Every year around the holidays we head to Banff, Alberta for a ski trip.

​We are slightly, ok... extremely high maintenance when it comes to our ski or snowboard locations.  We visited Banff first because it was cheaper than going to any of the Colorado resorts.  It did not take long before we fell in love.

There was always one elusive thing that never "completed" our trip -- seeing the Aurora Borealis.  We would have to get lucky enough for a small glimpse one day, correct?

Well...it happened. Kind of...

Around the Alberta Aurora Chasers Facebook group good nights for viewing are referred to as "Pants On" nights and other nights could be "Pants On" or "Pants Off" depending on what the data is showing.  

One of our first nights in town there was a "Pants On" night for seeing the aurora. And we slept through it.  As parents we had a slight guilt knowing we had blissfully slept through the one thing our child had been asking to see for YEARS!

A few nights later there was a maybe "Pants On" but really more of a "Pants Off" night.  The data just was not consistent.  Key parent guilt here.... We reached out to the AAC group for opinions and one member stated since we were out-of-towners to give it a try, but it would not be the most ideal.

We woke our daughter up, hopped in the car, and headed to Lake Minnewanka. We stayed out for a little while looking in awe at the seemingly endless amount of stars. Every once in a while we would ask each other if we spotted anything. Nothing...nothing bright and vibrant anyways just clouds. We headed back from our middle of the night excursion somewhat bummed. Parent guilt was full on at the moment as was the need for sleep.  

Once we slipped right back into the parking spot we had vacated earlier in the night and headed up to the room we checked the camera. The amount of joy that came from seeing a blurry photo on a brand new camera cannot even be explained. (We had never tried night photography before, and due to circumstances our only opportunity to purchase the camera was the week before our trip.) We got it. We actually got it. 

Seriously, we have never been so proud of out of focus pictures before. 

Our half-check off the list...we are patiently waiting on our opportunity for the full on HECK YES check off the list. Until that time comes we will keep happily smiling at our faint out of focus photos. 

PS. ALASKA!!! You are our next shot. Please do not let us down this year.

I am so excited to be able to share here that we have an article up over on the FlyingKids website! We are so glad to be part of the the FlyingKids Tribe!!

Read what we had to say about our 50 state goal here.