Celebrating Birthdays in Calgary!

Over the next couple of days, we went on hikes, tours and celebrated birthdays. The boys at Hailstone Butte...

Joanne and Jim enjoying a laugh over something...Joanne was leaving today to stay with her son and family before heading back to Edmonton. See you in September!

It was birthday celebration time at Krysten's parents! Sawyer had just celebrated a birthday and both Alex and Krysten's stepfather, Jim, were having birthdays the week we were there. There was lots of Lego and lots of Duplo. The boys were busy!

Grandma and Sawyer...it didn't take him too long before he wasn't shy with us.

Alex with his great grandmother...

The boys had a great water gun fight...wasn't over until they were both drenched.

Alex got a new bike for his 6th birthday!

Which of course Sawyer had to try. Anything his big brother does, he wants to do too!

Krysten's family...thank you for hosting our whole family!

Jennifer was thrilled that Krysten made her a special cake for her recent 50th birthday!

I believe this was shortly before her sister, Stephanie, smooshed her face into a piece of cake. Gotta love sisters!

A special cake for the boys...Alex loves Batman!

Feeling pretty chill...

We ended up going to Canmore and Banff one day. Never, ever get tired of this scenery...

Big and little grandsons in Canmore...

Many tourists go halfway across this street on the walk light and then pause in the middle to take this photo. When in Banff, do as the tourists do!

Alex took a huge shine to his big cousin, Nicholas!

We decided to go to the Bear Street Tavern for lunch. They have Outcast beer on tap so it's nice to support them. This is what happens when 16 of us show up for lunch without a reservation, but in no time they had us seated.

Erik in Banff...

So cool to see...go Outcast!

I even got the bartender to take a photo of the tap stick and explained why. He said he loves Patrick's beer and heard that he is only working at this part-time. So Patrick came over and did some schmoozing...he and Krysten have certainly made a name for themselves.

We had to have our photo taken in front of the Banff Springs Hotel, the scene of our honeymoon more than 25 years ago. Still magnificent!

Patrick told us about a back country scenic drive, so the group split up and we went with Jeff and Nadine and the boys.

Damian still having fun with the selfie stick...

The boys being still for a moment...

It was a great day!

Family photo!

Mountain goats...

Loved the striations in the rock...

So many beautiful views...

Reminded me of an alligator!

We stopped here for a bit so the boys could get out and burn off some energy...

Another stop with some kayakers...

And prairie dogs...

The days were going by too quickly. On the last day the boys went to a nearby park to play...it was hot!

A different way to come down the slide...

And sadly, the week flew by and it was time to leave. Goodbye to Calgary and Patrick and the family. Our reunion next year is planned for Kingston...

Over the prairies...

Love the patchwork...

And into Toronto...

Our reunions weren't quite over, because we stopped for a quick coffee in Kingston with Jim's cousin, Judy. They hadn't seen each other in at least 30 years and shared some great memories. She had actually been in Progresso, Mexico, at the same time we were, but we were never able to connect. Such a nice visit. I felt like I had known Judy forever.

A super couple of weeks of visiting old friends, new friends and spending time with family!

Our next trip...an Alaskan cruise in September with Joanne and, our Russian trip partners, the Coopers.