We just got back from an extended stay up at Whistler. Why extended, you ask? Well, the day after we drove up, Seattle got hit with the first of several serious snowstorms, the final one culminating in over a foot of snow in places (10 inches, or 26cm to you Aussies at our house alone!) and then was hit with an ice storm on top of the snow that created a real mess. The I-5 freeway we would have taken to drive home was shut down and people were warned to not go anywhere unless it was an emergency. Sounds like a perfectly great excuse to ski a couple extra days, no? So, we did. Nevermind that Whistler got less than HALF the snow Seattle did the entire time we were there; and let’s just forget about Sophie’s occasional bouts of vomiting (and ONLY when we were out to dinner, of course;) and we won’t even talk about how bone chilling-ly cold it was either, because the skiing was great, the kids each got to ski a bit, and Mark and I had 5 glorious days of skiing and “après” skiing together as well. It was FUN!!! Sophie really enjoyed her ski lessons… after 3 days of it she was able to put her skis on herself, navigate a rope tow and ski down a short hill, not only by herself but looking darn good, too! She was a real trooper, the last day we all skied, it was -22 degrees celsius on the mountain, and she still came home raving about how much fun it was. Max had one day of lessons…. more of an into to wearing skis and how to walk in them. It was a long day for him (6+hours) as he is used to having an afternoon nap, so he was good and tired but he did pretty well and will be ready to go more full on next year! As I mentioned, it was very cold (the locals were even complaining) and Mark got a case of frostbite on his cheeks (on his FACE….ahem.) so he’s now sporting some scabby skin, poor guy. So, after more than a week, we were ready to come home (as were our wallets) but it was great to ski ourselves into exhaustion, and eat and drink at some fun places (like Australia, Canada allows kids into the pubs until a certain time, making them more family friendly and all around a nice way to be able to vacation), swam in the outdoor heated pools, soaked in the outdoor hot tub in a snowfall (very fun!) and could hardly turn around without running into another Aussie (or as Mark liked to say…a NAFA…I’ll let you decipher that one yourself.)
So, here are some of the pics we took, mostly with out phones as the big SLR was too much to juggle with skis, and gear, etc. Sophie even had her picture taken on the mountain on her last day of lessons, and it’s no mystery which ones those are. So, enjoy the pictures!!
p.s. Steve and Rachel, let’s all keep our fingers crossed that all our “vacation kinks” have been worked out now and we won’t see any more crop up when we meet you in Hawaii. 🙂
Those Lintons 