John and Victoria: Victoria's trip to Canada

Right after my last final at school I ran over to the airport and left for Canada for 2 weeks. I left so quickly so that I could make it home in time for my best friend Amy's wedding. I had 3 connecting flights and I narrowly made my flight in Atlanta because my flight from Savannah was late. I was the very last person to board the flight and they had already given my seat to a stand-by person without realizing it. I was let on the plane, confusion ensued and a lady was asked to gather her belongings and leave the plane. I felt bad but I was glad it wasn't me who got kicked off the plane. My plane arrived in Kelowna at 11pm, 2am Eastern time, only to find that my bag had missed the flight in Atlanta and wouldn't be in until the next day.
My first day at home made up for the madness though because we had a girls day at the spa as part of Amy's Bachelorette party. After that I had barbecue with my family at Sunoka beach. My nieces and nephews came down from Vernon so it was nice to get a chance to see them. The weather was freezing and the wind was blowing but I guess it wouldn't be a true Northcott barbecue unless we had bad weather. I had fun all the same and warmed up playing soccer with Eliza.

Me and Eliza; family around the fire; Ethan of course is super cute be he would only let me take a picture of his mean face; me, Kadu, and mom

It was really nice to be home. I got to go hiking and out to lunch during the day with my brother Geoff and then at night I went to Amy's bridal shower. I also got to have some nice talking time with my dad while we did some yard work. Shannon actually surprised me and came home a day early so that was really nice too.
The day of Amy's wedding was beautiful and not too stressful. We got our hair and makeup done in the morning and then changed, got pictures and ran off to the wedding. The wedding was held at the pavilion at Skaha lake. The most stressful and slightly funny part of the day was when Amy was ready before everyone else and she was worried that we would be late for the wedding and everyone would think it was her fault. Well she was absolutely beautiful and the wedding went smoothly, except for the icy wind that was coming off the lake the entire ceremony.

Amy and Brandon Davidson wedding pictures

The reception afterwards was at the Summerland Resort on Okanagan lake and it -was really nice. Amy's new brother-in-law gave a hilarious best man's speech starting out "Fornication!...For an occasion..." He was quite the entertainer. Amy's sister Kate gave the other speech and it was really thoughtful and heart-felt. After a really good dinner we had dancing. I had a great time dancing with all my friends from highschool. It's been a long time since I've seen or even talked to any of them but they were still my friends, not as much had changed as I thought.
I so glad that I was able to go to Amy's wedding. We've been great friends for so long and I can tell that she's really found someone special. She is so happy and full of life, Brandon is a wonderful guy.

The next day my mom and I took off on a road trip to Manitoba to see my Granddad. It took us two days to drive there but it was a beautiful drive. I had forgotten how beautiful Canada is but I was reminded as we went through the Rocky mountains and across the Prairies. We saw a lot of wildlife and hardly any cities. On the side of the highway we saw a mama black bear and her cubs, moose, a pheasant, deer, antelope, mountain sheep, and a hawk. We also saw buffalo but there more farm animals than wild.

Beautiful British Columbia

When we got to Winnipeg we spent the first two days when my Grandpa and Grandpa Moore. They're are my oldest brother Patrick's grandparents but I grew up calling them mine as well. I have a lot of good memories of summers we spent out on their farm in Stonewall, Manitoba. With them we went to where Grandpa grew up in Caleida (which consisted at the time of a grain silo, a post office and a couple houses, now it's not much of anything), his parent's graves in Manitou, the air museum where he restores plane in Winnipeg, and the dinosaur museum. Then Shannon flew out and we spent 3 days with Granddad, my mom's dad. My grandma died before I was born so he lives alone in an assisted-living type place. He was just tickled to have us there and he was ordering us around and finding things for us to do before we even got through the door. I knew he was glad to have us there because he was singing his deedle-deedle's like there was no tomorrow. My granddad is a great sassy old guy but he has a hard time getting around now. We took him out for a couple of drives, one to my grandma's grave, and he took us out for dinner one night with my aunt Jackie, Aunt Denise, and cousin Rachel.

Granddad doing the gallon challenge--Chug! Chug! Chug!

Grandma's grave located in a cemetary at the corner of Waverly St and Chevrier Blvd in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
She died of breast cancer 26 years ago.

Me and my mom at Lake Louise plus pictures of the Rockies outside of Calgary, Alberta. We couldn't believe that it was still frozen, when it's not it's this gorgeous creamy seafoam color. I have great memories of camping in Banff and going hiking at this lake.

When we got home from our long road trip I had one last day before I flew back to Savannah. I spent some time with my little brother Phil and went shopping with my mom. We had to make sure that I had a stock of all my favorite Canada candy. For the record, and just in case you ever go to Canada, the best candies are Smarties, Crunchie bars (sponge toffee dipped in chocolate), wine gums, and Mackintosh's Toffee.
I had a great time seeing my family and especially spending so much time with my mom. It was so nice to go back to where I come from and be reminded of who I am, I didn't realize how much I'd forgotten my roots until I went back. It had definitely been too long.