Yet another question about staining a cedar deck

We live in Manitoba and we are planning to put in a new cedar deck. Everything has been completed except for the installation of the deck boards. Because we are now going into our winter (just 3 weeks before the snow flies here) and because we want to finish the deck by early spring we decided to sand the boards, and "sticker" them in a stack in the garage. We will have fans running in the garage in order to dry the wood out. Come early spring (April) we hope to immediately clean, brighten and stain them. Will the boards be seasoned enough by spring? If so, what is the best recommended stain? I know this question has been asked about a gazzilion times but we are still not too sure what stain we should use. We will probably buy the stain in the USA and we are leaning towards TWP but we were wondering how Defy and AC would hold out in our area. The deck will face SW.