The Mills Family: July 2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUSTIN!!!

Today is Austin’s 29th birthday! I just wanted to wish him a Happy Birthday and to let him know how much I love him and how happy he has made me. He is my other half and I don’t know what I would do without him. Austin I hope you have a wonderful day today! I love you!!!

07/18

Saturday was our last day to do any hikes before we left Canada. Austin, Jordan, Ashley, Kylie, and I decided to end our stay by hiking to the Tea House at Lake Louise. This hike was kind of long, but it was so worth it. When we got to the end of the hike, there is this Tea House that you can go and order home made bread and drink hot chocolate or tea. I was really excited to eat there, but was quickly disappointed. I ordered banana bread and hot chocolate. The bread was kind of stale and cold and I never got my hot chocolate because they ran out of hot water so they had to boil all their water. It took so dang long that we just left without the hot chocolate. Oh well :) The Tea House sat right by this lake (whose name alludes me right now) that was beautiful. Austin and I decided to continue going up the mountain to the Little Beehive. It was a steep hike, but so worth it. The view was amazing. I’m so glad we went.

The Tea House

The view from the top of Little Bea Hive

We ended the day by stopping by Banff to do some more shopping. I of course went back to the Lush store and spent way to much again. Ooops… On our way home we saw some deer by the bus stop. Guess they were waiting for their ride :)

Here are a couple of panoramas that Austin took that I think are so amazing.

On Sunday we left beautiful Canada. I really did have an awesome time. I hope we can go back some day. We drove to Helena, Montana to spend the night. Helena is pretty much half way home. The reason we stayed there is because there is this AMAZING restaurant called the Overland Express. We all ordered the Prime Rib and my Prime Rib was as big as a cat. I’m not joking, it was huge. Of course I ate all of it because it was so dang good. Let’s just say I was pretty stuffed after that! The next day we headed home. We stopped in Rexburg, Id so I could visit BYU-Idaho again (can’t believe it’s been 7 years since I went there) and afterwards we met up with my family in Rigby, ID. Hopefully sometime soon I can blog about that. My family came for almost a week! But anyway, that was my trip to Canada!

07/17

The hike to Sherbrook Lake that Austin, Kylie and I went on Friday morning was probably my favorite hike. It was just the 3 of us and we went early in the morning so there were no other people on the trail. The hike was so gorgeous as well as the lake. Man, I want to go back…

Love that kid!

After our hike, we met everyone else and had lunch at Emerald Lake. I really enjoyed Emerald Lake, not only because it was so pretty, but because we got to go canoeing. I have never gone canoeing before so I was pretty excited. Of course with my back and everything, I couldn’t really row a lot, so Austin had to do most of the muscle work. Darn… :) We were out on the lake for an hour and I loved every minute.

Jordan and Ashley came canoeing too

I love this picture of Austin

After Emerald Lake we went to Hamilton Falls.

Before we headed home, we saw Takakkaw Falls. I wish these pictures could really show the amount of water that was spewing from the top of this mountain. It was insane!

Me and my best friend…

07/16

So Thursday came and I was getting sad that our trip was almost over. Seriously, this has been such a fun trip. Anyway, we headed over to the Parliamentary Gardens. The place was chuck full of flowers…my kind of place! Here are some pics:

They had all these knobby wood bridges. So cool…

Like totally girlfriend….

We headed to Moraine Lake again. Here is a cute family pic :)

On to Johnston Canyon. Loved, loved, loved this canyon. You walk on this paved trail right next to it. You end up at this awesome waterfall. What a great day...

07/15

Since we lost most of the day the day before, we decided to cram as much into the rest of our trip as possible. On Wednesday we headed to Chephren Lake. While driving on the Parkway, we saw 2 huge elk.

On our way to the lake, Austin took this great pic of Bow Lake from the car…while driving. The things my husband does for a pic :)

Wish Austin was here right now because I can’t remember what this mountain was called…. Sweet glacier huh!

Then it was time for the hike to Chephren Lake. Because of all the rain that happened the day before, it was REALLY muddy and the mosquitoes were horrible. Poor Kylie ended up with over 20 bites on her forehead. Minus the mud and bugs, it was a great hike. The lake was beautiful of course. I don’t think I ever saw an ugly lake :) Here are some pics:

Follow the leader…

After Chephren Lake, we all went to Mistaya Canyon again because only Austin and Jordan and I went the first time. Here are some cute pic of Kylie and her grandma and grandpa :)