Abigail relaxing by the lake....

Abigail spent time by the lake painting - she worked on a canvas or two as well as on a couple of pages in her art journal. She also played by the water with Sam....

Creature catchin'

Those little 'bumps' amongst the grass are a mixture of tadpoles and teeny tiny frogs like the one on Sams hand! When you walk near the edge of the grassy patches they jump just like crazy!!!! THOUSANDS of them!!! It was fascinating! I was amazed to see soooo many tadpoles still, so late in the Summer - I guess it is because it is so much colder in the mountain lakes??? Maybe.....

Playing in Wedge Pond....

Wedge Pond was the first lake we went to and we had assumed they would be too cold to swim in - being in the mountains!! But of course the weather was sooooo hot that the water was lovely, and so Sam stripped down to his underwear and went on in!!! Sadly his underwear was also back to front (sigh...lol!!) but he still looks uber cute I think in these pictures!!! :)

He had soooo much fun, spending hours making rafts out of logs, skipping stones, catching tadpoles and frogs (by the thousands) and just playing in the water...he was loving every moment in the safe, clean and clear waters.

I so wish we could live close to lakes like these - they are soooo clean and clear - so safe and wonderful to spend the day at - a complete contrast to the lakes we have around here!!! Just completely relaxing - and despite being so beautiful, there are so many of them around, that there are so few people at each one!!! You can relax in peace and quiet away from crowds and enjoy the stunning scenery - sheer bliss! I just didn't want to leave!

A walk by Wedge Pond.....

.....amongst the Grizzly bears :)

We didn't see any bears but we DID see signs that they had been around earlier in the day.....the signs in the area said they tend to be at the pond in the early mornings to drink and feed....we had our bear spray with us just in case (lol) but had a walk around and then headed to the pond where we settled down for some fishing and relaxing - the weather was so gorgeous that Sam soon stripped off and was in the water!!! :)

More pool pics.....

We swam every morning and every evening before bed if we had time......and then during the day because it was so hot (24c - 28c every day) the kids were paddling and splashing about in the mountain lakes. I swear they spent the entire week wrinkled like prunes :)

A splashing good time......

Our little holiday....

Every year we spend a week in the Banff/ Canmore area. We love it there. It doesn't matter what other trips we take, we always have a week near there to just switch off and get some R & R. Sometimes we go in the Fall, sometimes in early Summer, but this year we left it until almost the end of Summer, and I have to admit that I really liked the timing!!! It was like a really nice end to the school holidays and it gave us something to look forward to at the end of Summer instead of having everything over with near the beginning! Although I must admit, it helped that the weather was FANTASTIC!!! I'm sure it isn't often 28c in Canmore and Banff at the end of August!!!! :)

Here is our little 3 bedroomed apartment at the 'Lodges at Canmore'. We had never stayed there before but it is the same company that owns Mystic Springs (the place we loved last year), so we get a great rate with them!! It's important to me to have an outdoor heated pool, so I was happy :) and it turned out that we had a washer and a dryer in our apartment so every evening I could throw a few things in the machines and I didn't have any laundry when we got home which was PERFECT for a family our size :) We could also dry our swimming things after our morning swim and they were dry ready for our evening swim without having to hang them on the balcony or anything yucky or if we needed them to take to the lake or get them washed or dried fast...VERY handy :) These things MATTER lol!!! :)