Camping in Banff

 I have been dying all summer to go camping, and asked Eric to take me on the August long weekend. We were going to try to meet up somewhere with him family, but they ended up having to come back from where they were on Thursday for the girls.
Eric (and I) got lucky and a friend of his gave him a call to go with them this weekend. Both couples were running the colour run on Saturday, so we couldn’t leave before that, but Matt went out to Banff on Friday to reserve us a site early because of the long weekend.
On Friday night Emily and I went shopping and got all the food planned and ready to go – with the way I’ve been reacting to food lately, a solid plan was definitely needed – and the boys went golfing. To be fair, they did plan it earlier, it just happened to fall on the night that we were stuck slaving away in the kitchen.
Saturday afternoon we packed up Matt’s truck with a ridiculous amount of stuff and headed out there. We made it in good time and started the set up right away.

This trip was full of good memories and really good laughs.
[1] We packed the truck completely full of all kinds of crap. It was probably enough stuff for 6 or 8 people to camp. But then we unpacked it and realized we forgot the camp stove. Everything had to be cooked by fire, and we had to get that fire ready about 30 minutes before we imagined we'd get hungry.
[2] Elizabeth told us we were packing the king size air mattress from the Perssons' house, and so we packed a big tent to fit it. When we got to the sight, it was not a king size; it was a roomy double at most. It looked like a cushion in the middle of our tent.
[3] We played lots of games - especially while we were waiting out the rain we saw every once in a while the whole time we were there. We played one game of Phase 10 that got so intense we had to take breaks from it. Get up and walk away from the table breaks.  My guess is that we won't be speaking of that game again - to save out friendships (and our marriages)
[4] The guys decided they wanted to go fishing. As it turns out, having that one person around who actually know something about fishing when you want to fish is very useful. We did not have one of those. The scenery was lovely though, and it was fun for Emily and I to watch them try.
[5] I would honestly suggest to any pregnant woman who is feeling the symptoms: get outside! Spend a couple of days outside if you can. I can't believe how great I felt out there this weekend. I did not get sick once, and I was able to eat everything we prepared. It was such a joy...until the ride home. The ride home was brutal. Halfway I had Matt pull over, and I had to get out and puke in the ditch. Other than that though, it was fantastic!

I love Banff. It's one of my favourite places in the world. It's absolutely beautiful and very peaceful when you can find a place alone.