The kids are still as enamoured with Colin as ever. They hardly give him a minute to himself. They are constantly rocking him, turning music on for him and suggesting thoughts for him (apparently, he already has a favourite song).

It’s so nice that everyone is adjusting so well. It really does seem like he has been a member of the family forever.

The kids weren’t allowed to visit until 11am so Scott brought them by shortly before lunchtime. They were so excited to meet Colin. They both came in and immediately started to look for him. Once they found him in the bassinet, they were desperate to hold him and kiss him.

The kids showing Colin the gifts they brought him

SO excited to finally get to hold him

He’s looking pretty happy to be held

Dougie loves his new brother

As does Connie

After all that holding, he was finally awake enough to get a picture with his eyes open

Not long after Scott and the kids arrived, the nurse came to discharge us. I was thrilled to go home! We got Colin dressed in his going home outfit and we were on our way.

Daddy and the kids made cupcakes to welcome Colin home – Dougie’s favourite, carrot cake

Poor Colin couldn’t get a minute to himself

It’s so nice to be home though with our new little guy

The day started out innocently enough. We had a doctor’s appointment to check on my blood pressure which had started to get a bit elevated. Scott decided to come with me to get the results and watch the kids. Unfortunately, my blood pressure was still a bit high so they sent us to the hospital to redo some blood work and check on the baby. I started on that while Scott brought the kids to a friend of mine’s house for a little while.

By the time Scott got to the hospital, we were just about done the testing. Unfortunately, my blood pressure was still a bit high and combined with some elevated liver levels, the doctor recommended that we induce the baby. We had already prepared ourselves for the possibility so, though it wasn’t our ideal situation, we knew it was the right thing to do.

Scott left to go home and get some supplies for the kids and our hospital bag and camera. Labour with both kids has gone on for a very long time so we felt we should have sufficient time for him to get there and get back. Unfortunately, we miscalculated there just a little. Scott was gone less than 2 hours but the baby decided he just couldn’t wait. Fortunately, Scott got back right after he was born and was able to hold him while he waited to be evaluated by the doctor.

Without further ado, meet our Colin.

Weighing in at a very respectable 6 lbs 2 oz

A nice length, measuring 20.5″

Overall, a very healthy little boy

Everyone is doing well and we’re so happy he arrived and is already doing so well.

The first ultrasound showed that the baby was measuring a bit on the small side (3rd percentile) so the doctor decided they wanted a second opinion. The next day, we were into the maternal fetal medicine clinic for another ultrasound. Apparently, they are the best of the best around here. They re-did the same test as the day before and everyone was much happier with the results. The baby is still not big (30th percentile) but totally an acceptable size. So, we will continue to monitor but have been told not to worry.

The best news was we got a cute picture from the first test. We had the kids there so the technician turned on the 3D view so they could see their new brother/sister.

Cute little face there. It’s looking like Scott didn’t win the genetics pool on the nose – again.

Fast forward to today, we were busy upstairs organising the house and both kids were downstairs playing. Connie called me downstairs to help her put on a dress. Apparently, they had managed to pull one out of the box through a small hole (we hadn’t opened it yet). I opened the box so we could get the other part of the dress out and Dougie decided he wanted to dress-up as well. Next thing I knew, we had this:

All dressed up, down to the shoes.

They were both thrilled to dress up, but I think we may investigate getting some non-princess dress-up clothes so they have a few more options.

Dougie then tried to teach Twinkle to Connie. She still needs some practice.

The kids are very excited about the new house, as are we! It’s a great setup for us and the dogs. I think we’re all going to be very happy here. We wanted to share a few pictures of what it looked like before we moved in (since pictures with all our boxes just don’t do it justice).

Front of the House

Kitchen

Eating Area

Family Room

Office (for Kim and the kids)

Sunroom (off the kitchen)

Laundry Room – this room actually makes me want to do laundry

We have four bedrooms upstairs but only pictures of the master.

