Update #9 - Heritage Park

Dear friends,
Today is dark and overcast with the chill of winter on the way. You would never have guessed that yesterday was such a beautiful sunny day - but then that's Calgary and what's expected when you're living at the foot of a mountain range.
You'll see from the first photo that we found yet another amazing part of God's creation - Johnston Canyon (situated just north of Banff). I could have sent you a dozen more photos from that day - it took all my strength to hold me back!!! The photo attached is of the lower falls and if you look at the bottom right hand corner of the photo you will see that you had to walk through a little cave to finally stand in the spray of the falls. We ventured to the upper falls and were very proud of our kids who made the 5.4km walk on their own legs. Once again the walk was full of breath taking views and the kids enjoyed the walk as much as we did. It was only Daniel who we had to hold a cookie in front of every now and then to keep his little legs moving!
Yesterday, I took the kids to Heritage Park which is an historical village set about a century ago. From a teachers point of view, it was a wonderful hands on teaching experience. The children had vast amount of experiences ranging from attending school, to being put in jail, having to do washing, pump their own water, learn how to make butter and see how newspapers were printed. They talked to a variety of people who were "playing the role" and found out amazing things like;
bankers were allowed to shoot dead anyone who attempted to rob the bank
mounties (police) were not allowed to be married for their first five years of work
female teachers were not allowed to be married and were not allowed to leave the town without permission from the community
boys and girls were not allowed to play together at school
Nathan decided he was very happy that he lived in the century we live in, but I think I could have left Laura there for another week. She was so in role and I'm sure she thought she was either Laura from House on the Praire or Anne of Green Gables. The apple does not fall far from the tree! :)
It looks like we'll be stuck indoors today - still don't have the appropriate winter gear to venture out on a day like today. Problem is we keep adventuring on the days that we should be shopping for essentials.
Hope this finds you all well.
Your friends,
Howard, Shona, Laura, Nathan and Daniel