We're off on another sabbatical adventure! On June 6th, 2024, Keely hit 20 years at Epic so we needed to get on the second half of her 15 year sabbatical ASAP! Keely technically started her sabbatical on Thursday but it was filled with beef deliveries, hauling bales, bringing lunches and dinners to me in the tractor. Not to mention packing and end of year school activities! Not exactly riviting material for a blog entry!

After multiple late nights in the tractor, endless texts complaining, a few new baby calves, and sleepless nights, we wrapped up everything we could with the farm to make it possible to leave for a few weeks. Keely had the car packed when I got done wrapping bales on Saturday night and we were ready to go.

On Sunday, we left right on time and headed to the Milwaukee airport for our flight to Calgary, Alberta! We had a slight delay in Milwaukee and a bit longer delay in Detroit so we made it to Calgary a few hours later than expected. Kids all did great on the plane even though there were no screens to watch movies! Customs was a breeze and we got our luggage without issue.

As a family of 6, we need a big car and none of the normal rental car companies could guarantee a minivan for us. No worries, Keely found a guy who rents his van just like an AirBnB. He met us at the airport parking and handed us the keys to his 2023 Honda Odyssey and we were off to the hotel. Keely upgraded us to a suite and the kids were super excited to sleep in the pullout couch while we had our own room. Incredibly, no kids came in the whole night but they were all up before 7 the next morning even though we didn't go to bed until well past 10:30pm.

Our first stop in Canada is Banff and we're all excited to see some mountains.

- Kevin