Master Suite 1

Master Suite 2

Master Bath

Master Closet

In the basement, we have one additional bedroom as well as a sitting area

And small kitchenette

On a clear day, we have a killer view of the mountains.

We have a great setup for guests and hope we can entertain lots of friends and family in the new year.

So, we left the kids with a sitter — a birthday present unto itself! — and headed out on an ice climbing adventure. (Can’t do that in Dallas, right?) We had a half-day of instruction and climbing, to a place delightfully named “The Junkyards”, beautifully set in the mountains near Canmore, less than an hour from our house. (For those of you interested in following in our footsteps, we booked through Banff Adventures Unlimited)

Kim modelling her skiing duds and her ice climbing gear — notice the lovely footwear

Close-up of the crampons — these boots are NOT made for walking on your hardwood floors…

The Junkyards — for perspective, the wall is just under 100 ft tall… are we really climbing up that thing??

The view from the Junkyards. It was a great day, though a little bit chilly (minus 15 Celsius) Evidently this makes the ice a bit chippier than normal, as if we didn’t have enough challenges!

Kim strapped in, getting some last minute instructions — and, I suspect, still half expecting that she’s on Candid Camera:

Away she goes!

She’s getting there — check out the feet — that counts as a “climb” right?

Hey, how’d she get up there?!?

Take THAT, scary ice wall!

Almost at the top!

Here she is on her way back down. It took us 15-20 minutes each on the first run while we got the technique down — and under 10 minutes the second time. Getting down was very quick — less than a minute rappelling down the ice face.

Here goes the husband… that knot will hold, right?

This is just like skiing… except uphill.. and more vertical.. and hey, this stuff isn’t exactly powdery… where’s the chairlift again?

I swear, this place reminded me of Superman’s Fortress of Solitude

How’d I get up here?

On the way up…

Woohoo!

The kids survived the stint with the sitter — we picked them up and had a nice dinner in Banff before heading home.
Happy birthday Wife!

So, off to Michael’s we went to buy some craft supplies. We decided that we would make some special cupcakes to celebrate. So, one heart shaped pan, some cake mix and some icing later and we were ready!

While the kids were napping, I made the cupcakes. Once they were up, we pulled the learning tower over to the counter so they could decorate cupcakes for Daddy.

Connie went first (please ignore the big bruise, she had a run in with our slide and the slide won)

First, she iced the cupcake

Then I gave her a bowl of sprinkles to decorate, they went directly into her mouth

Good thing she’s cute

A little demo from Mum and she understood. First get the sprinkles

Then sprinkle on the cupcake

A few more sprinkles and the cupcake for Daddy was done

Just need to make sure it tastes okay

After that moderate success, I was ready to give it a try with Dougie.

He showed a bit more skill in the icing department

Until I turned my back for a moment

I took over the icing from there. Once that was done, it was time for sprinkles.

“Dougie, maybe you could use your hand and sprinkle them on.”

A little sprinkling lesson for him too and he understood what he had to do.

Wait wait wait, that is not it!

Hope you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

Connie is an expert on floors

She can even vacuum

We thinking of moving her into a supervisory role.

They’ll work for cookies!

We started off by letting Dougie have full creative control of where the balls went. But he put them too low.

Too low is defined as anywhere that Connie can reach. So, we asked him to put them higher.

Better, but we weren’t going to get a lot on that way. So, in stepped Dad to help.

That was better, but apparently, Dougie felt his creativity was being stifled. So, he dragged his learning tower over to the tree and took matters into his own hands.

There we go, high enough to be away from Connie but still allowing for that “Dougie Flair.”

We would move the tower occasionally to give him access to another area but it worked out perfectly. Here is Dougie showing off his end result.

The whole tree

Hang on, let’s get a better look at those branches.

Hmm, that’s certainly some ornament density. On the average branch, there were at least 5 balls. We’re not even sure how he managed to fit them all on there.

After Dougie went to bed, we made a few modifications – purely for structural and safety reasons – honest.

