Banff National Park

This is the next post in our Canada series. I have to warn you up front that this post has a lot of pictures, but Banff was so beautiful that we couldn't keep from putting in a lot. We wish you could all experience it some day. The mountains are amazingly sharp and rocky. Apparently the Canadian Rockies are newer than the mountains in Colorado or Utah. I can't imagine being able to reach the top of many of them without having to use a climbing rope. As Leslie said in her most recent post, we went to Canada for a conference I was attending for work (related to the Canadian oil sands). We dropped off the three oldest kids in Salt Lake, and then Leslie and Peter and I flew to Calgary, Alberta (by the way, it is pretty hard to take passport pictures of a four-day-old!). Once we got there we rented a car and drove the hour and a half to Banff National Park. Here is the entrance to the park:



We stayed in the town of Banff (inside the park). The temperature was about 40º cooler there than in Oklahoma (it was a good time to be gone with actual temperatures around 105º and heat indexes around 115º). Luckily, we had some pretty Kuhl jackets to keep us warm. And don't you like Peter's crocheted boots? They were great for Calgary, where people take their Western wear very seriously.



With only three days to spend in Banff we knew we couldn't waste any time. Our first evening there we walked around the town just absorbing the atmosphere - it's a fun touristy mountain town kind of like Park City, but not as big and with more of a European flair (Leslie already mentioned how often we heard other languages being spoken around us).

The next morning we drove along the scenic route to Johnston Canyon. We wanted to go on some fairly easy hikes that would allow us to experience the beauties of the park. The hike up Johnston Canyon is a few kilometers and goes by two sets of amazing falls. Here are a couple pictures of Leslie along a particularly cool part of the trail and by the Lower Falls (pictures of both falls are in the slide show below).





Next, we hopped back in the car and drove up to Lake Louise, which is a definite must-see for first-timers to Banff. Being the outdoors enthusiast that I am, I was a little leary of going to a famous lake with a humongous (both in size and room price - there is a picture in the slide show at the end of the post) hotel on the shore, where I new we would be surrounded by tons of tourists. Let me say I'm glad we did it anyway. The lake is amazing as you can see in the next two pictures. And the color of that water is real - a milky blue-green! The lake is glacier-fed (you can see the glacier on the mountains in the background).





There are a couple trails that go around the lake and I did convince Leslie we should take the harder one, which was nice because it was definitely the road less traveled. We got to enjoy the quiet beauty of the forest around the lake as we climbed to a lookout point (the pictures of the Chateau Lake Louise in the slide show were taken from this lookout). Many of you may remember a post when we talked about the kids deciding to name a certain part of our backyard "mossland". Well, we found the real mossland on this hike! Peter didn't appreciate our efforts to capture the discovery, though.



Here's a picture of Leslie taking some pictures :)



After Lake Louise we went to Morraine Lake, which had similarly spectacular water color (although less milky). No picture here, but there is one in the slide show. We were pretty tired at this point in the day, so we didn't go on a hike around Morraine Lake, but we did get to watch a French-speaking woman take a quick dive (on purpose) into the 4ºC water. Brrrr! We decided to stick with taking pictures.

On Sunday, we went to church (there was an LDS church about a block and a half from our hotel). One of the missionaries we saw knew Leslie's brother, Clark, who has been serving as a missionary in the area around Calgary for the last year and a half (he comes home in January!). We wanted to spend the rest of the day doing things that would be more calm and peaceful than our Saturday activities, so we visited some of the sites close to town, including the overlook for the falls on the Bow River and Lake Minnewonka (where we enjoyed a wonderfully quiet and non-strenuous hike through the forest along the shore - more pictures in the slide show, including some of the horned wildlife we saw). Here are a couple of pictures to prove we were there.





