What we do . . .

Some places have lemonade stands. Not us we have hot chocolate stands. The kids planned this one for 4 days. They even passed out fliers. The entire thing was a grand success.

There were lots of choices - whipped cream, sprinkles, marshmallows . . .

Elin Speaks

"Mom, do I have DNAs?"

Thoughts by Nate

Nate - "Mom - can I watch Rudolph before church?"

Mom - "No Nate, that isn't really a church movie."

Nate - "Mom, it's a Christmas movie and have you forgotten the whole reason why we celebrate Christmas?"

Hmmm . . .

Elin's Pics

This one is for the Grandmas! The numbers are on top of the pictures.

Photo #1

Photo #2

Photo #3

Photo #4

Photo #5

Photo #6

Photo #7

Photo #8

First Days of School - better late than never!

Nate's first official day of second grade. I got the "awww, mom" when I wanted to take his picture.

Elin, on the other hand, wanted an entire photo shoot for the first day of school. Gotta love the differences. Here are a few of the selections.

Thumbs up for school!

They are both getting so big - where did the time go?

Banff, Alberta- Part III

April and Elin went for "tea time" at a very luxurious hotel. Nate and I weren't as interested, we bummed around downtown Banff.

These are the Banff hotsprings (didn't get a picture of the actual pool, sorry). They actually have to cool down the water for the pool, and it's still at 104 deg F.

"I am too cool."

Some very cool big-horned sheep by the roadside... one was looking straight at me as if to say "Leave me now in peace, and I will spare you." That's when I walked back to my car.

The Continental Divide! the line that splits water flowing eastward to the Atlantic or westward to the Pacific. Fun learning point for the kiddos.

This particular hike is in an area almost completely burned by forest fire 40 yrs ago... you could still see the blackened fallen trees.

Another beautiful area for playing/hiking by the river.

Unfortunately we had to skip the hike due to these warnings.

A very deep/narrow canyon that we could hike into on a boardwalk.

A pristine pool at the bottom of a waterfall in the back of the canyon... it was very inviting!

The Columbia Icefields- a glacier that we got to walk around on. This shot is from a couple miles away... it is enormous, but sadly is shrinking.

You might ask why we wanted to do this on our summer vacation. Well, I was thinking the same thing. The kids loved it, though, they thought is was soooo cool to walk around on a huge slab of ice.

This was the tire of the monstrous truck that drove us onto the icefield.

Our guide warned us not to step into any "puddles" as they can be deeper than they appear. Well, Nate must have missed that warning and could resist one of the puddles. Down he went, up to his thigh. Who knows how deep he would have gone if he hadn't caught himself. Check out his soaked pants...

Our last day, just bumming around a lake area, throwing rocks, picnicking, just taking it easy. We'd deserved a take-it-easy day after a week of hiking and site-seeing. Such a cool trip, I hope someday we can return.

Banff, Alberta- Part II

This was our "lake day". Banff is surrounded by many lakes, all beautiful but some easier to get to than others. First is Lake Louise, probably the most popular. There's a large plush hotel on its shores which is fun to look at but not very practical to stay at.

This is Lake Louise, surrounded by mountains on all sides. Like all the lakes fed by glaciers, it has an incredible blue-green glow.

We hiked around part of the lake. Here are dad and daughter hand-in-hand.

Somehow, despite near-freezing temperature water, we let our kids play on the shoreline rocks. April's choice, I'm sure.

Nate teaching us about the nearby wildlife (ie bears).

We rented a canoe for a quick trip around the lake. I got to experience first-hand how cold that water was since I was sitting directly behind Nate and his paddle.

Next we were off of Lake Morraine, also incredible and surrounded by 7 distinct peaks.

Elin exploring some logs washed ashore.

This is where we parked ourselves for lunch... what a cool place for a picnic!

And our third lake for the day... Emerald Lake. We hiked a bit around this and then sat down for a snack.

Look at that smile! (Hmmm, is it the beautiful surroundings or the rocket popsicle in her hand?)

Banff, Alberta- Part I

We recently took a family vacation to somewhere April and I have both wanted to go for a long time- Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. All I can say is beautiful! We did some hiking, a lot of swimming, some biking, saw bears and big-horned sheep, and even walked on a glacier. It was a great vacation, but I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Banff N.P. is just west of Calgary, where April has some family. We were lucky to get to visit over dinner. Below is David and Greta, Liz and Steven (and a little one on the way for Liz and Steven!), and then our clan. Great to see you guys!

Our first hike was probably the toughest- 2.5 miles around and steep grades. We took several rest stops, like on this log. The kids were troopers on the hikes, although I did get a few extra work-outs with Elin on my shoulders.

This is one of two emerald lakes waiting for us at the top of our hike.

The kids wanted to keep going up this rock trail... a bit tricky even for adults, we didn't go too much farther.

But the reward was very cool... some cool rock art (petroglyphs) that are thousands of years old. Hard to see in these photos, look for the red carvings.

We rode a gondola to the top of one of the mountains around the town Banff. Below you can see the incredible views.

April was having fun exercising her photographic skills... I thought this was a cool one.

Below is the town of Banff, difficult to see from this altitude.

Note we were all wearing our jackets, and the snow on the mountain tops in the background. And this was August!