home with us from the fudge shop there.

Once the mall opened, I ended up doing a ton of shopping, mainly at the Disney Store, and Hot Topic, and it was nice that the crowds were still pretty low at this point.

We stopped for lunch at a yummy little cafe in the mall, and it was here that Neil found out that the hotel had double charged his card, and was currently withholding a ton of money from it. When he called about it, the woman told him that all would be fixed, but we were both a little unsure of what was going on by this point.




From here we decided to get on the road, as we were spending our last night in the city that's the halfway point between Calgary and our hometown.

The drive went fairly well, and we only ended up having to stop once for a quick restroom break and to get a drink.

My family was actually passing through the city we were staying at, and stopped for dinner there. We were going to meet up with them, but didn't end up making it in time, so we just got a pizza instead, and headed to check into our last hotel. This hotel was such a pleasant experience, and definitely made up for all the drama we dealt with in Calgary.

We ate our pizza, went down to the pool and hot tub for a bit, and then decided to go have a workout in the fitness room.

After all this, my husband decided to give me my anniversary present a few weeks early, and I was so blown away by what he picked up for me at Cross Iron Mills:



He purchased the Elsa snowflake ring from People's Enchanted Disney collection, and I'm completely in love with it. I sometimes can't believe just how well he knows me, and always hits it out of the ballpark with the things he picks out.

Our last night we spent watching TV in our room, and making sure everything was packed up for going home tomorrow.

The next morning we got up, had the free breakfast, dragged everything out to the cars, and checked out.

We stopped at the mall for about an hour, and were then on our way home where we both couldn't wait to get home to Katsa, home cooked food, and our own bed.

And that was the end of our fun, quick summer giveaway, but I thought it would be fun to quickly share with you all a quick haul of all the things I picked up while we gone.



First, I picked up these two books from the bargain shelf at Wal-Mart, and I can't wait to read both of them.



We went to the new Miniso store at Cross Iron Mills, and got a new bath mat for our bathroom, a travel cup, and some of our favorite candies that we'd only ever seen before at the Japanese store at Epcot.



I picked up these shorts at H and M.



I definitely wanted something from the zoo, and so I picked up this gorgeous bookmark that's made from leaves somehow, and I also ended up getting myself a pair of penguin earrings, but I forgot to include them in the picture.




From Winner's I got three t-shirts, a pair of pajama pants, and these cute floral pants that I'm looking forward to styling.



From Marshall's I got a three pack of essential oil blends that I've already been using in my diffuser, and I also lucked out with finding this Juicy Couture PJ set for 11.00 dollars that still had the 68.00 original price tag on it.



From InterSport, I got this adorable pineapple dress on an amazing sale.




From the Disney store I purchased these three shirts for myself. The first two were on really good sales, while the Edna Mode one was fairly expensive, but I got it anyways cause I really loved it, and it was fun getting to wear it to see The Incredibles 2 a couple of nights ago.

And lastly, I purchased quite a few things from Hot Topic thanks to the amazing 25 percent off sale they were having. While I'm not a fan of a lot of the dark stuff this store sells, I really enjoy their Disney stuff, and I love Her Universe, so this was the store we spent the most time and money at. Plus the service in here was top notch, and I can't stress enough how much I appreciate great customer service like all the people in here were.



First, I picked up Ashley Eckstein's book, which I'd been dying to read for quite some time.



Next I got this gorgeous Alice in Wonderland top, and please excuse all the wrinkles, I took these pictures right after taking everything out of the suitcases and probably should have ironed it all first.





I got this gorgeous Star Wars tank top with tiny little Millenium Falcons on it.



This gorgeous Star Wars dress which I can't wait to wear.



This beautiful Ariel tank, which my hubby actually picked out.



This amazing tote bag by Loungefly, a pack of Tangled earrings, and a Snow White necklace.



And lastly, this gorgeous Marie from the Aristocats poofy skirt that I seriously cannot wait to wear the next time we go to Disney World.

And that's the end guys! Thank you so much for reading, and enjoy the rest of your day and the start to another fabulous week.


This is not a sponsored post. All experiences and items featured were paid for by myself or my husband. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photos were taken by me, and belong to me.











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