A perfect day

Sometimes, you have a perfect day. We had a perfect day as a family on Saturday.

It started when Kyler, spur-of-the-moment, suggested Friday afternoon we head to Banff. We decided we could totally go the next day. Normally we plan these things a little more in advance, but we had all evening to get it figured out, so no problems! We picked a hike to do, decided what to bring, and got the kiddos excited for the next day.

Saturday morning, as a gorgeous morning dawned, we left the house around 8 AM, and headed to the national park. First stop, the Grassi Lakes hike. We initially thought we'd just the "easy route" up and down, but decided to try the "hard route" up, and the "easy route" down. I'm so glad we chose to challenge ourselves a bit.

Even at 7 months pregnant...

The hike up was phenomenal. Little streams over the trail, rock staircases to climb up, and a gorgeous waterfall. PLUS, two kiddos who didn't whine. At all.

After a short detour caused by Kyler and I not reading the map properly (whoops...) we made it to Grassi Lakes.

Calista and Craig loved throwing rocks in the lakes.

We walked around the small lakes a little bit, and then headed down, on the "easy route." Again, I'm glad we did.

Partway down, Craig passed out in Kyler's arms, which would've made going down the staircases rather difficult... And yet again, no whining. Statements that we were hungry, or wanted a short break, yes. But no whining!

We got back to the car, Craig still asleep, and headed to get some lunch. We were all pretty hungry, and happily devoured our burgers, fries, and root beer.

Then we headed to the Cave and Basin Historic Site.

This was Calista's favorite part of the day, she said, although she didn't like the smell of the sulfur pools.

Craig also loved the "spooky tunnel" leading to the cave, and Kyler and I enjoyed the building with comfy seats, coloring, books, and toys for the kids.

And finally, we headed back home to rest, relax, and eat some dinner. All in all, a perfect day.