I couldn't resist taking a picture of this sign:



Monday, our final day in Banff, we had a decision to make. Either take the gondola up to lookout at the top of Sulphur Mountain (which everyone in my group at work said we had to do) or take the bus up to Sunshine Meadows. We decided to do the latter and we are very happy we did. Sunshine Meadows ended up being our favorite hike! An old school bus takes you up the steep muddy road to the top of a ski resort and then lets you free to hike around on the trails. Sunshine Meadows is not technically part of Banff, but is an alpine meadow in a provincial (read "state") park that crosses the Continental Divide and goes into British Columbia. The trail to Mt. Assiniboine starts there, so there were a few backpackers on the bus up with us. There was also a group of very in-shape seniors on the bus with us (I would love to be hiking around at several thousand feet when I'm seventy!). The weather called for rain most of the day, so Leslie and I had some water-resistant jackets on (Leslie's was more resistant than mine). The next pictures document some of the beautiful sites we saw.

Rock Isle Lake:



Leslie at a quaint stream crossing:



You have to click on this panorama shot to see it bigger:



Leslie and Peter with British Columbia in the background. (The weather had actually been very nice until about this point in the hike. This was where we stopped for lunch, but when these clouds came rolling into view we packed up in a hurry and started for the bus pickup to get back down the mountain.)



After some rain and hail and a crying, wet baby (remember how I said my jacket wasn't as water-resistant as Leslie's?) we made it down and enjoyed a rainy, foggy drive back to Calgary (and I'm not being sarcastic; it was a cozily beautiful experience).



Well, with that, anyone who is still left reading this post can now enjoy the slide show of more pictures. And if you ever get a chance to go to Banff, take it!

We've Been on Holiday

That is what they say in Canada and I think it is lovely!
Nate and Peter and I spent a week in Canada mid-July and we loved it. We split our time half in Banff National Park and half in downtown Calgary. It was a very nice break from the Oklahoma heat and the flat brown plains that surround us.

Did it seem like a different country? Yes for a few reasons. *1. There are two official languages in Canada – French and English. So nearly everything is printed in both. Freeway exits were not just “Exit” They were “Exit/Sorte” , at the grocery store most packaging has one front labeled in French and the other front in English. All around us we heard people speaking in French. It was fun.

*2. Like most of the civilized world, they use the metric system. This meant temperatures reported in Celsius (get a jacket – it’s only 18 degrees) , speed limits posted in kilometers per hour (“whoa, we’re going 90 and everyone is passing us!”), and hiking distances in kilometers (this was good for my self esteem as it made it sound like I was hiking much further that I actually did). I had a hard time getting used to it.

*3. The Canadian accent was pretty cool. After just 15 min. off the plane I had already had 5 people say “Eh” to me. They use lovely phrases like “Are you off on holiday?” and say Calgary with a lilt, and have washrooms instead of bathrooms.

And *4. The Canadian Rockies really are AWESOME (as in awe-inspiring, not just cool). The mountains are so tall and rugged. Apparently they are younger than the Utah/Colorado Rockies. And the cooler temps kept everything lush and green. It was beautiful. This awesomeness attracted foreigners from all over the world – Europe, India, the Middle East, China, Japan, America, etc. (although one lady from Ohio talked as though everyone else were the foreigners, not us Americans. Apparently we own the beauties of Canada too.). We loved seeing the fashions, and hearing languages from all over. We got a good chuckle from watching an older traditionally-dressed Muslim woman rinse her dentures in a cold mountain stream.

(and the Beavers there are huge ;0)

We loved visiting our maple-loving neighbors to the North. Thanks Canada

I know Nate will want to give you a full travelog but I thought I would put in my two bits. Look for more info to come soon (with tons of pictures).

Winter Quarters & Omaha

Sorry that we're just now posting about things that happened so far in the past, but we really are going to try to catch up on our blog. It's just been too hot here to do much of anything, even blogging.

Anyway, over the 4th of July weekend we decided we wanted to get away from home and do something fun, so we packed up the car and took off to Nebraska! Okay, so I don't usually think to mention Nebraska and fun together in the same sentence but we sure had a great time. We drove up on Thursday night after work and stayed in Council Bluffs, IA, which is just across the river from Omaha, NE. It was our first time with four kids (of our own) in one hotel room - the first night did no go so well! But after sleeping for a relatively short amount of time we were all up and ready to go explore the sights.

