Banff - Saturday, December 5, 2009

Dean and Rachel

My decorated nut cracker

Dean and I

Getting ready for the parade

Too cute sisters!

We got to sleep in until about 8:45 this morning which was nice. We ordered a nice room service breakfast and then got ready to visit the pool again. Over all we had a pretty quiet morning. At noon all 6 of us when to the Banff Upper Hot Springs which was new to everyone but me. Mom and Dad loved it, Dean tolerated it, and the girls took some getting used to the heat of the water, but by the end (15 minutes) we were having fun. There was a nice little shallow area - about a foot deep - where the girls could sit and play. It wasn't actually snowing, but there was the odd flurry in the air, paired with the view of the mountains and the cold air made for a neat experience.

The boys and little girls left while Mom and I stayed for massages at the Pleiades Spa on site. Although we both agreed the massages were great, there wasn't much of a "spa" feel to the place, but we had been prepared for this by our good friends Dave and Alana so we weren't disappointed.

Everyone else had lunch back at the hotel but Mom and I walked to Subway to grab a sub and then we all went back to our rooms for a quiet afternoon. We went for a small walk around the hotel and found some friends in the bar. We stopped for one drink, then Mom and I took the girls back to our room to play while Dean and Dad visited longer in the bar.

Dean and I started getting ready for the big party around 4:30 and Mom and Dad took the girls out into Banff for a Christmas Parade of lights. They loved it and we left before they got back. The party was a lovely buffet dinner followed by a dance with a live band. We had a lot of fun visiting and decorating the centre pieces on our table. We headed back to our room around 11:30. We were happy to hear that Becca had fallen asleep at 7:30 - while Bella was at the pool with her Grampy - and then Bella was asleep by 10pm. Dean and I were happy to just go to bed and not worry about any little girls.