Pierced!

 To my sweet girl,

Today was our mama-daughter date and it was special one. You have been asking to get your ears pierced for the last year or so and I told you that you need to show me that you can be responsible with taking care of yourself first. I don't know how many times a week I ask the same question, "When was the last time you showered?" and then we both furrow our eyebrows and try to think back and it always turns out to be a sad 3, 4 or sometimes 5 days ago. Fail. But recently, you have stepped it up. You made a plan to shower every other day and you would color in your calendar with a purple marker after you did. I was impressed. I haven't had to pester you to take a shower in the last month. Pretty decent.

So today I decided to surprise you. I think you were in shock.

We went to Geronimo Tattoos and XStaci Piercings. You said you were so excited but nervous too. The lady there (Staci) was really nice and explained everything to you. She used the needle and did a great job. You said it hurt only a tiny bit. 

Then we celebrated with our mama-daughter favourite meal - Pho! So good on a pouring wet and cold day. We went to the mall after and picked out pretty earrings that you can wear once it heals up in a couple of months.  

When I was little, I had to wait until I was 11 and on my birthday, my mom brought me to Claire's to get my ears pierced. It was super special taking you to get your ears pierced today. It's a milestone. Double digits and growing up to a young lady. You are beautiful inside and out. 

Love you to the moon and back.

XOXO 

Mama

Spring break at Manning Park.

Last time we went to Manning Park was in the first week of March 2020. We went with some lovely friends. It was extra special because we had no idea that would be the last time in a long time that we would be able to share a cabin with friends, enjoy a meal together or go skiing without a mask...

March 2020 at Manning Park before the world changed...

Fast forward 2 years, we are back at Manning and the world feels almost back to normal. This time, we went with my parents and my sister and rented a premium cabin. They are newer and yes - it was worth the extra money. They are nicer than the standard cabins and the chalets.

The kid’s loved having the loft upstairs. It had two single beds and a couch and a table.  They called it their treehouse. They ate their meals upstairs and watched movies upstairs which we didn’t mind because that meant the adults had the living room and dining room downstairs to ourselves. 

The place had two full bathrooms and a nice kitchen where we made our simple Costco-sponsored meals. It is a bit sparsely stocked (as in there’s not even salt and pepper) so you’ll have to remember to pack everything you need to cook with or take some condiments from the lodge when you go skiing! 

So now onto the skiing … 

It’s not ski in, ski out. You have to drive 15 minutes to the lifts or take a shuttle. You park right at the bottom of the lift so it’s really nice. We had a beautiful clear day and got in a ton of runs. I wish they there was a bit more new snow but hey, it’s spring skiing so the snow was exactly as it’s expected for mid March. 

There’s two chairs but we stayed on the quad chair. There was no lift lines so got a great momentum going. There's a little terrain park and the kids worked on getting enough speed to clear the fun boxes. The snow was pretty fast and there are some steep sections. Little Bro had a brutal bail at high speed and it was an epic yard sale with skis and poles flying in all directions. It was good that happened near the end of the day because he was done after that. He took the shuttle with Gung Gung back to cabin and the rest of us kept riding until last lift at 3:45pm. 

Other than skiing, we also swam in the pool and relaxed in the hot tub, sauna and steam room. The kids would run in the sauna - try to survive the heat for 2 minutes and then run out and cannonball into the pool. And repeat. Over and over and over again.

We also checked out Lightening Lakes. It was hard trekking in the snow without crampons, we were surprised we only made it 6km around in over 2 hours. Next time, we’ll bring crampons and hopefully we can make it the full 9km around the lakes. 

And the games room. That was another highlight. We all had a blast with air hockey and ping pong.  They also had a life size Jenga - I should have been wearing a helmet because the whole thing came crashing down on me when I picked the wrong block. 

For just 2.5 hours away from home, Manning Park is the perfect getaway for everything we enjoy. We’ve already booked again for next year… 

Cheers! 

Mt. Baldy in review

"Where's Mt. Badly?"

That was the question we had asked our friends a year ago when they told us they discovered a gem of a ski resort. A year ago we were still stuck in our household bubbles and confused if people living in Burnaby could go play at a park in Vancouver. I really didn't think we would get a chance to drive the 5-ish hours close to Oliver, BC but we did and it was fantastic.

The Good.

• Wapiti Creek Lodge is beautiful and big enough so we could stay there with 2 other families. Even the other family that stayed at a different place came over at the chalet for meals. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• We rented 2 floors so we had two hot tubs. One of the kids and one for adults.
  
  
  
• No lift lines -my Garmin watch says we did 14-21 runs a day! 
  
