Vacation part 5

When we got to the Okotoks on Thursday evening it was late and Marshall had just received a text that His phone had used to much international usage. This was not good. That meant we had no phone use, no internet use, to GPS, use and we had planned to take a trip out to the mountains and had no idea where we were going. Marshall was not too happy and I was a bit worried. So far my just guessing if we were going in the right direction had not gone very well.



That night was the best night sleep we had the entire trip. Libby Slept from 9:30 until 8am. I was so glad because that meant that both Marshall and I got to sleep well.



So on Friday morning we got up and pulled a map out and started to try to figure out where we were going and then headed out. When we stopped to get fuel we found that the phone had been turned on and we had GPS again. I can’t tell you how glad I was that we no longer were just going to wing it.



We hoped that Libby would travel well after sleeping well…NOT. She cried and screamed and didn’t want to watch a movie. She was not very fun. So our nice 3 hour drive to Lake Louise was not so enjoyable. We came to the parks entrance and told Libby that the park only lets people in who are happy and not crying. And that if she was crying we would have to leave her with the park people. This worked really well in getting her to stop crying.



At the lodge we bought a ride and eat pass. So we could ride the gondola and eat lunch too. They had a nice little buffet and Libby ate ½ a roll, 2 bites of chicken and ohh yeah Celery. Don’t forget the nice piece of chocolate cake. After lunch we took the gondola up the mountain to see the beautiful scenery. We decided that it would be wise for us to take and enclosed gondola up the mountain rather than the ski lift benches. We have a two year old. Well we got in and sat down. Libby had a blast. She loved looking out the window. Poor Marshall was white knuckled and didn’t want to move a muscle. And I got motion sick.



While we were talking all the sudden we stopped. Marshall and I were quite unnerved and scared the benches swing just a bit, the gondola boxes feel like they are coming off the line and keep swinging for a bit. Both of us could have died and it was scary (or we are just both too scared of heights to make something like this worth it). It was a beautiful view and a bit chilly but I really enjoyed seeing it.



On the way down, she wanted to get out of the gondola, and told her the doors are locked. She looked at them and waved her arms and said “bippity boppity boo” and waited for them to open. We had a good laugh. She kept pretending to see a moose and a bear. She is getting to be quite creative. We left mid afternoon and headed back to Lethbridge to take the last leg of our trip home. It was nice to get to Greg and erins. We relaxed and watched a movie and Marshall and Libby slept long and hard. I loved that we could be ourselves and not worry. We got up the next day and I went shopping with Erin. To a little bakery and then to Costco to get perogies. They are so much better in Canada than here. Got home and packed up and left at noon-ish, to make it to butte by dinner time.

Butte has no franchise restaurants in the town, the McDonalds was burned down recently, the dairy queen might have been the same, and all we wanted was an Applebee’s. Instead we paid $21 for burned food, which took 45 min to make from the hotel restaurant. We went for ice cream because the nasty taste needed to be replaced. We all went to bed nice and early like 8:30 and then got up and headed home by 8am.



The last drive home had to be the hardest. 2 weeks of little to no sleep, no naps, enclosed in a small space together, No breaks, not eating well. We were not a happy family. We stopped for lunch in Pocatello and had Applebee’s, and then got in the car and drove. We just wanted to get home. We hit the Utah border and Libby had been crying for about 20 min. And she kept crying another 20 Both Marshall and I hoped she would sleep soon. And she did her only nap the entire trip and it wasn’t long enough.



We got home and unpacked the car quickly. And just sat on the couch and crashed. Libby went to bed on time. And slept well. I love my bed and am glad to be home.







Trip tally:
Okotoks to Lake Louise 2 hours 53 min
Lake Louise to Lethbridge 4 hours 47 min
Lethbridge to Butte 5 hours 35 min
Butte to home 7 hours 26 min