Snow in June

When you are in Canada to escape the heat, snow in June is a welcome sight.  The girls really loved it because they had never seen snow before.  We were all mesmerized.  We even played Christmas songs in the car as we drove around and pretended it was December :)  Banff National Park is beautiful!  We couldn't get enough of the scenery and the wildlife.  We would stop by the side of the rode to take pictures all the time!  I've tried to only post a few of the best ones because there are SO MANY!

looking out the window to discover it was snowing!

 Good thing I found this warmer coat, and I'm glad I thought to bring hats and gloves

 Elk

 The first stop of the day was to hike to Johnston Canyon lower falls.  Daniel pushed the girls in the stroller the entire way.  

 A small cave that puts you right up next to the falls

 We walked back to the trailhead and warmed ourselves by the fire and had some lunch at a cute little spot

 We spotted a grizzly bear on the side of the road on our way to Lake Louise!  Probably the best part of this trip (besides the snow)

 Entering the little village of Lake Louise

 We stopped at Moraine Lake first - looks cold doesn't it?

 Daniel's impromptu snowman

 Eden loved throwing snow balls at Daddy (and yes, that is still ice on the lake!)

This is Lake Louise - love the mist on the mountains

These are "We had to stop and get a picture" pictures :)

Riding the Banff Gondola to the top of Sulpher Mountain.  The visibility wasn't great that day, but it was awesome to see all the snow and mist and I still thought it was really beautiful

 The sky cleared a bit :)

The Calgary Zoo

We took advantage of a warm (well, warmer) sunny day and walked to the zoo.  It was a bit of a walk, but at least the girls got to ride in the stroller and I didn't have to hear them complain about how tired they were. There was a nice lady with 3 little girls that had an extra adult zoo admission that she gave me.  How nice!  We kept running into them throughout the day and the girls had fun talking with other little girls their own age.  We stayed all day and then I walked us home.  I was VERY tired and may have complained a bit...at least I got my workout for the day.

Elephants!

 Camels!

 Silly faces!

 A picnic lunch under a cute gazebo.  The girls kept trying to coax little birds to come over with bits of bread.  Grandma Peggy would have hated this....

 More silly faces

 The peacocks roamed free....they were very beautiful and very noisy.

 The girls are trying to be flamingos

 Sage kept wanting to pose for pictures...my sweet girl :)

 The two flamingos in front were having a small spat

 Bears!

 The girls really loved the river otters...they were very entertaining

 Mountain goats...even baby ones :)

 We even got to see the new penguin exhibit

 Time for a snack

 Dinosaurs!

 A fun but exhausting day.  When daddy got home we made him take us out for Thai food.  Well, we didn't really have to make him, he was happy to go along.

Oh, and as a special fun treat for me, Sage flew out of the stroller and face planted on the pavement right after the bears.  Daniel later noticed it was bruised and swollen and we thought it might have been broken.  I almost passed out when he told me that.  I felt awful.  But she is fine and has even had a few tumbles since then.  Good thing kids are resilient.