  
  
• Two of our friends were injured so they couldn't ski with us but Mt. Badly has an option where you pay $15 to take the ski lift to the top and you can snowshoe back down on a trail that parallels one of the ski runs. That was great to be able to see them as we skied down.
  
  
  
• it's actually affordable - a day pass for an adult is $65 and kids is $45. That's cheaper than a ticket at Cypress
  
  
  
• lots of fun terrain - there are 2 ski lifts and something everyone liked. The kids liked a blue run named Power Keg and their favourite black diamond runs were Southridge, Honky Tonk and Rock Star. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• they have hot foods at the Corduroy Cafe and the burgers are actually pretty decent but we only ate at the café once. All other meals, we took turns cooking for the entire crew of 8 adults and 9 kids.
  

The Bad.

• super old school ticket booth as in there is one person sitting in a hut and everyone has to line up there to get your tickets. There is no option for online tickets or buying multiple days in advance. We needed to wait about 30 minutes to get our passes in the morning. They literally need to write your name on the ticket with a Sharpie pen
• there's no village or shops or anywhere to walk around so don't expect it to be like Whistler or Big White but at least it's nice and quiet at night and you can see so many stars!!!
• it's such a small population that the lifts are not open 7 days a week unless it's peak season. During the winter season, the lifts only run Thursday to Monday so plan to end of the week and for the weekend!

The Snowy.

so much snow and sunshine and since it's a fairly small mountain with 2 chair lifts, the older kids could go ski with their friends on their own and we always found them at the end of the day 

• there was lots of powder in the glades and this year the kids could keep up with us

• the dads got to go do some black diamond runs together

The verdict : we would definitely go back again especially if it was with these lovely people 

Treasure.

Last year covid cancelled the majority of our Christmas plans. We couldn't go to Big White with my family. We couldn't go to the interior to see Simon's family. We couldn't have any of our friends or family inside our house. Our annual covid card from 2020 reflected the kind of crazy year it was…

Its end of 2021 now and I had hoped that covid was over by now but sadly, it is not yet over but at least we can celebrate that our family has been healthy and vaccines have allowed us to gather as a family. Even the kids were able to get their first doses before Christmas break.

Aside from Covid complications, 2021 also brought the historic heat wave, forest fires and floods. The floods washed out the main highways to get to the interior so we couldn't get to Big White or Simon's family.

It was great that we booked Sasquatch mountain instead this year, we had discovered this little gem of a mountain last year and it was so great to have the opportunity to share a chalet with my parents and sister and friend.

Ski vacations are the best because they are so simple. 

We play in the snow.

We eat easy meals (thank you Costco).

We play board games. New family fav is now King of Tokyo. 

We sit in the hot tub (this one was a smoking 105 degrees which we made more enjoyable after adding in some fresh snow)

And repeat for 4 days.

So good for the soul.

Christmas Day was just with our own family again this year. It was quiet but lovely.  Little bro (my early riser) slept in til 9:30 am which is a Christmas miracle and Big Sis slept in past 10:00 am. The quiet morning alone to sip my tea was God's Christmas present to me. I made my signature cheddar bacon waffles  before we opened presents. 

The kids had opened some presents already when we were in Sasquatch and were happy to open a few more  presents on Christmas morning. Even our beloved bunny had its own little Christmas stocking. We enjoyed a wonderfully lazy afternoon. 

God brought an incredible amount of snow the next several days and our family did what we do best - PLAY OUTSIDE!

Just after Christmas, we hiked Mt. Seymour - it was a beautiful but ridiculously cold -18 day. The kids are super hikers though and we go some epic shots.

It snowed more a few days later and there was enough snow to even ski from our front door to the ravine park beside our house. That was so fun! We sledded, skied and I attempted to teach the kids how to snowboard. Pretty fun to do this at the park beside our house without a lift ticket.

I always like choosing a word to focus on each year and the word I have chosen for 2022 is 'treasure'. When I was re-reading the Christmas story during advent, Luke 2:19 resonated with me, Mary experienced firsthand what the angel had foretold and seeing the wonder of it all, she "treasured up these things and pondered them in her heart". That is the posture I'd love to cultivate this year...to treasure the moments and ponder them. Be in awe like Mary was. 

Treasure the moments with kids.

Treasure the moments with my husband.

Treasure the moments with my parents and my sister.

Treasure each birthday that passes.

Treasure the job I have.

Treasure the health I have.

Treasure the community of supportive friends I have. 

Treasure the house I live in. 

Treasure the financial security we have right now.

Treasure the freedoms I have.

Who knows what 2022 will bring. But I hope that I will treasure what lies ahead.