Just in Jasper

Well, hi all - most exuberant greetings to the whingers who demand more bloggy goodness. Well, more frequent, anyway.

We arrived in Jasper late last night. Late, because we HAVE to stop every few kilometres to ooh and ahh over the mountain... the river... the clouds... the rocks... THE SNOW!!! Yesterday we experienced our first snow fall, and it was so amazingly beautiful. It had been drizzling rain a lot of the day, but in the afternoon larger fluffier precipitation began to precipitate. Mat didn't believe me that it was snow initially (ha! mocker), but we pulled into a rest area as it started to fall more heavily (I don't think it ever got very heavy, though - not that I know what heavy snow looks like yet). It all melted as it hit the roadside stop, but as we danced and looked skyward with our mouths wide open (to catch snow), it was like being in a wonderland. It looked so very different to what I had imagined (I didn't see a single pretty symmetrical flake falling), with light clumps of frosty ice drifting so slowly toward us. Looking up, it was like a salt shaker sprinkling us. Caelum thought it was Christmas and said Santa Claus would be coming. Very sweet; Australian Christmas is obviously all about Jesus, and Canadian Christmas is all Snow'n'Santa! :) The kids are with Mat at the moment, down exploring near the river (we're at a campsite called Wapiti if you want to look us up). Wapiti is an alternate word (First Nations) for elk. Haven't seen one yet...

Nor have we seen moose, thought the Moose River/Lake are incredibly beautiful. Stopped there a while yesterday to look at (and touch in the case of Mad Miranda) the ice and slush. We saw two deer as we were driving; that and crows are the only wildlife we've seen thus far! Oh, okay - all those ducks and the goose that slapped me at Lake Burnaby.

Spent a night in Kamloops and a night in Clearwater - both lovely, but Dutch Lake was incredible. We would loved to have stayed there for a month.... Had a lovely time there in spite of the ongoing drizzly rain.

OK, the family has returned - I'm logging off. Sorry I didn't take the time to upload a million photos - I promise, we're all smiling, all wearing jackets, and standing in front of stunning mountains, rivers, lakes and forests.

Lots of love.