On Friday we went to the Omaha Zoo. It was amazing! We saw a bear about 20 ft. up in a tree, a fish feeding frenzy, a male gorilla on the other side of a couple inches of plexiglass, some lemurs, giant grasshoppers, hair-shooting spiders, and some cute kids. Here are a few pictures:

Eating lunch with the animals.

Some wild animals on a train.

A particularly ferocious animal in a golf cart.

A pride of lions sitting by some statues.

Oh wait, those are the cute kids (and their especially cute mom).

The next day we went to the visitors center at Winter Quarters. That was actually the motivation for our trip.

Each of the last two summers we have lived in Oklahoma, we have gone to Nauvoo. We decided this summer to see a different part of pioneer history. There is not as much to see at Winter Quarters, but it was fun to have the kids dress up and walk around while Talmage pulled his very own 1 ft. high handcart (sorry, no picture - duh, what were we thinking?). We learned that each family coming over from Europe on the ships only got one bunk to share. I don't know how well we would do for longer than it took to snap this shot:

The older kids also got the chance to try pulling a handcart carrying a 400 lb. load. It moved pretty easily on the carpet, but then the sister missionary that was leading us around the visitors center put two small rocks in front of the wheels and had the kids try to pull the handcart again. Even with mom and dad helping, it was pretty hard. I can't imagine pulling a handcart over far more and far larger rocks for far farther (is it okay to say that?).

Near the end of our visit, we watched a movie about some of the hardships the pioneers went through while they were in Winter Quarters. One part of the movie showed a mother kneeling by her baby and crying, and then it showed a grave marker with the words, "Here lies our dear son, Peter." That was a little hard for Leslie!

After the kids had had enough of the visitors center we drove around downtown Omaha (and accidentally got caught in traffic for the Justin Beiber concert that was going on). We found a fun-looking art gallery with a sculpture garden that we decided to explore:

An entire villa formed out of bushes. How cool!

I'm not sure if you're really supposed to let your kids climb on this, but if there's no one to say "no", what else do you say but "yes"?

On Sunday we drove to Lincoln to go to church with my grandpa's sister. Afterwards they had us over for a very delicious lunch! I learned while we were there that she had been the manager of the Nieman Marcus restaurant in Chicago for a while. Who knew? I thought Nieman Marcus only sold diamond-studded broaches and helicopters and things like that. The food was definitely worth a million dollars or so! (Sorry, again, no pictures, but they wouldn't do it justice anyway.)

That evening we drove all the way home in a torrential rain storm and slept wonderfully in our own beds. What a great trip!

Camp Sparkle: destination Bartlesville

Every year my family gets together for a few days to enjoy "Camp Sparkle" (SPARKLE is our family motto, but that's a whole 'nother post for another day). This year we were lucky enough to host everyone at our house so they could meet Peter. They came for Memorial Day weekend and were able to be here for Peter's blessing day. It was so special.
We were only missing my two brothers (one is on a mission and one had just started a new job. We got to have my parents and my three sisters and their families. We had a total of fifteen people here. We loved every minute.
We took in some of the sites around Bartlesville, like WoolARoc, and the Tulsa Zoo, and the Kiddie Park, and downtown Bartlesville. And also had a lot of fun just hanging around the house and yard. The kids explored the creek, caught frogs & crawfish, and picked lots of peas (which grew just in time to share with cousins).
We loved being together. Some of my favorite things were the impromptu variety show on the patio, the adults date night downtown (dinner at the "Two Sisters" with my three sisters!), and watching everyone enjoy the kids.

We had such a great time! We felt so lucky to have the whole family at our house. WE hope they had fun and didn't mind the heat and humidity too much. It was another fabulous Camp Sparkle - we can't wait for next year.

