Arriving in Canmore

We took a flight from Indy to Houston to Calgary because, you know, that make sense. Whatever, United, they were reward flights so one cannot complain much. The flights were on-time, our bags arrived quickly and all was well. We grabbed our rental car and made our way about an hour west of the city to Canmore. We opted to stay just outside of Banff National Park to save a few bucks and have more of the local experience. 

Jackson showing off the view from the hotel parking lot

We wanted to get out on the trails right away so we basically threw down our stuff and hopped on over to the trail called "Grassi Lakes." 

We got there and were the only people on the trails. It was early evening now. All was well until we saw the sign about bear activities and how hikers needed bear spray. We had no other people to use as "bear bait" so we did not make it far up the trail before I chickened out and made us hang it up for the day. 

Quick hike!

From there we headed into their little downtown area for dinner.

Could my date be more handsome?! 

Dinner with a view

An interesting take on Caprese salad 

Frozen pizza? No. Just gross.

We had checked the place out on TripAdvisor and it lead us astray. I did try a lemonade made with just lemons, water and maple syrup. It was actually good. Anyway, the dinner wasn't great, but the company and view was so it was all good. 

We strolled around town a bit before heading back to the room for the night. A big day of hiking awaits us! 

This and that

We're trying to get more creative with eating at home to save money and calories so we, for the first time, made Caprese salads at home. They were awesome. Jackson is so fearless in the kitchen so I try to keep up!

Homemade french onion burgers and Caprese salad- YUM

I just love this dog.

Watching me eat a banana

We had to meet with our attorney on Monday morning for the auto accident so we went to lunch downtown at my favorite Turkish place. I love random dates with this handsome guy. After that we both had to work, but it was fun to feel like a vacation day in our backyard!

Hummus and my honey!

Best friends.

This accident has been very impactful on how I feel about things that I used to take for granted. One of the main ones being the ability to really exercise so when I saw this saying I had to capture it.

Kanye

Bates and I decided that the Kanye West concert was worth the $180/each ticket price and dragged Shaya along. Jackson was NOT going to go to this show for any amount of money- ha! We stopped for chicken and waffles downtown before heading to the show.

Chicken and Waffles

We are getting older so imagine our surprise when the show slated to being at 8 was delayed (along with entry into the stadium) until closer to 9:30. Kanye is such a diva! He was doing last minute soundchecks. He should have done more because the concert was actually kind of awful soundwise. Shaya was not pleased at having spent so much money to attend. Whoops. He played some of our favorites so Matt and I weren't too upset. His stage flew above the lower level crowd so our club seats were perfect.


I will never attend another concert at Bankers Life, though, the acoustics are just plain bad!



Waiting to get in!

Shaya pretending to be excited
Me: actually excited

Kanye's floating stage

FIRST RANT!

Fun week!

Amber plays on a softball league that needed some backup players so Jackson and I went out to help. I went to cheer them all on and Jackson played. He loved it!

Jon & Jackson warming up

Jackson on 1st base

Jon about to get 

After the strange softball game (Jackson actually played well until the rain came in!), we stopped at Three Dog Bakery for treats for MacKenzie. She isn't spoiled at all!

YUM!

We got to go to the Porterfield's place for dessert one evening when Jax was out with a friend so Josslyn was the star of the show. She didn't mind that one bit! Aunt Jenna even rescued her from an early bedtime so she could watch more Olympic coverage with us. Whoops! :)



I've been trying to get more creative in the kitchen since I'm home more now and I was pretty proud of myself for making this salad! It was amazing! Hooray!

I MADE THE SALAD!

I took my salad making efforts on the road and took a salad and pizza up to the Mauck house so I could see Kort and the boys while Jason was away on a golfing trip. I love those boys!!

Case and Sir Liam Mauck!

Visiting Sir Liam Mauck

The time that the not-so-rookie anymore "Aunt" made the mistake of saying there were two donuts available! :) Sir Liam pays attention when donuts are mentioned!! Stopping to buy his donuts and not getting one myself was the biggest act of love I've ever shown someone other than Jackson. I'm glad he thoroughly enjoyed them to make it worth my efforts. ;)

Ok, I don't just bring pizza and donuts to nourish this growing young boy. I also brought strawberries for him and a salad for Kort and me to share. Obviously eating a salad before eating too much pizza is a wash diet-wise. Or so I tell myself. ;)

Note: Little Casers was around, too, but since he cannot talk yet he only shows up in photos (post coming) and not videos. :(

I had to record videos for an absent, working Jackson so I thought I'd share the cuteness. Happy Friday! 

