The Rivards

One of our last stops on our way home was The Enchanted Forest. It is situated in one of the beautiful old growth forests of the Monashee Mountains, and right on the Trans Canada Hwy.

The park contains sculptures and interactive displays based on fairy tales and nursery rhymes.

Celeste finds treasure…

“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the cutest kid of them all?”….must be Celeste, of course!

Daddy gets himself in a heap of trouble…

Celeste finds a cool place to play in one of the Three Little Pigs’ home…

There was an old lady that lived in a shoe

Daddy helps Celeste get ready for a canoe ride.

B.C.’s tallest treehouse.

A happy but exhausted little girl.

While driving back from the hot springs, we passed through Glacier National Park which is part of the Columbia Mountains Natural Region, in the interior wet belt of British Columbia. The park is appropriately named after the glaciers found in its mountains. Since we were surrounded by so many amazing views we couldn’t resist pulling over and taking a moment to enjoy it all.

One of many beautiful waterfalls…

Wildflowers…

Celeste takes a stroll through a field of wild flowers…

Celeste had trouble getting out of her comfy king size bed this morning…

but after mentioning that we were going swimming in the hot springs she was ready to go.

The hot springs are located on the south side of Kootenay National Park, just a 3 hour drive from Calgary, AB. The pools are odourless, and surrounded by natural rock walls, and guaranteed to soak your worries away.

The water was warm and relaxing. We could definitely get used to this!

Some of the sites of Kootenay National Park…

A lone bighorn moutain sheep takes a late morning stroll along the highway…

Hoodoos…sedimentary rock that has been eroded by the elements. I was surprised to see these here as they are usually found in hot, dry areas.

While in Invermere we had the opportunity to look at one of Francis’ roof designs. It was approximately a 7000 SQ FT (possibly more)tudor style cottage on Lake Windermere, that when complete; will make Willistead Manor in Windsor, ON look shabby.

Francis and Celeste get ready to take the curved staircase up to the tower…

View from the great room..

Dormer window with a curved ceiling…

Round nautical style window…

Our main reason for our trip to Invermere was to see some of the roofs that Francis had designed for many of the vacation cottages in the area.
Our first stop was at Panorama Mountain Village. Panorama is located in the heart of the Kootenay Rockies, near Kootenay National Park and only a 2 hour drive from Banff. The village offers year round activiites, such as skiiing, golfing, mountain bike riding, white water rafting, kayaking and canoeing, tennis, snowshoeing, and even dog sledding.

The inside of one of the cottages that Francis worked on. This is the fire place in the great room.

The kitchen…

The ensuite bath. Celeste seems to like that soaker tub.

The basement level has a bar…

The door to the wine cellar. Yes, it’s as heavy as it looks!

Another fire place in the family room.

The outside of the cottage.

With our tour guide, Leo…

A 200 foot deep gorge located in the middle of your tee off…hope you don’t miss

When we arrived at the hotel late on thursday night, Celeste was thrilled to discover that she got to sleep in a king size bed all to herself. Mommy and daddy had their own king size bed in the next room.

What’s a vacation without Barney.

Enjoying our breakfast the next morning.

Well, we’ve run into a few hurdles in opening our daycare, but any day now Interior Health will be over to inspect us and we’ll be a fully licensed facility. In the meantime we are having some fun…
Shynna decides she needs too cool off..

Caleb and Celeste hang out at the water table…

Dylan gives Celeste a push on the swing while Caleb tries out the slide…

The kids have a cool snack break on a hot afternoon…

Celeste and Shynna love beading…

Finger painting is a quiet but messy activity…

An introduction to water colour painting. Children are never too young to be introduced to the fine arts…

The girls take a load off after a hard day!

Here’s a video of Celeste counting. Every now and then she skips or repeats a number