Our January ended with a trip to Whistler with friends, Tony, Alex, and Marina, sans Eli (who spent a long weekend with Grandma and Grandpa). I will have fond memories of this trip for a long time.
Fresh powder, even at 2 p.m.? YES PLEASE!!!
But we’ll be laughing about the calamities that could have ruined the trip for a long time as well. It’s not like we were there for a real trip or anything that could be called a vacation. We left on a Friday and returned on a Sunday. But between Tony’s passport expiration and emergency replacement, no tuna fish for the tuna casserole, and the telemark ski boots left at home in the basement while the skis arrived safely with us, we had a lot of obstacles to overcome. And we did We had a marvelous time. Tony got a new passport out of the deal, we ate smoked salmon casserole which was even more yummy than tuna casserole, and we found the only store in Whistler that rents telemark ski boots.
Tony made a bet that, after a day of skiing, we'd all be in bed by 9:45. Time stamp: 9:15.
Cheers! Apres ski!
Surprise! The Otmans and the Kaisers find each other in Whistler!
Ann, Marc, and their kids Lucio and Nico are our "Whistler" friends cuz that's the only place we've ever seen them!
Some of the Seattle area got hit with snow over the MLK weekend. Ballard was given a pass except for a few flurries… until yesterday. To be perfectly honest, I showed up for work on Tuesday feeling a little left out. North of Seattle in Everett, folks were hunkered down. In South Seattle, Beacon Hill was complaining of treacherous sidewalks. Even a few miles east of Ballard, there was plenty of snow on the lawns and sidewalks. Heck, even Downtown Seattle had more snow than Ballard… Sunday we ventured Downtown for our friend’s 27th birthday dinner by REI and saw snowmen on the side of the road!
Ballard didn’t even have a trace of white. But that all changed on Wednesday, early in the wee hours of the morning. Outlaw woke me up around 4:30 in the morning (one thing this pregnancy has plagued me with is insomnia), and after a second of lying in bed wide awake, I realized that there might be something to see outside our window.
Outside the Kaiser home at 5 a.m.
Outside the Kaiser home at 7 a.m.
YAY! SNOW!!!
I sat and watched the snow flurries accumulate while feeling sorry for the all news reporters on the highways and overpasses who were broadcasting with up-to-the-minute, inch-by-inch tallies. And then I went back to bed, strategizing how we might sneak away to go skiing the next day…
I have never in my life played hooky from work to go skiing… until yesterday. And it was SO. WORTH. IT. My legs still ache from all the powder tele-turns. Very rarely does one experience fresh powder at the Summit at Snoqualmie, but we did yesterday. And I’m blissfully dreaming of the terrain at Mission Ridge that we’ll get to experience this weekend. YAYYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!! Can you tell I’m stoked?!?!
Even better? Next weekend, we’re going to Whistler with some friends. Thanks, Mom! For a perfectly timed condo reservation, cuz the snow is falling hard, and I can’t wait to take advantage of it! Eli is going to spend the weekend with his Grandpa and Grandma (Nate’s folks), and I’m going to enjoy a kid-free, winter-wonderland weekend to the fullest.
But what of Eli and the snow, you ask?
He LOVES the snow.
"SNOW!"
"Huh. I just slid down, and I liked it."
Wheee!!!
Trying to walk
Wednesday, he walked around all day saying, “SNOW!” which sounds a bit like “no,” except with a very nasally “n.” You can easily tell the difference between “SNOW!” and “no” by his body language: finger pointing outside with joy on his face vs. adamantly shaking his head from side to side. It brings Nate and I never-ending joy to see how much Eli likes playing in the snow.
Today, with the help of my dad (Eli’s Gung Gung), we all walked to the park and did a little sledding. Eli liked sledding on Nate’s lap much more than on my dad’s lap.
Eli does love his dad
"This is gonna be FUN!"
Sledding with Dad: Part 1
Sledding with Dad: Part 2
Sledding with Dad: Part 3
Victory walk
The snow is STILL falling after 2 solid days.
Seattle is getting restless with cabin fever. We never have snow that continues to fall for more than 2 days. Seattle isn’t sure what to do with itself, and the city has literally been reduced to pedestrians, snowmobiles, and cross-country skiers.
We may get a lot of crap for the entire city shutting down, but I’m still enjoying myself.
