Today was Zepplyn's birthday so Crystal was up early and got some decorations up for her.
Happy Birthday banner.
Mario balloon.
More helium balloons.
I think she was surprised when she saw it all.
The Birthday girl.
She wanted to open her gifts right away.
Watching Zepp open her presents.
Crystal and Randy.
She got lots of good stuff.
She had to get it all out of the boxes right away too.
No time like the present to test things out.
Jason found these webs in the trees outside of our place.
So creepy.
We all decided to head into Invermere to do some shopping at the second hand store and other shops.
Jason decided to ride his bike and meet us there.
I drove there in my car by myself and I wasn't sure where everyone else was but came across a fry shop so treated myself.
I did find Kody and Freya right away though.
She helped me finish my fries.
I took her into the second hand store where Crystal and Haylee were and got a few things.
Then I went into this antique store and found a few more neat things.
I got myself a crock pot (No.5), a wooden doll cradle (more for Freya) and a beat up old container that looks like it might be made of copper.
Just hanging out in Invermere.
After we got our fill of shopping, we decided to head back over to the beach in Windermere.
It was another gorgeous day.
Jason ordered some pizza's for us from the pizza place that was right nearby and walked up to get them for us.
We tried it out last year and it's pretty good pizza.
Freya liked it, she got sauce all over her face.
The kids got tired of the beach more quickly today so we headed back to the house pretty much right after we ate the pizza.
There was a Greek place near our VRBO so we decided to go check it out.
Got a Greek salad and chicken skewers - it was pretty good.
Jason went for a run and I decided to take my bike out for a ride.
It is really hilly here so it was tough but I felt good after I did it.
Everyone else had gone out for supper too and when they got back, we decided to take a walk.
On his run, Jason had come across these falls so he wanted to take us all up to see them.
When we got there, there were already a few people there enjoying them.
There were a bunch of little pool areas kind of like down below (the ones Freya liked playing in).
They were being fed from these falls which we think are run off from the Fairmont Hot Springs.
So the water was not hot but kind of luke warm.
A video of the falls.
It was kind of treacherous getting over to the pools because the rocks were slippery.
But we made it without incident, almost....
Kody did fall once, pretty hard.
I know it must have hurt but nothing too terrible.
We hung out there in the pools for a bit.
Zepp.
Freya and Mommy.
It was starting to get dark so we figured it was time to head back.
When we got back to home, we had supper.
All set up - she has food and my phone - she's happy.
Having Papa there too is a bonus.
Then it was time for cake.
Can you see how excited she was?
Thinking really hard about her wish.
Everyone was happy to have cake.
She loves getting into stuff.
Pouring some water onto Papa's plate - luckily he was done eating.
Meanwhile over on the other side of the country, this was happening.
The military changed their regulations on hair coloring and my sister has been waiting for this day.
She immediately made an appointment to get her hair done.
First they had to strip all the color out.
Then they put the color on - she was going for rainbow colors.
She just loved how it turned out and so do I.
I like how they styled it too.
I wouldn't be brave enough to do this but I've always known my sister was braver than me.
She's super happy with it.
Also, my cousin Lisa and her husband Todd were taking my mom over to my sisters from PEI and they made a pitstop to do some touring around so that was nice.
My sister shares this picture of my nephew Declan every year when it pops up on Facebook memories and I love it every single time.
OMG - Look how cute he is!
Everyone enjoying coffee out on the deck this morning.
We were blessed with another gorgeous day.
A bug landed on Kody's arm and Freya was very interested.
She was even brave enough to try and touch it.
It took a bit of time but she did do it.
Then she immediately wiped off her fingers, ha ha.
He stuck around though - she thought that was funny.
So serious.
He moved, it kind of caught her off guard.
That bug provided a lot of entertainment.
We decided to head to Fort Steele today and on the way out, we saw this guy just at the end of our street.
