Yesterday Naomi brought the kids by the office for lunch. There were some balloons from one of my coworker’s big 60 birthday left over from the previous day, so we hijacked them for some fun outdoors.

And then, as all fun balloon times usually end…

Sigh.. all good things must come to an end.

Springtime = water and mud = rubber boots = puddle jumping.

(notice the muddy bottom)

“DADDY HELP ME!” Adelaine dives face first in the soggy grass, but doesn’t want to put her hands down to push up as it is wet.

Adelaine dredges to puddle to ensure maximum splashing depth.

A little over a year ago we drove through the Canadian Rockies on our way to a GoodSeed staff Bible conference. As it is about an 8 our drive we stopped half way for the night at a hotel that had a pool. We stayed at the place on both legs of our trip and took full advantage of the pool. Ellie loves water, for the past year and a half since that trip she has associated going to the mountains with swimming and frequently asks if we can go over the mountains to go in the “cool”, as she calls it. This past week she finally got her wish.

Some friends of ours generously offered us the use of a condo in Fairmont Hot Springs that they were not going to be able to use. That isn’t a hard decision to make! So, this past weekend we were off on a trip through the Rockies to spend some relaxing family time away in a really nice place and a soaking in the hot springs. The timing was great too, as we left on Naomi’s birthday and kinda celebrated it as a family.

We took Ellie’s camera along, so she got quite a few shots. When she is in the mood for it, she is quite a shutterbug. For example, the Starbucks in Banff:

Or the streets of downtown Banff:

Err.. maybe less literally the streets of Banff.

We also stopped so Ellie and I (dad) could take some pictures of the mountains. I figured that I could hop out and get some shots while I open the side door of the van for her to take a few pictures. Nope. Not good enough. She demanded to get out to do her photography. So we both got out to take a picture of Castle mountain.

Without prompting, Ellie then basically took a panoramic series of shots, stopping every few degrees to take another picture as she scanned the surrounding mountains.

Here is my photo of Castle Mountain. Soon, she will be outdoing me.

Ellie and I stopped one more time for photos at the top of the pass in Kootenay National Park.

Finally, we arrived at the condo we were staying at for the weekend. There was a pool table which immediately got the girls excited. Adelaine absolutely loves balls, so to see this big table with all the brightly coloured balls made her very happy. Turns out she is a pool shark. Not the kind that is really good at playing, more the kind that waits for balls to go by and then snaps them up. After a short while she had filled the pocket and had quite a few horded up.

Ethan is a pool shark in the more traditional sense and schooled me 3 games to 1.

We did eventually make it to the hot spring pools where you have a great view of the mountains overlooking valley.

Turns out Ellie’s camera is better than mine in at least a few ways. One, it can withstand being dropped better. Two, it floats. Three, it takes pictures underwater. Because of this, we took her camera to the pool and left mine back in our room.

I think it actually takes better pictures underwater than it does out of the water.. granted, there is a lot of steam in the air when the water is 39 C and the air is -12 C.

Naomi and Ellie as seen underwater.

Naomi and Ellie as seen out of the water.

We made as many trips to the hot springs as we could during our short visit. Ellie and Adelaine both had a great time in the pools.

Hot tubs just are not as much fun without a rubber duckie I guess. When asked by one of the other people in the pool, Ellie informed us that the duck’s name is Leafy. Go figure.

Notice the lifeguard in the background shoveling snow away from the pool!

Naomi and I also enjoyed the hot springs a lot. Very nice to soak in the pool, even when it is snowing. It was a great family weekend getaway!

See more of Ellie’s pics at www.flickr.com/photos/kidsview/