On Sunday (August 9th), we started out our day with Adam making us a yummy crepe breakfast. Then it was a rush to get everyone ready for church AND try to pack up all our stuff because we unfortunately had to MOVE rooms if we wanted to stay another night. We originally had been able to find a two bedroom available (that fit all of us) but the following night Adam could only find a studio and one bedroom to accommodate us so we’d thought we’d need to split up. Worldmark was awesome though and not only got us two rooms NEXT to each other but also got them just across the hall from where we were so the move was fairly easy. Sweet! And way to go Worldmark giving us a “Wow” experience!
We headed to church in downtown Banff but ended up being about 10 minutes late and so I dropped Adam and the kids off while I went to find parking. Unfortunately the church was in a VERY busy part of town, so I had to drive around for BLOCKS before finding an open space which consequentially meant I missed the sacrament. Doh! But at least Adam and the kids made it in time.
It was the last Sunday for one of the branches sister missionaries who was leaving (and returning home from her mission), and so she and her companion took up most of the meeting speaking. I loved hearing their experiences and strong testimonies but especially loved when the branch president got up at the end and asked everyone in the room to stand who had had the sister missionaries in their home and whose lives had been blessed by them. Then he asked any in the room who had been touched by their testimonies that day to stand up. We all did. And he showed the sister missionary just how impactful her time had been as a missionary. It was really an awesome tribute!
The rest of the day we just spent back at the condo VEGGING. It actually was so so nice to just have a down day and have absolutely nothing on the agenda. We ended up taking long naps and watching movies, working on family history, and calling my Mom and Dad and Mum and Smurf to see how they were doing. Then that evening we made shrimp and potatoes for dinner and then tried out one of our emergency food storage packets of fettucini alfredo. It was NASTY! I really hope there never comes a time when we have a big enough emergency that we will need to use our emergency supply because man alive we could hardly choke them down! Eck! But I’m sure we’d be grateful for them if something big happened.
On Monday we ended up needing to check out of our condo at noon and move to Tunnel Mountain campground for our final 2 nights of camping before heading back to Utah. Luckily the campground was just a 10 minute drive from the condo so we got to enjoy a morning of swimming at the pool and one last hot meal.
We then hooked our trailer back up to our van and headed over to find our campsite. The pickins were slim, but we eventually found a site with a little more “vegetation” and privacy that was big enough that our kids could play without getting into other peoples space. In fact it had a great built in “tree house” for the kids to play in. They loved having their lunch in their little hut!
Dawson found these awesome pine cone like flowers on the ground and brought them up to me.
What a sweetie!
Branson brought me some too. How thoughtful!
Licorice mustache!
After we got camp set up, Ady, Dawson, and I tried laying down for naps, while Adam Brans and Harry took off for a hike out to see some Hoo Doo formations. They took some beautiful pictures of the surrounding mountains while they went.
Below is a picture of one of the Hoo Doo’s. See it in the middle of the picture? Kind of a tall spiky looking thing? Reminds me of the formations in Bryce Canyon a little bit.
When the boys got back the kids continued exploring our little campsite and Brans found a stick that looked like a fork. So he used it to pretend to eat rock soup!
Next up – Our trip to Kooteney National Park