From Moraine Lake, we rode the bus to Lake Louise, which was very gorgeous, but dare I say I liked Moraine better? Lake Louise definitely had a more touristy feel and the girls were getting tired from our big day. Nevertheless, we enjoyed our time there!

Hiking from Lake Moraine to Consolation Lakes was I think my favorite hike of the trip. This was what I wanted! I felt deep, complete happiness spending time in the woods with some of my family. The hike was so great. A very doable amount of elevation gain, a great distance. The forest smelled amazing! And the huge boulders at the lake shore were so striking. This is what I wanted. This was it. It was perfect. I highly recommend doing this hike if you visit Moraine Lake.

I just had to do Moraine Lake while we were in Banff. We decided to use the bus system and there's just something so wonderful about available public transit. We liked riding the bus and I was happy to do it! Moraine Lake is gorgeous. That blue is so vibrant and unreal. We liked hiking around the rockpile snapping photos and people watching, but I was glad I looked into doing a hike in the area.

When we went to Calgary, I decided to do a little mini vacation and spend some time in Banff. Moving forward, this is going to be a must! We left E and Maeve with Conor's sister, Liz (THANK YOU!) and spent 2 nights with Holly, Greta and Ira. On our first day, we hiked Tunnel Mountain and enjoyed sweeping views of Banff. The Canadian Rockies are ridiculously beautiful!

This time last week we were in Calgary, Alberta enjoying time with family. We went up for our nephew's baptism and stayed about 5 days. We had a lot of fun visiting family and just being together. It's been so long since the girls and I were last in Calgary - almost two years! Now that we live so much closer, we won't ever go that long in between visits and I can't wait to explore Alberta with my family. I have a running list of things to do and see when we go up. One thing that I want to try to do every trip, is drive through Banff and stop for a hike. If you haven't been to Banff, you should fix that and go because it's gorgeous. I had chosen an easy hike - Silverton Falls (trailhead is at the Rockbound lake parking lot, right by Johnston Canyon) for our little family to do. The mountains and trees were perfectly flocked with snow and before we arrived at the trailhead big, fat snowflakes began to fall. It was completely perfect. Holly and Greta were thrilled to be in the snow and going for a hike. I said to Conor that what we had been doing wrong with all our hikes up to this point was we weren't hiking in snow. It was amazing.

We made it to the falls and this is were it got a lot colder! The frozen creek came right up to the path, but it didn't register with Holly that it was ice and she walked out a few feet. I called out to her quickly knowing what she was doing and knowing what would happen, but it was too late. The ice broke and the poor girl was soaked up to her hips! She managed to scramble out okay and we quickly took off her wet clothing and wrapped her in my coat. Fortunately it wasn't very cold (only a little below freezing), and we hadn't made it more than 15-20 minutes from the parking lot. Everything was fine and some kind strangers who came upon us right after she fell in brought us a fleece blanket. It all turned out okay, just a little startling!

Conor and I have since talked about the event and shared our perspectives. Maybe this was an important lesson for our girls to learn. The dangers of ice. Maybe it'll save them from a future fatality. If not, it sure has left us with a strong standing memory of Banff!