Spontaneous snow-camping (with a glimpse of Northern lights).

Well that was fun!

 How did we end up hiking up Seymour Saturday evening with headlamps and camp overnight?

It wasn’t even planned. Like at all. This whole trip came to fruition in a few hours. It started on Saturday morning when I woke up to what feels like EVERYONE posting pictures and messaging me about the northern lights. My sister sent me this picture she took:

“Oh it was spectacular!”

“Oh you didn’t see it? That’s too bad, it was glorious!”

“Oh you went to bed after the Canucks lost in overtime? You should have stayed up”

“It was amazing, SO many people were at the beach watching it too. Look at my pictures…”

So I started Saturday morning feeling major FOMO (fear of missing out) and I so disappointed that this spectacular event may never happen again in my lifetime in metro Vancouver. I went into a bit of a rabbit hole of articles on Northern light viewing and even downloaded the Aurora app (yes, there's an app for that!) It said to head somewhere away from lights and face north and look between 8:00pm to 2:00am. It said there might be a chance that May 11 could have a chance of seeing northern lights like the incredible light show that was on Friday evening. So I jokingly said, “What am I going to do? Hike up Seymour and set up a tent for the possibility of a glimpse of northern lights ??” 

Of course my sensible and practical husband tried to talk me out of this and suggested driving to Iona beach or another location rational humans would gather for this opportunity. 

I asked my kids how crazy would it be to hike up Seymour after dinner and tent in the snow overnight. They responded with, “that would be MOM crazy” (I didn’t even know that was an adjective for the level of crazy)

But the more I thought about the idea of it, the more appealing it sounded. Night hike! Snow camping! Constellations! Possibly Northern lights! Mountain sunrise!

The mountains are calling and I must go!

So I asked a couple of like-minded friends how crazy this idea was. Both of them it was a great idea and one said his family would be up for it. So by Saturday afternoon it became a real thing and then it was the mad scramble to prepare. None of our camping stuff was out yet so it was a race to find the camping stuff  and then borrow extra packs and a lightweight tent from friends and jam everything in the packs. 

The great thing about Mt Seymour is that it’s so accessible, we scrambled to pack, scarfed down supper and made it to the overnight P2 parking lot just after 8:00pm. We met up with the other crazy family and started hiking around 8:30pm just as the sun was starting to set.

I should have packed crampons because the snow was slushy and with the heavy pack it was not easy hiking. We made it to Brockton point in about an hour and the kids declared that we shouldn’t go any further and it was the perfect spot. 

And it really was. We had a great view of the twinkling city lights in one direction and the glorious mountains in the other direction. This is snow camping so there are no tent pads. Based on my scrambled research about how to snow camp, you're supposed to find a flat area and pack down the snow. So we found the flattish spot we could find on the top of Brockton Point and we stomped around on the snow hoping that would make it a more suitable campground. We set up the tent successfully in the dark with our headlamps on. And then we took it all in…

Little Brother was cold and tired so he fell asleep almost right after we set up the tent. We joked that he’s in all the pictures because he was asleep inside the tent for all the pictures. Big Sis stayed awake til past 11:30 and then she went to sleep too. Honestly, I thought the northern lights would get brighter as we stayed up later but the glow was pretty much the same from 11:00pm til 1:00am when we finally crawled into our tents. We didn't see the bright red, pink, purple colors that everyone saw on Friday night but at least the cameras captured some of the colors and with the mountains and the constellations, it still looks pretty spectacular. 

I wish I had slept that night but I didn’t. Sadly I forgot to pack an extra pair of socks and the ones I had on were wet from all the snow inside my hiking shoes. The good part about freezing and not sleeping was that by 5:15am, I knew I wouldn’t fall asleep so I just got up and sat and watched the sunrise above the mountains and that was pretty cool. So no breakfast in bed on Mother’s Day, everyone was still asleep in the tent but peace and quiet and gorgeous sunrise was a pretty great way to start Mothers Day. 

I don’t think anyone slept well but I was impressed no one complained. The kids had great attitudes when they woke up, we had leftover cookies and candy (breakfast of champions) and we packed up our tent and trekked back down.

Sometimes the best things are spontaneous and this was one of them! Hopefully, the kids look back at the  video of our adventure and say, "Our mom is crazy but that was totally worth it!" 

Manning 2024.

8 adults. 9 kids. Everyone on skis/snowboard and it gets better every year.

This is the 5th year we have done this so we are getting' pretty good at rockin' the multi-family vacation thing. Just remember these 5 things:

1. Rent chalets side-by-side. The ones at Manning are great. Each side of the chalet has a huge space with a double bed and 2 sets of bunk beds and two families share a kitchen. We had 2 chalets beside each other which was perfect. 

2. Plan B where there isn't enough snow. This ski season has been disappointing for powder for all the mountains in the lower mainland. Usually, our crew skis for 2 days but this time we opted for only 1 ski day. There's lots of other things to do at Manning, the moms hiked lightening lakes and it was gorgeous. This was the first year we sent all 9 kids to the pool by themselves and no adult had to supervise. 

