We had a sleepy group this morning after a late night of s'mores roasting and the excitement of being in the mountains. But when Keely plans a trip, there's no time for sleep so we were up and downstairs eating breakfast first thing in the morning - we even had to wake Odin and Whitaker up!

Breakfast in the hotel was great and the kids were all fascinated by the "Pancakes in One Minute Machine" which dropped two squirts of pancake batter on a conveyor belt and cooked them before falling on their plate. We packed a backpack of snacks and headed to the Banff Gondola. The gondola cabin is significantly smaller than the ones we're using to on the ski mountain so the littles and I went in the first gondola and the bigs and Keely went in the second one. We made it over halfway up the mountain before Whitaker remembered his mom wasn't there. Luckily, the kids all received a nature activity book and an extra large cookie when we got in line so Whit enjoyed half a cookie for the rest of the trip.

We had a perfect day to take in the sights from the top of Sulphur Mountain. There is a gift shop, several restaurants and an interactive education center at the top of the gondola along with a mile long boardwalk to a weather station from the 1920s. Whitaker walked most of it which was great because we forgot both carriers. Near the weather station there was lots of gravel and small rocks and it turns out Whit's favorite thing to do is throw gravel and rocks off the sides of the trail so he was entertained while the rest of us took pictures and enjoyed the views.

We made it back to the gondola building and the kids worked on their nature activity books including finding all of the paper embosser stamps which was a huge hit. Everyone was getting hungry and the top was getting busy so we took the gondola down. This time, we all crammed into the same car and the kids enjoyed their cookies as we took in the spectacular views. We were even able to see the mountain we climbed yesterday which was a huge hit for everyone.

Back at the hotel, we grabbed some lunch in the courtyard and then the littles were ready for a nap. The courtyard has two different hot tubs and a cold therapy tub set at 42F. While the boys played in the hot tubs and challenged each other to how long they could stay in the cold bath, we caught up on a few things and planned out the next few days before joining them in the pools. Turns out 42F is really cold and while the boys were able to dunk their whole heads under, we could barely get waist deep. There was no way we were completing the 3 min challenge!

In the evening, we headed back to Canmore, for an early pizza dinner (apple chicken pesto was the favorite), and then we headed to the river boat launch for a float trip down the Bow River which cuts though the entire valley. During dinner, it was absolutely pouring but it turned into a gorgeous evening. We hoped to see wildlife on the trip but only saw the backside of one elk. The mountain views more than made up for it. Incredibly, no one fell out of the raft nearly everyone but Liam tried to at one point or another! The 90 minute float ride was a perfect way to end the day.

Back at the hotel, the boys enjoyed s'mores once again while Ainsley and I had a brief swim in the hot tubs. Tomorrow we leave Banff for Lake Louise and more hiking and sightseeing!

-Kevin