the summer of picking Kaylie up from city after city

So, I mentioned that Kaylie took a three-week trip with my mom. Well, the younger two and I took a little jaunt to Edmonton to pick her up.

I needed an excuse to visit my friend Dawn, anyway. We don’t actually remember each other that much from real life, but we grew up in the same town, we went to the same elementary school, we attended the same summer camp, our parents were in a church group together, we have a ton of mutual friends, and we lived in the same basement suite, just at different times. Oh, and we were both at a mutual friend’s wedding in 2005.

We’ve been internet friends for a couple years now, and after our first day with her, I completely forgot that we haven’t been life-long friends. I love the internet for that.

We ate fantastic food the whole three days. We went out for our first meal, as Dawn waited to shop for us till we were there to see what we like (smart lady, she is), and then we apparently went on a round-the-world cooking adventure, starting with Filipino pancit. It was delicious. I got the recipe and am going to attempt to make it at home.

We hit up IKEA the second day, before we were to meet my mom and Kaylie. I’ve never lived in a city that has an IKEA, so I don’t know the ins and outs, but did you know that they have a play area for kids? And that you can leave your kid there to be babysat for FREE?! We dropped Liliana off and put Preston in a cart and it was the best thing ever. Liliana LOVED it, and Dawn and I got to shop without someone running circles around the cart.

It’s a good thing that I didn’t have anything large on my IKEA shopping list, because Kaylie brought out of my mom’s Mini Cooper about half a house full of stuff. It’s also a good think she’s tall/heavy enough to sit in the front seat now, because there’s no way those two could have done the trip if Kaylie had to sit in the back seat.

My mom took off right away, as she had to be back home for work. It was quite nice to have my eldest baby back in my arms again.

Dawn and I had planned to stay up till we finished the donut puzzle (I love puzzles), but my body started to shut down, so I had to take off to bed.

And it’s a good thing, too, because these crazy-sleep-positioned kids only slept till about 2am before they decided it was party time. Or, rather, Preston decided it was party time and Liliana was awake by default, as two-year-olds don’t exactly understand the whole be quiet because other people are sleeping and I WOULD LIKE TO BE, TOO thing. I’m pretty sure that refusing to let someone sleep is a form of torture. I tried to get Preston back to sleep for hours and then finally just gave him my phone so he could watch some Jake and the Never Land Pirates and I tried to get some sleep until Liliana was up and the two of them were fighting over who was holding the phone and who could see it and I wanted to bash their heads together I was so delirious in my sleep-deprived state.

Dawn gave me some magic natural caffeine pills the next morning, as coffee would have been a very bad idea (sleep deprivation + coffee-induced anxiety = I’m a complete mess).

We hit up the downtown farmer’s market on Saturday because my cousin works at a local garden and I wanted to see her and pick up some pickling cucumbers. I’m annoyingly sentimental, and figured it would be quite neat to can stuff that my cousin had grown.

We took off shortly afterwards so that Kaylie could have a whole 14 hours at home before jetsetting off to meet a friend of hers in Calgary. She got to spend a night in her new bed (she LOVED it) and has spent the last week traveling around and is currently in Regina, where I will pick her up tomorrow. I love having excuses to visit friends in other cities. I only have a couple hours there, so I don’t get to see everyone I want to see, but I’ll take what I can get.

And then she’s home for good. For now. I’ve missed her.