And who knows, maybe Snopocalypse 2012 will continue a bit longer. It doesn’t matter to us though, we’re off to the cabin tomorrow in our sturdy 4WD truck.
Last weekend, we packed up the truck and the kid, dropped the dog off at a friend’s, and headed to Packwood. Ailey had organized a Kaiser-kids ski weekend (sans Clayton, who had some prior commitments), and we all piled into adjoining cabins at the Mountain View Lodge, conveniently located 20 minutes away from White Pass Ski Resort.
Hazel's pretty pink ski boots
Since our small Kaiser clan is still getting the hang of packing up for a ski weekend, we were a few hours off our desired arrival time and completely missed the pizza dinner. Miraculously, Hazel was still awake to greet us at 10 p.m., and stayed awake staring and sometimes crying as Unc Nate, Aunt Ailey, Uncle Ritchie, and her dad drank beers into the late evening. Eryn managed to sleep thanks to earplugs and an eye mask, and I never really woke up from the car ride thanks to some powerful muscle relaxers. (Just my luck, the very morning we planned to leave for White Pass Ski Weekend, my back went into spasms. This is the first re-occurrence of back pain since before I was pregnant… Sigh. I REALLY didn’t miss it.)
We all managed to wake up in the morning somewhat rested (despite the fact that Eli woke up and cried several times throughout the night), and we hit the ground running with a hearty breakfast and a lot of ski and baby gear… and some baby ski gear.
Hazel and the stickers
Eli and the stickers
I learned what being a “lodge mom” is all about, and I even managed to get a little work done. The conditions were meh, so I didn’t miss much except for maybe a beer in the ski yurt. What I got to enjoy instead was some really precious time with Eli and Hazel, and I don’t regret not skiing. Eli is enamored with his big cousin Hazel, and Hazel shared her toys, her books, and her stickers with Eli.
Hazel also had a big milestone that day: she skied for the first time without anyone holding her. Brian said he almost shed a tear, right there on the magic carpet. We were all very proud.
But the most precious moment of the weekend had to have been that evening. We were all back at the lodge chilling, relaxing and getting dinner ready, while the kids played around. We decided to set Eli next to his aunt and his cousin and this cuteness ensued. I LOVE this video!
Oh, and in case you haven’t had enough, here’s some more:
How do I adequately describe how awesome Girls Ski Weekend 2011 was?
I can’t, so I’ll have to leave you with some pictures from the slopes.
Bomber Cliffs are RAD!
Backcountry gals
Fist bump. Blow it up!
Checkin' out the ridge
Yeaahhhh!!!
Oh, and since we didn’t all ski and I don’t have pictures of two of our awesome bad-ass girls, I’ll share a few quotes from the weekend.
“Follow the Chumstick Highway to Beaver Valley.” (I kid you not, these were part of the directions to get to our lodge. Given that two of our crew are middle school teachers who’s minds will ALWAYS go there, we had endless giggles about these directions.)
“You MUST try the ramp!”
“I want a dog named ‘Meat.’”
“I’ve skinned a moose before.”
“I have a list for that too.”
Andreas Keller – Where you can eat a pickle with a knife!
“Let’s all hike the Ridge!”
“Are you texting?” “No, I’m writing down all the funny things you say!”
A good friend put it this way, “Two of the most sociable people we know take off alone for New Years?!? It defies logic.” But that’s what we do… For the past five or six years, we’ve headed to the Kaiser cabin for New Year’s Eve, sometimes with another couple, sometimes just to two of us. This year it was actually the four of us for the long weekend–Eli, Galt, Nate and myself.
The Kaiser boys say, "Happy New Year!" from the cabin
We celebrated New Year’s Eve along with rest of the East Coast, and were in bed by 10:30 p.m. Then on New Year’s Day we dropped Eli off at mountain daycare and continued a long tradition: we hit the slopes.
It was GORGEOUS!!! The sun was shining, the snow was great, and you could see at least four different mountain peaks in the distance. Did I tell you it was gorgeous?
We love Mission Ridge Ski Resort! And the lines… well, they were nonexistent, which is part of the reason why we love Mission Ridge!
We had a marvelous time. Tony got a new passport out of the deal, we ate smoked salmon casserole which was even more yummy than tuna casserole, and we found the only store in Whistler that rents telemark ski boots.
