Skiing in at Revelstoke Mountain Resort

This was the first year we bought full day passes and made use of the whole mountain. I've never been up to the very top to go skiing before. I can now see why people from all over the world come to Revelstoke. The runs are super long, the lines are short and at times it feels like you have the whole mountain to yourself. Our first day of skiing we were joined by Kaes, Auntie Kim, Auntie Heather, Oma and Auntie Lyn. We went up two gondolas and skied down the green run called the Last Spike. The run was so long that we basically skied one run before lunch and another run after lunch before stopping for hot chocolate and then skiing the bottom 1/3 of the mountain. It was SUPER cold that day. So cold, that Josh and I headed straight to downtown afterwards to try and replace  our 20+ year old gloves!

Maddy and Ethan did very well, though it seemed like they did a role reversal from last year. Maddy, we didn't hear a single complaint from and she happily and easily skied with Kaes. Ethan was much  more cautious than he's ever been in the past years. Though I believe that this 'new Ethan' is a much better skier than he was last year. He was really utilizing his turns this year, instead of just heading straight down at crazy speeds.

Our second day, we decided to go up the 2 gondolas, but then take the last chair up to the very top. What a difference! First of all, the view from up there is absolutely amazing AND the sun was shining and it was warm. Double bonus! We decided to stay up there for the  rest of the day. Luckily, we decided to pack sandwiches with us on this day and we didn't need to ski down to the mid-station at all. Plus we had a gorgeous view as we ate. In the afternoon we headed over to the North Bowl, but in hindsight it was a mistake, because it was in the shadow of the mountain and it was cold, not to mention dark. The North Bowl only has blue runs and the kids had less trouble than Mama! Probably less whining than Mama too, if I'm to be completely honest. They were did very well, and Josh was awesome about looking after the BOTH of them, while I just got myself down the hill.


I hope you enjoy the pictures.

 This was the afternoon of the first day. It was so cold, we had to stop to hot chocolate before attempting to ski from mid-station to the bottom.

 Behind us you can see the cloud that is blanketing the valley far below.

 This is a high as you can get, but chair. Behind us though are people climbing up to the very summit in order to ski in the fresh powder.

Just crazy. The climb reminded us of the climbing we read about in our Gold Rush unit last year.

I love this pic of Josh and Ethan.

This is my kind of skiing. It's like you have the whole mountain to yourselves.

Revelstoke

It seems to me that each year we get to Revelstoke earlier and earlier in the day. This year we were so early that when we arrived at Oma and Opa's at 11:30am, the front door was still lock because they weren't expecting us for another few hours!

We had a great week in Revelstoke this Christmas. The first night we arrived, we celebrated Christmas with the family. It was awesome to have Auntie Lyn and Uncle Aaron back in BC again. I guess we were so happy just to have everyone together again, that we completely forgot about getting a family picture beside the tree. It was a fun night with lots of presents, excellent food and the Christmas game. One highlight for the kids was getting a box of Dutch toast sprinkles in the Christmas game. I guess now they don't have to wait to be at Oma and Opa's to have sprinkles on toast for breakfast!

The rest of the week was filled with toboganning, swimming, crafts, walks, weiner roasts and skiing. There wasn't much new snow while we were there, but it was SUPER cold. Coming back to YVR made the -1 degrees feel almost warm!

 Christmas dinner, adult's table.

 Welcome home Auntie Lyn and Uncle Aaron!

 Toboganning on Mt. Revelstoke

This was a bird we found that was run over by a car. Opa cradled it in his hands the rest of the walk and after a bit of time in a cardboard box, it flew away.

You can imagine the excitement of our birding enthusiast, Maddy.

 

Christmas Eve and Day

After the Christmas dinner with my family, we had a few lovely days at home with just the four of us. It seemed like we were just waiting happily for the big day to arrive. One morning at breakfast, Ethan happily sighed and said, "I like when we are all together". I do too. It was awesome having Josh at home with us and we really just took time to hang out and enjoy the quiet.

We open presents on Christmas Eve around here, only leaving stockings with Santa for Christmas morning. On the eve before Christmas we had a Pannekoek dinner and just look at Ethan's big grin.

These bundles wrapped up are presents that Ethan wrapped for all of his animals. You can't see in the photo, but the tiny piece of paper taped to each one has the first initial of each stuffy. After we opened our presents, it was the stuffies' turns. Ethan painstakingly helped each stuffy push the presents around until their little wings and paws unravelled the gift inside. You can see that Mama Dog is very happy with her new toque.

Christmas with the Lee-Young

Thank you to the Tulks for hosting Christmas dinner this year. We had a great evening with a massive ham, fun present opening and the Christmas game. No gut busting renditions of Christmas carols this year, but still a great time.