California

Last year I had the chance to tag along with Josh to a work trip in Santa Barbara. When the opportunity came up again this year, I'd be crazy to not to go. We decided that since we'll be celebrating out 10 year wedding anniversary this July, we'd use this trip as a little celebration. While Josh was busy with his conference I had some 'me time' and enjoyed every minute of it. I did some shopping (the CDN dollar is not doing so great, so it wasn't as tempting to spend) and just enjoyed being able to browse in peace. I also went to see a movie one evening and was pretty much in heaven with my bag of popcorn and water.

By Friday around noon, Josh was done and we were able to spend the rest of the weekend together. It felt so much like our old traveling days. We explored around the Wharf, Courthouse and State St. in Santa Barbara and ended one evening with a lovely dinner at Stella Mare's (a cute little French Restaurant). The next morning we headed to Santa Monica and checked into our 2nd hotel. The hotel had bikes you could borrow, so we took them down to the boardwalk and cycled to Venice Beach. Venice Beach is definitely a great place to 'people watch' and we spent the afternoon there before heading back to check out the Pier. Unfortunately, our very last day was met with an unusual storm, but even lounging in bed and watching TV felt like a treat. We made a quick stop to see Marina Del Rey and then Josh took me to my first meal at In/Out Burger before we headed to the airport. Such a fun weekend to spend with each other. We did miss the kids, but it was also a lot of fun being able to explore as we wished, stop for happy hour drinks if we felt like it and talk to each other without interruptions.

Thanks for a wonderful 'early anniversary' trip, babe. I love you so much and look forward to another 10 years!

Big White Trip with DIDO Gang

This year was our second annual trip to Big White ski resort with our friends. We stayed again at the same condo and it was perfect for our group. We skied a total of 3 full days and we had a blast. The time was spent hitting the slopes, hot tubbing, eating (lots of eating) and just hanging out together.

Maddy was especially excited to go because Josh said she was ready to learn to use poles. She did really well and was happy to spend some solo time with Josh while he taught her. It's really is cool to see how much they improve in just 3 days of skiing. By the end of the trip, the kids were comfortably skiing blue runs and begging to ski in and out of the trees. I have to admit that I had to push my own comfort limits a little bit and try the trails a little more. My main motivation for doing so was a fear of being left behind as the kids get better and better!

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.

Th Peak at Grouse Mountain

The last time we went to The Peak at Grouse Mountain, Ethan was still napping and we had to cut the visit short. This year we went up again with the Tulks and it was an awesome night. What a difference a few years makes. We lucked out and were blessed with awesome weather. We opted to go in the afternoon and try to stay into the evening because I wanted to make sure to hit the Night Walk while it was dark out. The kids and Philip all took advantage of the outdoor skating rink. It was so funny to watch Ethan first get his skating legs back. Just like Bambi on ice. While they were skating we line up for the sleigh ride. They even served hot chocolate while you wait in line. After the sleigh ride it was time to head inside to get some dinner and warm up. Plus delicious french fries were calling our name. (Seriously, the fries were so yummy! Not Joanne's, but everyone else's were delicious.) By the time we came back out, the sky was dark enough for the light walk. It was so beautiful and worth the wait. The kids both say this was their favourite part. They had a great time tromping off trail and sliding down the powdery snow. After the Night Walk, the kids still wanted to try the sliding centre. We rented two carpets and while we walked to the hill, someone came and gave us their slides to use as well. Once the sliding was done, it was cold enough for us to head back into the chalet to watch a movie. They had short Christmas films playing in the theatre along with a coloring station and a place to write a letter to Santa. Before heading home, we stopped for hot chocolate and a stroll through the gingerbread lane. We all had a blast and hope that perhaps this will become a Christmas tradition for years to come!

 

Santa Picture 2015

The big day is coming up. We've been slowly crossing off some of the items on our seasonal things-to-do list. We went to the Christmas Wish Breakfast, the Christmas party with Josh's work at Grouse Mountain, Canyon Lights (Yay, we got two seasons worth with our year passes!), decorated the tree, year end parties for Beavers and Brownies and bought our Christmas ornaments of the year. The kids an I also got to see a performance of Arts Umbrella's Dance show called Mixed Nuts. It was an awesome surprise as I had no idea what we were signing up for back in the fall. Still a few things left on the wish list, but they are somewhat weather dependent. (Trinity Street light, Burnaby Village Museum and The Peak at Grouse Mountain.) We'll have to see.

2 days left of school and counting. Let's do this!!

P.S. Really more for myself than anyone else. I can't seem to find the list of ornaments from previous years. So here is just a reminder for myself: Maddy's ornament this year was a Black Capped Chickadee in honor of her study of birds in school. Ethan's is a penguin, again because he learned all about penguins this fall. (Though the penguins we learned about did not have blush on their cheeks and sport rainbow toques and scarves)

Ethan's First Loose Tooth

This happened close to a month ago, but I feel like I must remember the moment for my future self. The tooth had been wiggly for a while and the adult tooth was already poking through a fair bit. The poor kid was dealing with chomping down on the loose tooth for a while. The dentist suggested that for Ethan, we keep his baby teeth in as long as possible in order to guide the adult teeth in properly. Because of this, we didn't really do anything to try and help the loose tooth out earlier. For the boy who loves to eat, I have to stay that there were many meals with tears when he'd chomp down on the tooth because it was in an unfamiliar spot. Finally one night the tooth was so loose that Ethan had had enough. He did very well and just kept wiggling, and wiggling it until it came out. Unfortunately, he doesn't have that super cute gap tooth smile because the adult one is already in it's place. Ethan doesn't really care though. All he was excited about was the thought of the tooth fairy coming to visit.

Halloween

Wow, as I type this, I'm thanking the Weather Gods because it's about 11:30pm on Halloween night and it is JUST POURING with rain outside. The weather forecast all week long called for a wet Halloween, but lucky for us it didn't start to rain until well after the kids were home from Trick or Treating. I'd even go as far to say that we dodged another bullet. I was not looking forward to this "Saturday night" Halloween because the older kids are often hanging around the park all night long. Now with the rain and wind out there...all is quiet at the park.

God, I feel old. Let's just get to the Halloween pictures and call it a night.

 The kids both carved their own pumpkins this year. They even pulled the guts out all by themselves.

Ethan was happy to put his Dog costume back on again this year. I'm not sure that we'll be able to use it again next year. It has served us well. I joked with Josh that Ethan doesn't really care much about what he's going to be for Halloween. I think in his mind, he'll wear anything if it means he can get candy. Maddy's costume is Nefertiti, an ancient Egyptian Queen. Maddy's been studying Ancient Egypt for school and she decided to make her own costume as part of a school project.

How could we miss the chance to snap a photo of an Egyptian Queen eating a Mummy wrap!

 Apologies for this grainy photo, but in my mind the side profile of Ethan's costume is what MAKES the whole costume.

I had to get one last photo of it before we are forced to pass the costume on to someone who will cherish it as much as we did. 

We hope you all had a wonderful Halloween night.