W.E.M.

What does that stand for...West Edmonton Mall...and we took it by storm! Packed into two days as much fun as we possibly could. It's been over a week since we got back but it's taken me this much time to get through all the pictures. I must admit 492 photos in two-and-a-half days is a bit on the high side, but I am pleased to report that after editing I've whittled it down to a much more reasonable number...212. Reasonable for me anyways! Don't worry, I won't post them all, just some collages of my favourites that capture the memories we made there with Marissa. This weekend was for her. Fun time with Mommy and Daddy. Taylor needs so much of my time, we wanted a special weekend that was just for Marissa, to have Mommy & Daddy's dedicated time. So we took Taylor to Rotary Flames House where she was in very capable hands, and headed north with our big girl for some special Marissa time.

When we walked into the hotel lobby, I guess it looked pretty grand to a 5-year-old, she gasped..."It's so beautiful". It was pretty cute. Our room was wonderful, it had a separate seating area so that we could hang out after Marissa went to sleep at night. The room was huge. And there was a fantastic jetted jacuzzi too! We got to the hotel around supper time, so we dropped off our bags, walked through the mall a bit and then found somewhere to eat. Ended up at Mr. Mikes. Marissa was a bit owly after being cooped up in the car for 3 hours, so dinner was challenging and we got outta there pretty quick. Back to the room, and Marissa wanted to have a bath in the huge tub. So we filled it up (which took an eternity) complete with bubbles and jets, and the girl had an absolute BALL!

It was a late night for the monkey, she crashed pretty quick and was up early the next morning. Eager to start the fun! So we all got ready, got our Starbucks, and headed off to play mini-golf!

She had a ball the first 7 holes. It was hilarious to watch her golf. As much as we tried to teach her how to hold the club and hit, she was more into whacking it around like she was playing hockey. By hole 8 she lost interest, so Daddy and I continued on our own and she ran around asking (many times) when we were going to be done! 'Cause she knew what was next, and it was certainly more appealing...

Does she look excited??!!!!

The waterpark was a huge hit, to say the least. Girl had a blast. Huge water-spraying-play-structure, waterslides, wave pool, hot tubs...it was all so much fun. She was on cloud nine! Even made a little friend when we were sitting in the hot tub. Her name was Missy. They would go off together holding hands to the orange waterslide, then they'd come back for a bit, then they'd run over to the play structure, and back again. Marissa kept forgetting her name, she'd say to me..."Mommy is it Sweetie or Darling?" I'd say, no it's Missy. Then they'd go off again and Marissa would come back and ask me if it was Honey or Sweetie. I'd tell her again it was Missy. "Oh yeah!" she'd exclaim. Funny girl. When it was time to go they gave each other a big hug. I sure hope she always makes friends that easily.

Before and after photo-editing. I was going for an artistic look with this one, I think it looks cool.

I think she looks like a model shooting a swim suit issue!

Marissa was done by about 4 in the afternoon, just as they were opening up more advanced slides. So her and I left Daddy there on his own for another hour to go play on the "big boy" slides. He had a blast. We met him at 5 and headed back to our room to drop off our swimming stuff and get ready for dinner. Marissa loves her dresses, so I let her get all gussied up, jewellery and all!

We went to Cactus Club and she was an absolute angel. We had a great time at dinner with our incredibly well behaved little darling. They didn't have a kids menu, so we ordered her a small caesar salad. She didn't want any chicken on it, just the salad...but with extra croutons 'cause they're her favourite. Snuck some of our yam fries too, and she was a happy camper. Then it was off to the movies. We went to see Hop, a new animated movie about the Easter Bunny.

It was adorable, and Marissa loved it...laughed out loud throughout the whole thing, so cute. That made it another late night, up way past her usual 7:30 bedtime. When the movie ended and the credits started to roll, Marissa squealed..."Yay, I get to go to bed now!" It was hilarious.

The next morning we all slept in a bit which was nice, then Marissa played in the tub while I got ready for the day. We checked out, put all our stuff in the van, then came back in to start our last day at the mall. First up...bowling at Ed's!

Bowling was a bit of a miss. Marissa wasn't up to par for this activity, and whined through most of it for her blankie, which was in the van. She perked up towards the end thankfully so that we could carry on with our last day of fun at WEM.

We grabbed a quick lunch at Wok Box (yummy by the way), before heading on to the next adventure...

Next to the Waterpark, Galaxyland was definitely the second highlight of the trip for Marissa. She had so much fun. And as for the rides, the faster they were, the better she like them! Just like her Mommy. I think we did the red roller coaster 7 times. She'd laugh and scream and throw her hands in the air. What a riot! I loved watching her on the mini race track too, because she actually drove the car all by herself...controlled the gas and everything...and she thought that was pretty cool.

Last up before we hit the road back home was a special treat at Marble Slab...

Yummalicious was the word she used! And she managed to eat the whole thing as the camera clicked away and I enjoyed my own delicious mound of chocolate-mixed-with-Skor concoction in a waffle cone. Yummalicious indeed!

The weekend was a success, mission accomplished! Great memories...a good time was had by all! Life is good :-)