Measuring the lemon extract requires a steady hand:

“How does this thing work anyway?”

Salt — another tricky ingredient:

“Making snow” (also called sifting flour for those not used to baking with Dougie)

“I’m going to eat FIVE cookies!”

“Man, this is hard work…”

“Oh, gee, I’m not sure Daddy… let me taste one more!”

“Umm…. Daddy, I’m not so sure about this stuff…”

“Wait… you mean I can eat this??”

“That’s more like it!”

Then, we put the dough in the fridge for a couple of days (hence the costume changes for those who are paying attention!) Onward to cookie-making!

“I can make just one big cookie, right?”

Making cookies for the Cutie Pie Ranch

“I’ve got seven teeth… I can eat all KINDS of cookies!”

“What, these aren’t toys?”

“We can TOTALLY fit more sprinkles on here….”

If it’s Christmas, we need lots of green, right?

Once the cameras stopped rolling, Dad applied a little bit of sprinkle equalization. The things we do to uphold a family tradition…

Connie has her official stocking so she’s is officially a Sharabura now. We’re a bit light on the “Woof” stockings – it’s been a hard year for us in that department. We forge on though.

Happy Holidays!

PS – for parents or pet owners – those stocking holders came from Rona and are THE BEST! They are totally stuffed. We had a stocking holder hit Dougie in the head last year and were thrilled to bits to find something that would hold the stockings and not cause bruising if they were pulled down.

Connie would like to share with you her latest favourite food.

Perogies!

She loves their potato/cheesy goodness.

Clearly, Connie got more from her great-grandmother than her middle name.

This year, we kept Dougie’s birthday pretty low key. We’ve only met a few people here and didn’t want to plan a party like last year for just a handful of kids. So, we decided to just invite family and keep things calm.

The day started like most of our days do. I tried to get a picture of Dougie holding up 4 fingers but he wasn’t quite into it – so we settled for a sweet smile instead.

We spent the morning playing and hanging out. Dougie inspected the gifts that were out. This one in particular caught his attention. He was convinced it was a cake.

He hasn’t learned the skills involved in present guessing. I assure you, it wasn’t a cake.

Dougie selected his own clothes for the day. His fashion sense is really developing.

Then, he counted the minutes until Auntie Lou arrived.

A small aside here, we told Dougie that he couldn’t open presents until Auntie Lou got here. Somehow, that got her associated with Santa Claus. We’re going to have to work on clearing that up.

Anyway, once Auntie Lou got here we had some hors d’oeuvres and then had some cake. Shockingly, we opted for a Thomas theme.

Connie hung out with Auntie Lou while Dougie blew out the candles.

Even Connie got into the cake experience.

Then it was on to presents. Dougie is a lot more into opening gifts now that he’s a bit older.

Connie and Auntie Lou helped a bit too. Dougie was so excited with every gift. He wanted everything removed from the packaging immediately.

It was a great birthday! We’re so excited to see what the next year holds.

Connie spent the day taking a few last minutes calls from her public.

Should we be concerned that she is trying to text this early?

Connie just discovered these chairs today and insists on climbing on them.

It’s strange, I can’t believe it’s been a year already and yet at the same time, it seems like Connie has been with us forever. We all excited to see what the next year will hold.

For the first year, in a while, Dougie was not Clifford. He didn’t express any opinion on what he should wear so it was perfect when Auntie Lou offered to loan us one of Molly’s old costumes. Dougie fell in love with it. He wanted to wear it to the grocery store in the middle of the month. He decided he was a bumble bee (“bungle bee”). Now, those entomologists in the reading audience may recognize this costume is not a bumble bee – but sometimes, those arguments are just not worth having.

Connie’s costume lends itself to less debate. She clearly is an elephant. Oh wait, no – a flower.

Dougie inspecting Connie before they leave

Okay, let’s go!

One more picture with Dad before heading out the door.

