We didn't know it at the time, but Oscar was almost certainly picking up strep (or some other throat infection). Note to other parents: no matter how long your layover is, don't let your kids lick the seats in Heathrow. The cool thing about Heathrow is the big kids play place. It was hard to get pictures, but here are a few:
We had more than 5 hours to kill, and the play place was a big help. Oscar also had a lot of fun just walking around and playing with Tanja.
Hey - don't lick your fingers after they're on the floor! You'll regret it...
When we arrived in Calgary, we stayed for several days with our friends Jeff'n Barb, and their kids Alex, Cambie, and Della. Their neighborhood has a ton of kids slightly older than Clara, and we got invited to a neighborhood birthday party. It was a GREAT party (on the way back we stayed with Jeff and Barb again, and Oscar asked if we could go to the party again...).
Here is Oscar being scared of an indoor bird:
And the finale...
When we first got to Calgary, we had a big problem packing the car (note to us - next time rent a full size!). At first we had suitcases sitting all over the inside of the car, and before we left for my parents place I spent a bunch of time playing "tetris", to get (almost) everything to fit in the back. It was hard enough that we had to take a picture to make sure we could figure out how to arrange it again...
The day after we arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's place Oscar became ill. We waited out two days, and when he seemed to be getting worse we finally went to the doctor (ka-ching$$$). It turned out that he had strep (or some other throat bacteria), and the bacteria were making him have stomach troubles. Solution - antibiotics (that intensify stomach troubles...). He had one more terrible day (we actually went to the hospital to see if we could change the perscription, but seeing a doctor would have cost over $800, so we just left), and then he was finally on the mend.
We postponed our planned trip to the mountains, and waited out Oscar getting better - and then Clara got sick... This time we took no chances and went straight to the doctor (again - they actually had Clara on file from a previous trip). Thankfully, Clara just had a stomach bug, and after six hours or so she was on the mend. That evening Oscar got stung by two wasps, and Tanja said "it's like they're having a contest to see who can feel the worst!"
But everything turned around after the wasp sting, and the next day we left for Banff, driving via David Thompson Country. We had a great trip with lots of stops. One of the nicest stops was at Peyto Lake, which is possibly one of the most photographed places in Canada:
The weather was astounding! At 5pm (or so) it was still 25 C. My parents said that it was rare to have such a nice drive through that section of the park, and that often you can't see the glaciers because of clouds.
We stayed just outside of Banff National Park, and on our first day in the mountains we went to Johnson Canyon, which is one of the most insanely busy hikes that exists in the Rocky's. It's busy because it's easy to get to, easy to hike, and beautiful. Here we are at the first falls:
There is this amazing tunnel that you can hike through to get right next to the waterfall:
Oscar thought it was a little loud...
Oscar part hiked-part rode on Daddy, and he made it about another 15 minutes past the 1st falls before he and I turned around. Clara made it the whole way to the 2nd falls (5.5 km round trip):
I expected Oscar to fall asleep on me on our way back down, but he stayed awake, and even hiked a bit more. When Oscar and I got to the bottom he wanted an ice cream.
[Aside: In Germany, ice cream costs typically 80 cents, sometimes 1 Euro. You get a small ball of ice cream on top of a cone. In Canada, a "kids" ice cream seams to cost $3.50, and it's GINORMOUS. No wonder Germans eat ice cream so much more often...]
I asked the lady for "a tiny portion, like half of a kids cone." She did it, and GAVE IT TO US FOR FREE! Parks Canada, you guys rock! Hire more people like her! When everyone else got down, Clara got an ice cream too, and Oscar wanted a second one. Tanja told the kids that whoever eats a whole carrot could have a second ice cream. To our shock and amazement, Oscar took her up on it, ate a carrot, and got a second "1/2 kids" sized ice cream (this time I gladly paid, see how it works out in the end Parks Canada?). For the rest of our entire trip, Oscar asked for "carrots" nearly every single day...
Our 3rd day in the mountains we went to Peter Lougheed Provincial Park and met up with Jeff, Barb, Cambie and Della. We did a short hike and hung out at Upper Lake. It was a great day, but I don't think anyone took any photos. The next day we drove to Drumheller, to go to the Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology. The kids had fun, but since they're not that into Dinosaurs it wasn't as big a deal as I think it might be for some kids. The same day we drove back to my parents (close to Edmonton), so it was a long day.
Then we had about 10 days or so at my parents, which just flew by. Sometimes they were flying by because we were really flying:
The kids LOVED the trampoline, Clara went almost every day! And no accidents, except about 1 second after this photo was taken:
When Oscar flew off (shaken up, not hurt).
We also got to do lots of visiting while we were at my parents. It was really great to be able to spend lots of time with everyone, and to see how big all of the cousins are getting!
And to have lots of fun times with the Aunties and Uncles!
At the end of our trip we went to a family reunion in Saskatchewan. I don't think there are many photos from that part of our trip, but hopefully we'll be able to post a few photos and stories soon.
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