Extended Vacations Rock-Part 4

From the mountains to the prairies..

We left beautiful scenic Waterton, and went through Cardston, Raymond, McGrath and Welling...All beautiful and scenic in their own right.

This is flat farming country, lots of hay, clover, canola, mustard, fields...acres and acres and acres of it.

 We stopped by the cemetery in McGrath to see the graves of my grandparents, great aunts and uncles and great grandparents. We got them clean and shiny.

 Roy and Mildred, my grandparents

 Grace is my grandmother's sister, she lived in Salt Lake so we knew her very well, she is who we named Amber Grace after (Amber being my grandfather's mother)..She married 2 Peterson's (not at the same time-ha!) and her sister (my Grandmother) married a Peterson, but none of them were related. Funny eh?

 We stopped at a park in Lethbridge one night, we happened to be in Lethbridge for Canada day so there was a festival going on. I wanted to stay for the fireworks but since it wouldn't be dark until 10:30 or 11pm, we decided to not stay for the fireworks. It was kind of hard getting used to it being light so long. If you ever find yourself in Lethbridge, you should stay at the Holiday Inn. They have a wave pool, and two water slides that actually start inside the building then go outside and then dump you back inside the building. The kids thought that was pretty darn cool!

 The Cardston LDS Temple. This is one of only a couple temples that don't have the Angel Moroni on the top (Mesa Arizona, Laie, Hawaii don't either- there might be others but I can't remember now)..

 This is my great Grandfather's house in McGrath

 This is my grandparents cute little house in Welling. Isn't it awesome?! The people living there now, added the porch. My grandparents lived in that house for 50+years.

 This is some of my Dad's farm land, that's been in the family for over 100 years. They are growing canola now.

 This is at the park in Lethbridge.

 This is the "beer gardens", there used to be a beer manufacturing plant here.

So long Lethbridge! Hello Banff!

 This I believe is the Bow River Falls..Oh and my family...

 This is Alex...and the Bow River

 This is a hotel in Canmore (just outside of Banff). Cool, eh?

 More of the Bow River Falls

 This was the rooftop pool. What an incredible view! Alex talked to a guy from England whose wife was from Germany but they lived in southern Spain and were vacationing for 6 weeks starting in Banff then making there way down to the States through California to Mexico. And I thought MY extended vacation was fantastic (which it was) but geez! How would that be?!

 Found! A Roots sweatshirt for my sister! 

Alex and I and the kids rode the "gondola to the top", it was steep and scary but we survived.

Check out that view! Can't beat that!

 It was a bit hazy that day and we couldn't figure out why, until we heard there were fires in California and the smoke had traveled that way.

 These monsters are what you ride out to the icefields, we didn't have time to do that, maybe next time.

 This is beautiful Lake Louise, you can see how crowded it was with tourists. It was hard finding parking! But definitely worth the hassle!

 It was COLD!

 This is along the way to Moraine Lake, it's just gorgeous!

 SO, so so pretty, the water was just this beautiful shade of turquoise. 

 We lost Ethan and Abby for a minute, Alex thought I had them, I thought he had them. Come to find out this bear had them and Papa knew all along where they were. After we gave the obligatory parental lecture about being away from parents in a strange place. I heard another mom saying to her child on the way out, "well, because you need to listen to Mom, parents know what's best for their kids." Apparently our children weren't the only hooligans at Moraine Lake that day.

 Whoa! Easy dude! Don't fall in! 

Clearly Banff, Lake Louise, Moraine Lake are some of the most beautiful places on earth! And I know this probably sounds weird but I felt like my soul expanded a little bit while we visited some of these beautiful, awe inspiring places.