Waterton

So we decided to go camping. This is a new adventure for us......we have never been camping with each other, never mind with the kids. We were a bit hesitant at first because we didn't know how everything would play out, so we went to Waterton National Park for a one night camp out.

We quickly came to the realization that we should have stuck to the original plans and spent more than one night. We had a blast! The kids were great. There was so much to do at Waterton, we feel like we only scratched the surface.

We are definitely going to go back only next time for a longer period of time. What a fun weekend in the beautiful outdoors.

As you can see we packed the car full! You literally couldn't see out the back window. We took way too much stuff for a one nighter.....but what the heck there was no backpacking involved on this trip so it didn't matter if we packed light or not.

Carter was ready to go! He and Audrey were both great travelers. On the way home Audrey was prettending she was a chipmunk and kept stuffing her cheeks full of apples.

Thanks for the tent Chuck. It worked perfectly.

With in 2 minutes of us arriving to the camp site Audrey quickly made friends with a little Chinese kid named Franky. He was tenting right next to us with his family. Franky was extremely funny, and witty. He would come over and make comments like, "wow, you guys sure are eating some good food......all I had to eat was cucumbers". He and Audrey ran around the camp site trying to hunt ground squirels. Carter thought Franky was hilarious and laughed at almost everything he did.

Audrey braved the cold glacier like water for a few seconds, Carter wouldn't get passed his ankles, but I was stupid enough to go all the way in. Both kids laughed hard when I came up screaming trying to catch my breath.

Carter loved to eat camping style. Messy face, food all over the place, doesn't matter if it spills.

This was one of the highlights for the kids. We had a blast riding around the town, over to the waterfall, and to the beach. We had lots of smiles and laughs from people walking around the town.

We saw some deer and big horn sheep in the town. We saw this one on our bike ride.

Chucks tent was big enough to put 2 aerobeds in! This was the most comfortable camp I have ever been on.

Carter looks like he had a long night, despite the fact that he slept really well. The cinnimon muffin and hot chocolate helped Audrey & Carter wake up and start the day.

This deer was only about 50 feet from our tent in the morning.

Audrey & Carter had a blast feeding the chipmunks at the waterfall. They would pile up little mounds of nuts and seeds and watch the little critters pack their cheeks full. Carter kept trying to pet them.

Carter needed to take breaks and re-hydrate frequently while throwing rocks into the lake. He could spend hours hurling rocks back into the water if we would let him.

It was refreshing to stop and have some ice cream on Monday afternoon. You can tell Carter is really liking it.

We rented a paddle boat at Cameron Lake. We were a little to enthusiastic at first and signed up for an hour ride. After 10 minutes Lisa and both came to the conclusion that this was way harder then what we expected. It took us another 20 minutes to fight the wind and make our way back to the docks. It was beautiful at the lake, but a little too hot and sweaty to be paddling around it.

The kids were beat. Carter crashed the entire way home, and Audrey lasted half the distance. They played hard, camped hard, and had a great time. We came to the agreement that we need to do more stuff like this, and our first trip to Waterton would not be our last.