My wonderful trip to Canada!

I’m sitting at the airport in Canada, waiting for my flight. WOW! What a birthday it’s been! I just had a WONDERFUL weekend! When I arrived Friday, we went straight to the Mall to grab a bite to eat…of course, I had Chicken Ceasar at the Extreme Pita Express. My mouth had been watering for this the moment I knew that I was going to Heather and Todd’s. YUM!

We shopped a little bit…found a surprise for Jarrett and Joey and a Christmas present for Heather and I. The Bobbsie Twins!

Went home and met up with Scott for a game of darts.

It didn’t take much before I was TOTALLY hooked. I seem to be somewhat of a natural. Todd said I had a straight shot and it wasn’t too often that I was off the board. It was a late night of drinks and darts…and the start of a few more nights of D & D.

Saturday morning I slept in just a bit later than I planned. (10 am my time…11 am Canadian time). After Todd got back from doing the books at work, we did a bit more shopping.

We went to Michael’s to get Heather’s Christmas presents. I made her a Valentine Purse and I bought her all the non-consumables and consumables she would need to make her own purses. She chose pink yarn with black/pink glittery fun fur. It’s going to be gorgeous. I can’t wait to see it!

After grabbing a bite to eat, we headed to The Double Top Dart Shop. I met Ian…wow, what a guy.

He talked me through the whole dart thing, I tried out some darts, he gave me some pointers, and a kiss! He’s a Scottish man with a GREAT accent! I loved listening to his stories!

I bought a set of darts, some shafts, flights, flight protectors, and some flights for Jarrett. He’ll have to get try out his own darts. It really is a matter of personal preference. I bought Todd a few sets of flights for Christmas. I don’t have a dart board, but that’s okay for now…I now had my own set of darts to play with at Todd & Heather’s!

We then rushed home for the Kansas City Chief’s game. PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT. What a waste of time! The Chief’s didn’t even TRY! Ugggggh! We were going to go for my birthday dinner Saturday night, but it was going to be after 8 pm before the game was over, so we decided to just go on my actual birthday (Sunday) instead. So we had some D & D until about midnight.

This is Scott, Tiz and baby Steven:

Sunday was another sleep in day. We went back to the mall to look for a CANADA hoodie for Jarrett. No luck for him, but of course there was luck for me. I got a really cool Team Canada (2010 Olympics) red jacket. I love it. Happy Birthday to me! We also went to A & P and I got TONS (okay…not tons…but you get the idea) of Crispers and Mini Crispies. We don’t have them at home and there was NO WAY I was going home without them!

Commercial Interruption: I am now aboard the plane to Chicago. We were about 30 minutes late taking off. “We were all set to take off, but we have some things we need to straighten out with the guys downstairs. We’ll be taking off momentarily.” PFFFFFFFFFFT…just what I wanted to hear.

Back to your regularly scheduled BLOG post:

We met Derek (a friend of Heather and Todd’s) at Tim Horton’s for coffee. I’m telling you peeps that have never been to a Tim Horton’s…it gives Starbucks a run for their money! It was soooooooo good. I had English Toffee. Todd even bought me some to take home.

On the way home, we saw an apartment on fire...not in Todd and Heather's building. It was so sad.

Derek ended up coming over to play darts after coffee. I learned a few things from all the pros who taught me tidbits: Todd, Scott, Ian, Derek, and even Heather who doesn’t play much!

At around 6 pm, we went to the Keg for dinner. OMG…I don’t know what to say about this place other than FANTABULOUS in the every respect! The ambiance was awesome, the steak was incredible and the dessert? Well, suffice it to say, I was in heaven and let’s leave it at that.

I had Steak Teriyaki with fresh green beans, mushrooms, loaded baked potato, and an incredible piece of "Billy Miner Pie." I was in total heaven and ate every bite!

We were hoping to get together with Heather’s parents, Bill & Marilyn on Monday for lunch, but Marilyn came down with a little something, so that didn’t pan out. DEFINITELY will catch up with them next trip…they are such delightful people. Heather and I sat and knitted…I taught her how to make pot scrubbers, we had a nice little lunch and visited with Tiz and Steven (Scott’s wife and baby boy). I packed and Todd and I played a quick game of Cricket as soon as he got home from work. I lost…but I’m learning.

Alas, I had to (without choice) board a plane at 6:40 pm and come home to my youngest son who told me last night on IM that he missed me and was ready for me to come home. While this trip was an INCREDIBLE gift from Heather and Todd and I'm SO GRATEFUL, that truly was an awesome gift from my son to tell me that he missed me considering most of the time, I feel like he could care less if I'm there or not. So deep down, he really does miss me and appreciate when I'm there. The weekend went so darn fast. I’m just so bummed that we live so far apart. BUT, I’m eternally grateful for Todd and Heather and this awesome birthday gift. Man did I ball like a baby in the customs line. (Customs was right after saying goodbye to Heather and Todd.) I just didn't want to leave...I wanted to get home to Jarrett, but I didn't want to leave them. Heather has just come to mean so much to me that it truly was like leaving a sister.

Flight still arrived on time in Kansas City despite being delayed 30 minutes in Canada and about 30 minutes in Chicago. Jarrett was waiting at home (Jill picked me up at airport) and hugged me and kissed me several times. He really did miss me.

He loves his t-shirt and hat...and of course I was the hero bringing back Crispers for him. (They are chips that we can't get here.)

WOW…I truly have some AWESOME friends…actually, would more call them sister and brother, but they are married…well, you get the idea. Pretty special people.