On top of the world - Banff

What a beautiful day!  We visited a great little church in Okotoks with our family and then drove into Banff.  This was the first time the boys had seen mountains up close and we went straight to the top of Sulphur Mountain on the Gondola.  The boys had their binoculars and enjoyed the view, walked the boardwalk out to the lookout, spotted our car in the parking lot and saw a chipmunk.  Amazing to be up here in late summer with hardly any snow on the surrounding peaks. 

Dave has nicknamed this mountain "Fifty Shades of Gray" . . .

Quality time with Dad: The boys are loving having Daddy around 24/7 and so am I. 
 

 The Bow River  - caught sight of the rapids and falls at a quick stop

We stayed at the Douglas Fir Resort in Banff as it was not only a loft unit, but it had a full kitchen and great kids facilities including an indoor playground (bigger than a McDonalds) and 2 big waterslides for the kids.  Cooked a Delissio pizza for dinner and headed over to play.  Best part was sitting in the hot tub watching the boys on the waterslides and seeing them climbing up 4 stories of stairs to slide down again.  Yes, they slept well that night!   If you're heading to Banff with kids here's the link:    http://www.douglasfir.com/    AND there was a balcony with a view!   Couldn't resist having 2 cups of coffee out there in the morning . . .

Calgary Cowboys

Seeing as there are only 2 shops in Canada, and we've never been shopping at Vaughn Mills, we decided to stop in to the Bass Pro Shop in Calgary to stretch our legs and have ice cream for dinner (yes, that's a legitimate option when traveling).   We were blown away with the displays, if you've never been, you'll have to check it out in person.  

 The boys trying out the shooting gallery - they scored over 200 points with Daddy's help and Jackson even hit a couple of targets on his own. 

Cowboys in Calgary - watch out for my crew!  Yep, people here wear cowboy hats for real.

 By the time we actually got around to the ice cream, Jackson had a melt down and refused to eat anything so Xavier ended up with both scoops of ice cream.  He couldn't have been more pleased. (Yes, we helped him eat their combination of tiger tail and bubblegum)

On Saturday morning we headed out with family to the Bar U Ranch, a historic Canadian site south of Calgary. 

It's a great place to wander around for the afternoon, with some interpretive guides scattered about in the saddle repair shop, the old post office, the barns, the cookhouse etc.  The best thing was that only a few areas were roped off as "please do not touch" display of old artifacts.  The kids were allowed to touch most everything from the old telephone and typewriter to the horseshoes in the blacksmith shop and climb on the old farm tractors.  Of course there were horses to pet, a wagon ride and a cowboy giving lasso lessons.    Xavier caught on pretty quickly and was soon roping cattle!  Ye-haw! 

 

 My aunt Val was kind enough to host a birthday celebration for Xavier a couple of days early for him, complete with a roast beef dinner, chocolate cake and birthday cards (thanks for adding to their collection of kiwi money - they assure me that they'll buy lots of ice cream with it Poppa!)

Reptile World - if you hate snakes, skip to the next post!

So, we finished our day in Drumheller at Reptile World, it's the largest private collection on display in Canada with over 200 different snakes and reptiles.  The boys loved to pet Brittney the python and mom even touched it too!  I'm actually a bigger fan of snakes than dogs and cats if you can believe it.  There was an enormous collection of unique frogs, lizards and even a 600 pound alligator and a saltwater croc like we'll see in Aussie next month.  (No photos of those - Dave was in charge of the camera; it's just a croc he says...)

   Yep, it's frog...a very rotund frog...

 Three very large pythons (1 albino) fascinated me as we watched one slide all the way along the branch and back down to the ground. 

Did you know that chameleons can move their eyes independently?  That means they can look up with one eye and down with the other at the same time.  Mesmerizing to watch . . .Their straight mouths also remind me of the Muppets!

Welcome to the Badlands

 Day 1:  It's quite a trek through rural Alberta to get to Dinosaur Provincial Park, but when you are greeted by this stunning view of the Badlands from the upper parking lot you've hit the jackpot.  YES, if you look in the above photo you'll notice that I have my hand holding Xavier's shirt as he tends to see rocks as something to climb on or over and not a barrier to stay behind.  It's quite the cliff.  Jackson can be trusted.  The "X" factor however needs a helping hand LOL.

 Cool dudes inside the field centre still wearing their sunglasses!

Hoodoos form the bulk of the terrain, thanks to erosion of the sandstone and the slower rate of erosion of the ironstone "cap" on top.   Cool "popcorn" rock as well, really called mudstone that absorbs water and swells to about 10x it's mass and gets really slippery and slimy  (we didn't see a drop of rain so I'm only going by the info signs!)

 Our little dinosaur hunters look well equipped, hats, sunscreen & bug spray needed here and lots of water - good thing we came in the fall; apparently "hellaciously" hot in summer.  You can camp right on site too! 

Real-life fossil displays in situ, like this headless Hadrosaur, give a more accurate idea of how the paleontologists work.  

Day 2:  Drumheller

 The World's Largest T-Rex -  you pay $3 and you get to climb up the stairs as many times as you want for the whole day (ha!)  - it's a good view of the city out of the dino's mouth and if you look closely you can see the splash pad and wading pool / fountain where the boys galloped around for an hour cooling off. 

We had to buy one of those dino dig rocks that you break open with plastic hammer and pick axe tools to find a little dino inside.  Mommy was smart enough to get the boys to do this messy  job in their swimsuits at the outdoor picnic table next to the splash pad.  

The Royal Teryll Museum - awesome!   Hundreds of amazing fossils.  We've been to the ROM previously to see the dinosaur display, but there's no comparison with the amount of dinosaur fossils found in Alberta. 

 T-Rex discovered in Alberta

Staring contest:  

Woolly Mammoth being attacked by sabre-tooth tigers

First souvenirs from our trip - a pair of cuddly T-Rex dinos nicknamed "Crunch" & "Munch".  We'll see if they fit into the suitcases for the flight . . .  (eye rolling)   They did carry them around all day and they are guarding over the boys from the couch while they are sleeping tonight.