Canada: Day in Banff

      If we made a t-shirt from this day, it would read -

"I need a hug."

       Yesterday we spent the day in Banff proper hanging out.  Much of the day we were reminded of how it is harder to travel with children than with just adults.  Lily chose to spend a lot of the day whining - so unfortunate.  One of her quotes in the car, after we had told her that there were going to be consequences for her poor choices was, "I need a hug."  That was sandwiched between "I need something" and "I want to cuddle."  Glad she can express herself so clearly.  I think Bella is cutting her third tooth.  Bummer.
       All of that said, we made the best of it.  We went to the top of Sulphur Mountain in a gondola and walked the entire boardwalk.





We saw some mountain goats and fantastic views, and we took pictures with a two-year old who was not interested.





       At the top of the mountain, the well-fed chipmunks were in full force.  Luke baited one with a puff, and after it had climbed onto his arm, it ran off the end to get the puff and was left hanging there.  A different chipmunk came to play with Lily, and she stared it down.




       Bella slept most of the time we were walking around, and John carried her around like a sack of potatoes.  Lily did love walking with Ellen and Luke, and Luke captured a precious moment of her exhilaration in running.

      After our trip up the mountain, we ate a long fondue lunch at the Grizzly House in Banff.  You'll have to look at the picture to see what John's lunch included.  It was a great meal, but I wouldn't recommend doing fondue with two kiddos two and under.





      All in all, this was a harder day - traveling with kiddos is good and worth it, but has some harder moments.  This day was sort of riddled with them, though we are so grateful to have a chance to take this trip all together.  Thankfully, today was much better.  I will make it into another episode entirely.