Monday, August 3, 2015

Edmonton Fun

After we got back from camping, Caley and Justin stayed with us for a couple more days so we did some fun stuff around Edmonton together.

The first day, we went to the World Waterpark at the Mall.

There were these drink machines there with over a hundred choices of flavours and then unlimited combination possibilities and you could have as many as you wanted - the drink machines were just as fun for the kids as the waterslides were! The only problem was that the bathrooms were so far away. Hudson literally made 12 trips to the bathroom that day.

















The next day, we took Caley and Justin's family to Fort Edmonton Park. McCoy is a huge fan of trains so this was heaven for him.














That evening, after a supper of perogies, bannock, and burgers, most of us stayed at home and watched the latest episode of Amazing Race Canada, followed by a game of Cranium.

Jess took Justin out to Elk Island Park to see the bison herds.








Camping in Jasper

We had a really fun camping trip in Jasper with lots of family. Caley and Justin drove up from Utah with their four boys and met us there. We were also joined by Jayna and Travis's family, Hannah and Spencer, Grammy and Grandpa, and John and Paul.

Jasper abounds in wildlife - we saw marmots, bighorn sheep, elk, and a yearling black bear among others. Especially elk. There were many elk wandering through our campsite.






We arrived one night ahead of everyone else. Once we had unpacked, and explored a bit, we had a campfire and then settled down for the night.




The next day, we were joined by Spencer, Hannah and John and we went whitewater rafting on the Athabasca river. It's a pretty tame ride with only a couple sections of class II rapids but my kids were all pretty nervous about going so this was perfect for them. They all loved it (like I knew the would!) and want to go again.

















Everyone else arrived that night and the next day, we set out for a hike to the base of Mount Edith Cavell, where there's a glacier fed lake full of icebergs.













After that, we drove to Athabasca Falls and walked around the falls together.










The next day, some people went fishing at Pyramid Lake and some people went to the beach at Lake Edith. Connor's the only one who caught anything.






They had SUP rentals at Lake Edith so Shae and I, and John, Paul, and Caley, all had fun paddling around the crystal clear waters of the lake.







That evening, Jess and I, and his parents, returned to Pyramid Lake for a bit of sunset canoeing.







On our last day, after packing up, some of us hung out at the town playground while Jess took Hudson and Connor up to the Miette hot springs.