Vacation, 2016 (with a healthy dose of real) Part 2

Tuesday started out kind of rainy, so we actually spent a good portion of the morning in our cabin, watching the Olympics.  We went into the town of Hinton for lunch and to find me something to wear to the hot springs the following day, as I stupidly forgot my swim suit.

This was also our "wildlife-seeing" day.  We saw the most on this day than any other.

Patricia Lake, just a few minutes from town.  It was so crystal clear.  On our way to this lake, we saw a BEAR!  It was through the trees and quite far away, but definitely a bear.

Our little friends who came and nested right in front of us.  Very tame.

Pyramid Lake

We decided this would be our "town" day and the kids were anxious to find some souvenirs. Let me just say Jasper is one of prettiest little tourist towns I've ever been in.  Everything is so quaint and rustic and even though tourists are everywhere, it doesn't have the same feeling of busy-ness that places like Banff or Whistler (for example) have.  We did some sight-seeing first, deciding to simply follow signs that looked like they might lead to pretty places, which led to the lakes pictured above.  I also thought these carvings were amazingly cool.

We visited many shops, which got a bit tiresome, as most gift shops are all pretty similar, but it took awhile to find the perfect shirt for Ethan.  At one point, Rory lost her shirt.  We stopped for the photo of her and the bear (in front of the restaurant we ate at the previous night) and she put her bag down on the pavement.  Next thing we knew, she didn't have it anymore.  We backtracked to several stores and thankfully found it, but I was actually quite irritated. We cannot afford to basically throw away money!

In front of the beautiful, historic information centre.  I thought these flowers were so beautiful.

We bought supper at North Face Pizza, which was entirely because I read it was a good place to eat on an online review.  Turns out it really was.  I was determined to eat at as many independent, local places as we could and not the typical fast food places we could eat at anytime.  It was sometimes more expensive, but worth it.  We went to a park with a playground to eat, so the kids could play a bit.

These boys.  I am on edge almost constantly with them.  The oldest cannot resist using physical force and it's NOT usually done playfully.  It's not just on this trip.  There are often tears and injuries due to this.  My younger son turns his pain around and uses his smarts to lord his control over his sister.  There is rarely a time when I can "relax and let the kids play".  Someone is always hurt, physically or emotionally.  But sometimes, for a few moments, I think maybe they don't all hate each other.  I caught the boys playing (likely acting out video games) in this baseball field.  It was sweet for a good 10 minutes.  Then I had to nurse a bloody knee because someone got shoved down.  But those 10 minutes!

And more wildlife on the way back to our cabin!  The photos are not super, sorry.

Mama and her babies

The rest of the herd crosses the road

Moose!!

Let me now share a bit about sharing a small, one-room cabin with older children.  Sharing a room with my children on holidays has never really been an issue, but oh my goodness, my oldest child thrashes around while trying to go to sleep and even when he's sleeping!  I kind of always knew this. He did sleep with me for the first 4.5 years of his life, but man!  This was LOUD!

Needless to say, I needed to sleep in the next day.  "Sleeping in" with my children means maybe 8, if I'm lucky, but I needed to not be up and about.  We did the Miette Hot Springs on this last full day, as it was closer to our campsite and all our other days involved a lot of driving.  I have no photos of this day and there isn't much to tell.  The hot springs were lovely.  We all enjoyed them.  The view was phenomenal, and I also decided on this day that one of the most fun parts of the trip was all the the different accents and languages spoken everywhere we went.  It was rare to find anyone speaking English in a Canadian accent.  I really loved it.

We did eat at Smitty's and Boston Pizza on this day, so there went my "indie" food plan.  Oh well.

I will sum up our last day (the fullest) in part 3, coming soon...