Tim and Katie's Visit to ring in 2013!

Matt and I returned to Calgary from our Christmas trip to Indiana and the very next day we were lucky enough to have visitors come to celebrate New Year's with us!  Tim and Katie arrived and we spent the afternoon relaxing and catching up.  We grabbed lunch at the Hose and the Hound and then headed back to our house.  Penny was still recovering from her exhausting stay at Dogaholics for the holidays, but loved having new friends for a few days.

The next day, we visited the Glenbow Museum downtown to check out the Fairy Tale Monsters exhibit.

It was a bit disturbing but definitely interesting.  For dinner, we went to one of our favorite new places on 4th street, Anejo for tequila (none for me of course) and tacos.  That night, we had tickets to see Gerry Dee, a Canadian comedian that Matt and I really like.  He's a former teacher who now does stand-up on "life after teaching" and also has a sitcom on TV.  Check him out here!

For New Year's, we headed up to Banff!  Matt, Tim, and Katie went snowboarding/skiing for the day while I enjoyed some hot cocoa in the lodge.  Later that night, we checked into our room at the Rimrock Hotel and admired the amazing views.  We had reservations at the Bear Street Tavern for dinner, where Brooke and her boyfriend, Nick, would be joining us.  Dinner was lots of fun and afterwards, we headed back to the hotel.  We had planned to watch fireworks downtown, but it was so cold and windy, we decided to spend the night at the hotel.  We caught the bus back to the hotel and since we were the only people on the bus, the driver decided to make our ride a bit more exciting by doing donuts in a parking lot on the way to our hotel!  It was a little terrifying but fun at the same time.  We all couldn't believe that the driver of a large city bus decided to have some fun - definitely something none of us expected and something that we wouldn't forget!

The mountains looked so enticing for snowboarding but I had to relax in the lodge...it was tough!

This is the view outside our hotel room window!

There was a pond to ice-skate on at our hotel but we were just too cold to do it!

Tim and Katie at dinner

Matt and I

Nick and Brooke at dinner

Back at our hotel, we counted down to the New Year while playing games and watching the Calgary New Year's Eve show.  The next morning, we woke up, grabbed breakfast, and headed up to Lake Louise.

View outside our room at sunrise

New Year's Day was beautiful outside - clear blue skies!

Lake Louise was beautiful!  Such a different site in the winter time compared to the views in summer, but still very pretty.  There was lots of snow covering the trees and the lake was frozen!  There was also an ice castle sculpture out on the lake!  The Fairmont Hotel also had an ice bar and people making maple syrup pops outside.

 

 

Matt, Tim and Katie took their chances and ventured out onto the frozen lake, but I heeded the sign and stayed on the shore - just to be safe!

 

Maple Syrup Pops made in the snow

Ice Bar

We had such an amazing time with Tim and Katie and are so glad they could come visit!  We love showing people around Calgary and Banff!  Mike and Maggie have booked their trip for the beginning of February and we are looking forward to lots of fun with them!