Last Pre-Olympic Ski Day

It was the last day of cross country skiing at Cypress today - they shut down as of 4:00 today in anticipation of the Olympics. We will miss our weekly ski days until they open again in March (if we get any new snow!). But despite the late season conditions, we had a fantastic day, even discovering a bit of new terrain that is some of the best we have skiied up there. And, I finally took a turn towing Anna - check out the snow conditions in the picture below...

Anna took a nice long nap and woke up just a bit before we headed to the lodge for lunch. She lights up with joy when she sees that we've arrived there. Today she spent some time playing with her dad's ski glasses while waiting for her food.

Random Cuteness

Cozy on the couch...


Our shaggy headed personal greeter...

Playing with the New Camera

We have traded up our Olympus SLR camera for a beautiful Nikon D90 (loving it!) and Patrik and I headed out on a walk on Sunday morning with camera in tow. Fun!





And yes, those are buds and flowers from January 24th. In fact, my bulbs are starting to come up in my garden. It's so early!

Happy 40th Anniversary!

It was mom and dad's 40th anniversary on the 17th, and we siblings had planned a surprise party for them this past weekend. By some miracle, we managed to take them by surprise, and they showed up at Josefin and Tim's house on Saturday afternoon to a house full of people waiting to celebrate them.


There were not too many photos taken on our part - we were too busy mingling and having a good time - but it was a great afternoon and mom and dad had a good time.

Baking with Mom

It sure is fun baking with mom (but it's even more fun to eat the cinnamon buns afterwards!)


I'm especially lucky because mom is following in my farmor's tradition and letting me eat extra buns on the day when they're fresh out of the oven. AND I get to wear my farmor's apron....

Skiing with Mimmi

Yay! Mimmi is back in Canada! She is Sid-less, which is a little less than perfect, but we're so glad to have her. She came over for a visit about a week ago - just in time for Amanda's birthday and a ski on Saturday. Unfortunately, we sent her home with the stomach flu on Sunday, but we're hoping that she'll be back to visit soon anyway.

Happy Birthday Amanda!

We were happy to host Amanda's birthday party this year, on a Friday a week or so ago. 15 or so gathered to celebrate our beautiful Amanda with good food, conversation, and games.



Happy birthday girlfriend!

Aquarium

It's the rainy season here in Vancouver, and sometimes it can be hard to think of dry things to do to keep the little ones happy. One of the best things is the Vancouver Aquarium, which is fantastic and which keeps Anna in awe and happy.


Usually it's just Anna and I that head down on a weekday, but on this particular weekend, the whole family headed down and made an afternoon of it.


The baby beluga whales were playing around while we were there - you can see one in the background here.


As usual, Anna made a new friend while she was there. She loves looking at this picture on the computer screen. There's just something about Kermit...

Trout Lake with Dad

Sometimes Anna wants some alone time with her pappa, and so on this particular day they headed out for a long walk over to Trout Lake Park and back.


Sweet times, hanging out with dad...

Wet Ski

It must have been 4 degrees on the mountain and a balmy 11 or so in the city, but the rain had taken a short reprieve and we thought it might be a good window for a ski. So off to Cypress we went.


The rain held itself to a light mist while we skiied and the snow was in very late spring skiing condition. But snow + skiis = fun.

Anna feels so at home at the lodge now, she goes up and says hi to everyone. Just making sure that they feel welcome...

Games Night

Mel, Andrew and Amanda came over for a games night tonight. They came in time to catch Anna before she headed off to bed, and before she went, she showed them some of the games she likes to play.


Aterwards, the rest of us played a game that was new to Patrik and I, which is maybe why we lost so badly!



We relaxed by the comfort of the fire...


...and talk turned to skiing. Plans have been hatched for a cross country trip up to Cypress in the morning. By the end of the night, Amanda, who is usually a night owl and a late riser, was regretting promising to join us...


We'll see what she says when she gets her wake-up call at 7:30 tomorrow morning :)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all! We celebrated the end of the 00's in the snow of Whistler. Good food, great friends and plenty of skiing - it couldn't have been any better. We stopped by the Callahan Valley on our way up to Whistler for a cross country ski. Part of the area is closed for Olympic construction, but there are plenty of trails open and you can ski for hours without retracing a single 'step'.






We joined Kate, Curt and William, Keith, Claire and Lily, and Neil, Sam and Annabelle for new years eve. After the kids were all tucked into bed, we feasted on a three course meal and enjoyed lots of laughs and good conversation. There was a small struggle to stay awake until midnight (remember the days when staying up until the wee hours of the morning was easy and fun?), but we made it!



After fueling up on breakfast, the boys and Claire headed up for a day on Whistler Mtn, while Kate, Sam and I stayed behind with the kids. It snowed hard all day, and the kids had fun getting pulled around on the toboggan. The boys came home exhausted but grinning from ear to ear at the end of the day - a ski day to remember, it seems.