Christmas in Canada

This year we went to Canada for Christmas to be with Ty's family. We were gone for 2 1/2 weeks. We left on the 18th and headed to Ty's parents in Stirling...14 hours later we arrived. The kids did pretty well. We spent a few days hanging out with family there, then on the 20th headed up to Ty's sisters in Calgary for a day. They had twins, Rosco and Atalia a month before we had Audrey and they also have Gatlin who is just a few weeks younger than Madelyn so it was a little crazy to say the least. Then on the 21st after church we headed up to Banff, which was absolutely beautiful. It is a national park nestled in the Rocky Mountains, and the mountains are stunning. We spent 3 days in Banff. Ty's parents for Christmas got all the families rooms at the Douglas Fir Logde. There was a huge indoor playground for the kids and an indoor pool with two big waterslides, which Madelyn loved. We played there all day Monday. Then our kids crashed at 7pm so we went out to dinner with some of our family while Ty's parents stayed in our room and watched our kids, which was nice. Then Tuesday we went to the Banff Springs Hotel and toured around. Here are a few photos.

Then the girls walked through all the little shops while the guys stayed and played with the kids at the hotel. That night we all met at the local LDS church and had pizza together. (It's the only place that would accomodate all 35 of us.) Then Christmas Eve we headed back to Lethbride and went to his sister Alauna's house to stay for the next few days. We had dinner at another sister, Marina's house and watched the Nativity Story. Then wrapped some gifts and went to bed. Christmas morning we went upstairs to open gifts and Madelyn grabbed the first one she saw and started ripping open the paper regardless of who it belonged to. We stopped her and she flung herself on the floor and started throwing a tantrum. Here is a picture the first few minutes of Christmas morning.Here are a few more pictures from the morning while opening gifts.

We then went out to Ty's parents for breakfast and then met at their church and had a big lunch. Then we went back to his parents and opened some gifts and played games and hung out the rest of the night. It was the first Christmas I have been away from home ever. It was quite different but good to be with Ty's family. When I called home my mom started to cry. They told us that they had given each family a week trip in California and three days in Disneyland in October of this year.

Over the next week and a half we hung out with each of the different siblings and their families...ate a lot of food, played a lot of games, and dealt with a lot of toddler tantrums and baby cries. It was fun. Then on Friday, January 2nd we packed up to come home, drove one hour in crazy, windy, snowy weather and the border was closed because I-15 in Montana was closed, so we turned around and headed back to his parents for another day. On our way back, our car overheated and we barely made it home after several stops, prayers, and then driving at 30 mph. We stayed another night, got the car fixed (replaced the thermostat and flushed the radiator) and headed home on Saturday, the 3rd. Wow, I've never been so happy to pull into my garage as I was the other night. 17 days is a long time to be gone from home. Here are a few other pictures from the trip.

This is Alauna and Austin's front door after a big snow drift that blew in from a field behind their house. So then they dug a little tunnel for the girls to play in. Crazy!

Madelyn stuck these stickers from a create a face sticker book on her own face. Silly girl! A random picture of the girls.Our little Christmas tree that we decorated in our hotel room in Banff.Audrey and her Aunt Marina and cousin Holly.Ty and Madelyn just after coming down the waterslide.