Blessing of Going to Church

Since our trip happened to go over the weekend, we decided to visit the Banff ward for the Sunday meetings. We literally received two blessings right away from going to church that day. There happened to be a special broadcast from Calgary with Jeffrey R. Holland as the speaker. The huge blessing was our surprise meeting with Cheryl and Lonnie. We didn't have any idea that they were visiting Banff as well. I don't think Cheryl and Lonnie even recognized Troy and I at first since I had my glasses on and brown hair now. We ended up spending the afternoon with them and loved every minute of it. 

I lived with Cheryl and Lonnie for two semester during high school after my family moved back to Finland and I wanted to finish high school in California. They are one of the most generous and loving people in the world. Just the fact that they would take two teenage girls under their care after their own kids were gone shows their kindness and patience:) I hope Anna and I didn't cause them too much stress! Being part of the Smith family for the last seven years has been such a blessing. We really don't see them often enough but enjoy any and every occasion to be with them. 

Not Quite the Smoothest Trip

Troy and I flew separately to Calgary since we had United frequent flyer miles and US airways credit. We were scheduled to land at midnight; Troy's flight about 2 minutes before mine. As I was wasting time at the Denver airport during my three hour lay-over, Troy calls me to let me know that his flight is delayed from Tucson to Phoenix. OK, not a big deal since it's only about a 20 minute flight. However, right before my flight is about to take off he calls me with the bad news. There happened to be a sandstorm in the Phoenix area and Troy's plane did not take off for 3 hours, which meant that his connecting flight to Calgary left Phoenix while Troy was still sitting in Tucson. I have traveled quite a bit and I think of myself as an independent person; however, when Troy's with me, I am more than happy to have him take over and handle the details. So I land in Calgary, turn my phone on and get a text saying that he won't get there until the next day and what the hotel name is that we(now of course just I) are staying. Luckily, Troy's parents were home and able to pick him up from the airport so he wasn't deserted there for the night. He ended up catching the "early flight"to Calgary, which landed at 3 pm.  At that point, I was just happy to start our vacation together.

On our way home, both of us missed our flights. Troy arrived at the airport little too late so the airline rep did not even let him check in. So his 7 am departure turned into a 2:30 pm departure. For some reason, United was having a difficult time with check-ins. The check-in line was so long that by the time, I made it to the desk, she said that I could try my luck and run to the gate or just take a later flight. Since Troy was stuck in Calgary until the afternoon, I chose to stay with him. What a sweet gesture of love. We ended up taking short naps one at a time and ate lunch before I thought it would be a good time to go and line up for the customs. Yes, you had to go through customs and passport control before your flight. So my one hour cushion before the flight was not enough apparently. I even passed about 20 people in line and I barely made my flight. As I ran to the gate, they were waiting for me and called me name as I approached the gate. 

We stayed in this cute cabin on the first night. It was very authentic and we decided to use the fireplace. The ventilation didn't work well so the smoke alarm went off twice and they had to bring a fan to blow the smoke out. Talk about spoiling the romance:)
We stayed at a hotel called "Fox" for our last night there. We loved how they had carried the theme in everything. Plus it was nice to have the hotel in downtown Banff after all the driving and hiking we had done on previous days.

P.S I know there is quite a bit writing on these posts; they are little bit of a travel journal for us. So I apologize if it's boring:)

Banff The Beautiful

Right now I just want to share some sweet pictures from our trip. We spent four days in Banff National Park, Canada. I will write about it tomorrow when I have little more energy. We got back yesterday around 8 pm  and both worked 12 hours today so we are pretty tired. And of course, Troy is getting his knee done tomorrow (ACL reconstructive surgery) so we'll have to be at the hospital at 6 am. 

View of Lake Louise from the mountains

We visited the "Upper Hot Springs" to relax our muscles.

The top of our 9 mile hike called "Plain of Six Glaciers"
I found a candy store with Finnish black liquorice
Lake Minnewanka--too cold for a swim but so peaceful to look at

Lake Louise-the pictures don't do justice to how turquoise the water is.