We left last Sunday for Drumheller. We stayed at the River Grove campground http://www.virtuallydrumheller.com/rivergrove in town, right across the river from the World’s Tallest Dinosaur. It was a really nice campground, lots of young kids for ours to play with. They have a nice playground to keep the kids entertained when you just want to chill out and they have great showers! Only $1 for 5 minutes. They also have lots of bunnies hopping all over, owned by the campground and no one is allowed to harass them with threat of eviction lol the kids enjoyed trying to pet them, but they never got close enough. The first night was really hot, we took the kids for a walk across the bridge to the spray park and let them cool off, we were comfy in our t-shirts till 11 when we went to bed.
On Monday we started off at the World’s Tallest Dinosaur, then onto the Royal Tyrell Museum and the Little Church. The day started off cool so we thought it would be a good inside day. But it warmed up by the afternoon so we took the kids to Funland Amusement Park, which is kind of hokey, just mini golf and bumper boats, but whatever… There was a thunder storm that night and it poured rain! But we stayed dry in our tent, mostly because there is a great canopy over the campground from the cottonwood trees, our awning got a little stretched out from holding in rain though.
Tuesday was colder than Monday! We went to the Homestead Antique Museum, then Reptile World, it was pretty cool! Then we went to the Rosedale Suspension Bridge. I loved freaking James out with the height of it J The kids climbed to the top of the hill on the island and freaked ME out by walking really close to the edge. Then we visited the Hoodoos, there was a place near the bottom that had collected hail stones that rolled down the hills from the storm the night before.
Wednesday we visited Horsethief Canyon, where my kids freaked me out even MORE walking close to the edge of the canyon. I am ok with height’s myself but NOT with watching my kids do it lol After that we took the kids go-carting and minigolfing again… We drove around and saw a few other things but don’t have pictures of everything.
Pictures of Drumheller
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=16628&l=09dd0&id=573976479
On Thursday we drove to Calgary, checked into our hotel (the Blackfoot) then drove to my step sisters for the evening to visit her family and new baby. Friday we went to Calaway park after an hour driving around downtown Calgary in circles with James saying “Good GOD” every few minutes lol He hates driving in Calgary, especially when he makes a wrong turn and gets all confuzzled lol I made him go off route to find a pharmacy as I had developed an outer eye infection and Rowan wanted watermelon toothpaste, he refused to brush his teeth all week until we found some. We spent the afternoon at Calaway, ran into neighbours from our condo complex. We were supposed to stay at the Calaway Park campground Friday night but a big windstorm came down from the mountains and made for an inhospitable evening! There is no shelter at that campground, just a few spindly trees (unlike Drumheller) so we really quickly packed up the airbeds and tent and took off for Calgary to look for a hotel. We ended up at the Inn on Crowschild at 11 pm.
Pictures of Drumheller and Calgary
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=16645&l=35e34&id=573976479
Saturday we drove into the mountains. We totally by-passed Banff, no interest in seeing it. We tried to see Lake Louise but the traffic was too congested, couldn’t even park, so we drove UP to the lake and back DOWN to the hwy lol. We stopped to visit Lake Peyto though, very pretty and a nice hike up the mountain, chilly though with the glacial wind. Then we drove onto the Columbia Ice Fields, had a lot of fun there, very glad we redeemed Airmiles for the passes on the Brewster’s Snotour, otherwise it would have cost $180 for the 5 of us! It was a really interesting tour and Keely and I wore our Crocs on the glacier! We had planned on camping in the park on Sat night but every one we drove by was full and it was raining and we figured it would be pretty cold at night so we thought of just driving straight home….. but then we talked to our friend Mandy and she offered us a bed in Edson for the night so we drove there and had a nice visit. Then home on Sunday! Ordered pizza for supper, so tired!
Pictures of Rocky Mountains and Columbia Ice Fields
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=16649&l=8a0d8&id=573976479
We spent yesterday vegging out, then unpacked the van, repacked the tent and airbeds properly from their hasty packing Frday night, did some grocery shopping and then visited our friend Stacey to give her souvenirs and pick up our fish that she fishsat for us.
Enjoy the pictures!
Oh and of course I read while camping! Finished off Nora Roberts Entranced which was good, it’s an older trilogy so now I have to find the other two to read lol I also read Greg Iles Blood Memory which was good…. but not as well written as others of his Ive read. The plot seemed a little choppy and forced at times. I am now reading Linda Lael Miller’s The Man From Stone Creek and am enjoying it so far.
Now we are off camping AGAIN, this time to Beaver Lake in Lac La Biche which is 2 hours north eastish of Edmonton. We went to this campground a couple summers ago with the same group of friends, we rent the site for the weekend and we can have as many people there with tents and tent trailers as we like! We also get our own private beach so the kids will love that. My girlfriend is bringing her parents camper van up, because she doens’t want to sleep in the tent, it’s got 2 single beds so I’ll sleep in it with her too and our dh’s and kids can tent it! Dh and I will also be driving her dd’s up with us since the camper van can’t take car seats…. 2 hours there and back with 5 kids 4-13 years old, give me strength…. 
