Santa's Parade of Lights

We spent last weekend in Banff for their parade of lights. It was so stunning. We stayed in a gorgeous cabin at one of the lodges in the mountains. There was a bedroom with 2 beds and a lounge with a gorgeous fireplace. Jared slept in one of the beds and thought it was very funny to chat to us at 4am when he realised we were in the room with him.

Saturday night was the Parade of Lights down the main street in Banff. It was very pretty in the snow. It was cold though. We were all dressed warmly though, but we had a good taste of real minus weather. We have decided that we will survive it just and in fact we may even enjoy it ;o) We did feel sorry for Miss Canada who was part of the Parade. She certainly earned her crown, you could see the poor girl was freezing!! Unfortunately the photos never came out of the parade because of the light. I managed to get a few, and next year we will be better prepared with a camera suited for the job.

Sunday morning was breakfast with Santa. Jared did not like the man in red. I managed 1 photo and it is of him making a run for it. He wouldn't even sit on his lap for a minute. We decided not to traumatise him for life and left it at that. Poor Santa said he had had his fair share of screamers over the weekend.

After breakfast we went up the cable car again. It is really so beautiful up there. The view is just amazing. And of course it is different from the last time we were up there because there is now some snow on the ground.

We then decided to take a drive through to Lake Louise. We found an interesting looking side road that indicated it was going to Lake Louise and so we tried that route. WOW!!!! We kept having to stop along the way to take photos because it is just so beautiful. We chose the place and designed and built the house that we would like to retire in one day ha ha ha!!!

You will see a train track in the one photo, that is the route the train runs from here to Vancouver. We have put that on our list of things we want to do.

Here are the photos. Lots of them I know, but it was a weekend of memories to share :o)

Jared wrapped up nice and warm waiting for the parade to start. It was easily -15!

Not the best shot, but an idea of the lights in the main street

The start of the parade

One of the floats

He was off faster than if he'd had an electric shock

Looking down on Banff from the top of the mountain

Standing in front of the SA flag on the mountain. It is marked with Pretoria. The listed direction is heavily disputed ;o)

The view down the mountain taken out of the cable car window. It's HIGH!!!

A very tired but toasty munchkin on the way down the mountain.

These were all taken on the side road to Lake Louise. It is breathtaking!!

You can see the train track in this pic.

Tada!!!!

We're back :o)

These photos, although funny and really cute, come with a bit of a warning too. If you have children, never ever run the hot water before you have run the cold as you never know what can happen when you turn your back...

We were busy getting the bath organised for Jared the other night. We had decided to bath him in the small bath on his own so that it would be a quick in and out. We were running the water while getting PJ's etc ready for him. Hannes walked past the bathroom door and this is what he found

Jared was as happy as Larry already playing in the bath. He must have been really determined to get in there because the bath is actually very high. He was ready to bath and was not going to wait for us. We were VERY happy that we are in the habit of running hot and cold water together and also that he did not have any shoes on :o)

No more posts for a while

Hi family and friends. I am sad to report that I will not be able to update the blog for then next while due to some technical problems on my side.

I promise to get back to it as soon as I can with some back issues :o)

Love Carol

A Winter Wonderland

We had what we consider to be our first real snow today. It started at around 5am and has been snowing on and off since then. It was really well timed because our clocks were turned back at 2am, so we are now 9 hours behind SA.

We decided to drive out to Bragg Creek this morning. The snow was really coming down there. We drove a little bit out of town and pulled off on the side of the road to have a bit of a run around in the snow, and boy did we have fun!!! Just after we had pulled over a gentleman in a bakkie stopped and asked us if we needed help. He thought we were in trouble and needed a hand. Imagine, "we are fine thank you, we have just stopped here so we can beat each other with snowballs"!!!

We had so much fun in the snow. Hannes and I chased each other throwing snow balls at each other and Jared. He thought it was an absolute scream and did his best to retaliate. I was amazed at the snow though. I always imagined it to be wet. This was so dry that you could barely get it into a ball. Our jackets and gloves were dry after we had finished. That really wasn't what I had expected at all.

So, we have officially had our first play in the snow, although, I have been told that today's snowfall is nothing compared to what is still to come.

Our next fun purchase is going to be a toboggan. I wish you could have seen the kiddies in the park over the road riding up and down the hillside this morning. And the dad's pulling the little ones on the pavement on a sled. We wondered how long these children have spent waiting for the snow to arrive, since it is late this year.

While we were getting ourselves organised to leave, Jared sat on a chair at the window and watched the world go by and the snow fall.


Putting in fuel in Bragg Creek. You can take the monkey out of the bush... :o) My crazy South African love in nothing but a T-Shirt!!!



Making a run for it!! That big stretch of white to the left is the highway.


"Let me go mommy!!!" He doesn't stand still for a minute.


Me and my daddy.


We now know for sure that every cent we spent on his snow suit was worth it. He loved the snow. Or in Jared speak the "nowe"


When we got home Jared and daddy shared a story on our very comfy new lounge suite before they both went and had a well deserved sleep.

My little frog prince

So as you know we celebrated our first Halloween on Wednesday, and boy did we all have fun!!

We were invited to a late afternoon party which was great for the smaller kiddies because they don't get the trick or treating thing just yet.

We did a few neighbours when we got home though, but Jared was more interested in running up and down the pavement than he was in ringing doorbells and asking for sweets. It is only funny the first time when you get to the door and as it is answered you realise that the real trick or treater isn't there anymore but rather running down the road!!! You have to wonder if the people think you are really that desperate for sweets :o)

The party was really nice, we had a whole menagerie there. We had a few skunks, a bear, a few ducks and of course a frog. Unfortunately I never managed to get a photo of all the little animals in a row because they honestly don't sit still for long enough. You will see in the photo that I did manage that this may not be the little ducks favourite holiday so far :o)

By the end of the evening Jared was honestly exhausted. He managed to charm his way into us giving him one of his little chocolate bars that he had trick or treated. He was not a happy froggie when it was finished though.

Here are the pics :o)

We are not very happy ducks and the frog just wants to make a run for it!!

The tantrum!! I want more!!

It was luckily very short lived and our happy boy was back.