Tobogganing

The boys have been wanting to go tobogganing since the first snow flake hit the ground this year. There isn't a lot of snow yet, but we still went out and gave it a try. 

Sunday afternoon was nice out, so off we went:

Banff National Park 2014

The boys had 5 days off of school this past week/weekend, so we decided that it would be fun to go to Banff for a little vacation. The boys have never been to the mountains, so they were in awe over how beautiful and huge the mountains are!

We started our trip on Friday by going to Calgary for lunch and to do some shopping. We made it into Banff that night just in time for dinner. 

Next up was Lake Louise on Saturday. I have been skiing to Lake Louise a bunch of times, but have never actually gone over to the lake and hotel area. It was so amazing! I loved the beautiful surroundings and the lake was so turquoise! We walked around the lake and then took a little hike up the mountain.

Our vacation buddies - the Sagert family:

The kids admiring Lake Louise:

We took a few pictures with this amazing scenery:

And of course, there was some silliness!

After Lake Louise, we went over to the Bow Falls in Banff:

After the Bow Falls and another short hike, we all went swimming at the Banff Upper Hot Springs. 

We packed in a lot of walking and activities that first day!!

Sunday we woke up to a blanket of snow on the ground and the temperature dropped significantly!

Since it was pretty cold out, we filled our day with indoor activities.

Brunch at the Keg:

Then off to see Big Hero 6 at the movie theater. After the movie, we went to The Cave & Basin National Historic Site. This is where the original hot springs and cave is located. There is also a little museum with info and facts on how the hot springs was discovered.

After the museum, we went over to the Banff Springs Hotel and went glow-bowling:

We wrapped up that day with a nice dinner out.

On Monday we said good bye to our vacation buddies (they needed to get home for work). So we drove over to Canmore to go rock climbing, swimming (and then more rocking climbing) at Elevation Place. The boys really enjoyed the climbing:

After a little rest at the condo we out for dinner to a Mexican restaurant in Banff. Mexican is our favorite!

That's it for our Banff vacation. We had a GREAT few days away!

Our Little Pumpkins

This year Halloween was a little more relaxed than other years. First we carved pumpkins on Thursday night. Then on Friday, we went bowling and out for dinner with friends. The kids loved it! It was a nice change and much more fun! It was also nice not having all that candy to sort through and eat over the next few days :)

The boys decided on an Angry Birds theme for their pumpkins. 2 birds and 1 pig. Michael helped them pick a design and carve them out.