Ski trips galore!
While all of you are enjoying the sunshine, riding your bikes and pulling out the spring coats and rubber boots, we are suffering through a winter blizzard. Over the past 24hrs, about a foot of snow fallen, surrounding us, yet again, in a winter wonderland. So, it seems only appropriate to make one more post about our recent snowy adventures. I sure hope this is the last of it, because I am getting tired of tromping around in my heavy Sorel boots and am so looking forward to pulling out our summer clothes and hitting the beach!
Here are a few pictures and updates from our April and March happenings 🙂
After returning home from Terrace, we celebrated Alice’s first birthday. I can’t believe it. A year has sped by so quickly. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was rushing to the hospital for Alice’s rapid-fire entrance. Alice has changed so much recently. She self-weaned and started to walk just before her 1st birthday. Like Henry, she is very independent and likes to do things on her own. She rarely will sit still and cuddle, but likes to be on the go and will definitely let you know exactly what she wants! I think I’m going to have my work cut out for me with two fiery red-heads during the teenage years.
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| Alice’s birthday cake! An amazing creation made by a local woman in Sioux Lookout. |
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| Alice’s birthday outfit 🙂 it was the sweetest, but she wasn’t a huge fan of the headband! |
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| Gearing up for the arrival of Alice’s friends. Both of my kids just love their lambskins so much! |
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| Alice and Natalie |
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| Uncle Johnny! Alice’s favourite |
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| Jesse and Henry playing Lego |
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| Simon having a turn on Alice’s bike |
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| Uncle Johnny had just walked in the door at this moment. Look at her face! She loves him so much! |
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| Happy Birthday Alice! |
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| Henry got right in there and decapitated the fox 🙂 |
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| Yum! |
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| Alice’s birthday party! |
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| Yum! Cake! |
While in Terrace, Henry learnt how to climb out of his crib and so he has been getting up SO so early these days, usually between 5-6am. I have to leap out of bed when I hear him stirring because he will often go into Alice’s room and say good morning to her. He loves ‘getting her up’ and will often want to get into the crib with her when we get her up in the morning.
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| Two cuties in the crib! |
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| These goobers keeping me on my toes while Blake was away in Thunder Bay for work. |
After arriving home from Terrace, I jumped back into work and worked heavily until our next adventure – a ski trip to Lutsen Mountain with Ava and Uncle Darren over Ava’s March Break. We spent just under a week at Lutsen, which is in Northern Minnesota. It was a low-key break. I loved watching Ava helping with Alice and getting along so well with Henry. The kids adore Uncle Darren, especially Alice who reaches for him and laughs every time she sees him.
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| After a 6hour drive on my own with Alice and Henry, we arrived in Lutsen, Minnesota which is about 1.5hrs away from Thunder Bay. It’s a great spot with a ton of outdoor winter activities. There is a ski hill and endless kilometers of cross-country skiing. We were joined by Ava & Uncle Darren for a week-long family ski vacation on the slopes. |
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| Cousin snuggles on the top bunk in our condo. |
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| Hanging out in the morning before we hit the hill |
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| Getting on the gondola. |
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| Away they go! |
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| Blake doing some tricks off a jump (on the left) with beautiful Lake Superior in the background |
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| Alice and I taking the gondola up to see the ski crew at the lodge |
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| A break with a gorgeous view! |
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| Alice and I went cross-country skiing at one of the nearby trails. It was beautiful! Unfortunately, half-way around my loop, Alice started fussing and cried and cried for the whole way back to the car! It was good motivation to ski faster 🙂 |
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| Going for a walk in the sun |
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| One afternoon, while the kids were napping, I took off for a massage at a nearby spa at this resort right on the edge of Lake Superior. It was amazing and so needed! |
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| Alice’s first turns on skis! |
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| Every morning and before bed, the kids were constantly playing with their ski gear – practicing taking it off and on and ‘skiing’ around the carpeted condo. |
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| Cuties all in their jammies before bed. |
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| Watching ski ‘bloopers’ before bed. |
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| Another go at skiing for Alice 🙂 |
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| Sort of getting it! |
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| Alice and I hanging out in the day lodge waiting for the rest of the crew to meet up with us. |
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| The whole gang! |
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| Henry and Ava skiing away with their capes. They were famous on the hill and people would cheer for them from the lift 🙂 |
Back at home, yet again, I jumped right back into work, but did get a few days of sunny play outside before heading out West for our next ski trip!