This year went really well for Dougie. He didn’t try to go into anyone’s house and he actually selected candies that he liked if he was given that option. He said thank you at almost everyone house too. It went perfectly until the second to last house. That house had someone who was trying to scare the kids as they came up. Clearly, not realizing that Dougie was 3, he jumped out and yelled as Dougie waited at the door. Scott said Dougie’s screamed so loudly that the neighbour came out to see what was wrong. The next house had some scary sounds and lights so Dougie decided they were done. In fact, they were so done that Scott had to carry him home.

Overall, a great day though and the kids both had a great time!

If I can just be careful enough…

He’ll never even notice…

Okay, let’s party!!!

It was a cold day for climbing. Fall is definitely here! We didn’t take a lot of pictures on the way up. It was mostly trees and forest so there wasn’t much to take a picture of. When we got to the top, it was SO windy! Dougie was cold and not in the mood for pictures so we just took a quick one to remember the summit and then moved on.

Scott and Dougie headed down from the summit

Dougie was pretty ready to head home at this point but we had planned to walk out along the ridge for a while. Fortunately, we saw a helicopter parked on the ridge. Dougie was so excited to see Harold the helicopter. We watched it for a while before it took off. That improved Dougie’s mood enough that we could continue.

Helicopter in front of Tiara Mountain

Fortunately, this mountain wasn’t too high and the ridge went right along the treeline so we decided to go back down so we could get out of the wind and have our lunch.

Dougie is happy again eating his “ham crackers”

Daddy and Connie post lunch

Only one more mountain to do on our “mountains we’ll never climb list.” Hopefully, we can hit Moose Mountain next summer.

More back-posts coming soon but we wanted to share this one now.

Mt. St. Piran is the second peak from the right. It is almost a 10 hour walk there and back though so when it took almost 3 hours to do what should have only taken 1, we decided to climb Little Beehive instead (right most peak).

We decided to stop by the Lake Agnes Teahouse to eat our lunch. We had packed sandwiches so we just ate those by the lake rather than going in for tea. The lake was spectacular. We had passed mirror lake earlier which was a bit disappointing but this one made up for it.

From the teahouse we continued on up to the top of Little Beehive. The view from the top was fantastic.

Scott and Dougie looking down on Chateau Lake Louise.

Making the last bit of the climb

Coming back down

Back at the lake

We’re still hoping to make it up to the top of Mt. St. Piran, maybe next year – without the kids.

What was most interesting about this hike is the lower part of the mountain has been badly burned by two major forest fires and is still recovering. Though it means there aren’t as many nice trees, it substantially improves the view of the surrounding mountains.

This is near the end of the official trail. You can walk up the scree from here but we didn’t think the kids could handle that.

Dougie doing a bit of posing

Mummy and the kids

Connie did some posing too

No no, don’t look at me, look at the camera

Truly a beautiful hike! This was my favourite one we did all year.

We think he’s a bit beyond the intended age range for these toys but he suddenly really loves them again. What is most interesting is he has a very different way of playing with them now.

Hopefully, he’ll let Connie have a turn at some point.

Find a Connie lying down (shirt lifted slightly to expose tummy)

Face on the tummy and go “PBBT”

Wait for the giggling to stop

Go in for another one (notice Connie started laughing before it even started this time)

PBBBBTTTTT

It’s ringing, I wonder who it’s for?

Hello? This is Connie

Teenage years are going to be tough.

Kim doing snuba

Scott doing snuba

Dougie and Connie had fun with the glass bottom boat

Dougie decided he has a future career as a photographer

Our hotel had a great kiddie pool – including a thrill-inducing 8” deep section for Connie

Connie giving Daddy some swimming pointers

The pool had a big pirate ship in the middle – tailor made for Dougie! At every turn he was asking to go in the “pirate ship pool”. We had to learn to avoid windows and walkways within line of sight of the pool – otherwise we never would have seen the rest of Maui.

