desert watermelon

remember when i used to look like this?  

some days i miss my long hair.  some days.  

high on summertime

"the world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page."  - st. augustine

we read a few pages in the world book this week.  operation alberta tour = success.  many highlights to be had.  among the top was visiting friends, previous investigators, missionaries and 2 of the best:

 calgary stampede.

did you know that calgary has THE largest rodeo in the world?  i spent last summer in okotoks, a smallish city 30km south of calgary.  being here i didn't realize just how big of a deal the stampede was.  but it is a BIG deal.  big big deal.  everyone, i'm talking everyone dresses up for it.  people all around downtown with a cowboy hat and boots on!  plaid shirts wherever the eye can see.  for some, the stampede is a great excuse to get hammered drunk every night.  hah!  downtown literally transforms into a cowboy town.  needless to say i was in cowboy heaven.  cowboy heaven.

so of course we got our own cowboy on and hit up the stampede like any good tourists would do.  i felt especially great because it was the 100th anniversary of the stampede!  woo! we even got a picture with the mounties (who my mom is overly obsessed with for some odd unexplainable reason)  don't judge the teacher thumbs up or my "hipster jeans". 

banff.  

i've been here before.  twice, actually.  but both times in the bleak of calgary winter, which as you may or may not know is realllllly cold.  what a different place banff is in the summer!  b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l.  mmm mmm mmmmm.  again we, being the tourists we are, did all the natural, normal tourist things: johnstons canyon, moraine lake, lake lousie, the hot springs, banff springs hotel, and a little late night shoppin' on "the strip".  good times were had by all.  

probably the best part of banff was the canoe ride on moraine lake.  han and i rocked it.  the water was bluer than blue and i couldn't have been happier.  

and... as much denial as i was in the first time around, a week without my phone was actually refreshing.  here's to a happy alberta summer.