Canada 2014

Back in February D decided he wanted to plan a big winter trip to visit Calgary and Banff National Park. He had met some people from there and it just sounded awesome. At the time I just could not imagine traveling with our two littles. They couldn't even keep from running off in public. But I hesitantly agreed, hoping that by December and 3 years old they would be good travelers. Boy am I so glad we pressed on with those plans!

First, Canada is beautiful. Canada is REALLY REALLY cold, but beautiful! Second, our kids are seriously troopers! They were very go with the flow and able to adjust to everything very easily. They amazed me, really! This trip was their first airplane ride. They did great even without naps and an unplanned refuel stop that put us into Calgary at almost midnight! Of course Mallory fell asleep literally 5 minutes before we landed!

At our airport ready for the big flight!

Checking out our plane!

Here we go!

Thanks Aunt Mami for our headphones! They were perfect for our trip!

Bubba checking it all out!

Me and sis being silly!

She just couldn't hang on any longer, bless her!

This kid was SUCH a trooper on the plane!

What we landed to in Calgary! And -18 degree temps! We couldn't get to our resort about an hour from the airport due to white-out conditions, so we found a hotel a few minutes away for the first night. And our view waking up the next morning... a magical winter wonderland!

We made our drive to Canmore and this was our beautiful lodge resort! Dusty's Dad offered a few months ago to send Gamaw with us for a few days to help with the kids so we could do some stuff without them. So we reserved a 2 bedroom/2 bath suite with a living room and full kitchen. There were electric fireplaces in all the rooms and it was just so cozy, but spacious and great for all of us! The kids both slept with Gamaw every night she was there so we got some great sleep those nights! Ha!

We spent the afternoon settling in our lodge, exploring the resort, and resting a bit. That evening we went to town centre for dinner and a quick grocery run. All with this going on outside...

 

Yes, feels like -30. I can't even explain what that level of cold feels like. It kinda hurts honestly!

Day 2 was our first big outdoor winter activity: snowmobiling! We found a place that would let the kids ride, most start at 4 or 5 years old. It was my favorite thing we did and the kids loved it too! The last trail we were on the kids got sleepy and a little cold so we quickly headed back in and got warmed up. Then they couldn't stop talking about how fun snowmobiling was!

Of course a trip with 3 year olds came with its fair share of hiccups. When we got back to the little office to warm up Mallory tripped walking and went to pull herself up and put her hand right on the glass of the wood stove before D or I could get to her. She burnt the crap out of three of her fingers. Broke my heart. So we spent an hour looking for burn cream and band aids in that tiny town. Gamaw got her comfortable with a plastic bag of snow. We grabbed a snack, made the drive back to what the kids called our "new home", and ordered some delicious pizza and watched Christmas movies until we all crashed!

Two full days down, lots of fun memories, and we were already exhausted! More to come!