Banff National Park

We were going stir crazy sitting around the house, not able to officially work yet, and just waiting and thinking about getting our permit. So, our company sent us on a day trip to Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies. It was beautiful. The mountains are beautiful and majestic. We had such a great time. We rode up to the top of a mountain in a gondola and saw breathtaking views of the mountains. The girls loved being out in the fresh air. They were so good. I love making family memories like this.

Next time we go Jim wants to do some hiking and ride in this giant 4 wheel drive bus out on the Glacier!

They do have WalMart and IKEA in Canada!!

One of the first stores we went to when we got here was IKEA. We love this store. There was one in Orlando that we fell in love with and we were so happy when we found one in Calgary. We go there for dates. There is a restaurant in there and lots of cool stuff to look at. We want to fill our whole bedroom with IKEA stuff. The view of the downtown is nice. You can see for miles from where we live. The house we are in is really nice in a great neighborhood. The kids all have to have their own room so we have 7 bedrooms and 3 &1/2 baths. It is very comfortable. It is really close to all the stores we need. They also have this great grocery/home goods store (like WalMart but 10x better) called Canadian Superstore. They have so much stuff, the produce section is enormous. The aisles are longer than ours and have so much to choose from. They also have health foods and gourmet foods like specialty grocery stores and reasonable prices. We love it.

Updated photos of the girls

Having fun, hanging out in Calgary.

Trip from MT to Calgary

We were only 16 miles from the border in MT, so we made it to the border quickly. We went through the US customs very quickly, said goodbye to the good ole USA (temporarily) and Hello to Canada. We were at the Canadian customs for 2 hours. We told them we were just coming for a 2 week visit, which is true. We had a bit too much stuff though I guess cause they were susspicious. They pulled us up on their system and found we had applied for a work permit. They let us come in once we told them that we were just going to visit with the kids in the home and not work with them yet. They gave us a 3 week pass and we finally entered into Saskatchawan. Then we drove another full dayto get into Alberta and over to Calgary. The landscape is very similar to the US, lots of farms. The city of Clagary is very nice, clean, nice houses, lots of businesses. It is surrounded by beautiful mountains in the distance. We are happy to finally be here. The girls are so happy to finally get out of the carseats. :)