Born of Goodly Parents

Soon after Peter was born we were lucky enough to have our wonderful parents come visit. My mom came just days after he arrived. We were lucky enough to have her stay for a week and a half. (It was especially helpful since Nate had to go out of town for work for almost a whole week in there.) She was such a big help. I could not have done it without her. She took over the house keeping duties while I took it easy and did my best to recover. She cleaned and cooked and took the kids to school and entertained Talmage and held Peter and mostly just loved all of us. We felt really lucky to have her here on Mothers Day, too. Her visit was just what i needed, physically and emotionally. Thanks Grandma 'Chele!
The next week we got to have Nate's parents here for a visit. They made it in time for some fun end-of-school-year events. They were able to attend Morgan's Kindergarten graduation and Emma's ballet recital. It was fun to have grandparents there to support the kids. They were wonderful to have around and so helpful. I could hardly get GrandpaSteve to stop working. He fixed many little projects for us that we just hadn't had time to get around to. It was so nice.

We are so glad they could all come meet Peter when he was so new. Nate and I are so lucky to have such good parents!

About Being Efficient

Being the mother of four take patience, planning, and efficiency. I knew this early on. So when the Dr needed to see Peter just five days after he was born and Talmage was due for his 18 month checkup, i thought i would efficiently combine the two. Now remember it was just days after giving birth and since it was a hard pregnancy it was a very slow recovery.
Except a few things made this visit not so efficient. Like getting there late because i am not yet used to preparing two babies. Like Talmage refusing to leave the play area when the nurse called us back, and running away from me once i did get him out, and repeating this three times - each time squeezing back further between toys and kids and chairs. This made all the other calm, put-together moms in the waiting room start to murmur and wonder to each other if there was some way they could help me. And when the nurse did come pick up Talmage up he started screaming.
The toy trucks in the exam room calmed him efficiently. I got both boys undressed and in dry diapers and then started nursing Peter. (see, efficient change BOTH diapers, then wash, then feed) Except it wasn't so efficient when Peter had his first and only blowout. So now we were both covered in mess and he had to be changed again. Just in time for the nurse to come get us to weigh the boys. I coaxed a nervous Talmage out into the hallway reassuring him it would be fine. I used my happiest Mom voice to suggest "Well put Peter up first to see how big he is!" I thought this would efficiently demonstrate to Talmage that it was fine and fun to be weighed. Except when i set Peter on the scale he started screaming, so Talmage flatly refused to stay on the scale. And rather than let him jump off to his death (that would not be efficient) we skipped the weighing. So now both boys are crying and i cannot effectively calm either one. Finally Talmage decides he will be fine as long as he can bring two huge dinosaur toys to the room with him. Except they are almost bigger than him and he cannot carry them. So now i am herding Talmage, carrying Peter, and carrying a dinosaur. The nurse is kind enough to carry the second dinosaur. Back in the room we happily waited for the doctor. When she came in i thought we would try the Peter first tactic again to prove to Talmage that it really is fine to get checked by the doctor. But Peter started crying again and then his circumsision had to be fixed so then he was really screaming. Talmage had a death grip on the back of my leg and huge eyes wondering what this doctor does to people. But we finally got Peter calmed down and Talmage on the table and things went pretty smoothly until we left and Talmage again tried to escape to the play area. But i just forgot about all the rules of recovery and pick up both boys. Who cares about the "don't lift anything heavier than your baby" rule anyway - my sanity was at stake here. Maybe next time we'll skip the doctor and just do at home care.

"Say 'Ahhh', Peter"

Four Kids is . . .

Four kids is . . .
The following stains on Talmage's shirt after his first and only wearing:
*tootsie roll drool (from the candy i gave him in a desperate attempt to calm him so i could take care of the baby)
*mud drool (from the mud he decided to eat while we sat out in our backyard to try to stay distracted)
*dirty, mucky water (this on his back from going down the rain soaked slide)
and last but certainly not least
*blood (which dripped down from his head, across his eye, and onto his shirt after he fell on the gravel strewn playground)

Four kids is . . .
chaos, but mostly a happy chaos. We are slowly adjusting. I think we are going to make it through these first hard weeks and then i will get back to blogging about all the wonderful visitors we have had.

Here is my new Mothers Day picture. With all four of my lovely children.