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| Alice is a regular at patient handover rounds and sometimes obstetrical rounds. Thankfully, my colleagues are very supportive and never seem to mind having her at the table 🙂 |
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| Alice & Henry snuggled up for a walk in the Chariot. |
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| Finally! Some sun! |
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| Excited for all the snow to melt away. |
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| Getting so big. |
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| Our first picnic on the front steps in the sun. |
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| So many puddles! |
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| Henry’s wild driving with Alice |
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| Endless afternoons playing outside |
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| Hanging out with the Abram Lake Rd crew (Hunter, Brooks and Sailor) |
At the beginning of April, we headed out West to Calgary so that I could attend an annual conference for rural physicians. We spent three days in Calgary. We had the chance to catch up with friends, I had the luxury of reuniting with colleagues from across Canada while Alice attended the conference daycare and Blake took Henry to the zoo and skiing. It was a pretty packed few days!
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| On our way to Calgary |
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| We had SEVEN checked bags (including two car seats, two cribs, the ski bag, the boot bag), as well as two carry-ons. It was a lot to haul around! Here is Henry catching a lift on the rolling ski bag! |
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| Henry and Blake watching the Jays game at a pub in Calgary |
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| Here we are taking advantage of city life. We ate at this awesome Moroccan restaurant. So delicious. |
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| The conference was so family/kid-friendly. Alice was able to go to daycare where she could play and nap and allow me to actually listen to the speakers. I would pick her up for lunch and she would hang out with my rural MD colleagues 🙂 She was so good and easy-going!
After our few days in Calgary, we headed off to Kelowna, BC, our former stomping ground from residency. Before driving up to Big White for our annual week-long ski vacation, we stopped for an overnight in Salmon Arm to see friends who have known Blake since he was a 21-year old ski bum that didn’t even know how to make scrambled eggs! He’s come a long way since then 🙂
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| Watching the world go by on our plan ride to Kelowna |
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| Getting some cuddles from Ever in Salmon Arm |
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| Henry watching the groomers at our condo at Big White. “Thanks for grooming the mountain for me!” |
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| Breakfast-time! Fuelling up for the slopes |
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| Watching Pingu and eating banana muffins = the life! |
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| Getting their gear on |
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| Playing cards with Ava while the little ones sleep and Darren and Blake make the most out of the daily dumps of powder snow.. |
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| Spring skiing apres-ski |
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| Darren & Alice |
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| Skiing family! |
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| I love this pic of Blake and Alice, deep conversation on the gondola! |
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| Blake took a turn to hang out with Alice so that I could ski with Henry, Ava and Darren. It was so much fun! |
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| Skiing with a two-year old means lots of breaks for hot chocolate and cookies! |
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| Taking a rest |
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| All together on the gondola! |
It’s crazy to think of how much has changed in just one year. These are a few pics from this time last year to compare to:
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| Sweet Alice – look how big she is now! |
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| Alice and I hanging out in the Village |
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| Taking Alice for a run on the baby hill |
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| These three! |
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| So much snow. Every day! |
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| Apres-ski pizza at the pub |
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| Alice and I going for a walk in the blizzard. Even though it was the end of the season, it snowed so much and the conditions were fantastic. |
Now that we are home again, we were so hoping for Spring to stay so that we could start our garden, but alas, after some blissfully sunny days, we are back to snow again!
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| On the beach! |
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| Out for a bike ride! |
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| The ice is finally breaking up |
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Henry is obsessed with the 1950’s books about Dick, Jane and Sally.
I learnt how to read with these books, but it’s funny to read them now. I don’t know how women ever got their kids to dress with bows in their hair and with white ankle socks every day! |
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| Having a giggle with Auntie before bed |
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| Henry and I drinking our tea and opening our cards from Grandma and Grampie |
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| So many bath toys! |
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| Henry giving Alice a bubble beard 🙂 |
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| At Alice’s one-year check-up. She’s doing great! |
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Henry had an epic meltdown after daycare yesterday. A combination of too many early mornings (he still is getting up at 6am despite our Gro Clock training) and late bedtimes (I put him to bed at 7pm but he never seems to actually STAY in bed until about 8:30pm).
After screaming hysterically for 30min, he put himself ‘to sleep’ on the floor to recover. |
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| What I woke up to this morning! |
Hopefully the snow will melt again soon and we can all get back out into the sunshine and the long days of summer!
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