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.

Family Vaca!

Bob took some vacation time last week and we enjoyed every minute of it! For Ella's birthday last month, my parents and Bob's parents gave Ella (and the rest of us) Sea World season tickets and a few nights at a hotel. It was perfect timing with Bob's time off coming up so we packed everyone's bags and had the car loaded Easter morning. Ella knew that Sea World was happening, she just didn't know exactly when. So after we hunted eggs with our small group we loaded the girls in the car to surprise them. 

This is an Ella story to go down in the books. As I'm putting Ella in the car I tell her to look in the back. It was full of pillows and suitcases. She guesses right off the bat that we are going to Sea World and is glowing with excitement. But then about 30 seconds later she gets a serious face and quickly asks me a few questions. "Did you pack the shirts Mamie got me?" Yes Ella I did. "Did you pack my swimsuit from Jo Jo?" Yes Ella I did. Here comes the kicker. "Did you pack my mirror?" I'm confused by this question and my first thought is that maybe she is referring to her little makeup mirror. I ask her what mirror she is talking about and she replies back like I shouldn't even question which one. "My pink mirror in my room mom!" Guys, the pink mirror in her room is a FULL LENGTH MIRROR! The kid is so fashion obsessed that she was panicked she wouldn't have a full length mirror to look in every morning! My mouth dropped opened and I was about to go into full mom mode and give a lecture about how what we look like on the outside isn't whats important, yada yada yada. Nothing new to Ella, we have this talk a lot. Bob knew it was coming and calmly said, let me take this one. He just simply told Ella that she didn't need to worry, Mom packed everything and the hotel had mirrors. All was good again and we were on the road to San Antonio! 

The hotel we stayed in was so wonderful! Very kid friendly (and it even had mirrors). Hyatt Hill Country.

We got there on Sunday and headed straight to the river walk. The girls wanted to ride the boat that goes up and down the river. As we are walking alongside the river, it gets lower and lower. Turns out there was a miss communication somewhere and someone opened one of the emergency flood gates because they thought they were going to get some heavy rain. This dropped the river 4 feet leaving the boats that were out stuck. So they had to shut down the tours for the rest of the day. It was weird to be able to see the bottom. Super random. 

We ate dinner and then enjoyed a horse and carriage ride. So much better than a boat anyway.

The next day was our Sea World day and it was perfect! To start things off, Ella was wearing tennis shoes. This is very rare and made me so excited. I'm totally ok that she has her own fashion sense but sometimes you gotta go with what makes sense. 

We went to all the shows and rode all the rides. Well Bob and the girls did. I am the mom that gets motion sickness if I turn around in a circle too fast. Bummer. It wan't ever really this bad until the last couple of years. At least I got to get some pics:)

We took Ella to Sea World when I was pregnant with McKenna and she wanted to ride the roller coaster then but wasn't tall enough. We were all so excited that she got to ride it this time!

I love her face in these pics. She was nervous but loved it so much! She would have ridden it over and over if she could've.

We ended the day with a Shamu and a diary.

The hotel had smores and a movie on the lawn every night. It was magical. McKenna of course never made it through an entire movie but loved watching a couple seconds and then running around on the lawn.

Bob's way of coping with the hotel choosing Tangled over the Ranger's game involved a slightly smaller screen

Every morning there was a craft in the lobby for the kids. They colored their own hats one day and were very proud. 

The hotel had a lazy river that was heated and a little sand beach area. It was a huge hit!

We ended up going back to the river walk on our last day to ride the boat. 

McKenna felt the same as me. 30 minutes sitting knee to knee with strangers. I'd rather be laying down in a comfortable spot.

It was such a wonderful vacation with great memories and I am so thankful for being able to do it. Thank you mom, dad, Dawn and Billy for help making it happen:)