Weekends that turn into Memories

Last weekend I was feeling the stress of life weighing me down, so on a whim I decided to pack up the car and head west with my mother and Makenna. I was only expecting to travel a few hours to a small town with a great view of the mountains, well actually more like at the base of many mountains! And it was beautiful, I have a borderline obsession with mountains. Which I guess comes from growing up no where near them. I just find them so beautiful, and breathtaking, and powerful. I literally feel healed when I get to see them, and also slightly torn knowing I'll have to leave again.
Wanting to prolong my love affair, I figured since we had come this far why not eat here and head south to a national park. Since I rarely get weekends with my family to myself with no other commitments involved this seemed like the best time to take advantage of the opportunity. So we had a great lunch and took off down the highway again.
Once we arrived we filled up the car and toured around a little bit but quickly decided to head another 6 hours south. Back to our first home in Alberta to visit some friends and my old job. We were somewhat naive though and went through the mountain pass, and although the weather was lovely with clean, dry roads our entire trip the pass was not! The long drive through the mountains were quite frightening for me. Little did I know that we had to go through avalanche territory, and white out conditions on roads. So after the longest most stressful drive of my life we finally arrived back at our original Alberta home.
The saying you never know what you've got until it's gone was ringing loudly when we pulled into our old driveway. It felt like we were home. It was great to have Makenna meet my friends (who I truly feel are more family then anything).  We had a great sleep and woke early to go enjoy breakfast at my all time favourite diner! The feeling of HOME was nearly overwhelming. It was very hard to leave. I know that I need to return living there sometime in the future.
We got to go to one of the top 3 greatest malls in Canada, and enjoyed tour around. We stopped at one of the brand new Victoria's Secret stores, and Sephora, and Mac. None of which we have way up north where we currently live. After some fun in the mall, we hit the road again and stopped at a huge tack shop and really loved that. Makenna sat on saddles, and played on a bouncy horse, and loved every second of it. I now have no doubt that she will be a horse lover like the rest of her family :)
It only took 11 hours to drive back home. It was by far the longest trip I have taken since before getting pregnant. And Makenna was the most amazing little girl throughout the whole trip! She didn't cry or fuss at all, and I think she really liked the mountains and entire journey. But I'm positive she was glad to have a good sleep in her own crib. The next day she was elated to see her own toys again too.
I have learned through this weekend trip that it is extremely important to take the time, and spend a bit of money on enjoying the little things in life! Truly I believe that we all need a couple mini vacations to just get back to who we are and recognised what's important to us in life.
I will have memories and great pictures of our family's first weekend getaway for years to come, and I can't wait to re share the journey with Makenna again in the future.
So take the time to get recentered and back to being you, it's worth more then anything.
For your health, For your happiness, For your Life!

Best wishes,
XOXO