Last week, we decided on a whim, to head to the mountains for the weekend! Meaning, we booked a hotel room Friday afternoon, packed that evening and loaded up the car Saturday morning. Who says all spontaneity dies once you have children? ;)
We didn't have too much of an agenda - the hotel we booked had a pool with a waterslide, and we knew we wanted lots of time to enjoy it with Sully. He loves swimming right now, and loves going down waterslides, so we knew it would be a big hit with him (it was!). We stayed at the Best Western in Canmore, and I would definitely stay there again. The rooms are nice and clean, there was a fridge and microwave (a definite must when traveling with kids!), and a fireplace! Plus, my other must have when staying at a hotel: hot continental breakfast. Nothing makes you feel like you're getting your monies worth than a free breakfast for you and your kids! Unlimited juice for everyone!
On Saturday, we headed out past our hotel, to Banff, where we had lunch and then walked around for about an hour. It was unfortunately raining all day, but it wasn't too cold so it wasn't miserable. Plus, Sully had a blast jumping in all the puddles and throwing snowballs on the sidewalks (snow plus light rain equals the best snowballs).
The hotel had a late check-in time of 4pm, so around then, we made our way from Banff back to the hotel. We changed into our swimsuits and headed down to the pool for a few hours. Emmy slept in her bassinet the entire time, which allowed me to get a few runs in down the slide and some time in the hot tub. We ordered pizza in that night for supper and when it was time for bed, Jim and I wished each other the best of luck! Haha! We chose a room with two queen beds so that Jim and Sully could sleep in one, and Emmy and I slept in the other. Sully was pretty restless all night and fell out of bed once (oops!), but thankfully Emmy slept well, other than needing to be fed and changed once in the middle of the night.
We didn't have time to go swimming again Sunday morning, but we did take advantage of the hot breakfast, and then once we were packed up, we headed back out towards Banff to drive around and explore. There's so much out that way that I've never actually seen and we made lots of notes of places we will return to once it's a) warmer out and b) the kids are older.
Then on our way back into the city, we detoured a bit towards Kananaskis and attempted to hike to Troll Falls. I did this hike on a
girls weekend trip just over a year ago, and it's an easy, family friendly hike. I knew I wanted to return with Jim and Sully one day, but unfortunately, all the rain turned the trail into a sheet of ice. We managed to get about 3/4 of the way by walking on the edges of the trail where there was still some untouched snow, but it was challenging for Sully and for me since I was wearing Emmy. But my family was a great sport about it and Sully walked the entire time, so I was proud of him! I'm sad they didn't get to see the frozen waterfalls, but we will be back!
And that was about it! Our little hike ended around 5:30pm, so we hopped back in the vehicle and made the drive home. Despite the logistics of traveling with a toddler and a newborn (ohhhh the logistics!!), we had a really nice time. The weather didn't end up being as nice as we had thought it was going to be, which made everything a little bit more challenging - like stopping to nurse and change diapers - everything had to be done in the vehicle with it running. But I think we made the best of it, and a trip to the mountains, no matter how short, is always so good for the soul.
