I'm Home!!!

I'm home! Yay!!! I'm almost more excited to be home than to have been going on vacation! It was a fantastic week, in spite of it raining almost the entire time we were gone. First up I had my choir reunion concert. It was a great time and it was awesome to see everyone again, and to sing again. As soon as the concert was done (literally - I finished my last note, we walked off stage and right out the door) we hopped in the car and drove to Canmore. On Sunday we had sun and knew that it wasn't going to stick around for long so we went to the beach! Gabe loved the water - a little too much actually. He tried to crawl right into the lake and wanted to try swimming so he kicked out his legs and let go with his arms. Fortunately I caught him before his face hit the water but we had to keep him out of the water after that. Matt and I both got sunburned pretty bad that day. AND that was the end of the sun... It started pouring the next morning. We drove out to Banff and spent the day shopping. We went for lunch out at The Spaghetti Factory which is always yummy. They have the best Spumoni. The next day we did very little more than playing games in the timeshare's rec room. Pool, ping pong, air hockey... we went swimming too. On Wednesday we finally got out fishing and that was a fantastic time! Matt caught 6 fish. Everyone who went caught at least one. They were taking everything we threw at them - bait or no. There were also some herons circling the lake the whole time. We went out for dinner that night to the Trough and it was fantastic as usual! Thursday we went out to Canmore for some more shopping. Matt and I went into this adorable gourmet food market - Moutain Mercato. Shelves of oils, vinegars, salts and other delectables. Matt picked out a couple of cheeses for later. We went and played some pool (I did miserably) and then went for a quick swim before dinner with my aunt and uncle who came out from Calgary for the day. Right after dinner, my dad, Matt and I went out fishing again and had very different results. I got one bite the whole time we were out. My dad caught a fish but had very few bites otherwise. We almost didn't mind though because the first day was so good. On Friday we went out fishing one last time and now it was my turn to have a great day. I caught 7 fish! And all of them were a nice size too! And the best part, I caught them all on a red and white spoon. I hooked 3 others who got off too soon and had tonnes of bites too. We got back around 9 and then packed up and headed out to Lake Louise for a quick "hike". We went for a walk around the lake with the babies. It was nice to get out and the rain stopped just long enough for us to finish the walk. Then today we packed up and checked out by 10:30, went into Canmore for a bit more shopping (we bought some teas!) and then went to Calgary. I had a golf game as part of my cousin's stagette. It was actually really awesome. I played a half decent game and the sun stayed out long enough for the game to finish so I got another burn, but it's okay, it'll be gone by tomorrow. As soon as I was done the game we hopped back in the car and came home. In between all of that I managed to finish reading Mansfield Park and I finished knitting my scarf! It's gorgeous by the way :) We saw lots of wildlife. Moose, deer, tonnes of elk, bighorn sheep and bears!
I am so glad to be home. It's going to be great to sleep in my own bed and it's going to be great to get back into the swing of things. I'm not even planning yet what I'm doing this week. I'm just basking in the delight of being home!

Mrs. Vander Leek ;)