We took a fun vacation up to Calgary for 2 weeks this summer. Chris had is 20 year high school reunion, so we decided to make a fun trip out of it. It takes 18 hours to drive from Las Vegas to the Canadian border, so to make it easy on the kids we stayed with family along the way. We spent the night at Naquel's parents place in Spanish Fork, UT. By the next night we made it up to Naquel's aunts home in Helena, MT. During our drive up to Canada we stopped off in Great Falls, MT to check out Naquel's dad's home he grew up in.
We arrived in Lethbridge on the third day into the trip and checked into our hotel: The Econolodge. The reunion was 20 miles south of Lethbridge in a little farming town called Magrath. The kids got to splash around at the Ramada Inn, known for its indoor swimming park with a huge wave pool and scary tube slides. The next morning we had time to play around, so we took the kids to Magrath to play at the park at the elementary school that Chris went to when he was a child. The kids were pretty excited to play at the park.
Chris was able to show the kids where he went to school, places around Magrath, as well as his old house that he used to live in. Unfortunately, his old house caught on fire about 8 months ago and was about to be torn down to rebuild. Luckily he got some last shots of his childhood home. We had time to drive to Cardston and check out the Temple, as well as take a scenic drive out to Waterton Park.
The reunion, later that night, was a lot of fun. Although Chris graduated from high school near Orlando, Florida, he went to school in Magrath from elementary thru grade 9, and considers it his original school.
The following day we woke early and drove 3 hours to Calgary Alberta. We surprised the kids by taking them to Calaway Park- a fun little theme park with lots of fun rides. Chris met up with one of his friends, Anders Quist. They were able to chat and catch up on the years gone by while the kids went crazy on the rides.Later that night Chris was able to meet up with some more of his friends, and they all went out to dinner at Applebees in Calgary. After saying goodbye, we headed to downtown Calgary to check into the Hyatt Regency. It was a really nice hotel right next to the Calgary tower.
The later that day we drove to Banff Provincial Park and checked into our hotel, Lake Louise Inn. It was a small and expensive hotel with modest amenities, but we got by just fine. This is where Chris had a lot of fun taking photos.We also did a lot of hiking and sight seeing, and dad also got a lot of cool pics of the kids.
On the way home we stopped off at Chris's sisters place in Pocatello for a few days, and then we spent a little time back and Naquel's parents in Spanish fork. Connor had a lot of fun running circles on his little 4x4 in the back yard.
We sure had a lot of fun on this vacation to Canada. The kids keep talking about how much fun they had. We were blessed with safety and happiness. We cant wait for our big vacation next year!
