Jasper Part 1

A few days into our vacation we loaded up everyone into 2 of the Pugsleys vehicles and took a long drive to Jasper. It's probably about the same amount of time as driving to the cottage minus the traffic jams. So 4 hours straight rather than 4 hours up to the cottage including slow traffic and stopping. The other major difference is that there are literally no rest stops for hours. We are accustomed to available rest stops at least every 30 minutes. So on the way to Jasper when Paige had to pee "so super bad" she had to hold it for a long time. (On the way home a similar "so super bad" episode occured and we tried to pull off the road where she refused to go--she could hold it a bit longer). There was literally no where to stop from Edmonton to about Hinton, which was at least 1.5 hours. Like literally nothing...not a Tim Horton's or even a gas station in sight. Luckily we hadn't stopped for our usual long-drive coffee.

While Jen and I were booking our hotel for Jasper we soon realized that dreams of a big family cabin were squashed by our late booking. Instead we settled for us Turcsanyi's booking a suite at a basic hotel with a full kitchen in it. That way we could conveniently eat meals in our room without having to eat out, and all of the other people (Val, Bruce, Tyson, Jen, James, and Elizabeth) could congregate in our room too.

There was a chess table in our room which quickly became a craft station:

We had a gigantic sauna in our room which we never used:

Paige slept in the bedroom with the king bed. We would have taken this room but Rose's playpen that the hotel gave us was a large square and didn't fit in the room.
Paige was mad because we told her she could have the room with the 2 Queen beds. When we told her she would have to sleep in the King size while Mommy and Daddy shared a room with Rose she made this sign and stuck it up on the door of her preferred room with a sticker. It is a sign indicating it is Paige's room and the X means "No Rosie's allowed":

Paige running around in the room:
Rose and Lizzy playing in Paige's toy suitcase:
On Friday, the day before the wedding, we had a full day to sight see. We decided to go to Jasper's most popular summer attraction, the Jasper Tramway (a tram car ride to the top of a mountain). After driving way out of the way (yet seeing a bear) and turning around, we found the attraction was not very busy as it was cold (about 10 degrees!). We weren't dressed very warmly and they told us the temperature would be 3 degrees on top of the mountain. Paige and Rose got bundled up as much as possible, and Rose is the proud owner of some new Jasper socks. Mike is the proud owner of a new Canada sweatshirt.
The girls had an apple while we waited for our departure time:
Paige was freezing:
When we got to the top it was FREEZING!!!! There was a small loop around the tram building where you could look at the views and take pictures. We took a very fast whip around, took a couple pictures and then bolted into the restaurant:Mike enjoyed a wine, and the rest of us had water:The town of Jasper down below:MMmmm....piping hot poutine!! Can't believe that piping hot anything would be welcome in July, but alas it felt just like early Winter up there. On the journey back down the tram. As there was no scheduled departure time, it was less busy in the tram and Paige got the prime spot right up front. "Everyone down there looks like ants!" she kept saying. Rose liked to feed Lizzy food all the time:

While we were at the Tram, the Pugsley's went for a boat cruise. We couldn't coordinate the girls schedules to be able to all sightsee together. Such is life with 3 young kids I guess. In the afternoon the rest of the gang arrived and checked into the hotel. Mike had a rehersal dinner to attend but Val and Bruce came to my room and cooked dinner for the whole family! Yum! Since Mike was out late that night (and the other nights too with wedding obligations) it was nice to have the girls confined to bedrooms so I could just watch tv, read and eat our vacation late night staple--peanut M&M's.