Happy 7th Anniversary Jonathan!

Whistler (Part 3)

On Sunday, we decided to have a lazy morning followed by a nice stroll around Whistler village. We enjoyed a good ol' fashioned breakfast of country sausage, eggs, strawberries and biscuits. After showering, Noodles asked me to give her the "towel thing" that I always do on my head. Here's a picture of her all excited:

We then headed out to the village. It was snowing on and off all morning which added to the beauty. Here are some pictures of us gallivanting:

Pretty soon, our thoughts turned to food. (Which is a pretty regular occurrence in our family.) We started to look for a good restaurant. We must have looked 4 or 5 menus before settling on a cozy Irish Pub right off the slopes. Here are some pictures of the kids in front of the gondola:

We then set out to find an ice cream shop called "Cows." We took a wrong turn somewhere along the way that led us to this really fun set up for the Olympics. There was a real bobsled, a medals podium, and a countdown to the Winter Olympics. The kids had a lot of fun playing here (as did I). The bobsled was really fun to check out, I was surprised how simple the controls were. There were two metal pedals attached to a single metal axle. No seats. So basically, a metal pole is running straight through the center of the bobsled, right where you sit. They seriously need to re-think this design! Just sitting in the bobsled for a few seconds to have pictures snapped was uncomfortable...let alone zooming warp speed down an ice luge. I have a new respect for those folks.

...and we set off again to find "Cows." On our way, there was a really nice view of the village and ski center, so I snapped a picture:

The ice cream was delicious. We got chocolate and peanut butter swirl. MMM! By this point, the kids were thoroughly exhausted, cold and damp from walking around all day. We headed back to the condo and warmed up by the fire. The kids had some mini pizzas for dinner, while hubby and I ordered Sushi take-out. We tucked the kids into bed and turned on "Kindergarten Cop" for them to watch. Chips fell asleep, but Noodles was really into the movie. Then, just to add a little irony to the weekend, during the scene where the dad sets the school on fire in order to kidnap the little boy, what should happen? The fire alarm in the building goes off. Not the smoke detector...the crazy CLANG CLANG fire alarm. Needless to say, Noodles wigged out. We evacuated, the firemen came, everything was fine and we went back to our rooms. Noodles slept with one eye open that night, and she says she never wants to see "Kindergarten Cop" again. What a nice end to the vacation. :)

The next day, we packed up and headed home. It was a cloudy day, but the scenery on the Sea to Sky highway was still beautiful. I took some parting shots below. We had an absolutely wonderful time in Whistler, and we will definitely try to go back again soon!!

Whistler (part 2)

There has only ever been one day since hubby and I have been parents that we have awakened without an alarm clock and before our kids do. Today was that day. We were up at 6:30 making coffee and breakfast, and getting everything ready to go for the day because we wanted to be the first on the slopes. We dropped Chips off at the Whistler Kids daycare, got Noodles fitted for her skis, waved as she got in line for the gondola with her ski school, and we were off. Like two kids let loose from their parents, we hobbled with glee in our ski boots over to the quad chair and hopped on for the first run of the day. Here are two pictures I took on the quad showing the sun coming up over the mountain:

I took another at the top of the first run, we are on Whistler, looking over to Blackcomb:

After a few runs on Whistler mountain, we took a gondola ride up to Blackcomb. It took three lifts to get us to the top of Blackcomb, and then a t-bar. The top of both mountains was rocky and barren, and was quite intimidating. We went down a run called "panorama" that took us to the peak to peak gondola. I gathered up all of my courage, and got on. It wasn't as bad as I expected. It was definitely high, but the gondola car felt enclosed and safe. (At least, it gave me that feeling). Here are some pictures off the top of Blackcomb and on the peak to peak gondola (notice my nervous smile):

When we got back over to Whistler mountain, we had to hop on another gondola that would take us up to the top of the mountain. As we were waiting in line, we saw Chips and his daycare group passing by in a gondola car. Hubby and I hid our faces so he wouldn't see us and freak out, and we ended up riding up a few cars behind them. When we got to the landing, I snapped a quick picture of him as he and the teachers were checking out some wood carved bears at the lodge.

We then continued up to the top of Whistler, and decided to take a trail called "peak to creek." It is the longest ski run in America. I got a great picture of hubby at the top of the mountain and on the trail.

The spire behind hubby is known as "black tusk"

"go that way, really fast. if something gets in your way.....turn."

As we made our way down the mountain, I began to wipe out regularly. I must have fallen at least 5 times in the span of 10 minutes. One time, I was just gliding along a flat side trail, and literally just fell over. Hubby decided it was best to stop for lunch. We enjoyed some buffalo wings, beer and a hearty burger. We got a few more runs in after lunch, but it was starting to get warm and the conditions weren't as good as they were in the morning. All in all, it was a great day of skiing. We picked the kids up and took them back to the condo. I took some pictures of them playing in a little park in the village where we stayed and a silly one of Chips playing with our chapstick.

We ended the day with a soak in the hot tub and some homemade lasagna. Then, we all curled up in the pull out couch next to the fire and fell asleep while watching "Horton hears a Who."

Part 3 of our last two days is coming up soon!

Whistler (part 1)

We have just returned from the bestest ski trip ever!! (can you say hyperbole?) But seriously, the fam and I took a last minute weekend trip up to Whistler, British Columbia. We rented out a condo, packed a cooler full of goodies and set off for 4 days. The drive took us about 5 hours and passed through some of the most beautiful scenery the pacific northwest has to offer. It was a crystal clear day, so that was a bonus. I snapped the first picture on our trip of a view of the cascade mountains reflecting in a lake off the highway:




We then continued north and soon crossed the border into Canada. Just beyond Vancouver, we started on a road appropriately named the Sea to Sky highway. The road literally starts at sea level along a beautiful bay and winds up into the mountains. No one warned me of how beautiful this area was, and coupled with the beautiful sun soaked day, we almost fainted with excitement. Here are some pictures we snapped:

Along the way, we passed through a village called Lion's Bay. We pulled off the road and took a little drive through the neighborhood, at which point hubby vowed to leave it all behind, buy a house on this cliff and take up work as a fisherman. Here are some pictures of the neighborhood:






As we continued up the highway, we came upon a beautiful lookout of the Tantalus Mountain range. We pulled over and hiked up a little cluster of rocks to take in the view. Hubby snapped some pictures of me here. For some reason this scenery reminded me of the Wilson Phillips video for "Hold on" so I kept hearing that cheesy song, "some day somebody's gonna make you wanna turn around and say gooooodbyyyyeee!" ringing through my head as I sat on the rock posing for the pictures. Great. Now it's stuck in my head again.








Finally, we arrived in Whistler. We were really impressed with how big the skiing area was. As we drove along the main road to the village, we noticed what looked like power lines with air traffic balls between the two mountains. Then I realized, the little balls were moving and we must be looking at the peak to peak gondola! I must admit, it's really intimidating to see. I wasn't sure I'd be able to ride that thing!




We arrived at our condo just a little after 4pm. We gave the kids a quick snack, and then everyone immediately wanted to put their swimsuits on and check out the pool. Now this is an outdoor pool, mind you, and it was just about 40 degrees outside. Yeah, I opted out. Luckily the pool was heated and the kids had a lot of fun with their daddy.





That night, we enjoyed some delicious meatball sandwiches that hubby made from scratch, made some cookies (which I burned, of course!), played some Candy Land with the kids, and tucked them into bed. Here are some pictures of them snuggling on the pull-out couch by the fire.




Stay tuned for Part two...our full day of skiing pictures. I will hopefully get those posted later today or tomorrow!!