Weekend in Calgary...

This past weekend we headed down to Calgary for a little family get-a-way. One last hurrah before summer is over. Three other families joined us so it was a fun group trip. We could not have asked for more gorgeous weather. Our hotel was located in a great spot, right downtown, next to the Prince's Island Park. It was the perfect spot to stay, with everything right within walking distance - a bunch of restaurants, cute sidewalk cafes and even a splash pad and ice cream stand. We arrived Friday afternoon before everyone else, so we just strolled through the park, people watching and looking at the ducks and geese. They were quite tame (obviously they're fed often) and come straight up to you. It is a beautiful park with ponds, bridges, fountains and amazing views of the Calgary skyline. We stumbled upon an awesome playground and the kids were having a ball. We could barely get them out of there. We had a suite at our hotel, but Wyatt ended up sleeping in the bedroom with us. He had his own queen bed and slept great. Our kids have never slept in our bed (or even the same room) a single night of their lives so at first he was confused. He said to us "Ok, I'm ready to go to sleep now. Can you please leave my room?" We told him we were sleeping in the room together (and we were still watching TV). He said "Oh....ok" and rolled over and went to sleep! Hadley slept in the pack n play in the living room. Dayven and I tossed and turned a bit, but the kids slept like rocks all through the night.

That night we went out to dinner with the whole crew. With six kids at the dinner table, it was a little nutty, but we got through. We made sure to leave an extra tip! The kids were all so excited to see each other and were having fun running around like crazy in the courtyard in front of the hotel.

Saturday the boys went fly fishing with a guide on the Bow River, southeast of Calgary. They were out for most of the day. They had a lot of fun but didn't catch many fish. Dayven caught only one fish, a rainbow trout, but it was pretty good size.

The girls and the kids all headed to check out the Calgary zoo. It was a ZOO, literally. Being a Saturday and such beautiful weather, everyone must have had the same idea we did. We got there right when it opened, which helped and we were able to see quite a bit before the crowds got too bad. It's a wonderful zoo, with so many nice exhibits and some really impressive playgrounds. At least the kids were impressed. One of them was so nice, we had trouble getting the kids out of it and had to pull out the bribes to get them to check the rest of the zoo. We saw the entire zoo (the zebras are always my favorite), with the exception of the Canadian Plains and the Dinosaur exhibit. We'll have to save that for next time. The kids took turns stroller hopping and getting in and out of the wagon. One of the kids pulled the wagon with the rest of them in it, which was a pretty funny sight. One of our friends with us doesn't have kids and we knew she'd be re-thinking if she wanted them after a day with us. She was so awesome with the kids and helped out so much. I don't think we would have made it through the day without her. She pushed the stroller with the girls in it and kept track of them while we wrangled the wild monkeys boys. After the zoo, we were all tired and needed a break so we headed back to the hotel for a little downtime.

You can't imagine what it took to get everyone together for this photo!

My girl never misses a chance for a carousel ride!

Later that afternoon, we wandered throughout the Prince's Island Park, exploring the trails and burning off some steam at the playground, By dinnertime, the girls were beat. We decided to get room service in our rooms and get the kids bathed and ready for bed. When Dayven got back, we hung out with him while he ate his dinner, then I met up with the girls for a night out. After being with the kids all day, we were ready for a little adult time. We strolled around downtown Calgary and found a really fun street with a bunch of cute restaurants and bars with sidewalk cafes. We grabbed a table outside to enjoy the nice night. We had a great dinner and enjoyed just chatting.

Shona, Christine, me and Dorothy.

Sunday we headed to Drumheller, in the heart of the Alberta Badlands. It's an area known for the richest deposits of fossils and dinosaur bones in North America, as well as the Hoodoos, natural rock formations that look kind of like mushrooms. We checked out the Tyrell Museum, one of the largest collections of dinosaur bones in the world. It is a really nice museum, with life size replicas of dinosaur skeletons and even a section where you can watch staff cleaning and restoring old bones.
Although it certainly didn't take us the recommended three hours to see, we definitely enjoyed it and learned a few things. It would have been nice to read more of the plaques and learn more history, but that's never how it is when you take little kids to a museum, is it?

 

 

After lunch, we checked out Reptile World, for a big collection of lizards, snakes, frogs and even alligators. Wyatt really liked seeing all the specimens, but Hadley was only moderately interested. Mostly she ran around giggling and twirling around. They brought out a live boa constrictor to show people. Wyatt was so excited and ran right up to the worker and asked if he could hold it. They wrapped it around his neck and he loved it. Dayven was slightly afraid so he stood back and took pictures while I helped Wyatt hold it up. It was pretty heavy. I thought it was ironic that Wyatt had no problem holding a boa contractor around his neck, but we had to skip the World's Largest Dinosaur statue because he said it was "too scary". After that, we grabbed an ice cream and hit the road. The kids did awesome in the car, as well as the hotel. Very little complaining and mostly entertained themselves by watching movies and listening to audio books. Dayven and I were both so impressed with the kids. They just keep getting easier to travel with, although we'll be starting from scratch again with the new baby! All in all, a great weekend get-a-way! As you might imagine, I took a ridiculous amount of photos on the trip. I tried to pare it down and post only my favs.

He's one brave little boy when it comes to some things!