Beautiful Banff

Last week we had a great little vacation at Banff, accommodation courtesy of a pretty amazing couple, Ed and Sandra Bryant. (Thanks so much guys, we had a great time!)

Banff is utterly gorgeous, the most amazing scenery and mountains! We were very impressed by the town, the shopping and just the general set up.

On our first full day here the weather decided to put a dampener on our excitement and it rained and rained. Bummer, No worries, Banff has tonnes of indoor activities, Museums, Swimming Pools, Waterslides and 5 Pin bowling! The girls totally loved the bowling and we had a lot of fun too! The girls and Alex also decided to go to a crazy waterslide in the evening.

The day after the weather was even less appealing, rain rain and more rain. The girls didn’t mind though, because thankfully there was a television in our room and the girls haven’t watched TV in 5 months. So as far as they were concerned this holiday rocked! They literally watched TV all done except when they were eating. Alex took a well deserved nap in the afternoon and then decided he was bored out of is brains and went to go look around.

That evening we decided to buy a movie from pay per view. But the TV told us we had to talk to front desk before we could buy it. After calling about 5 times and getting no answer I decided t let Laura use the phone. She wanted to pretend to talk to the front desk too. I said no worries as long as she let me know if a real person talked back. Alex and I were discussing who was going to make the walk in the rain when we hear Laura interrupt with “MUMMY, MUMMY, MUMMY, IT’S A REAL PERSON!” Oops how embarrassing. Especially when the guy proceeded to ask if I ACTUALLY needed anything or was just letting my child play with the motel telephone. Whoops. I made myself feel a little better thinking I’m sure other mothers have made the same mistake!

The next day the weather looked a little more kind so we headed off to Minnawaku Lake and took the girls on a short walk up to get a great view of the lake and surrounding mountains. We took a few family photos and we must have looked crazy cute as we even had some tourists stop to take our photo! Which we found pretty funny.

No wonder everyone stopped for a photo, we are pretty cute!

We then decided lunch was in order and managed to find….(cue the music)…a Bakery!!!!!!!!!!!!! For all you back home you probably have no idea why this was cause our stomachs to rumble in anticipation and our heads to almost spin off with excitement. To all the Australians out there I have some very shocking news for you. Canada does not have bakeries!!!!!!!!

I know I know. First there was no lamb and now this!!? We have occasionally come across a place that makes a few loaves of bread and but that’s about it. No meat pies with sauce, no flaky sausage rolls, no lamingtons or delicious pastries.

What Canada does have is wings and pizza! And they are GOOD!

The bakery was awesome, a thing of magic. J There was much groaning in pleasure, as well as a ridiculous amount of finger licking to show our appreciation of this fine culinary feast!

That afternoon we drove around checking out more beautiful things, hoping for a glimpse of a bear or moose. We took the girls on another walk to see a very nice waterfall and a little cave, they really enjoyed this.

The next day we took the girls to a museum which had a phenomenal display of taxidermy with every Canadian animal imaginable. It was an excellent exhibit. The girls really enjoyed seeing all the animals up close and personal and having the chance to touch different types of fur and animal horns in the interactive room.

Photography by Hannah

That afternoon the girls requested going to the waterslide again, which Alex thought was a great idea, so they trooped off while Miss E and I indulged in a nap.

That evening, the weather was so good and the sky was so clear that we decided to go on the Gondolas and see if Alex could get an epic picture of the sunset up there. The girls were super keen and couldn’t wait to go for a ride. They called it an elevator seeing as Gondola made no sense to them.

Miss E was not so sure of this idea and screamed each time we got on the Gondola for a minute or so until she decided to either close her eyes and hide her face in my jacket or look at us in abject horror for making her do it.

MUM!!! What are doing to me????? Don't you love me????

Laura always the happy one.

The view from the top was fantastic! Alex took some great shots and the girls enjoyed reading all the information signs. Miss E had the time of her life climbing all of the stairs and the other tourist seemed to think she was hilarious. Yet again we had some more tourists take photos of us. We began to think that perhaps we were being mistaken for someone exceptional gorgeous and famous? You never know. LOL

Do you like my new Moose jumper!? I'm loving it, I feel so Canadian!

Love to you all!

Just had to share this incredible cereal I found at the Banff Supermarket. Didn't buy any though. Love the catch phrase..."Just add love". Hee hee