Lauries new friend...........

Laurie seemed to make a new friend of this peacock......it walked around with Laurie for a while.....and luckily it shed a couple of feathers as it went which I kept :) they are beautiful.....a few people walking close to us saw me snap this picture and commented on what a great picture it would make......

A short while later we saw Mommy Peacock walking along with her babies.......very cute!!!

bear attack!!!!.....................

A Wasp nest............

Just outside of the zoo, on the pathway to the parking lot, we saw this amazing old wasp nest......aren't wasps clever?

Stoney Indians

Many, many of the tourist attractions in the Banff area are to do with the areas rich history...especially that of the native peoples...and among those the Stoney Indians.............I didn't know much about these peoples until I got home and searched on the web....They have a fascinating history.......and they almost make me ashamed to be white..................but they do think like me about the animals, the land......the country.................

INDIAN DAYS ON THE WESTERN PRAIRIES, MARIUS BARBEAU, 1974.

Formerly the buffalo covered the plains and even resorted to the forests across the mountains. Salmon so swarmed the rivers to the west of the mountains that the Indians could cross the water on their bodies. Trout and whitefish abounded the lakes. Mountain sheep and goat, deer, moose and beaver were plentiful, as well as everything that crawls, leaps or flies amid the trees of the forest.

Now it is all different. The beaver has disappeared in most places through the use of castoreum – a bait that never fails; the females and the young ones have been exterminated by the free hunters. Game has become scarce everywhere; it no longer exists wherever the white man can reach, except in the national parks. The native hunter used to husband the resources of the territory for future use just as carefully as a rancher does its cattle. But the casual sportsman who seldom visits the same spot twice cares not what happens on the morrow. He brings ruin.

You can read more about the Stoney Indians at:

http://www.stoney-nation.com/history.htm

Calgary zoo pics..............

Some of the animals we saw at the zoo........including the children (lol)by the waterfall in the gorilla house.

Getting hungry!!!!!

Chris got home to a message on the machine saying he is invited to a big sleepover tonight for his friends birthday......8 friends are sleeping over. So we are just getting ready to take him when the phone rings and It's Lauries friends asking HIM to sleep over too....so perfect timing......Lloyd was going into town to take Chris so he can take Laurie too....and he is also picking up dinner.......

I'm having the Diva Salad from Joey Tomatoes and I can't wait....I'm soooo hungry!!!

So the house is really quiet now as I only have three children here until 4pm tomorrow. My younger three are curled up watching tv together while I blog :)

Yum...can't wait until Lloyd gets back with our dinner :)

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo ..................

Calgary Zoo to be exact..........most of the week was cloudy but luckily the only rain was on the way home to Edmonton while we were in the car!! So we didn't mind the cloud at all. We had fun at the zoo.......even the cafe was great....the fries were REALLY good! I stole some of the childrens!!! Lloyd and I had chilli.............

Anyway, the zoo..........it was lovely and quiet because there were no school kids :) Yay again for homeschooling! My favourite section was the Canadian section which is funny because apart from the bearsd I think we get all the animals there in our own yard!!! Well, except bison but we see a lot of those anyway..................

I finally saw an adult bear.....even if it was in a cage! I had met the baby bears at West Ed Mall a couple of years ago but had never been close to an adult bear.......they were cute! Cuddly :)

The best animal of course, was the porcupine...they are my favourite animal!!! They are just the cutest...so we walked down into the pit bit by the porcupines pen and the porcupine was EXTREMELY sociable and left its back rock to come to the front and say hi....of course we weren't keen on getting THAT close as cute as they are!!!! But it was great for getting a photograph!!!

Oh and ALL the pictures from the zoo are taken with my little point and shoot as I just didn't want to spend the whole day carrying around my Nikon!

My thoughts on Calgary....................

Olympic Park....where the Olympics were held in 88...at the top you can see the ski jump 'thingies':

Calgary skyline from the zoo:

Calgary skyline from just off of Deerfoot Trail:

I really do NOT like Calgary.....you couldn't pay me enough to live there...................its a really unattractive city...the traffic is horrendous..............it is sooooo flat and grey and reminds me of DEDRIDGE!!! (Lynne you will know what I mean!!!)

Anyway, Calgary is crowded...geez how many people have moved there recently? The subdivisions just have no personality....and I can't believe how many accidents we saw in the short time we were there......

How on earth they can say that the quality of life there is one of the best in the world and that its a better place to live than Edmonton I have no idea....Edmonton even feels old compared to Calgary...Edmonton is such a pretty city and the traffic is nothing in Edmonton compared to Calgary......and it looks as though Calgary has just been 'plonked' there..........in the middle of....nothing....just flat boring land with no trees.....

