Trip to the Canadian Rockies

 Wednesday morning Joel and I headed to the Rocky Mountains with a pastor friend and his wife. We had never seen the Rockies before and they wanted to take us, so we were pretty pumped about this trip! The two main places we did our sightseeing in were Jasper and Banff.

Our first amazing sighting along the way was the world's largest dinosaur in
Drumheller, Alberta

... We were discussing whether or not dinosaurs were actually that big. I'd probably pee my pants if I saw this big bad dude in real life! (peeing my pants is probably putting it a bit mild.. more like die of a heart attack!)

It was extremely warm on the first day of our trip (before getting into the mountains), so after eating lunch (with that big bad dude making eyes at my chicken sandwich) I decided to take off my tennies, roll up my pant legs and feel the cool water from the little water park.

.. look at me wearing that sweater on such a hot day... I was dying, but my luggage was squished somewhere in the back of the car.

Our drive was veeerry long indeed. Can't even say how many times I fell asleep! ... but I had many short naps during our drives.

M.M.M.. gotta have a French Vanilla from Tim Hortons!

... Hubby did some prepping for Sunday's messages (he took naps too!)

The mountains were just GORGEOUS! I've never seen mountains like this before in my life!.. in person anyway. If only our cameras could capture things the way our eyes take everything in.

Want to be reminded of God's marvelous creation and design.. and also His LOVE for us?? .. Take a look at these shots! .. And then praise and thank God for His greatness and power over the earth!

 

It's so amazingly breathtaking the way the skyscraper like mountains look in the clouds.. really loving how those very far mountains in the photo are so faint.

For most of our trip the weather was cold and rainy..

.. it even SNOWED!Can you believe it?! Snow in August!? .. true story folks

.. this is where we got soaked all the way through our jackets! We walked a ways through some trails around these falls. A couple weeks before this I had bought a $5 thrift store jacket because I hadn't packed for cold weather when we were coming out to Saskatchewan for the summer..  Yah, that jacket is not intended to keep you dry in the rain. My shoulders were soaked right through! ... Also notice we're both wearing shorts! I promise it was super warm before we got into the mountains area!

 

Because of the wet and cold weather, we had to get a motel room instead of tenting in a camp ground (did I mention this was supposed to be a camping trip??) We all had our wet shoes lined up around the heater all night!

So here we are, toughing it out in our rugged "camp ground" {wink} 

.. in the morning the Millers had breakfast ready outside under a gazebo.

Warm chunky vegetable soup-- for breakfast! It warmed us up!

.. and hot chocolate. MMM.. and Joel even drank it! (he's not a fan of chocolate like the rest of us fan"addicts")

Back on the rode again we went...

More mountains?? Yes please.

Loved this place! One of my favorite spots we stopped at. I don't know if it was the enormous and gorgeous scene before my eyes, or because the rain and wind settled down here for a bit!! Probably both!

 sigh... such an unbelievable sight! Like nothing I've ever seen.. in person!
No photo shopping was involved in this photo-- promise! 

You can't go visiting new and unique places without bringing back a souvenir! We bought T-shirts while were walking through the shops in Jasper.

the "canadian fast food" one is Joel's and it looks nice on him!

There are two enormous hotels up in these mountains and we took a look through each of them.

The Fairmont Chateau at Lake Louise

Banff Springs Hotel
I love the outside of this building! It really felt like walking through a castle!

This is the little town in Banff. We walked the streets, stopping into random shops. The love of my life bought me some chocolate from a cute little chocolate shop.. mmm.. milk chocolate turtle.
We also bought a little fridge magnet with a photo of some of the Rocky Mountains we saw on our trip. .. We really need fridge magnets back at home! We're using too many of our own wedding favor magnets!

The weather cleared up as the day went on and we were able to go camping! .. in a tent! This was mine and hubby's first camping together {insert the "awww's"} .. We were having some struggles with getting our tent up.. but shhh, I never told you!

It never rained throughout the night, but we sure froze our buns off! I told Joel he's never slept so close to me in all our 10 months of marriage!!

We roasted hot dogs for dinner over the fire pit in the dark, and made s'mores! What's a camping trip without s'mores??

proof of Joel eating chocolate. This was his first S'more ever!!

We enjoyed our Rockies trip.. we even went a little ways into British Columbia. Joel was dying to say that he's been to BC. Ever since the Olympics he's been humming the theme tune and quoting the commercials-- "It's big, it's beautiful, it doesn't get more west coast than this..." .. ya that commercial. So now he can officially shout it from the roof tops that he's set foot in BC! .. unfortunately, not quite as far as Vancouver.

After a looong car ride at the end of our trip, we were so happy to be back at the house to relax. Joel and I laughed about that fact because normally you take a camping trip to find some relaxation. But.. our trip was pretty much a constant go, go go.. It was a very nice trip over all. 

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth His handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath He set a tabernacle for the sun.

 Psalm 19:1-4

My God is so big, so strong and so mighty there's nothing my God cannot do...

..the mountains are His, the valleys are His, the stars are His handywork too!!