BANFF!

The name "Banff" is especially wonderful when your two year old son accompanies it with scrunching up his noes and punching the air.

This last weekend I pulled off the impossible. I fooled Graham for an entire three weeks. I even lied (which fortunately for me Graham still thinks I'm unable to do).
My parents brother and I had worked for almost a month on my parents 61' Fireball trailer to make her road worthy. I had a yard sale, worked shifts at the coffee shop and cut back on my coffee habit to fund my venture. All fueled by the desire to see Graham's face when I told him we'd be going camping in Banff, Canada...with walls and beds!
We re-sealed the roof, installed new vents, got new propane tanks, and put new tires on her. It wasn't till the very last day before the "big day" that I received terrible news. The final thing that needed to be done was to have the bearings replaced (I'm not even going to try and explain that; it has something to do with the tires.)
The mechanic that came to Mom and Dad's house solemnly gave us the run down. He didn't need to say much actually. He just pointed to a pile of dust on the hood of his truck (the bearings) and told us we'd be unable to replace them because of how old they were. The words "Seven hundred dollars" and "not until friday" stood out to me.
Defeated, but trying to remain positive (and hold back the tears), I left Scout and Malachi with my Mom and Dad and went to unload everything to my husband.
I had to have Graham sit down with me on the couch. (I find if you have to give disappointing news, it's best to let them think it's worse than it is at first.)
I cried as I told him everything I'd been up to. He was blown away with our project and my tears fueled him to be very heroic. He called up a friend of ours who saved the day by loaning us his very nice pickup and trailer!
We went camping with a microwave. It was insane.
So the Johnston family went on our very first family vacation with out staying at some one's house. It was a great adventure (yes, you can still have an adventure with a microwave and a thermostat. Turns out, a very comfortable adventure). Plus, the money I put into the trailer is still well worth it, because once we put that new axle on her, there will be many, many more comfortable Johnston adventures.
We spent a couple beautiful days in Banff. It's an amazing town really. Huge, jagged mountains jutting powerfully out of the valley floor. Incredible.
Malachi hiked his first mile and a half (uphill). He also rolled of his bed and dropped three feet without waking up. He's an amazing kid, really. If you ask him about Banff, he'll probably tell you something about the big trailer, or maybe just the caramel and m&m covered apple that he had. Scout would tell you that he likes hot swimming pools, Graham is still speechless and I would say that I love traveling with my family!