That Sweet Beautiful Creature... (EDITED!!!)

Michael Bublé!

Kelly arrived at my house and we left on our trip right around five-thirty on Saturday morning. We took the Jeep and left her vehicle behind for Chris in case he needed to take the boys anywhere since he can't fit two carseats in his little truck.

We did the obligatory Tim Horton's run and left town at precisely five fifty-five. The weather has been FREAKING COLD...in the minus thirties with the windchill colder than forty degrees below zero. Nasty.

I had taken the Jeep in for a cleaning on Friday and it was completely spotless. They even scrubbed the carpets and did a fantastic job on it. I always love starting a trip with a clean vehicle.

The highway was mostly bare and dry the whole way and we had it all to ourselves the whole way. It was still dark out until we were almost half way there.

When we got to the city, we headed straight for the mall. Chris had called to check in a few times and shortly after the start of our retail therapy was when he called to tell me Kendra's husband had called.

After I talked to Les, (and bawled my face off in a Fairweather store), I told Kelly that I was going to try to have a great day and a fantastic time at the concert. But that of course every time I would think of Kendra I would cry. And I did.

We did a bunch of shopping. I loaded up on fifteen pairs of underwear and a pair of cozy pajamas, a new, much-needed winter coat, a new pair of black pants and a cozy black sweater, a couple t-shirts for Chris, matching (gorgeous) sweaters with toques for the boys (that they will be sporting for a Valentine's card picture in the near future!), a couple pairs of pants for Cooper and another sweater for Carter, a super-awesome Starbucks travel mug (that fits an extra-large Tim Horton's beverage quite nicely), a bunch of earrings and necklaces to match various outfits, a couple bras, and that's about all I can remember since it took me so long to get back and edit this blog post!

We set a deadline to get back to the hotel and get ready to go out. I was so excited about how well I was navigating the city and we found our way to the hotel perfectly, even with all the one-way streets we had to navigate downtown (thanks to my trusty little Google map). We checked in and admired all the purchases we made and got ready to go to the concert, both wearing new items from our shopping excursion. We took a cab to Mom and Dad's hotel and had dinner with them there. I told Dad in an aside that Kendra had passed away and that I wouldn't mention it to Mom that night unless she asked. A couple seconds into the appetizer, of course she asked if I'd received any new news about Kendra so I told her. I had a little cry again but managed to contain myself and made it through the excellent dinner. I had skewers with humongous scallops and shrimp and a side salad.

After dinner, Mom and Dad went back to their room since it was a bit early for the concert, but Kelly and I walked across the street to the arena to secure our seats...we were SO excited! We didn't realize there was an opening act, which started shortly after eight. They are called Naturally 7 and they were amazing! They are an a cappella group like no other I've ever seen. Not only do they perform completely without instruments, they ARE the instruments! If they didn't each do a solo, you would not have believed they were playing unaccompanied. One guy was drums, one was the mixer, one was the trombone, and one had this super hot and sexy, low, low Barry White voice. He was bass. They all were also amazing singers and I could have easily been entertained listening to them for the evening.

THEN Michael Bublé came onstage. He is soooooooo fabulous! What an incredible and humorous entertainer! He looked great in his signature suit and sounded just like his albums. We had the most wonderful time listening and watching and we didn't want it to end. I'd been joking with Kelly that the song Me & Mrs. Jones was to be retitled, Me & Mrs. Groves.

After the concert, we'd planned to go to the casino with Mom and Dad but Mom was a bit pooped after the long day, so Dad drove us in the frigid weather to the casino. Dad played for a while then left us there to play. We stayed reeeeeeeally late; not getting back to our hotel until almost three! And I had the presence of mind to cash out before I blew too much money. It was a ton of fun.

We donned our new pajamas and crawled into the comfy beds. Kelly reviewed the great pictures and videos she took at the concert and I did a couple sudoku puzzles until I could just not keep my eyes open any longer. I slept a blissful sleep until just before eight-thirty. The room was so dark and quiet and there were no kids waking me or husbands sleeping. I'm surprised I woke up as early as I did! Kelly was up only a couple minutes after I was and we got ready to face the day.

We headed for the mall one last time and once it opened at noon we gave ourselves a one-hour deadline to finish up any shopping we might have missed on Saturday. Oops. We blew the deadline by almost an hour and promptly headed out (after I picked up a latté at Starbucks). We stopped for gas and were on our way. We made great time on the way back, with just one stop for a pee break, where I also found some great mittens to buy.

We arrived home safe and sound and loaded Kelly's stuff into her vehicle, which Chris had warming for her in the garage. I went in and presented the boys with their stuff. I was officially physically and emotionally exhausted from the events of the weekend.