Ice Festival

Today we took advantage of the warmer weather and headed up the hill to Banff and Lake Louise. The clear skies made for a gorgeous drive...







I always get a kick out of seeing these snow-covered haystacks - they look like frosted mini-wheats to me!



We trekked up to Lake Louise for the Annual Ice Festival - ice sculpture contest (with teams from around the world), ice skating and hockey on the lake and other winter activities. It was fun to watch the ice artists at work. They were carving the ice with chainsaws and other sharp tools - amazing!







Out on the lake the hotel had a special ice castle that Katherine loved.



I thought walking on the ice covered lake was a bit scary....note the hole...and there were other signs warning of "thin ice."



Check out the ice bar!



And, look at these crazy icicles!

Sledding

A couple of weeks ago we purchased some sleds and as soon as we did the weather turned absolutely dreadful - freezing cold - too cold for being outside, and really too cold to go sledding. But, today it was lovely - about 37 degrees and so I decided today was the day to try out the sleds. The girls put on many layers of clothing and helmets and we headed out the door.







We have a great hill and park just on the other side of our block. Lots of room for sledding and other winter activities!




Katherine got the hang of it really quickly and was soon taking a running start and jumping on the sled.








We all had a great time!

Illegal Items

When we crossed the US/Canadian border back in September, we had a couple of problems that ended up detaining us for a few hours. With two small children (who had been in a car for three days), and a dog and a cat, and two stressed out adults (one very stressed out adult who had to plead his case to enter Canada to a difficult border agent), I'm sure we looked like we needed help. A very nice border agent offered Katherine some candy - Kinder Surprises. I had never seen these and the guy told me that they were confiscated items left behind because they were illegal in the US. I couldn't believe why these were illegal - they seemed innocent enough. It's a chocolate egg with a plastic egg inside and a toy inside the plastic egg.



Apparently they are illegal in the US because they are a potential choking hazard. You can check out the actual description of the reasoning here.

Now, I am grateful to Ralph Nader and others for advocating for consumer safety. I know he and others have saved many lives and most laws are helpful, but this is just too funny. And, the reaction to the blog is even funnier - scroll down to the comments. My favorite was this one:

"I reached this page because my wife just had a major experience with US Customs at Houston - due to Kinder Surprise.
We thought the Customs Inspector was crazy - how can a chocolate toy beloved all over the world be illegal??? Well, turns out it is.
SO, I wonder. Guns are legal. Assault rifles are legal. AK-47s are legal. But Kinder chocolates are not.
Do a Google check to see how many kids worldwide have died due to Kinder, and then see how many kids in America die due to guns. I don't even mean deliberate killings, I mean "mistakes" made by fathers who have guns, older siblings who play with guns and, occasionally, little children who get hold of a gun.
America is truly crazy. A country that prides itself on it's "frontier spirit" and independence, but bans toys that no functioning parent would give unsupervised. God Bless America, and God help the rest of us."

Seems appropriate this week especially.

Potty Talk

What do you notice first in a new city? The beautiful landscape? The people? The dialect? When we arrived in Calgary in July to search for a house, you might think that I would notice the beauty of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Or, if not that first, than perhaps the French translations on every sign. And, if that wasn't the first thing I noticed, than surely the "welcome" folks in the airport with the big white cowboy hats might make the list. Well, I'm sure I noticed all of these things, but the one difference that stuck in my mind was the lack of toilet seat covers in the public bathrooms. Yes, there are no seat covers in Canada. To an American with a small child who uses public bathrooms a lot, this was cause for concern. I have no idea why Canadians (at least Calgarians - I can't say that I've traveled widely in Canada), don't provide those tissue paper covers for their toilets. I even googled it to see if I was the only one who had noticed this. Apparently not. After reading this hilarious article on the subject, I have to say that I agree. Canadian toilets are much cleaner than their American counterparts. As soon as we landed in Houston on the way to South Carolina for the holidays, Katherine and I headed to bathroom - three stalls later we found a "clean" seat that I immediately covered with paper. American toilets are nasty - I don't care what the Dateline report says about toilet seats being cleaner than sinks. Oh, and on a related note - Lauren is beginning to be interested in potties - and sitting on them. Here's to a new year full of potties and no seat covers.