Dougie sliding down the pirate ship

The hotel was also right on the beach – so Connie and Dougie had lots of time to play in the sand

Having given up on photography, Dougie started thinking about architecture

Connie, meanwhile, seemed more interested in geology

Of course, we had to go to a luau…

Dougie was pretty excited about the luau – especially the dancers, who (according to him) were doing lots of “shaking and wiggling!”

We had a pretty great setup in our room – lots of space for the family

We drove the gorgeous “road to Hana” and made a bunch of stops along the way

Toward the end of our vacation, we took the long, winding drive to the top of Haleakala, the main volcano on Maui. Managed to cover over 10,000 feet of vertical drop along the way!

Of course, at 10,000 feet, the weather was a bit cooler than it was by the beach. We forgot sweaters for the kids, so Dougie managed to “acquire” Daddy’s sweater. Fits like a glove! … a horribly, horribly oversized glove.

All in all, it was a fabulous vacation – Maui lived up to its very high expectations. And gave us enough warm memories to live through an Alberta winter!

We started our trip by taking in some of the sights on Oahu – including a volcanic crater

Dougie was impressed with the size of the plant life in Hawaii

Dougie showing Mummy around the island

“Hey, if I have to be on vacation with my parents, I’m still gonna look as cool as I can”

Mummy and Connie on the Pineapple Train at the Dole Plantation

Dougie and Daddy on the Pineapple Train

That a fine lookin’ pineapple guitar player!

Everyone but Mummy, looking out over the Pacific

Dougie was very kind to loan Connie his old stroller!

A scenic lookout on Oahu, along with Dougie and Mummy

One highlight of the trip was our visit to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel on Waikiki Beach. While we didn’t stay there (that’s well beyond our budget!), it has a special significance in the Sharabura family history – as the place where Grandma and Grandpa Sharabura first met back in 1960. We figured it would be an appropriate place to bring two of their grandchildren.

A new generation of Sharaburas at the Royal Hawaiian (shhhh, we weren’t guests!)

After a few whirlwind days on Oahu, we took off for our week in Maui.

We took the Bow Valley Parkway again because it increases our chance of seeing some wildlife on the way. We weren’t on the road 5 minutes before we saw several elk.

This guy was right beside the road (no idea what is on his head)

We were glad to see that there weren’t too many cars in the parking lot when we got to the trail. One of the main complaints we had heard about this trail was that it can be very crowded. We got the gang out of the car and started up. The first part of the walk was nondescript just going through the woods but after about 30 minutes, we could start to see the glacier.

Unfortunately, one of the downsides of hiking near a glacier is that it is COLD. We didn’t expect it to be as cold as it was because it was pretty warm in Calgary but the wind coming off the icefield and glacier. We had dressed as warmly as we thought was necessary but we could have done better. Dougie decided he wanted to go in the backpack for a lot of the walk which meant he wasn’t as active as we had planned and so he was a lot colder than any of us wanted.

Regardless, we did make it to the pass. It was a fantastic hike and we will definitely try it again in the middle of the summer when it’s more likely to be a bit warmer.

Grandpa and the kiddies, surfing the Web

Dougie and Auntie Suz hangin’ out

Grandma demonstrating the wonders of digital cameras (both Dougie and Auntie Suz look enthralled!)

Sharabura girls rock!

Higher, Grandpa, higher!

Future winners of the Daddy Daughter Dance competition

“This is how you do it, Auntie Suz!”

This was our first time up at the cottage and after seeing it, it was clear why they love it there! The location was just beautiful located on a lake in the middle of the mountains. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t perfect for most of our visit but that didn’t dampen our fun. Fortunately, the day we left the weather improved and we were able to go out on the boat for a while.

So off we went down to the water

First up was some water skiing. You can see some of the views as well.

Can you believe that’s little Daley?

After water skiing, we came back in to switch things up some we could do some tubing. While the rest of the folks did work, we snapped a few pictures.

Scott, getting ready to go tubing

Molly was in charge of making sure Dougie didn’t go for a swim.

