Brandon

MONDAY
We rented a minivan for the week to go to Brandon, this would ensure having enough room to house everything we needed without being too cramped. When we arrived at the rental place, the van was not yet ready. Apparently the people who had previously rented it had gone all the way to Toronto and the Niagara region, so the van was in desperate need of an oil change. We waited for an extra 30 mins for the van.
On the way home Xavier fell asleep, so I simple removed him out of the car with carseat and all, since I would eventually have to put it in the van anyway.


Finally, we were on our way, a little later than originally planned, instead of stopping in Portage-la-Prairie for lunch, we just stopped at Humpty's on the Perimeter before jumping unto the Trans-Canada. To keep Emma occupied during the 3-hour ride, we borrowed Memere's portable DVD player so she could watch her cartoons. Emma chose to watch The Simpsons! That's my girl.
To add a little drama to our lives, just as we pulled into the parking lot of our hotel .(Brandon Canad Inns), our cell phone rang. It was our alarm company, our alarm had gone off, apparently it was the sensors. They quickly contacted my sister (who has our spare key) and she promptly and bravely (along with my mom) raced over to our house to see what was up. Everything, thank God, was as it should be. The door to the attic was left open, and since we occasionally hear a squirrel rummaging around, we assume that a little critter made its way down and caused the sensors to go off. Crazy!
Finally and peacefully, we were able to check into our "Under the Sea" themed room.



TUESDAY
Having a pool in our hotel, we definitely took adavantage of it. They had an awesome waterslide! It was two storey's high. Richard took Emma with him on his first go. Emma got a little scared and didn't want to return. We got this little baby float for Xavier, which he really enjoyed. Emma spent most of her time either jumping off the side of the pool or swimming in mine or Richard's arms.


WEDNESDAY
We decided to get out to nature. We drove about 1 hour south of Brandon to William Lake. Both kids had a great time in the lake, however Xavier seemed to enjoy it more than Emma.



After a good swim, Xavier was ready for some breastmilk and a nap, whereas Emma was ready to go play in the little playpark next to the beach. She enjoyed very much swinging on the swings, however, the slide proved to be dangerous. Richard tried to stop her, but she was too quick and slid down the slide which had a small jagged edge. She ended up having a pretty nasty scratch all the way down her back. She did not complain about it, but did not go back on the slide. This makes me ask why such a slide is allowed to stay put in a Provincial Park right next to a public beach where children play?
We headed back to the hotel in the evening where we enjoyed room service for supper and a nice movie called "Juno". I highly recommend it, very enjoyable.

THURSDAY
First thing in the morning I headed down to the pool with the kids. While we were enjoying the water, Emma had a bowel movement without telling me (oh the joys of toilet training) must credit the little swimmers she was wearing for not revealing her secret right away. However, a little swimmer can only do so much, as Emma jumped into the pool her secret was let out, so to say. Immediately we got out of the pool and called the front desk. They promptly closed the pool and had to perform a chemical clean for about 6 hours. We took the opportunity to go pick up some items from the local Wal-Mart, including more little swimmers. When we arrived at the Wal-Mart, we noticed one of those big busses that go from town to town marked as Brandon Bus Lines parked in front of the store. We thought that was odd, but didn't really pay too much attention to it. As we were leaving the Wal-Mart, just outside of the parking lot we noticed a news reporter from the city talking with a gentleman. We thought it was very bizarre to see a news reporter standing in the middle of a lane (with access to a different store) doing an interview, especially one from the city. Later on everything became clear to us, as we discovered that the prior evening an absolutely horrific scene had unfolded in a Greyhound bus. The other passengers (i.e. witnesses) were brought to the Wal-Mart to purchase clothes, toilletries and other items as their belongings had become part of a crime scene (Greyhound apparently picked up the tab). The reporter was standing outside the parking lot because Wal-Mart had prohibitted any reporters from accessing their property while the witnesses were inside. Crazy.
After lunch, since the pool was still closed, we found a schoolyard where Emma could frolic and play on. Finally we went back to the hotel and spent at least two hours in the pool, including Emma's favourite place to be, the whirlpool!

FRIDAY
Our final day, we got up early, had some breakfast and went down to enjoy the pool one final time before we needed to check out. Richard tried to convince Emma to try the slide again, but it was a no go. We had fun anyway. On the ride home Emma watched her favourite "Max and Ruby" DVD. We stopped in Portage-la-Prairie to have lunch and then made our way back to Winnipeg. We did some groceries and vowed not to have anymore take out for at least a month! LOL!

All in all we had a good time, however we found that staying in a hotel and needing to go out to restaurants is just too expensive. We're going to stick to renting cottages and bringing our own food/linen