Family Fun in Calgary, Alberta

This is the first time I’ve opened my laptop in almost 4 days now, which feels like f-o-r-e-v-e-r. As much as I miss blogging, it also feels really good to disconnect once and a while! I finally found a spare moment this afternoon to go through some pictures, so here is a recap of what I’ve been up to.

Thursday morning, we were up at the lovely hour of 4am to get to our early morning flight. I think I clocked in at about 3.5 hours sleep. We’re off to a great start!

Also, never underestimate how much room Super Soaker water guns will take up in suitcases…

On the bright side, we arrived in Calgary around 9am with the entire day ahead of us.

Also never underestimate the power of a latte.

I always love traveling east to west; those extra hours are greatly appreciated. My body, however, is still on Toronto time. I’ve been getting up between 5-6am since I arrived despite staying up quite late each night. I’m sure I will crash and burn any day now.

My grandpa and Diane also flew out from Ontario! Grandpa is feeling so well these days and he gained some much needed weight (he said about 35 pounds) since the winter. It’s SO good to see him doing so well despite his Leukemia diagnosis in 2010. He’s such a fighter! My mom is also thrilled as you can imagine. I feel so blessed to be able to spend this time with him.

Shortly after arriving at my mom and John’s, we headed out to get some coffee. My sister and nephews also met up with us and we’ve been attached at the hip ever since. They agreed to let me stuff them in my suitcase on the way back…

Insert soy latte #2.

Anglia? You can call me whatever you want as long as you bring me sleep in a cup.

The boys loved their Super Soakers, Battleship, and Glo bars!! Auntie and Uncle for the win. We had an epic water gun battle for hours on Thursday. I want to be a kid again!

On Friday, we took a road trip to Lake Louise.

From the turquoise water to the snow capped mountains, it took our breath away. What a beautiful place!

A stitched photo courtesy of Eric:

We hiked around the lake for a couple hours before heading in for lunch.

We also checked out Moraine Lake on our way out, which was also stunning (below)!  Some of the snow caps were melting and you could see waterfalls trickling down the mountainside. Absolutely beautiful. We’d like to come back here another time and stay for a couple nights so we can do some major hiking. There is never enough time to pack it all in!

On Friday night, Kristi had us over for dinner and a sleep over! Lots of cuddling with my nephews ensued.

She made us the most amazing Mexican quinoa casserole and also my weekend glow kale salad. Awesome meal after a long day in the mountains.

We also treated each other to manis and pedis as late birthday gifts to each other. My feet haven’t had a pedi in over a year…it wasn’t pretty. They are currently soft as a baby’s bottom. :)

Let’s see what else?

My sis took me to Westside Rec centre for her good friend Cindy’s booty-kicking (ok, total body kicking!) “Urban Strong” weight and cardio class. Think, body pump class, only with intense (intense!) cardio intervals between each set. Westside is rumoured to be one of the best fitness facilities in all of North America. You should see their spin room….it has 50 spin bikes complete with a huge projector screen that guides you through a motivating bike tour.

Let me tell you, Cindy’s class did NOT disappoint! Hands down the best class I’ve ever taken. She’s super motivating and encouraging with awesome high energy (and current) music pumping loud. If any of you in the area ever get a chance to take Cindy’s classes, I highly recommend you do! She teaches spin and a few other classes too.

On Sunday, we met up with Cindy for a run at Westside. They have a huge indoor track which was great because the weather has been super rainy. The time flew by…wish I could run with these gals all the time!

We also had some family photos taken since we were all together in one spot, which does not happen often.

Click below for the rest of the photos or this post may self destruct in 10 seconds…

Eric wasn’t the actual photographer, but he did snap some lovely behind the scenes shots!

The boys played Battleship with grandpa in between photos. :)

After the photos, we headed out for dinner.

We had a fabulous meal at Madrina’s in Bragg Creek; a quaint town with a population of just 600 people.

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We’ve been here a few times now and it’s always excellent. I ended up having a delicious gazpacho, fresh bread with oil and vinegar, and portobello steak with roasted potatoes and veggies. They had no problem adapting their menu to be vegan which was greatly appreciated. It was a lovely & relaxing evening! (My brother-in-law Pete was also there, but took this photo)

Well, this is one monster of a post so I better end it here before this post explodes. I’m going to try my best to get another post up before we head home. I have a yummy blueberry recipe coming up and a guest post from Eric.

See you soon!