Banff and Lake Louise for the big 10 year

Jeff and I were soooo completely and incredibly lucky to go to Banff and Lake Louise in Canada for our 10 year anniversary.
I had kind of been having a bummer summer attitude and wasn't really feeling doing anything big for our anniversary and my mom and Christopher wouldn't let it go.  They were so great at encouraging Jeff and I to go and celebrate and I could not be more grateful.  After seeing Caroline's sisters pics when she went with her husband on instagram, I commented to them that that would be a beautiful place to go. They both jumped on it and helped us plan the coolest trip to one of the most beautiful places on earth.  I truly can not stress or put on paper how gorgeous it is.  The glacial milk comes down from the glacier and it is a turquoise color.  The lake is truly turquoise.  It is unbelievable.  That milk streams down the Bow river and the entire river is turquoise and clear.  So ridiculous.
We took caroline's sisters advice and tried to do everything they had done.
And it was all awesome.  I mean who gets to go to canada on their anniversary and see glacial milk?! I cant get over it.
Before we left Christopher and my mom made an entire itinerary and Christopher and Tiff made us a whole backpack full of fun stuff to have with us.  It was so personal and so perfect.


It was about an hour and a half drive to Banff from the airport and we stopped along the way to take pics of everything because it was so gorgeous.  I keep saying gorgeous but truly, it was.  We had no idea that this was just the tip of the preverbal (and real) ice burg.
Once we got there our view was incredible.

And Banff is the cutest town.

Get ready for an insane amount of selfies.  We were excited.
Then we went into town, ate pizza and bought souvenirs for the kids.
The next morning we hiked up to see the waterfalls.

and took self timer pics of ourselves some more.


We accidentally went off the beaten path, but made it back in one piece and was only spotted once peeing in the woods.
After that, we drove to Lake Louise to spend the rest of our time there.

And its just a postcard in action.


We hiked around the lake first thing and it was, you know it, so gorgeous.


The glacial silt that comes down looks like sand so it looks like a beach, but its not.  What the what??


We relaxed for dinner and just enjoyed the view.


The next day we went on this gondola ride where there are supposedly bears that you can see from the ride up and then you can hike around.

We had fun but we did not see any bears.
But the view didnt hurt.

They had a little museum up at the top where we read about all the animals that live on the mountain.
Very interesting.

Afterwards we went hiking up to see the ink pots  Ink pots are little ponds where water comes up from the ground and they are all different shades of blue and green.  They are also like 6 miles up from the bottom of the mountain.
I usually am up for all kinds of strenuous activity and love a good sweat, but I am kind of lazy on vacation.  It is the only time that I can really relax and not feel guilty.  So, to be honest, I could have stayed in the room and watched ER.  I mean, Im glad I didnt.  Im just saying I needed a little push to keep going.

The first part of the hike is very family friendly and you just walk up a catwalk with tons of asian tourists.  (Im sure its not always the case, but while we were there thats pretty much who we were with).


Theres a lower falls and an upper falls and they are both breathtaking.
That was where I would have turned back.  But thanks to the encouragement of my husband I was able to force myself to get up to the ink pots.

And they were also very, very cool.
I was glad I did it.

That night we celebrated at an amazing restaurant in the Fairmont with incredible fondue. It was melt in your mouth cheese.

Im full just thinking about that little bowl of hot cheese.
The last day we fly fished down the Bow River and it was even more gorgeous than I could have dreamt.  Just clear and beautiful and brown trout everywhere (I mean not everywhere.  I only caught like three..)



Look at this stud.
He caught a lot more than three.
Then we he headed home to see the babies and I was SO READY that I could have busted.  It was such an incredible trip and I am so so so thankful to everyone who helped make it all possible for us to be alone and have so much fun.  It was relaxing and energizing and rejuvenating and all of those ing verbs, but it was so much fun to see those smiling (or crying, shea was crying to show me she was mad I left.  For like 30 min) faces of my babies.
Best anniversary ever.