New Day, New Province...

Distance travelled: 280 kms

Pace: Late start, a few nice breaks, not a long distance so pretty lax.

Malachi’s favorite: Eating marshmallows!

Jericho’s favorite: Going for an adventure to find wood for marshmallow roasting.

Wildlife spotted: Big Horn Sheep up CLOSE, numerous deer including 4 beautiful white tail’s, and a bunch of gophers.

You are Where? Banff, ALBERTA!!

Highlights: Radium Hot Springs, meeting another Westfalia owner or two, Beautiful Banff!!!

Currently the boys are “upstairs” telling each other stories. They are overjoyed to be out of the cold and snuggly with two sleeping bags and a picnic blanket. A few times Malachi has thanked me so much for his bed and said he’s never coming out… one can hope!

The day started by us being awakened by two young boys who were dying to play with Jer and Kai just one more time before we had to go. We had a great time hanging out with some very good friends and Nate even said that we could go home now and he would be happy.

We left our friend’s house and didn’t get far before we had to turn back to get my purse! Apparently we also forgot Malachi’s sunglasses and he cried for awhile about it. But we’ve promised to buy him a new pair in his favorite colour as soon as we can.

The drive from Cranbrook to Banff is quite nice. It’s relatively flat compared to our Osoyoos to Cranbrook run and with much more wildlife. We stopped quite a few times to get a closer look at a sheep and some deer. And seeing the Stewart Glacier just in passing was pretty spectacular. I don’t know the name of it, but I fell in love with this one amazing mountain that you can see just as you come into Alberta. It’s stunning. I remember driving with my family on road trips as a child and simply not having an appreciation for what was outside. My parents would oooh and ahhh and yell “Get your head out of that book and take a look outside!!” My siblings and I would maybe take a peek or two, nod in fake appreciation… then get back to whatever it was we were doing. But now, I can see it! I just sit in the front seat of the van, either driving or in the passenger seat and just soak it all in. That is, until the silence (not altogether silent riding in Clementine, mind you) is quickly melted by a shriek or cry.

The boys have been pretty good so far. They get bored of looking out the window, as I did. They have only watched 2 movies in the van so far. They like playing with cars together or colouring, or playing a game or 6 on the iPod’s. But they are still excited and looking forward to plenty more adventure.

I have to mention how much we loved Radium Hot Springs! There’s two outdoor pools with change rooms and showers, all very nicely done. The cold pool (29 degrees) has a diving board and two slides, while the hot pool (39 degrees) is just awesome to lounge in. We went to the cold pool and Malachi immediately wanted to go down the large slide. The lifeguard told him no at first and said “You need to know how to swim.” He said “I do!” So she let him go and watched in amazement as this little 3 year old went whipping down the slide and proceeded to swim to me, about 6 feet away. There were some shocked looks as he looks pretty funny going right under the water and kicking away. He keeps his eyes open too so he knows where I am.

Jericho went down a few times too, but he is still a bit nervous and starts to doubt himself when he knows how. But we’re working on it.

We are enjoying our campsite and will be here for two days. Tomorrow we will likely head into Banff for a bit and drive to Lake Louise. The 11^th we are planning to see Nate’s Aunt in Cochrane for awhile and from there… we will see!!

What’s your favorite Alberta attraction? We aren’t planning on heading to Edmonton, but I’m not ruling it out completely. We shall see!

*** I had so many more pictures I yearned to share with you, but we just have a Telus Internet stick for tonight and it's SO SLOW!!! I always read your comments and love hearing about who's been reading!