The Many Delights in the Life of Desirée: Calaway Park

Matt and I decided that we were going to join his family at Calaway Park on Victoria Day. Now, their plan was to drive down Monday and come back Monday. Six hours in a car with a baby in one day didn't sound like fun to me so it was suggested that we head down Sunday night after the family dinner. BEST. CHOICE.EVER. As Oakley is eating around every three hours right now, I fed him before we left and then part way into the trip, he was hungry again. I nursed him in the car at a rest area. Then, by the time our trip was nearing the end, his poor little body wanted out of his car seat so there was lots of crying. My cousin Josh and his wife Jenny let us stay at their house and they even made a special bed for Oakley. As the play pen was in Saskatchewan with their kids on a camping trip, they emptied out a drawer, lined it with lots and lots of blankets for padding and voila!

One condition for the trip was that we needed to purchase a baby carrier before we went. After asking some friends and doing research, we invested in a Boba.

Getting the baby in the Boba

We both really like it and Oakley falls asleep almost as soon as he is put in it.

I had never been to Calaway Park before. Matt was pretty excited to take me and show me all the cool rides. Here's Oakley and I on the tower.

We went to the park with Matt's three brothers, his sister, his parents and three of Justin's friends. All of the young'uns went off on adventures quite quickly but with Oakley, we could only go on a few rides so we stayed with the grandparents. Oakley's first ride ever was the balloon ride. I'm just going to say right now West Ed's balloon ride is way better than Calaway's but it was still enjoyable.

Here we are!

We tried to get a picture of us with the mountains in the background, but you can't really see them.

Without us in the picture and maybe zoomed in a little you can see them. What a beautiful view! The mountains are one good thing about Calgary.

Matt's dad was the designated stroller watcher while we rode the balloons. Strollers are good and bad to take to places like these. Good because you can load them up with all of your stuff and when you have a baby, you have lots of stuff, bad because someone has to stay with it to watch the stuff.

After our exciting balloon ride, we started setting up for lunch. It was great. Picnics are a wonderful thing! After, I handed Oakley off to his grandma and Matt and I left. ALONE. For the first time since Oakley was born! It was like a real date, but I kept fretting about our baby. :) But really, I did love it. We went on a storm trooper or something ride where we sat in a little cage and it spun us around on a big wheel while slowly moving the wheel vertical and then back down. The best part? We got to sit in the cage together. Then we went to the bumper cars. Matt t-boned my car really well twice. I might have gotten him once or twice but I'm blaming my lack of awesome hits on the other cars getting in my way. Then we went on the roller coaster. We were in the very back. Scary place to be. I will fully admit to screaming during the first drop both times we went.

While we were there, I had to feed Oakley a few times. You know, get him chunked up a little. Calaway Park lets nursing mothers use their first aid room so you can be comfortable and have some privacy. That is wonderful and every place should do it. After our little date, we met up with Matt's mom and my baby boy to go on the train. He was fussing and I was trying to figure out what was wrong when I suddenly realized he was hungry. I felt pretty silly after I figured it out. Anyways, we're in line, far away from the first aid station so I got out my trusty cover (thanks Mama!) and nursed him standing in line. There was a bench later on in the line that I used. I love those moments where as a mother, you do something that just makes you feel like super-mom. This was one of them.

As juvenile as it may be, I love the train rides at amusement parks. Maybe it's because I've always wanted to go on a legitimate train ride or maybe it's because trains seem to take you back to an earlier time but I really do. I loved that I got to go on the train with my little family.