Not too hard considering he didn’t want to be more than a foot away from her at any given time. She helped Connie get a bit more comfortable with this boat thing too.

Connie hanging out on the bow

Almost all of the girls hanging out in the boat

On our second round out, my mother took care of Connie.

Scott and Molly went tubing

And Dougie hung out with Auntie Lou

As you can see, the dark clouds started to roll in again and we got in just as it was starting to rain. What a fantastic fun trip though!

It was a beautiful day and a great day to visit.

From Lake Louise, we headed over to Moraine Lake. I’ve learned that is the correct order to see these two areas. Mom and Dad agreed.

We didn’t have a lot of time at Moraine Lake but Mom got a few good pictures while Dad wandered around checking the prices of renting a canoe. The kids and I waited.

We were back in the car and headed back in time for the kids to catch a little nap. It was a long trip but we were all glad that we took a bit of time to go out there for the day.

Connie was a lot more into the experience this time.

My parents really enjoyed the experience. It is definitely different than anything in Mississauga!

From the hoodoos, we went into Drumheller. The last time we came out as a family, we wanted to go to the museum there but we ran out of time. Fortunately, this time, we made the time. We expected that Dougie would love it. They have lots of dinosaurs and we thought he would be thrilled. We were wrong. Very very wrong.

You can see the fear. This trip started the mantra of “but it’s not going to eat Dougie.”

Overall, it was a fun day trip but it will be a while before we go back to the museum.

You don’t stay on this path for long before you head off into the woods and on a bit rougher path. That mountain ahead is a ski hill called Nakiska.

Dougie walked quite a bit of this himself. We’ve learned that if we give him a stick to hold, he’s happy to walk on his own for quite a while. It didn’t take too long for us to make it to the falls. There was another family there having a picnic so we got them to take our picture.

Mom and I hiked a bit up the falls so I could show her why it was called Troll Falls.

Look, a troll!

We headed back to the car and went into Canmore for lunch. Then, since we were so close, we decided to take my parents up to see some nice mountain views. This location also happens to be the site of our Mountain nemesis, Ha Ling Peak (more on that another time). There is a spectacular lake at the bottom of the mountain where we stopped for a few pictures.

Daddy and Dougie stopped to skip a few stones.

It was a great day in one of our favourite parts of Alberta.

It’s great for her, but Dougie isn’t able to hide things from her up there any more. He’s tried to pull her down a few times but we don’t let that happen – so he needed a different plan.

After Connie pulls up on the table, he gets Connie’s attention….

and he starts clapping. Connie soon follows suit.

The more excited she gets, the more she claps, and then this happens.

This method isn’t likely to be effective for long, but it’s a pretty brilliant plan!

First, we get some food on the spoon

Open wide, Connie. Like this…

Uh, I don’t think so

As you can tell, this is not the neatest method of getting food into Connie. She will frequently take a bite, though Dougie tends to overfill the spoon, and most of it gets all over her face. Dougie really likes to help though!

Before I continue, please pardon the mess on her shirt.

One handful is not enough, must get more…

What?

I think I can fit a few more in

We believe she did this to herself.

We arrived just in time to see a piano demonstration. Dougie was in awe! Once they finished, they allowed the kids to get on the piano.

As you walked across the kids, the piano would play notes. I think Dougie would have just stayed here all day if we had let him.

Of course, that was before he knew there was a display of various military equipment. Dougie asked to go on the boat twice. The navy person who was supervising it even let him wear his hat.

As we got closer to the kids area, we saw a jumping area that I thought Dougie would really like. They put bungee cords on the kids and then would let them jump and turn. Unfortunately, Dougie wasn’t heavy enough to try it. That was okay by him because he decided he wanted to go on the go carts more anyway. I thought he was too young but they assured me it would be fine.

Unfortunately, Dougie couldn’t get the idea of holding the trigger to make it go or turning the wheel to steer. This nice guy actually held the trigger and steered for him.

It was a big thrill for Dougie!

