Vacation, Day 6

I woke up quickly this morning to the sound of Ben puking. Well, it was a dry heave, and I told him to run to the toilet. He made it and puked a little. Uh oh, no bueno. This always happens though. Last year, it was me. People wonder why David and I sleep with our kids on vacation. This is why. We tried to go back to sleep, but he went to puke again about an hour later.

He wasn't throwing up much. He had no fever. Nothing else was wrong with him. So, we set off as planned. About an hour into our trip, I was glad Suzy packed him so baggies. He really lost his cookies. Well, Cocoa Puffs. Around the Canadian border, Noah and Emily looked like this.


Ben looked like this.


He couldn't keep down water without it coming back up on him. Poor guy.

The drive was beautiful. Unlike anything I've ever seen. Mountains for days, and forest so think that you can't see 2 feet deep. Seriously stunning.


Here's David with the Colombia Lake. It empties into the Pacific in Oregon.


Then, we stopped at a rest stop and walked to the scenic lookout. Ben was throwing up the few french fries he had for lunch while I took this picture of Em and Noah.


When I see this pic, I don't even look at anything but how sad Ben looks.


David and Noah exploring.


We got back in the car and got stuck in an hour long 2 mile back up of traffic due to an accident. It sucked. But, not as much as driving by and seeing the infant carseat on the side of the road. Hopefully, everybody was okay. Ben asked several times if we were to the hotel yet. We think he may have had some motion sickness which being in a car for 6 hours is just about the last thing you need.

After we got through the traffic, we had to drive through Kootenay National Park. The fist stop is Radium Hot Springs, and I thought that was the perfect way to get out and relax a little. Ben had probably thrown up 8 times by now. I told him the hot springs have medicinal properties and it might heal him.

This was the water flowing from the mountain into the hot springs.


It looks like a pool, but has no odor or taste or anything. There was a hot one and a cold one. We did the hot one first. You know, to heal Ben.






Then, we went to the cold pool.




Here's Noah on the slide. It was so pretty around the pools.


This was a really cool poster of how the springs used to look over 100 years ago.


We weren't sure if the hot springs had a medicinal effect, but they definitely had a sedative effect. All three kids were out! Since we were in the National Park, I let Ben sit in the front, so he could recline back and hopefully, not feel as sick. He was asleep up there.


We stopped at Numa Falls. So, so pretty.






Ben got out and wanted to see the falls. He ate some goldfish crackers before this and kept them down!


Our last stop was at Marble Canyon and we hiked a little down the trail.




The water was such a pretty blue.






Then, we were off to Banff. Our last 30ish minutes. We had read about these wildlife overpasses at the hot springs. They literally have miles and miles of fence on the side of the highway and it directs wildlife to these overpasses. They've reduced people hitting animals by like 85-95%!


Isn't this mountain cool? It was kind of sideways.


We got to our hotel and were exhausted. The good news is it appears Ben is all better! We also gained an hour when we got here, so it's super late. We were hungry and tired and are glad tomorrow is a chill day. We plan to drive around Banff and explore the National Park here. And visit the hotels cave hot tubs!

Vacation, Day 5

For our last day in Idaho, we wanted to do the best of everything. All five of us hopped on a jet ski this morning.


This should be an endorsement for duct tape. The fiberglass has come off one of the jet skis. Without the duct tape, 6 inches of water got in the center. With the duct tape, only 1 inch!


My Dad wanted to try to take a selfie with my fancy camera. This is what it looks like. We were cracking up.


That's better.


There was lots of jumping on the trampoline.


We all spent time in the water. Ben's favorite new game is King of the Raft which is funny because he loses every time.


Emily was dying to go on the raft today. We take out the speed boat and it stalls. We couldn't get it to work. So, we pull it back in. Then, my Dad thought it may need gas and the gauge was broke. So, he went to town to get gas and put some in. We thought that fixed it. But, we took it out again and it stalled. So, in we go....again. Luckily, we barely made it back home. So, we take the raft out on the pontoon boat. It doesn't go as fast, but still loads of fun. The kids got in the water, my Dad pulled them for 10 seconds and stopped. They were like what the??? He just wanted to pull their line a little shorter, but I think they thought their ride was over again.


That's better.


It was great. My Dad would send them from one side to the other out and over the wake. It was a blast!






We ended on a high note. A big thank you to my Dad and Suzy for always giving us such a special time here and so many great memories.

David and my Dad also went to pick up our rental car. We head out in the morning for phase 2 (out of 3) of our journey; a road trip to Banff. Then, on to Vancouver.

Vacation, Day 4

Today started off with a jet ski ride.





Suzy bought the kids water guns! I think I liked them more than they did.


Noah shooting the neighbor girl. She's sweet and was pretending he got her.


Then, we took the kids into town to get a few things at the grocery store and we stopped at McDonald's for lunch. This was our first time ever eating McDonald's together as a family. The only time we've been there in the past 10 years, David went and got something else for himself to eat. So, it was a once a decade event.

We came home and relaxed in the water. It was warm, so the water felt great. Emily and Ben played king of the raft. Emily won.


Look at how brave this little guy is.


Emily went swinging on Papa's swing.


Then, Suzy's great granddaughter came over and we babysat for a few hours. She's so cute.


We built a fire tonight, so David chopped some wood. My husband is hot with an axe. He's hot without an axe too.




David cooked us up smores.




Then, the mosquitos were eating everybody, so they all ran inside. For some reason, they weren't bothering me or my Dad. I think they don't like O negative blood. :)

Noah came running back out just to play with fire.



It was another great day. Tomorrow is our last day here. We plan to do a little bit of everything.