Getting Away

Alright! I'm feeling pretty good after coming home from our brief five day trip to Radium, BC. The last time I went out of town with my family was two years ago when my mom turned 50. From what I can remember, we spent two weeks in Vancouver, did a bunch of things, and came back for school. I am so blessed to be able to have the family and extended family that I have. We, as a whole, have been blessed so much by God and just to be so gifted in more or less everything we do is a great honour and privilege.

This time around, we decided to do a trip in early June because it's the first time the three of us are done school at the end of April. I definitely understand the difficulties in planning family vacations now. Add another fact that each of us are have varying differences in the things we want to do. In the past, it used to be my parents planned the trip, and we did whatever they planned. Now that we're older and more independent, my parents give us more freedom to recommend things. But because we all like different things, trying to arrive at a conclusion is hard because we want to be accommodating, but at the same time push for the things we want. LOL.

Either way, this brief trip was so needed for me. On the Thursday, randomly, my parents thought maybe going to Vancouver would be a better idea. I love Vancouver, but I cannot spend only five days there, especially given that our cousins still have work and school to do. So we ended up doing the Radium trip.

When we departed on Sunday morning, my family wanted to go to a mega church and an Alliance church. So I only had one suggestion, First Alliance in Calgary. I hadn't gone to that church in over a year, so it was a nice time being able to attend their service again.

Later the day, we arrived in Radium, and I'm pretty sure we brought the average age of the town down by about ten years. Since it was Sunday night, anyone that would've been in Radium would be going home, leaving only the old folks and family/business owners there. The town was ghost-ish, so I didn't really feel that great about the trip.

On Monday, we drove down to the Invermere area to explore. Then, after some hard work of persuasion, we went up to a par 3 nine hole golf course. I was so stoked to be able to actually play a full 9. Having worked at a golf course over a summer, I never had the opportunity to play a full course before; the only time I got to hit the ball was on some quiet or rainy days when the course was empty. Since golf isn't really a sport you can just pick up, my family had some hesitations about going because we knew we'd look pathetic. And we did; after spending 45 minutes on the first hole, and me trying to teach my family how to hold the club and how to hit the ball, we had all successfully sunk our first hole! Halfway through that hole, I knew my family felt defeated and ready to pack it in, so I did my best just to encourage them to have fun and forget about technique and all that stuff. I'm glad I did, because I think we actually ended up having a great time! We spent a total of three hours on the golf course, and I hit a +17.

After the golf, you guessed it, we went back to our motel to watch hockey.

On Tuesday morning, we drove an hour up to Golden, BC, to go white water rafting. I think we felt hesitant for this one too because we're not the greatest swimmers, and quite frankly, being swept away by water is scary for anyone. When we were down at the dock to load onto our rafts, I think I could hear my mom shivering in her gear behind me. I, myself, was slightly shaky for the first bit because I hadn't done any rafting in a few years either, so I had to get over the initial jitters. Then, about half an hour later, and somewhere down the river, I was just exhausted from sitting in the front getting splashed on and having to paddle the damn raft when everything was hurting! All in all, I'm so glad my mom ended up braving up and going down the river with us; it would not have been the same without her.

To finish off the day, we went back to Radium and just soaked in the hot springs for an hour or so, then got some ice cream. What an awesome way to end the day!

Finally, to finish off the trip on Wednesday, we drove out to Banff just to take an easier day in walking around the town and watching hockey. On Thursday morning, we drove out back to Calgary and spent a few hours at Cross Iron Mills, where I bought two pairs of shorts, before coming back to Edmonton.

Now that I'm back home, I realize that I'm closing in on two months since finishing my degree. I'm just beginning to discover that the "summer off" that I wanted really isn't going to be a summer off. I'm facing the constant pressure and stress of having to find a church to work at, having people ask me to do this and do that. While I love being with and helping people, I didn't expect much of it. I thought it'd be a low key summer for me, but I guess I should've known better. It's all good, in the end.

I'm really excited, looking ahead to September for a first that will happen for me. I won't disclose what it is yet because it's not confirmed/finalized, but assuming that everything works out, I'm going to be taking part of my first real task that comes with the territory of being a pastor; and I cannot WAIT!

How about that Spain-Netherlands game, though.