A Glimpse of the Holidays: Christmas In Canmore, Alberta, Canada

Oh the holidays -- one of my favorite times of the year!

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been spending my time off this December/January with my family in Canmore and Calgary, Alberta, Canada. 

It's been a magical two weeks up here in this winter wonderland and I've had a wonderful time relaxing, catching up with family and, of course, capturing a few shots of my time off!

I won't take a ton of time away today to talk about my vacation (I still have a few more days left!) but here's a look at what I've been able to capture between snowshoe excursions and cookie baking so far:

Holiday Flashback: My Holiday Trip to Hawaii -- Part 2: Kona

Last Thursday, I dished all about my fun layover in Seattle on my way to Hawaii this December for a holiday vacation with my family.

But this week it's all about the main event. The big kahuna, if you will.

Before this vacation, I had never been to any of the Hawaiian islands, so I really didn't know what to expect. I knew there would be beaches. I knew there would be warm breezes. But I didn't know there would be everything that the big island of Hawaii has to offer.

My family and I stayed on the Kona side of the big island, sort of near where the old airport used to be. My parents were celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary and decided to go all out by renting a gorgeous beach side home for us to enjoy for two whole weeks. I got to sleep in the upstairs, outside "bird's nest" which was basically like sleeping in paradise.

I could spend pages and pages telling you about all the amazing things we did while we were there, all the amazing food we ate, and all the amazing people we met, but I'd much rather show you.

There were sunsets.

Turtles.

And gorgeous ocean scenes.

And for the first time in a long time, I felt truly relaxed.

And very caffinated.

I'm quite proud of the photos that I took while I was there, although, it's almost difficult to take a bad photo while you're in Hawaii.

It's always beautiful and magestic in the Canadian Rockies

Sometimes its hard to believe that I was born so close to paradise. The Canadian Rockies are just one of those things that never, ever gets old to see when you look outside of your car window.

This morning my mum and I decided to go on a 12 km hike up to the Plain of Six Glaciers teahouse, which is near the fantastic Lake Louise ski area.

First of all, we couldn't have asked for a more gorgeous day. It was about 65 and partly sunny -- perfect hiking weather!

In all of the years that I've visited the Canadian Rockies, I'd never been able to squeeze this hike in, so image how excited I was to finally conquer it after all of these years!

The views are simply stunning. It was so hard to not stop every five minutes to take pictures. Although the hike was slightly challenging, I would say it was more than worth the trek up the mountain-- even so, the delicious tea biscuits at the teahouse up top were incentive to keep going!

Bonus picture: A nice moonscape from my backyard. Not bad, eh?