Birthday in Banff

Last year Tanner forgot my birthday. He wouldn't admit it at first, probably because we were in Fairmont with the Allreds and he may have been embarrassed to have forgotten my birthday when the rest of his family remembered. But that's all behind us and I have almost forgotten the entire incident.....almost :) This year I was curious to see whether or not history would repeat itself after all, we hadn't talked about it once.

Monday night (Aug. 1), as we are at Tyson and Marion's house he says he has a surprise planned for my birthday. Only until we are driving back home does he tell me that he is taking the next day off so that we could go to Banff for my birthday! (He WAS planning on telling me first on the morning of my birthday but was thoughtful enough to anticipate how flustered I would be trying to quickly get everything together for a day trip to the mountains.) We had planned to on leaving by 9:00, Tuesday morning, but our alarm clock (which we loving call "Gwen") decided to sleep in until 8:00. We were able to leave the city by 9:45. The drive to the mountains was surprisingly busy but still gorgeous.

Our first stop was Johnston Canyon at 11:30. Gwen was fast asleep in the car when we arrived, so we ate our packed lunches and I nursed Lily in the car. Once Gwen woke up we started the hike to the falls.With Gwen on Tanner's shoulders and Lily in a wrap with me we hiked the 1/2 mile to the Lower Falls. Due to a dream I had of Gwen falling into the canyon the night prior, Tanner held onto Gwen good and tight. We were going to hike up to the Upper Falls as well, but Gwen grew tired of having to hold hands or being carried. Perhaps it may have been potentially dangerous having Gwen on the high catwalks; Tanner told me afterwards that he got a lot of dirty looks from people. I was proud of how great Tanner was with Gwen, how he kept her totally safe. The hike was great. The falls were magnificent. The weather was superb. Next time we will attempt the Upper Falls, perhaps with a baby carrier for Gwen?

Me with my girls.

An attempt at a family photo.

 The next on our To-Do list was to swim at Johnson Lake. The lake isn't glacier fed so it isn't ice-chillingly cold, but it still was a bit nippy. Gwen wouldn't go out far enough for the water to be higher than her belly button, but she did trip a couple of times in the lake so as to get her entire body wet. She wasn't sure what to think of it. Her favorite part about it was the wet sand. Our favorite part was the gorgeous view of the mountains the lake provided.

Gwen at Johnson Lake

We then made our way into town, played at a park, walked up and down the main drag, and window shopped (Have you ever noticed that a lot of the shops sell the exact same things? Like those knit wool animal toques. They were EVERYWHERE!) For my birthday dinner, we wanted to go to this amazing Korean restaurant. We were turned down however because they were totally booked, which was surprising to hear as the entire restaurant was empty. They must have had a large function going on later, but it was weird to be turned away. We ended up going to the Keg (we had a $25 gift card from Tanner's folks after all!). I had steak. Tanner had chicken and ribs. My meal was great except that the meat had a lot of gristle and was hard to chew through. I hated to have to complain about it, but I had to tell our server and I ended up getting my meal for free. After using our gift card, the difference we had to pay was $3.00! Not. Bad. At. All.

Because we barely spent anything on our meal, we went to Cows and got ice-cream for desert. I got the Crispy Crunch and  Mooey Gooey flavours, and BOY were they delicious! I ate my cone so fast, I didn't manage to capture a picture.

At 7:00 we left Banff. Leaving behind us a full and fabulous day in the mountains. Lily was a dream baby and slept almost the entire day, waking only to eat and be changed. Gwen also did so great and, for the most part, was super happy. We walked into our home at 8:07. That's right, it took us 1 hour and 7 minutes to get home (and we weren't even speeding!). We are so lucky to be living so close to the beautiful Rockies.

What a fabulous birthday! Thank you, Tanner. I love you to bits.