Banff: Johnston Canyon

We arrived in Banff after lunch, and got the trailer set up at Tunnel Mountain Campground. It was the hottest day of our holiday. We then headed out to pickup some groceries. We succeeded in eating out only a couple of meals for the holiday. We mostly ate our own food. I had made a meal plan before we left and packed enough food for the first couple of days and then picked up a few more groceries in Canmore. It saved a lot of money and also saved that yuckiness you feel from eating too many meals out.

Daddy watching over our fire roasted chicken and garlic bread.
By far our most delicious meal.

The boys slept really well in the camper. They would fall asleep immediately and then sleep in til 8am! I guess all the fresh air and activity helped.

L being a goof as usual.

Our first outing in the mountains, was Johnston Canyon. Our favorite hike to do. Nath was charge of carrying Em on his back and holding N's hand. And I was in charge of holding L's hand and motivating him. Which started with getting him out of the van. It was a 7.6km round trip, so it was a bit of a long trip to begin with, and L is not much of hiker, to say the least. So I would try to distract him with taking note of all the dogs that we would see along the hike. I'd say "Look at that puppy, your legs are much longer than his, and you're much taller than him, so if he can do it, you can do it." And we'd chant "I think I can, Ithink I can..." to get to the top of a hill, and talk about the snack we'd have once we got to the Upper Falls.

This is near the beginning of the canyon. It was the height of the tourist season, and this is one of the most popular hikes in the area, so there were a lot of people there.

At the first set of falls there is a bridge you go across to the other side of the canyon.

Em enjoyed the hike but did fall asleep eventually

Then you go through a small cave, up a slippery set of rock stairs, to ...

this amazing waterfall where the water falls 10 meters.

Then you hike another couple kms
to the Upper Falls where the water falls 30 meters.

this is the bridge to the Lower Falls, you can see the lineup to go through the cave.

The Happy Hikers

N posing in front of the same rocks that Nath and I have taken pictures on 13 years ago while we were still dating.

After the hike we headed to Canmore to check out how much my old stomping grounds have changed. We found a nice playground for the kids to play. You can see the hazy mountains in the background. The sky was always hazy and we never got a great clear view of them which was too bad.

Em was happy to crawl around a little.

And of course she was thrilled to go swinging

Here's our little trailer. There were so many gargantuan trailers and motorhomes in that campground. And a good number of them were rentals.
We even saw a greyhound sized motorhome pulling a tentrailer, maybe it for their dogs to sleep in or something. Everyone had brought their dogs.

N's first time chopping wood.

Days 1 and 2 of Holiday (Regina and Drumheller)

Our first night camping in Regina.
The drive was rough. Em did not enjoy it and cried quite a bit. If we hadn't had the boys along, I would have turned around before Brandon. We tried everything, but she just didn't want to be strapped into her car seat.

The playground at the campsite had these huge balls you could roll around. Nath almost rolled over L with one of them.

First bedtime in the camper, it took the boys awhile to settle in, but they did eventually. We were packed up and on the road by 7:30am the next morning.

Driving to Drumheller you are surronded by rolling plains and then suddenly you descend into this canyon filled with these badlands. It was a cute tourist town filled with dinosaurs everywhere. After we found our campground, which was a little tricky, we should have taken a picture of the entrance. It was a residential street and what looked like a dead end with a small opening in a fence with just bush on the other side. Once you manoever through the opening you are in this quaint privately owned campground. The sites were tight though, and we only have a small trailer.

We headed to the Royal Tyrell Museum once we were set up. We arrived about 6pm, which was great, it was quiet, and not crowded. Though we missed a lot of the interpretive progamming that was going on throughout the day. Plus we had a coupon for evening admissions. So it only cost $10 to get in.

Family portrait with the T-Rex

Triceratops

Stegasaurus

Outside there were tons of trails that you could walk and if you make arrangements ahead of time, you can even be apart of real digs and other things.

We could have spent more time there, but it was enough to be there for 3 hours. N had a smile pasted on his face the entire time.

The next morning we spent a bit of time in the town of Drumheller.
They have a 62 foot tall T-Rex, that you can climb to the top of.

Here we are at the top, in the mouth.

The boys playing in the fountain and splash pad outside the T-Rex

We then headed out on the road for Banff, making a stop in Calgary at London Drugs for a camera battery charger. (Thank you GPS for making it so painless!)

The four days before we left...

Well we made it to the mountains and back. It has taken over a week to get back to normal with countless loads of laundry, and tons of cleaning up, and just as I feel like I'm getting caught up the hampers are full again and so it goes...

Our holidays started with the boys going to Day Camp at church, so Nath and I had time to get things ready and packed up in the couple of mornings that the boys were there. We also took my nephew for one of those nights, which was less chaotic than I thought it would be. He would be the extra blonde headed boy in some of the pics.

Em still loved the water even though it made my feet numb

picnic snack in the park

swinging with daddy

her favorite

stopped at BDI for ice-cream

messiest face award went to L

Water-fight with daddy and the boys

these things work really well, and are far easier than water balloons.
Got the idea from here.

The boys spent one rainy day painting...

And making marshmallow and tooth pick structures.

We also made mini s'mores with those marshmallows and toothpicks over a candle and Golden grahams.

Emma also had her 9 month check up the morning we left. She is 23 pounds and 29.5 inches. Which is off the chart for height and weight and yet amazingly still a couple pounds behind what the boys were at this age.