Fort Steele was about an hour drive away from us and it was a bit later in the morning when we decided to head there so we didn't have a huge amount of time but we figured we'd just try and see as much as we could.
I love the old building.
They have a train that runs out of this station and we are going to make sure we fit that in while we are here.
Freya got stung by a bee pretty much as soon as we walked in the place so she was upset for a little bit.
Then there were a few more stings throughout the course of the day.
Out of the 8 of us that were there, 4 of us got stung including myself.
It's been a long tiem since I've been stung by a bee.
Thankfully none of us are allergic but it still wasn't pleasant.
There are farm animals.
This horse was pretty interested in Zepplyn.
Look at the view of the river below - amazing.
We headed over to that big tower in the distance there first thing.
I can't remember what purpose this building actually served.
We climbed up to the second floor.
Had a pretty good view from there.
Crystal took this one from down below, that's Jason and I and the girls looking out the window.
Looks like from the sign that this was the water tower.
Next we kind of made our way over for a horse and carriage ride.
It was the last one of the day because it gets too hot for the horses.
It just does a little loop around the town but the drivers kind of give you some information about the town so that's nice.
Kody, Haylee and I.
Crystal and I - the two Grandmas.
After the carriage ride, we hightailed it over to the train so we could catch that last ride of the day.
We had to wait a bit.
This is such a cute picture of these two.
We were the first in line though so we got our pick of where we wanted to sit.
Freya, Zepplyn, Haylee and Kody.
They gave the girls each a train stamp.
Randy and Crystal.
Jason and I.
And we are off.
There's the conductor.
Selfie with the girls.
I love taking train rides and the views were really nice.
They did stop the train at this look out point and we were all able to get out and take in the scenery.
Jason was taking some shots with his Go Pro.
Not a bad view.
Freya checking things out.
Then the conductor blew the whistle and it was time to get back on the train.
Crystal and Randy just enjoying the ride.
Haylee
Freya decided to jump ship and come sit with us.
She wanted to take a video so this one is filmed by her.
Made it back to the station.
It was just a short little ride but I think we all enjoyed it.
We headed back into the park to see what we could find to do next and we saw an area where you could pan for gold.
Panning for gold seemed like a good activity so that's what we did next.
There were little pieces of gold and really old pennies in there that you could find.
I think we all had a try at it and it was kind of fun.
Giving us instructions.
Look at all the nice flower and greenery growing on this building.
Great photo op!
There were a couple little shops that we tried to make it to because they were closing soon.
One was a candy store and I let Freya pick something out.
She chose these wax candy lips.
Oops, they fell off.
She looks better without them anyway 😃
Haylee gave them a test ride.
Crystal and Zepplyn each got a set as well.
Crystal got a wax moustache too - I think I like that better than the lips.
Just checking out all the little buildings on the 'Main' street.
This house was built by the founder of the town.
He had a girlrfiend that lived in NYC and the only way he could convince her to move here to Fort Steele with him was to build her this house.
It was one of the first ones in the area to have indoor plumbing.
Some of the clothes that would have been in fashion at the time.
All the decor he put in the house for her would have been very high end at the time.
Wallpaper was very in - it's in pretty much every room in the house.
I just love this old stove - would love to have one of those myself.
There was a big building that I wanted to get back to and have a look around in.
I think it might have been a hotel or community gathering place, it was really big and had an upstairs.
This is the room where the board or governing body sat - pretty fancy chairs.
It had a wrap around balcony and this is some of the views from there.
It wasn't actually a balcony I guess because there were stairs leading up to it so I guess it was more of a deck.
Everyone else had already gone through the museum and we could see them hanging out in this beautiful gazebo.
I'm always a sucker for a pretty tree and this one fits the bill for sure.
There was a museum upstairs that had some interesting stuff in it, like this prosthetic leg for instance.
I CAN'T EVEN IMAGINE (nor do I want to).
I like looking at antique children's toys - this horse/bike is so nice.