Go north south East or west of Edmonton and you have beautiful rolling hills, trees, fields........countryside........it starts immediately.....but Calgary.....you have to go a LONG way before the scenery gets interesting or 'pretty'..........out past Cochrane...out past Bragg Creek..............not until the Foothills does it get 'attractive'..........

So uh yeah........I don't like Calgary...I don't enjoy going there.......the zoo was MUCH better than Edmontons but no better than the zoos back home.......Edinburgh zoo was great......as was Londons zoo of course...and Bristol.................so yes Calgarys zoo makes Edmontons look pitiful but isn't any better than a zoo back home................

So I keep telling Lloyd...DO NOT get a job in Calgary...unless you wanna commute from Canmore ;)

Sorry if you LOVE Calgary or its your home or whatever...but this is MY blog and MY thoughts and yep I hate Calgary lol!

Don't look down!!!!

I took Christies advice.......I was very brave and went out for lunch as a family again (if you remember the disaster from a few weeks ago!) anyway....we all went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for lunch and it went really well.....everyone was teasing me and Chris kept saying 'remember Christies advice mom...don't look down!'

The waiter was amazing.....he asked how come we were holidaying while schools were open and we explained we homeschool and he said wow thats great that you can just go away whenever you like!'

So anyway the meal was great......I'd never been to the Old Spaghetti Factory before.....the lasagna was to die for!!! The girls both had spaghetti but they know how to eat it properly so there wasn't a mess.......they impressed me :) We all had ice cream for dessert...I had spumoni which is a gorgeous mix of Pistacchio (my favourite flavour) and vanilla and chocolate ice creams :)

So yes...thank you Christie for your wise advice....I will remember it always...and although I may not be ready to take the kids to the Banff Springs for afternoon tea, I can survive a family restaurant now without resorting to Valium!

A drive around Banff.............

One evening we drove downtown to get some groceries and in one of the sidestreets we saw this deer nibbling grass at the end of someones back yard....it didn't seem to care about the cars or the people......which is sad really........I hope it stays safe. Oh and the train pictures is because seeinga train here is a big thing for us with 3 boys.....and diggers and tractors and trucks lol....but this one was especially nice as we drove into Canmore and it had the mountains in the background :)

First snow...............................

The girls pretending to be bears:

Grotto Creek:

First view of the Rocky Mountains in the distance:

Sams first snowball :)

Almost there:

Snow just south of Rocky Mountain House:

Chris stomping in the snow:

The first signs of snow were just south of Rocky Mountain House.......it was almost like Spring with snow just at the edges and in the shady corners of the fields......it was a wonderful 'taster' of the snow we will soon have here and was just wonderful to see :)

We stopped at Grotto Creek near Canmore and there were piles of snow in the parking lot by the lake.......Sam got his first look at and feel of snow.

In the playground..............

The hotel we stayed at had a fab new indoor playground only for hotel guests......we had the whole place to ourselves (one of the great things about homeschooling is you get to go away on holiday whenever you like...and can go when the schools are open so its nice and quiet.........Banff was lovely and quiet as was the hotel...we often had the pools to ourselves too :)

Hotel Recommendation.......................

http://www.douglasfir.com/

This is the hotel resort we stayed at this week.......its on Tunnel Mountain Road in Banff and is just a WONDERFUL place to stay for a large family....some of their rooms (Like the Mount Rundle Suite) sleep 8 people which for us is ideal! The kids LOVED the huge indoor playground and the waterslides...............we had a gorgeous mountain view and the plentiful supply of wood for the fire made it feel so cozy and we even made smores by the fire on the last night.

The suites are self catering with their own little kitchen, but they provide everything you need for breakfast!

I wouldn't choose to stay there as a couple.......I think we'd head to Banff Springs then but for a family our size this hotel has it all and the kids just didn't want to leave!

Hoodoos................

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoodoo_(geology)

Christie had mentioned the hoodoos to me a few weeks ago....but had mentioned the ones towards Drumheller (???)...we were thrilled that our hotel was just a two minute drive to the Banff Hoodoos though! So while out cruising around the little roads near us we came across the viewing area and trails...so we walked the hoodoo trail and took pictures of the Banff Hoodoos.

The link above will explain hoodoos to you! ........The native Indians believed they were nocturnal giants who awoke to hurl rocks at the passerby. Well, they looked quite harmless to us!

The last few...................

Here are a few more quilt pictures...including one of Lloyd admiring the quilts (lol) oh and the quilts with the handprints are made by quilters using squares that are created by women who have survived sexual assault and gone through a recovery program........