Mini Vacations

Life is busy and stressful at times. But every once in a while we get a little escape from the craziness of reality. Chris just got back from a one and a half day mini vacation to Las Vegas. The kids and I picked him up at the airport after church today. This vacation was to celebrate Chris Father's birthday. We love our Grandma and Grandpa Watters - they are such wonderful people! I am happy that Chris could help celebrate a milestone for Gary. Chris and 4 of his 5 siblings flew to Las Vegas to walk up and down the Strip, go gun shooting at a famous gun place and have an expensive, elaborate steak dinner at the Paris hotel. They planned this a few weeks ago and I will tell the truth by saying when I first heard about it I thought to myself "okay...wait, what the...!" I have been feeling a little bit of the weight of the world on my shoulders these days and sometimes tears are close. Spending money on an expensive dinner in Las Vegas did not really lessen my stress. Starving student phases in life are hard and I feel like I can not seem to get out of them. But, I love my husband, and I love the Watters family and I have to keep my emotions at bay and my thoughts simple. I keep telling myself that. Sometimes life doesn't really make sense but I know that I will go through many times in life where everything will make sense and life will seem easy and I will look back on tough times as small learning moments and I will wonder why I thought they were a big deal. I keep telling myself this too. And I move forward.

Now to talk about another mini vacation. This one involved the whole Smith family. Thank you for making this happen Mom. I used our petro points to book a few hotel rooms at the Sheraton Cavalier in NE Calgary the first Friday night in March. We stayed at this hotel when I was a little girl on New Years eve and it brought back fun memories. It has a nice waterpark with 2 fun waterslides, a kiddie pool, hot tubs and a sauna. We went swimming for hours Friday evening and Saturday morning. We had a pizza party and we went exploring in the hotel with the kids. Mary loved the elevators and went up and down and up and down. Mom brought muffins for breakfast and after swimming some more, we checked out on Saturday at 1100 and went down the road to Chuck E Cheese for an hour so that the kids could play. Then mom and dad treated us to Korean food at an authentic Korean restaurant on McLeod trail. I may never be able to go to Korea but I sure do enjoy the food that they have there. I think it takes mom and dad back to their mission days in Seoul.

Well, life is good. Caeleb and Elva are on Spring break this week and the weather is great. Maybe Spring is here to stay. It feels like it has been a hard winter with the cold spells and snow but it has not been too bad so I can not complain. I work a few days this week but I hope the weather stays nice and the kids and I can enjoy walks to the park and maybe around Fish Creek park. We shall see. Chris will be studying this week. The more studying the better. I am looking forward to General Conference this weekend. I look forward to listening to the uplifting messages twice a year. We are also looking forward to Jared and Landon's visit in a few weeks. Life is good.