Skiing

We've spent the last two days skiing here in Banff. I'm just going to post some pictures. Emma has been really into journaling and blogging so I'll let her tell the story. See the older posts as we just updated them with her journaling. These pics are from today. I hope to get Monday's up there soon.

Sunday in Banff

We arrived in Banff around 10am today. Much earlier then we predicted because we left Friday night instead of Saturday morning. We weren't sure what to do with ourselves. So we found the resort, drove around banff, found one of the ski resorts and ended up at the famous Fairmont hotel on Lake Louise for lunch. Course then looking across the lake we saw a frozen waterfall. Doesn't look that far! uhhhoh.. seems like we've made this mistake before. The walk was s bit long and slippery across the lake but it was beautiful and the 30 degrees outside made it very enjoyable. Course once we arrived we figured out the horse drawn sleigh ride that mom wanted to go on would drive us right there... uggg. We got some great pictures. I ventured off to a smaller frozen waterfall while Darin played with the kids on the bigger one. On my walk back I hear these yahoo shouts for joy. Which was Darin and the girls sliding down the waterfall on their butts.. can't do that in MN. I did capture some pics of that. Exhausted from the walk we drove to the resort to check in. I took the girls to the indoor playground maze and the water park while Darin went the grociery store to pickup some things for easier breakfasts and dinners. It was great first day. Tomorrow we will ski.. not sure which mountain we will be going to tho but we'll figure that out in the morning. I have posted some pics so check them out.

Almost There

Written by Emma...

I was so tired and did not want to get up, but I did eventually. Dad got some jelly filled biscuits for breakfast. After showering and brushing our hair and teeth we only had about an hour left of driving. Just as we were heading out of the town we noticed that we were empty on gas. It was a good thing that we didn’t have too much more road to cover. About a half hour later we arrived in a town that we hoped would have a gas station but ended up not having a single gas station. The next town we thought wouldn’t have one either but it did. After that it was 15 minutes to the Banff National Park.

Lunch in Alberta

Written by Emma...

After so long we arrived in Alberta, a province in Canada. Provinces are like states in the USA. We stopped at Burger King to eat lunch. I have to admit it, I loved the playground there. It was my favorite part of Burger King. Anyways after lunch we drove for a while and then went to a motel called Thriftlodge. We were not as tired as the last day, well at least I wasn’t. The total number of hours driven today was 16 hours. And still the trip has just begun.

The Sights, Canada

Written by Emma...

The rest of the way was a long drive. Then it came, I could not believe that we had just reached Canada. I wondered... do they have a long red line that separates the two countries? did you go threw a large building that scanned you and inspected you? or was it just a big sign that said WELCOME TO CANADA? Well, we drove up to a small building that looked like a bank drive through. An officer came up to the window and asked us a couple questions and checked our passports then said we were free to go into Canada. Would Canada be any different from the USA? Well I hoped to find that out on our journey. The levels of ground were bumpy and hilly and beautiful. There was the world's largest tepee and I got to see it all from the front seat because mom let me sit up front for the first time. Yeah!

Snickers, Target, and Bagel Shop

Written by Emma...

About an hour after we left Valley City we all decided to eat a snack out of our huge snack bin, so we had some snickers. About a half hour after that Kate gave us a surprise and threw up her snickers.

The next big event was the bagel shop. Around noon we stopped at a bagel shop in Minot to see if we could find anything that wouldn’t make us throw it up in less than an hour. So we went in to find wonderful pastries behind the thick glass. I didn’t know which one to chose. I finally chose the caramel roll, Kate got a frosted roll, and the parents got coffee and a bagel that my mom said was amazing.

After the bagel shop mom needed to get some things and we needed to change into new clothes which we had realized that we were still waring our cloths from yesterday. So we went to Target to change and buy what we needed, when we had just remembered that we hadn’t gotten a chance to brush our teeth yet. So me and dad went back out to the parking lot and dug out the tooth brushes. And guess where we decided to brush our teeth? Right there in the parking lot of Target between the cars. We used water bottles for rinsing our mouth and spit out on the tar.

On the Road Again

Written by Emma...

I woke up to the sound of the TV. Then out of the blue my dad jumps on me and yells “rise and shine sleepy heads!” I got mad and then he jumps on my little sister Kate, and finally mom... that was a big mistake. He finally gave up and went to get himself some breakfast at McDonalds. When he got back he got us up and back on the road again.

Banff - Day One

Written by Emma...

Our family has taken few trips driving and this was one of them. We would be driving for two and a half days. On the first day we set out on our trip to Banff it was on March the twenty-seventh. I wondered what driving for more than just a quick trip to Buffalo for cat liter would be like. I found out that a four and a half hour drive was pretty boring. We just listen to our iPods until dinner at subway. After dinner it was pretty much back to iPods so for three and a half more hours; it was silent in the van. The goal of that day was to cross the the Red River. The Red River had been flooding houses and causing many bridges to close. But lucky us we found a route that led us to a bridge that was moving us closer to our destination and getting us across the Red River. We drove for 1 and a half more hours after crossing the river and it was getting late so we called in to a hotel and got us a place to sleep for the night. When we arrived at the hotel we realized it was no ordinary hotel it looked like a camp site to me. There were 5 long houses the size of an ordinary cabin in a camp. We quickly checked in and fell asleep right away around 10:30.

Banff Vacation

Written by Emma...

Our family has taken many trips but this year the family trained for a vacation. You may think, what trip do you have to train for? Well the answer is Banff. This March our family is going to the mountains in Canada to the town of Banff to go skiing. During the winter we had been practicing our skiing techniques and taught Kate the youngest how to ski. After so many ski trips to Powder Ridge my parents decided we were ready to take on bigger hills.

which way to go?

We are on the eve of leaving for a week long vacation in Banff, Alberta Canada. We have decided to drive, altho we may be regretting that decision. Our plan has been to go thru North Dakota to Canada. Unfortunately the Fargo area is experienceing the flood of 2009 which has of this writing has exceeded the 1997 record. Yikes, Darin and I lived in Fargo at that time and know what a mess that can be. So if we go the alternate route up 35 thru duluth and to Winnepeg we add 3-4 hours more to our drive. Uggg. The raods in Fargo say no travel advise. They got hit with a storm this week too. So thats our delima today. Besides the normal headaches of trying to wrap up work things, the house, pack, pets, kids... We may just decide the minute we walk out the door depending on which way the wind blows .. ha

Basketball Season comes to an end

We ended the season with a State Basketball Tournament in Zimmerman, MN this weekend. The team was guaranteed 3 games and if they did well would be able to go onto the championships. Which they did! They ended up winning 2nd place! The games were so fun to watch (and photograph). There were seveal nailbitter games that were determined down to the wire. The girls were introduced to more full court defence moves and tougher teams. It was a great experience for them. Below are their game scores for the weekend: Emma is dissappointed the season is over, she said "just as I'm getting better and better its over.." We welcome our Saturdays back tho!


Feb 28th, 2009 Game 1: Rockford 24 Elk River 7
Feb 28th, 2009 Game 2: Rockford 10 Prior Lake 15
Feb 28th, 2009 Game 3: Rockford 15 Waconia 13
March 1st, 2009 Game 4: Rockford 24 White Bear Lake 18
March 1st, 2009 Game 5: Rockford 12 Chanhassen 23