3. Make the most of mediocre snow. With the snow barely covering the rocks, we were lucky the ski lift was even running. There were only 3 runs open, they must have taken all the existing snow to make it barely cover the cat track but the kids were happy to take off with their friends and skied all day. They spent more time in the rail park and practicing the “griddy” while skiing…

4. Hockey outside and inside. The boys all brought their hockey sticks and when they weren't skiing, they were either playing street hockey outside or watching the Canucks game inside the cabin. Noah doesn't have any brothers so he was SO thrilled to have so many boys to play hockey with.

5. Keep making memories. We've already booked next year. 

Ode to Bella.

Earlier this week, our sweet bunny passed away. Bella was much loved and it was a hard day when he died. The kids and I cried a lot. They wrote letters to Bella and buried them with him in our garden. Processing grief is hard, especially seeing it through the eyes of your own kids. Writing has always been helpful when I'm processing any emotion so here are my random thoughts about the sweetest bunny I've ever known.

 The best $10 we ever spent. We were hesitant pet owners, after going through several fish and a hamster, we weren't sure if we were ready for real commitment but the kids really wanted some fluffy to love. The previous owner didn't want the commitment anymore and I saw the post on Craigslist for this adorable lop eared bunny and although I was suspicious of why it was so cheap, I couldn't resist that fluffy face, the kids were squealing with excitement and holding onto the pet carrier on the drive. And that was the best $10 we ever spent.

 Boy or Girl? When we got the bunny, the owner said he wasn't sure of the gender and they had been calling it Thumper. Nallie was 6 years old at the time and completely obsessed with the Rainbow Fairly Magic book series. She insisted that the bunny needed to be named Bella after the book "Bella the Bunny Fairy." It was over a year and a half later when Bella got sick that we brought Bella to the vet and they told us that Bella was a boy. It was too hard to change the name at that point so Bella became Bella-Boy and then just Bells. 

 Bella inspired creativity like Nallie's poster project in Grade 2 and the song she wrote for piano class called "Ode to Bella". Bella kept me and the kids from going stir crazy during the covid lockdowns. Nallie spent days teaching him to do tricks and shared videos with her class. 

Bunny dress up. Bella was such a good sport with being dressed up in various costumes. Bella had a costume at Halloween and was outside with us for the easter egg hunt. We even took the bunny out for walks to the park on a leash but I quickly learned that bunnies are prey animals and detest wide open spaces and will run at top speed into the nearest bush dragging the holder of the leash into the prickly bushes. After that, we didn’t take the bunny out to the park anymore. 

Binkys. Zoomies. Bunny loaf. Bunny puddle. These are all words I know now. We know a lot more about bunny behaviour and bunny lingo that we did 7 years ago. We became experts at knowing when this bunny was excited, happy, mad and relaxed.

Lost and Found. Bella went missing during a rain storm in 2021. There were lots of tears that night thinking of all the dangers for a bunny. The next morning, I walked for hours around the neighbourhood looking under every car, bush and tree. I printed "Missing Bunny" signs and plastered them all around. The best phone call I ever received was from a lady who lived a couple blocks up and said she had found him. We ran up the street and rejoiced seeing our sweet Bells again. What a miracle.

Miracle bunny. Rabbits have delicate stomachs and one of the most common things that kills  a bunny is GI (gastrointestinal) stasis. It is when there is gas trapped in the stomach and can kill a bunny in a matter of hours if untreated. The first time it happened, we were just about the go on a backpacking trip to Garabaldi, I brought Bella to the vet and was out of cell phone range for the next few days. My mom (PoPo) was the hero that brought Bella back from the vet and helped get the medicine to get him back to his hoppy self. The second time it happened was a few years later and the vet couldn't take him in and we had to google how to massage Bella's stomach to get the gas bubble out, administer medicine and Critical Care with a syringe. Thank goodness you can learn basically anything on YouTube. Bella defied the odds and after a week, he was back to his hoppy self. There were also so many times that Bella would dash out the front door to nibble on the strawberry leaves in our garden. Sometimes, Bella would run all the way up the front steps and hide underneath our vehicles and we had to lie down on the ground with hockey sticks trying to nudge Bella out from under the car so we could pick him up and plop him in the bunny bed in and carry him back inside. We called that the bunny burrito. 

Free roam means family. Once we learned that bunnies can be litter trained, Bella was no longer in a cage but roamed around the house and followed us everywhere. Bella was more like a dog than a bunny. He happy to see us when we came home, had a spot on the couch when we watched movies, had sleepovers with the kids in the living room, had 'cake' on his birthday and had his own stocking at Christmas. Bella would be sad and put her paws up on the door if we tried to keep her out of the kitchen. Bella did life with us and brought us so much joy.

Bella grew up and so did the kids. The kids were 4 and 6 years old when we first brought the bunny home and now they are 10 and 12. It’s quite a jolt processing how quickly time has passed. Nallie wore Paw Patrol pyjamas and had chubby cheeks when we first got Bella and now she's a few months from being a teenager. Noah was a preschooler with a bowl-cut and now he’s so grown up. 

 I’m not sure if and when we will get another bunny. Bella was definitely the best $10 we ever spent and I don’t know if we’ll ever find another one with such a sweet disposition. Thank you Bella for bringing our family so much joy. When the south slope sun shines down on our carpet, we will remember that was always Bellas’s favourite spot and think warm fuzzy thoughts of the sweet bunny that hopped into our hearts ❤️