Happy 1/2 Birthday Monkey!

So here's whats been going on.... my secret stayed a secret until about 11:30am Saturday.  As we walked out of swimming into thunder, tons of lightening and lots and lots of rain, there was no way I figured adrenaline was going to come together for J's half birthday. So I spilled the beans about my plans and pouted while I explained how disappointed I was...... how wrong was I?! The skies cleared and the rain held off and we were able to (at least attempt) the ropes and climbing course at Adrenaline Adventures!


For those of you who are wondering why we were celebrating a 1/2 birthday, here's the deal.  J's birthday is Jan 31, mine is Jan 21 and S is Jan 25! 3 birthdays within 10 days of each other in our family usually means dinner or whatever I want to do. (Thanks S for being such a good sport too!) Anyways, J never complains and always just goes with the flow (granted he doesn't plan anything so he should just go with it, but that's another story). This year I decided to do something completed geared for him. So I made a reservation for 10 of us go try the ropes and climbing course at Adrenaline which included zip lining. I ordered a special Kokanee cake, and had our friends and family keep it a secret for months. :)


Now what's the deal with Adrenaline you ask? Well for starters I think it's opened a little premature. It needs work, help with customer service and management. But having worked with a few start ups (opening some BPs and Lilac when it was still growing) I know this takes a ton of work, a lot of hours, and usually they don't quite have the funds to pay a person properly to get a really good dedicated manager. It's not quite set up for groups yet and the course is well......

The course itself is not for the weak. It's actually not for a lot of people. It is designed with a few flaws in my opinion and it was tough. Not just physically tough, but emotionally disappointing. As I read on their website that a 4 year old could complete the course, I thought, 'oh it's just a fun course that is built up high.' Not really the case. Now, do not get me wrong..... it was TONS of fun. And I would go back. I would try my best again. BUT it was frustrating. It was hard to try climbing to wall over and over again while being physically exhausted and knowing you are so close, yet so far away. I will tell you this.... I never made it to the course.  But 3 men in our group did and J said it was a lot of fun.


I did have a few complaints, among them were when I called to confirm our reservation at about 11:30am and see how the weather was there, they never mentioned there was no power. We had a reservation to eat in their restaurant, but with no power that meant no restaurant. Had they told me, I could have made other arrangements at that point. It was fine, we went to BP Kenaston who accommodated our group and we had an amazing server, but it was more the point of it.  This also meant you had to pay cash as their debit and credit machines were down. Again, had I known, when I confirmed with our friends & family, I could have made sure they had cash on hand to pay for their drinks (warm) from the bar. (As a side note, I'm pretty sure you aren't allowed to serve if you have no power, and with no emergency lights on in the bathroom, I'm also pretty sure you have to close for safety reasons)


Having no easy way up the course made it so 70% of our group could not participate although they tried.  Ziplining was only accessible if you could make it up, so our group was stuck watching. Because of the weather, we were also not able to go xorbing, which was disappointing as it would have provided at least something for the observers to participate in.  The wake boarding was also closed due to no power.


But even with all of this, I'm happy with the day, I'm glad we did it, and it was tons of fun! Here's a few pictures

J, C, and K (who is scared of heights) on the first level of the course

Me climbing the wall, never made it much further

Birthday Cake courtesy of Sunrise Mosaics - check them out on Facebook

Unsensored

This blog has received a lot of reads lately by many people I never expected. First im sorry to hurt you. This blog is used as a personal and unsensored account of daily life, my opinions, and observations. I sometimes forget with it being online, its online for any one to read. I never edit my posts, they are written exactly how I'm feeling at the time. I never think about others feelings, but maybe i should. That being said the last post did come out harsh and that was never my intention. I'm sorry again.

Out of place......

Warning about this post: it's not meant to offend anyone. It is simple observations of my daily life. I am not trying to complain or put down others, just point out mere differences. If you at okay readi g this with an open mind and not interested in judging, please continue. Otherwise, I think you should skip this post. I went to the same school for 12 years. when I entered as a shy (yes I was shy at one point!) scared little girl with glasses to my grade 1 classroom I would have no idea how many of these other scared little girls would become lifelong friends. many of them have been friends with me for over 20 years! I attended a friends wedding yesterday of one of these school friends. As the maid of honor (also a lifelong friend) gave her speech I felt like we were right out of high school again and nothing in our lives had changed..... Except everything in our lives has changed. There were many of our other school friends there, many whom I was seated with for the evening that I haven't seen in years. Yesterday I was reminded why. As I near 30 I believe it is time to grow up. We are not 18 anymore and I'm quite happy that we're not. The days of drama and drinking are behind me and my focus (and love) is diapers and discovery. So while I sat at a table where I was the only mom, the only woman without a career (that pays money), an the only one who planned to leave before 11pm, I noticed a huge gap. A gap that I just couldn't avoid - I couldnt pretend it didn't exist and fool myself into believing we were right out of high school and we still have something in common. Now don't get me wrong, half of my table was great. Although one still lives at home and has a long term bf (8years i think!), and one just bought her first house with her bf, I felt connected to these ladies. They didn't judge my relationship with J (or question why he is gone), they didn't make me feel ridiculous for leaving early to come home to my babies, and they found common ground by talking by random life events. However, the other half of my table was...... Mind blowing. Beside me sat a girl who I spent every weekend with in high school, countless hours on the phone with and even wrote my grade 12 farewell message in the year book. As she sat there and discussed the events (or those that she could remember) of her night before, I couldn't help feeling really out of place. We have nothing in common anymore...... This week also involved a playdate with a friend from high school who I was never close with. We got along but just ran in different circles. She now lives in California with her husband and 2.5 year old. She was in town visiting and called me up. I'm thankful she did! It was a great afternoon spent outside at Assiniboine park, we walked the gardens with our kids talking about how we feel out of place sometimes in a sea of friends who went onto impressive career orientated lives. But we also connected over our natural methods of parenting. Now she is more of a hippie than I, but we had many similar views. It was nice to let the kids play at the nature park, but also fun to see her now. If only she lived closer I'm sure she would be a weekly playdate for us. I'm excited for wedding season to be over. To go back to spending my days focused on my babies and to again not see some of these ladies for years. While I say that, I also hope I have reconnected with a few and can continue t stay on touch even if we don't see each other much. Life has many paths and each person chooses what they feel is right for them, but the more time I spend with "the other side", the more thankful I am for the life I have. J and I have ups and downs, and sometimes I have no idea if he's being spontaneous or has been planning things for awhile before springing them on me, but he really is my best friend. He is supportive and level headed, he's strong, hard working, funny, sometimes a jerk, good looking, and honest. He is the most loyal person I know and I wouldnt trade him for anything! Obviously the girls are my world, and I could write a whole post on how great I believe they are (as every parent could of their own) but I won't today. I just look at them and know I have made the right choice for me. This week j comes home and Saturday is his surprise party. Since it looks like he will only be home for 5 days, we will likely go north to visit him during his run. Well that's it for today, enjoy ~