Quicktakes - Winter 2014

1. Wavy broke her collar bone...again.  My poor fragile girl. A funny little fall off the couch sent us to emerg. for the evening and she is back in a brace for 6+ weeks.

 

2. We had our first experience with lice.  Thankfully our friends gave us the heads up and we caught it early.  Many hours were spent over a couple weeks sitting in front of the TV combing through the girls hair with a nit comb.  Now tell me your head isn't itchy.

3. We took a mini-break to Canmore as a family.  We did some x-country skiing at the Canmore Nordic Center, some swimming and just hung out.  It was wonderful!

 

4. Nollie, Luca and I did our first x-country ski lopet.  The girls each did the 1km and I did the 11km, more than twice the distance that I have skied previously.

        

5. Curt has been busy in the shop and hopes to be putting up the remainder of the trim starting later this weekend. Some day our house will be finished!

 

6. Finley has been busy.  He loves to grab a hand-full of clothes from his drawer and get himself dressed.  He is a chatty little boy and talks more and more every day.

7. The diamond just fell out of my ring, like right now, and I found it.

First Ski of the Season

Yesterday morning we went out to the trails for our first x-country ski of the year.  After 4 days of large family get togethers, including a Birthday and Christmas our family was spent and we were looking forward to a day of relaxing at home.  Curt suggested the ski and I was all over it.  It has been great weather here, I really wanted to get outside and I knew I was in need of some exercise.  The only problem was getting the kids going.  Our kids are painful to get out of the house on a regular day and this was not any easier.  They were playing so happily and I hated to interrupt them to leave for somewhere again.   Nollie was crying saying "you said we wouldn't have to go anywhere today, that we could just stay home."  Sorry dear but Mom needs this and you could use some fresh air too.  When we finally got in the van I was raging, tired of wining, crying, slow moving, etc.  

Since we only have one set of kids skis we generally take turns.  One of us will go for a ski while the other person stays back at the cabin with the kids and lets them play around in the snow and try out the kids skis.  I was still angry after the 10 minute drive to the trails and we decided it was best if I went for my ski first, so that I didn't loose it on any of the kids.  It took about 2 minutes of skiing and I was at peace.  At 10:00am we were the first ones at the trails and the other man that arrived just after us went the opposite way, so I was skiing completely alone.  The temperature was right around zero, beautiful for this time of year and the sun was beaming through the trees. My view ahead looked like this..

 

... and to my view left through the trees you could see the river valley down below. 

I skiied 3.2 km and on the way back I was getting tired and slow, hoping  I didn't do too much, since other than climbing the sledding hill a few times I haven't done much for exercise since gardening season ended.

When I got back from my ski I was met by Luca coming towards me on the trails.  Nollie had no interest in skiing yesterday and Luca had been ripping around the whole time I was gone.  She was excited and wanted to go on a ski just like I did... as far as I did... even further, so I turned around and we started skiing together. It was so fun to see Luca wanting to ski and enjoying skiing.  She didn't want to turn around and go back at all.  She thoroughly enjoyed her time alone with Mom and was chatting up a storm for the whole ski.  We forgot to grab the kids poles, which is OK since kids don't normally learn to ski with poles but she was convinced she needed some, so she used mine.

Luca and I skied another 500m together, the longest I've ever seen her ski.  I can't wait to get another set of kids skis so we can try family ski together this year. 

X-Country Skiing

This weekend we went down to the DV ski trails.  A guy Curt knows has been bugging him to come and check them out so with the beautiful weather we thought, lets go!

We did not get to ski as a family of course.  Two people who have not skied in a long time, one of which just had a baby, pulling 3 kids, on their first outing, not going to happen.  We did get to check out some of the equipment that is available if we want to pull our kids at a later date and Luca got a ride in the sled behind a more experienced skier.  There was a chalet at the trails and a camp fire going so while one of us went for a ski the other stayed back with the kids and kept them entertained.  I felt so great after my short ski.  Something about getting some exercise outside on a beautiful sunny day is exhilarating.

We had a set of kids boots and skis that Grandma B had managed to round up earlier this year and Nollie was excited to try them out.  She was able to move around quite well and could even get up by herself when she fell.

When Luca saw Nollie trying them she needed to as well.  "I want to skate, I want to skate".  I put the boots and skis on her and she just took off without any instruction or coaching.  Nollie walked beside her instructing her to swing her arms and helping her up when she fell.

Waverly stayed happily strapped to my chest (or Curt's while I was skiing). 

We had a great time at the trails and I know we will be going back again (actually, Curtis already has)