Canada 5-7

Day 5:

Aspen spent all night in bed with us. She, again, would only cuddle with Daddy. Caleb spent half the night with his arm out of bed so that Aspen would be comfortable, and I'm afraid he froze all night. At least she was cute in the morning while she ate her breakfast right next to Caleb :)

In the morning we headed to Lake Louise. We wanted to hike to one or both of the tea houses that are above the lake. After talking with staff we decided to do the easier trail to the Lake Agnes teahouse. The other trail had had several avalanches hit it over the spring time and there was still avalanche debris causing it to be quite slippery. Hiking with Aspen helped us make our decision to take the easier trail and save the other tea house for next time. The trail was only about 2 miles up. It was very pretty along the way. We passed by Mirror Lake, saw a pretty waterfall, and made it to the teahouse.

 The teahouse was a quaint little cottage with a wrap around porch with seating. We ordered hot chocolate, biscuits, and cake. A couple from Chicago sat with us and we had a nice time chatting with them.

We hiked down and explored Lake Morraine for a bit. The rest of the day was spent sightseeing and relaxing.

Day 6: After 6 days of no real showers we decided to brave the cold kitchen sink water and wash our hair. It wasn't pleasant, but we felt soooo much better afterwards!

That morning we drove to Yoho National Forrest which wasn't too far from Banff. Our first stop was Takkakaw Falls. GORGEOUS! Aspen thought it was really funny when we would say Takkakaw so we spent a lot of time "crowing" the word and making her giggle.

We also saw Natural Bridge, and the Spiral Tunnels before heading back to camp. After catching our breathe for a moment we headed back to Minnewanka Lake in hopes of hiking the Stewart trail. Along the trail we met up with some other hikers who had encountered a bear so we changed our minds and headed back! We eventually could see the bear also, on the other side of the inlet. It was pretty cool to see him so close, but at the same time from a safe distance. That night we gave Aspen some of our hot chocolate and she loved it! She got so excited and ended up dumping a lot of it.

Day 7:

Luckily Aspen slept wonderfully that night! In the morning we drove to Boom Lake. We hiked 3 miles in to see the awesome lake, ate lunch, explored and headed back. Aspen had a fun time hiking and playing around the trees.

I think I have other pictures, but they must still be on my camera! Hopefully I'll get around to putting them on my computer and I can update with even better pics!

We then went to Marble Canyon, which is so, so, so amazing! These pics must also be on my camera so I'll update someday!

We started packing up that night so we could get an early start towards home. Although we had soooo much fun, we were SOOOOO tired!! And SOO stinky :)

Even though Aspen did struggle a lot during the nights, and sometimes while in the car I was super proud of how well she did over all!  She's a trooper! We had so much fun and are excited for future trips!!