34 hours....

....that's how long we were in Regina for.  A whopping 34 hours.  We arrived at 8:30pm on Thursday and left at 6:30am on Saturday.  The reason for our quick little visit?  My brother's graduation from Police college.  It was a crazy whirlwind (had I known it was going to be so jam-packed, we would have planned things a little differently) but a wonderful whirlwind.  I am so glad that we went, and so glad that we brought the boys.

We met my parents at the airport at 5pm on Thursday and had some dinner at the little burger/pizza joint after we checked in (before we hit security).

Dinner date with Nana

Dinner date with Papa

After a quick trip through security (well, as quick as it could be) we made our way to the gate, where we saw our plane being loaded with bags....very exciting for the boys!  We bought smoothies and waited to board our plane.  We all ended up at the back of the plane with an extra seat between Nana and Papa and extra seats behind them.  It worked out well, as we were able to stretch out a bit.  There were TVs behind every chair, and treehouse was an available channel.....LOVE westjet!  The boys were kept happy between watching treehouse and playing with our iphones.  Drew slept for most of the flight, while Hunter stayed awake the entire time (amazing, since when we landed it was 10pm our time).

Once we arrived in Regina, we put Drew in Hunter's tiny stroller and went to claim our bags and get our cars.

He was exhausted

Hunter fell asleep as soon as we started driving in our van.  We found our hotel (the holiday inn) and quickly settled in.  It was a smooth transfer for both boys and both boys slept until 5am (Drew until 6) the next morning.  While the boys slept and I unpacked a bit, James ran out to pick up some milk/fruit and then headed to Jamie's rez to pick up some boxes that he wanted shipped to our aunt's house in Calgary (the next 4 weeks of training will be in Calgary for him.

Friday morning, we took Nana and Papa to McDonald's for breakfast and some playtime in the play-land and then we headed back to get ready for the first part of the graduation, the drill/fitness demonstration.  My brother was quite nervous about this part, as I guess he wasn't/isn't the best at keeping in step during the "drill" (marching).  I felt like he did a great job, and it was really neat to watch.  Hunter slept through a lot of the demonstration.

Drew had really wanted to stay at the hotel and go swimming.

I was a bit concerned as my brother seemed too far away, but all the corners were like that, so I suppose it was supposed to be like that.

My boys and their handsomeness

After this part of the grad, we left to go to UPS and ship those boxes for my brother.  We then headed back to our hotel for the boys to have a quick swim (Drew had been bugging me all morning, "when are we going to go swimming, mommy")  It was literally like a 20 minute swim.

We then had to rush back up to our room and get them ready to go to the actual ceremony, which started at 1:30.  We pull into the arts centre, where the ceremony was taking place and see all of the police getting out of their cars.  Drew says to me in a very concerned voice, "mommy, the police are here AGAIN" (he had some concern earlier in the day at the drill demo).  It was very cute, and funny that he hasn't really put it together that uncle Jamie is now one of them too!

The ceremony was great.  The boys weren't all that thrilled with it, so James took them out to the hall (where the rest of the kids were).  I really liked it though.  The speakers were really entertaining, and it went surprisingly quick (there were 40 graduates).

The "getting the certificate" part of the ceremony was a bit of a gong show.  They had roped off a section so that people could come up and take pictures when it was their family member/friend's turn.  They went in alphabetical order, to make it easier for people to know when their turn would be.  As soon as this was mentioned, EVERYONE with a camera ran up to the front.  This made it difficult for people to get a good photo (I had to throw a few elbows and still didn't get a good shot) and impossible for the people at the back to see what was happening (I had to show my mom the picture on the camera so she could get an idea).

The ceremony ended at around 3:30 and the boys had not had any lunch yet, so we headed to McDonald's where Hunter (and my dad) had quick naps.  Jamie texted us while we were there, asking us to bring an empty suitcase so that he could fill it up and send it home with my parents....my parents left to head back to the hotel to get it, then we all went over to the U of Regina to give the suitcase to Jamie, pick up a suitcase from him and take him to the dinner part of the day.

Everything started a bit late at this point.  Dinner was supposed to be at 6, but didn't start until after 7 and then speeches were after this.  My brother was giving a speech, so I really wanted to stick around to hear it.  The boys were spent though (it was approaching 11 our time) so James took them back to the hotel and I stayed on with my parents and went back with them.  Jamie did a great job with his speech, and even got an award......a funny award, made up by his peers, and probably not one that he would like the world to know about!  LOL

I am sooo tired.

Happy graduate!

Jamie giving his speech.

It was a great day.  We were all so proud of my brother for making it through, I'm sure it wasn't easy.  We were up early on saturday (4:30) to catch our 6:30am flight back home.  The flight went smoothly, with Hunter having a nap part-way through.  The plane was half-empty again, leaving us with 9 seats for the 6 of us at the back of the plane.....awesome!

Jamie flew home at 10 and is now home for a week before he flies to Calgary for the next part of his training.  After 4 weeks there, he will be starting his job in Golden, BC.

Congratulations, Jamie!  We are very proud of you!