Finally, we got to the kids area and tried out some of the rides.

Connie didn’t do a whole lot there. She was too small for most of the rides. She was quite happy to sit in her stroller and watch the people though.

It was a fun day! We were lucky to get some really great weather for it as well.

I was fortunate enough to be able to buy tickets for the bleachers so we didn’t need to get downtown too early though I didn’t realize that they were at the end of the parade route which meant an extra 45 minutes of waiting for the parade to start. I’ll know better next year. There were lots of folks that came through to entertain the waiting masses though so at least we weren’t staring at an empty street the whole time.

Connie in her best cowboy outfit

She is just mastering clapping so she took every opportunity to give it a try.

The kids were so excited to be there

Finally, the parade started. The grand marshals were Jet and Cord from the Amazing Race. These guys were, by far, my favourite Amazing Race team ever – so it was pretty exciting to see them.

Wow, an entire float dedicated to me? What an honour.

After a while, this came along.

I thought this was just brilliant! They decorated street cleaning truck and then sent it down the road to clean up after anything the horses may have left. Dougie did not like this. I think it may have been the noise but he shrieked every time they came down the street. In an hour and a half parade, that was a lot more often than we were happy about.

Look, there’s another one.

Hmm, he’s a little out of place here in Calgary, in the summer

Connie just took the whole thing in.

Nothing really scared her once the people stopped yelling “Ya hoo” as she was trying to nap.

Overall, we had a great time! We’d go again but we’d be sure to get seats closer to the start of the parade route.

This particular meal is Jamie Oliver’s Sizzling beef with scallions and black bean sauce. Dougie loved helping toss the meat and adding things to the bowl. Since it was raw meat, he couldn’t really taste it as we went along though. When it came time to eat, he didn’t want to eat it at all.

Guess we’re back to the drawing board for ideas – but at least he learned some cooking skills.

She has definitely perfected sitting.

The one thing that hasn’t changed is that her brother loves her. He still constantly asks to “hold the Connie.” Since she’s a bit more stable, it’s gotten easier for him.

We swear she isn’t as big as this picture makes her appear

It’s like they were waiting to greet us.

The lake itself is beautiful. We were lucky to get on board early enough to get a window seat so we could get some nice pictures on the way out.

When we reached Spirit Island, we docked the boat and everyone got off to get some pictures.

The Island

Scott and the kids with the island

On the way back, we stopped at Medicine Lake. This place isn’t really that interesting in the summer except to know that a few months earlier, there was almost no water in this lake. By October, it will again be just a small stream.

As the day warmed up, we headed down to Maligne Canyon. It was beautiful though very crowded. We took a stroll down quite a ways to enjoy the view.

Connie had been wearing a hat but she removed it shortly into the trip. Someone found it and hung it on a pole near where we entered the canyon. We were very glad to get it back and really appreciated the kindness of whoever found it.

We still had a while to kill before dinner so we opted to head to Pyramid Mountain to have a look. There is a little island near the viewing area. It wasn’t too crowded but there were enough people around to get someone to take our picture.

Before we headed back to town for dinner, we stopped to play a bit.

We headed out reasonably early the next morning. Our only disappointment about the trip was that we hadn’t seen a single bear. We weren’t too far out of Jasper when we saw this:

Our trip was complete. We’ll definitely head back to Jasper again as there were a lot of things we didn’t get time to do but this is by far one of my favourite vacations.

Here is Athabasca Glacier. It is the most accessible glacier in the Icefield. Though it appears huge, it is really just a small part of the icefield itself.

We bought our tickets and had a little wait until it was our turn. We had to take a bus out to the Snocoach waiting area where a coach would take us out onto the glacier.

Here is the road onto the glacier itself.

It was pretty cold and the kids were hungry so they were a bit off at this point.

Amazing what a few crackers can do.