Quite the view

My favorite view

I could travel the world (and I will) and never see anything near the beauty in this photo. I love this man!

Time at home

We've been settling into being home for AN ENTIRE MONTH (lame). A friend of mine recommended a recipe for slow-cooker pork that was amazing and I had to share. We made a double recipe and the meat freezes really well. We're in love! 

Chef Jackson

My assistant

I think MacKenzie is the only one happier than I am about my new flexible working arrangement with BSU. She almost never see her kennel anymore!

Jackson could not resist getting
out on the water

Guy taking Emmie for a swim 

We went down to Lake Monroe for a Duckwall family gathering. We had perfect weather and it was nice to see everyone, as always!

Jackson had evening meetings one evening in Avon so I rode along and went to my friend Jenny's house for dinner in Plainfield. Jenny outdid herself with this burger. You guys, seriously.

THE BEST BURGER. EVER.
EVER.

Gabe!!

Jenny also has two little guys that provided us with plenty of entertainment. I only managed to snap a photo of her youngest little guy, though.

Another perk to me working remotely is being here to receive deliveries. The UPS man is a big fan of her and gave her a treat the size of Texas that she ate so quickly that I could not even get a photo of it! Too funny!

SHE ATE THE UPS BONE SO QUICKLY
THAT I COULD NOT EVEN
PHOTOGRAPH IT!!!

We also go to make dinner for the Bates family and steal some baby snuggles there.

CAM!!!!

CAM and Bates

I love this family!!!

Life at home is not bad at all, we're just ready to be on the road again!

Leaving Oregon...

Sunday morning we got up early and had a romantic breakfast in the McDonald's parking lot. You know, weddings do that to you. Oh wait...

Anyway, we headed for Beacon Rock because Jackson saw it while we were coming home from hiking the falls, looked it up, saw he could climb it, too and the rest is history. It was a pretty quick drive over the river to Washington and down a winding road for about 35 miles. It was my first really cloudy, overcast morning in over a week and I'm thankful that I packed my jacket for this climb.

Beacon Rock

This was not an easy climb, but it was only one mile up so it wasn't too bad at all. There were railings along the edge which is my kind of hiking for sure. I know, I know it takes away some of the beauty. I don't care. Team safety over here!

The view from the top

Petefish.

I wore my "Hustle like Russell" Seahawks shirt which delighted all of our fellow early morning hikers! 

Pretty views! 

We finished the hike, met some cool folks at the top from Purdue (we'll forgive them for that transgression) who now live in Portland. They talked about the Pearl District of Portland being a good place to go so we put it on our schedule for later in the day. After our hike we stopped at a Starbucks (naturally in Washington they're everywhere) and enjoyed the views as the clouds were clearing the weather was improving. We seem to never just sit and enjoy our coffee together unless we are on vacation so it is always nice to just hang out and catch up with each other. Have I mentioned that I missed Jackson so much?!

Once we'd cleaned up after our hike and checked out of our hotel, we headed for the downtown Portland area called the Pearl District. We were not disappointed. It was an awesome, vibrant area with tons of independent restaurants and great shops. We ended up at a place called "Oven and Shaker" for a really great lunch. We got to sit outside (our favorite) and people watch while eating the most delicious sandwich ever. Seriously, I want like to eat that sandwich over and over again! HA!

THE WORLD'S BEST SANDWICH

We spotted a cupcake shop and stopped in (verdict: not as good as GiGi's) and just moseyed around town. They have the busiest bookstore I've ever seen in the area which was pretty cool. Who knew reading was back to being a cool thing to do again?! I love it!

Hanging at the park in Pearl District 

We didn't want to leave. We looked at real estate prices and decided we had to leave, though. HA! The people of Portland must get paid pretty well! ;) We picked up Susan from the post-wedding backyard BBQ she'd been attending and headed for the airport. We left Portland at around 8 p.m. and stopped in San Francisco before catching the redeye back to Indy. We landed around 6:30 a.m. without getting much sleep (fine, I slept the entire flight, whatever) and ready to see our own beds again!

Saying goodbye to Mt. Hood from the plane

Jackson had to get straight to work, but I did laundry, tidied up the house and then slept like a rock for 3.5 hours. It was amazing. I had to get to physical therapy and to Kokomo to get MacKenzie or I think I could have slept until the next morning. :)

REUNITED!!!

It was so beautiful out there and I cannot wait to go back! It is always lovely to see my furry best friend again, though!