Back From Travelling and Eating Out

It has been over a week since my last post.  The girls and I took the opportunity to join Dan on one of his work trips.  We were blessed to be able to see the Rocky Mountains and discover more of God's creation.  I have never had the opportunity to visit the west coast of Canada and I am so glad I could do that as a family.  Canada is not only a safe and friendly country but it is also gorgeous.
Travelling and trying to eat well is not easy feat.  I am thankful that non of us have any food allergies as we are able to eat everything...even though we may not like some of the effects.  We had an early start to our vacation so I was able to make some bars and pack some fruit for breakfast. On our flight I brought along some gum and treats for the girls.  I often give the girls xylitol gum as xylitol increases salivation, which is great for swallowing on the airplane.  According to some researches, xylitol is also a cavity fighter.
Once we arrived in Calgary we made our way to Banff.  On the way, we made a pit stop in the beautiful town of Canmore.  Canmore is home of the three sisters mountains.
photo courtesy of Jessica Stoner When Dan and I are on vacation, we often spend a lot of time driving around just finding places that have "real" food.  It didn't take us long to find an awesome cafe in Canmore.  Mountain Juice Cafe has a large menu of smoothies, juices, soups and wraps.  After being stuck on a plane with lots of germs it was great to find a place to get some real nourishment.


On to Banff, where we would be staying for the next few days.  Dan had to work for the first part of our trip so the girls and I enjoyed a lot of swimming and even some shopping.
Finding restaurants with food that won't make you feel rotten all week is a bit of a challenge.  I am thankful that the hotel room had a fridge and Banff had a couple grocery stores.  We were able to put together a few of our own meals and some things like non-dairy milk, hummus, juices etc.
I will admit, I did have to let the "healthy happy wife" part of me go at times and let the girls try some foods I would not normally have in our house.  I definitely noticed more wheat get added to our diet while away.  No one is intolerant to wheat however, I did get the "fuzziness" in my eyes on occasion due to the extra gluten.  For those of you who have eliminated wheat/gluten from your diet may know what I am talking about.
We were able to do quite a bit of sight seeing on the latter part of the trip.  Lake Louise was a beautiful place to walk, ski, skate or dog sled.  We enjoyed some fresh air and a picnic lunch parked at the base of a mountain, something we can't do here in Kingston.  While touring, my youngest claimed she saw "a lot" of mountain goats crossing the highway, none of us did, however we were happy to have seen some elk on the side of the road.
My six year old has learned how to draw an elk
I am proud of my little travelers, they were fabulous on the plane, hotel and restaurants.  I did enjoy the break from cooking, dishes and regular house maintenance but am happy to be back making my own food.
My four year old drew our airplane
We asked our oldest if she preferred restaurants or eating at home.  I wasn't surprised when she said, eating at home, however her reasoning was not what I expected.  She can be quite a home body so I figured she would just like eating at her own house, but she said she liked having smoothies.  A girl after my own heart!
For my family and friends, especially those in China and Europe, here are a few additional photos.
Getting packed up    Lake Louise..it was a really sunny day  Lake Louise  My husband's favorite photo as the town is called Field, yet we didn't see any fields only mountains