As we go closer, they explained the “rules.” They want you to stay in the marked area. They check that area daily for crevasses and know that it is safe for walking but anywhere outside of the marked area can be dangerous. People have died here so better to be safe! We would be given about 15 minutes to walk around on the glacier once we arrived. We were really lucky that all of these coaches left right after we got there so we had the entire area for just our bus group.

It was COLD! We knew it would be cold but this was really cold!!

Another guy on our bus offered to take our picture so we managed to get one with the whole family.

After lunch, we headed down to a different viewing area to see the toe of the glacier. It was interesting to see how much it had receded since Scott was here last time.

Poor Connie missed out on most of this action.

We made the long drive back to Jasper and called it a day.

The mountain is pretty high so there was still snow on top when we got there. Dougie wasn’t quite sure what to make of snow in July.

After a bit of snow inspection, we headed towards the summit.

Dougie thought the various inukshuks on the mountain were great – though we had to stop him from trying to knock them down.

Dougie had a little jeep with him that he was sure to stop and play with every chance he got.

As we got closer to the top, there was a lot more snow. Dougie, who now loves snow, wanted to play in it despite the fact that were were not properly dressed for it.

Tired and a bit wet, we grabbed a few pictures and started back down to the gondola.

When we got back to town, we grabbed some lunch and settled in to watch the Canada Day parade. There is something special about a small town parade. Where else would you see something like this:

Connie was very due for a nap at this point so we thought a drive may be in order to let her get a bit of sleep in the car. As we were heading out, we noticed this pizza sign. I’d buy pizza from these people just because of the sign.

We weren’t too far out of Jasper when we got stuck in traffic. We were more than a little surprised by it. It was Canada day but we weren’t going anywhere that should have had a lot of traffic. Turns out, we were in a goat jam.

A few little goats basically shut down the road out of town. Fortunately, a ranger came along and scared them all away from the road.

When we arrived at the hot springs, we were excited to see more goats.

A lady, who was clearly a local, explained that this is about as ugly as the goats get. They were shedding their winter fur and getting ready to get the nice bright white color that they always have in pictures. Regardless, seeing a big bunch of mountain goats was a thrill for us.

We hadn’t brought our bathing suits with us so we didn’t go into the hot springs but we did hike around to see the “source.” You can stick your finger in here and see how hot the water is. They actually cool the water a bit here before they put it in the pools so it doesn’t burn people. They also add some chemicals to reduce the sulphur smell. Unfortunately, those weren’t added at this stage so this area was scented.

Connie tried to catch a few Zs while we were walking.

Dougie tried to burn off some energy pretending he was a dog.

From here, we headed back into town. It was a long day and we were all pretty tired.

First stop, gas around the corner from the house. Don’t the kids look thrilled?

We decided to take the Bow Valley Trail up from Banff to Lake Louise. It’s supposed to be a good wild life viewing areas and we were in no hurry. We weren’t on the road for 2 minutes before we saw this:

He has some friends across the road in the woods too.

We got a bit carried away with the touristy stops. We were grabbing a few geocaches on the way and they tend to trend towards touristy. Here I am at the continental divide.

Connie and Daddy at Lake Moraine.

The whole family in front of the lake.

Lake Morraine is where the picture for the old Canadian $20 bill was taken. So, we posed in the same spot for our $20 picture.

From there we headed over to Lake Louise. I had always heard it was spectacular and it didn’t disappoint.

Connie and Daddy in front of the lake

As we got closer to the Columbia Icefields, we came across a small group of mountain sheep. I was excited enough by the sighting that I climbed a not insignificant hill by the side of the road to get a better picture.

It was a long drive, made longer by the fact that we kept stopping, but we had a great time and were so glad to finally arrive at the hotel.

Connie is thrilled to be part of her brother’s world. Dougie likes it as long as she’ll leave when he asks – that has yet to happen.

ACK! What are you doing? No standing up!! That only leads to… walking!

Don’t look at me like that, I know you’re trying to walk.

I can tell you’re planning something

No no, climbing is totally unacceptable!

Good thing you’re cute