There were lots of farm animals there, the park was almost closing so we tried to see as many animals as we could before we had to leave.
This is Daisy the Donkey.
The girls that took us on the horse and carriage ride earlier were telling us about her.
When the got her, she was a rescue from somewhere, she was extremely overweight and very unhealthy.
They've had her on a diet and she's lost quite a bit of weight since she's been here but she still has a lot more to lose.
You can see from this angle how wide she still is.
A nice old buggy.
The house my dad grew up in was just this shape.
Chickens.
Just some of the store fronts.
I like them.
After Fort Steele, we decided to head into Cranbrook to get some supper and we found an Asian food spot that sounded good.
Crystal and Zepplyn.
Freya and Randie.
Haylee and Kody.
Jason and I.
They had my Tom Kha Ga soup that I like so I had to try that.
It was pretty good.
Jason and I shared it.
Then I had the Pad Thai.
Jason had a curry noodle dish.
There was an ice cream shop called Happy Cow Handcrafted Ice Cream right in the strip mall where we were so we went there for dessert after supper.
They make their own ice cream in house and these were the flavors they had available today.
Just enjoying our ice cream.
I was expecting it to be a lot better than it was.
After ice cream, everyone else headed back to Fairmont and Jason and I headed to a nearby mall so I could get a birthday gift for Zepplyn.
Her birthday is in a couple days and we'll be here so I wanted to make sure I had a gift for her.
We went to Homesense/Winners and they had so many great deals but they were closing so I didn't have much time to shop.
I found a gift for Zepplyn at least which is what I went there for so all good.
Then we drove around Cranbrook a bit.
It was Jason's old stomping grounds, he lived in Creston for years and came to Cranbrook a lot to hang out with friends and stuff so he kind of went on a trip down memory lane.
Then when we were heading out of town and back to Fairmont, I had put our destination into google maps and insisted to Jason that he was going the wrong way so he went the way I said even though he knew exactly where he was going.
Turned out I was wrong and I took us this really weird way.
We had to go through this gravel road forever to get back to the highway where we needed to be but it was a happy accident because we ended up going by this really gorgeous building.
It was so nice in fact, that we had to stop and check it out and take some pictures.
Turns out it was formerly a residential school, St. Eugene Mission Residential School, and it's now been turned into a resort/casino.
The grounds are just gorgeous.
Just look at those flowers - the lamp post is really nice as well.
This road (you couldn't drive on it) led up to the main building and it was line by these amazing trees that created this canopy over top.
I do love me a tree canopy.
Video of the gorgeous tree canopy leading up to the main building.
Had to get a selfie in there.
Walking under the tree canopy up to the building.
It leads up to this - so pretty.
I liked this statue that they had there.
The statue was to honor all the children who attended Indian Residential Schools.
A blight on our history here in Canada for sure.
Some of the gorgeous flowers here on the grounds.
Look at all the colors.
I love the ivy growing up the building.
There was a casino in the building next door so we decided to go over and try out our luck.
When we got around the corner of the building we noticed the sun in the sky was looking pretty awesome.
The casino.
We didn't head in right away because we were taking in how pretty the sky looked and were trying to get a good picture of it.
This random guy was out there checking out the sky too and he insisted on taking a picture of us.
It was nice of him.
He took several in fact.
We went into the casino and we each gambled 20 bucks and neither of us won a thing.
So we were in and out of there in no time at all.
It was a nice little side track though.
These are some shots that Crystal took today at Fort Steele today.
She and Jason both have a good eye for pictures.
Daisy the Donkey.
She eats too much so they had to put her on a diet.
They told us that donkeys can eat and eat and eat and eat and that it is not good for them to eat so much.
Cute little rocking horse on the porch of one of the houses in town.
Freya had to test it out.
A reminder that fall is on the way.
The sky was starting to get pretty smoky when we were leaving.
Crystal posted this one she took of Freya last night.
I love how the sun is shining down on her and the water is so sparkly.
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