We met at Grandma Pat's senior living center. It was my first time going there and—man!—that place is nice. Like, I had heard stories (it's jokingly referred to as "the cruise ship") but I was seriously impressed.
Her apartment is darlingly decorated. The amenities are plentiful—a pool, a gym, a games room, a theatre, a post office, a store, a bistro, a restaurant, a bank... You name it, they seem to have it!
And all the staff were so friendly!
I was, as I said, seriously impressed.
Grandma Pat took us to lunch at the bistro (us = me, my mom, Grandpa Frank, Uncle Matt, Aunt Becky, and Aunt Nicki). The food was good and it was lovely to get to visit with everyone!
They were curious about Darla (I hope I gave good information) and it was fun to hear about their exploits as well. Uncle Matt and Aunt Becky recently returned from a trip to southern Alberta! They couldn't remember quite, but seemed to recall that I had connections to southern Alberta, and I do! That's where four generations of my family spent large portions of their lives—my great-grandparents immigrated there (with my grandpa in tow as a baby), my grandma was born there, my mom was raised on the family farm near Taber, I was born in Raymond and raised in High River (among...other places). It was fun to hear what they thought about it (it's beautiful (true) and there are grizzly bears (also true)).
Aunt Becky said they saw six grizzly bears in Waterton.
And I was like, "I'm usually happy not to see grizzlies in Waterton."
"Well, we were in our car," she said.
And that helps. A lot.
Running into a grizzly while hiking would be...not as much "fun."
Once when my Auntie Colleen and Uncle LeRon were hiking in Waterton with their kids (hiking Bear's Hump) they ran into a bear. Well, my Uncle LeRon (who is...a delightful character (my sister Kelli always tells me that she feels that Andrew is the Uncle LeRon of our family, if that tells you anything—like, so smart, so kind, but also really, really goofy) and my two oldest cousins panicked. They turned on their heels, screaming and running, leaving my poor Auntie Colleen on the trail, holding baby Eric, while toddler Michelle and preschooler Heather clung to her legs.
I can imagine my Auntie Colleen saying things like, "Go away, bear!" (just like my grandma would calmly order the cows around (my grandma believed that animals can understand)).
Eventually the bear left and my Uncle LeRon and cousins Michael and Craig slunk back to "help" her.
"I feel like the wicked priests of King Noah!" my Uncle LeRon lamented/apologized (having left his wife and children behind to flee from a danger).
Anyway, it was a good visit! And I'm glad Matt and Becky had a fun time in Alberta!
*****
Josie ordered Korean food for dinner, which was delicious, and then we went to Costco to buy tomatoes for the wedding dinner. Kelli is making a everything herself. She's doing Spanish rice and a taco bar.
We're in charge of chopping vegetables for topping, so last night Josie and I cut up several bags of onions Kelli dropped off earlier. She wanted us to do tomatoes as well but didn't want to give those to my mom in advance, so we told her we'd just buy them. Costco seemed like a good place to buy so many tomatoes and luckily...Andrew and I have a Costco membership (because my mom doesn't).
Andrew enjoys shopping at Costco. I very rarely go because I find it so overwhelming. But we managed to navigate the store, picking up many, many tomatoes...and a bunch of other things we weren't planning on buying but did anyway!
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