Whistler Trip Anniversary Day!

On our 3rd day of our Anniversary trip, it was our actual 10 year Anniversary. We decided to fill the day with activity, doing both the Peak to Peak gondola and a rafting trip!  The Peak to Peak gondola goes something like this... First you get on a gondola to go up to the top of Whistler Mountain. We rode with a very nice family that gave us some good tips on what to do at the top. We then took a chair lift up to the very peak of Whistler. We hiked around and took some beautiful pictures. We then took that same chair back down to where we got on. We did some shopping at the Whistler Lodge. We then got onto the Peak to Peak gondola which takes you from the top of Whistler and across to the top of Blackcomb Mountain. I feel we made a bit of a mistake when we took this gondola... we decided to go on the "glass bottom" gondola which was super full and really not all that cool since the "glass bottom" is more like a small window in the bottom. I think we would have enjoyed it more had we had a less full gondola and just looked out the windows.  Anyway, it was still cool. Once on Blackcomb, we walked around a bit and then took a chair to the bottom of Blackcomb.  Here are lots of pictures :)

On the chair up to the peak of Whistler.

Poy on the chair... he looks a little less windblown :)

At the top of Whistler

Poy on top of Whistler. I loved that there were wildflowers everywhere.

The lower right water is a "snowmaker reservior"

Glacier

Checking out the sights

Poy with the Inuksuk

My turn

These things were everywhere... these were actually quite small but looked big at this angle.

At the Whistler Mountain Peak sign.

This is what I look like after hiking! Yikes, I was tired!

This is the Peak to Peak gondola

Crossing over to the other side

Beautiful Glacier

Poy on the Blackcomb side

A beautiful view on the way back down.

We had a great time on our entire trip!

After this and a quick lunch we were off to our rafting trip. For those of you that don't know, Poy doesn't swim, so this was a big deal for him.  I knew he'd be okay, but will admit when we were on the water I was really hoping he wouldn't fall in. We had a great time though and I think he'd definitely do it again! We didn't have our camera with us since obviously if we fell in it would be ruined. We did purchase the photos that they took though.  I wish they had more photo spots, but at least we have pics of us rafting.

On the lake before getting to the river. This is where we learned what to do.

"Hold on!"

"smile"

Over the rapids!

We had a very memorable 10th Anniversary!

Our 10th Anniversary Trip to Whistler Day 2

Today was another great day in Whistler!! It is such a beautiful place with so much to do, or not do if you just want to relax.  Today we did the Ziptrek "Eagle" tour and had a fantastic time.  The tour is so much fun and educational as well. Much like Portland, Whistler is a very Eco-conscience place, so they talk to you all about the ecosystem throughout the tour. We loved it. Here are a few pictures and a video of our tour. The unfortunate part is that on the last and most exciting zip, our camera died. You will have to take our word for it and picture it in your head... Poy and I both zipped upside down for the majority of the line!! It was SO MUCH FUN!! Enjoy!! Click here for the video.

Our 10th Anniversary Trip to Whistler Day 1

We had an early morning, waking up at 6:45 to get ready for our flight to Vancouver, Canada. We were a bit surprised when we found our gate at the airport was actually downstairs in this little tiny room. We realized we were going to board our flight by walking out on the tarmac. We had never done that from PDX before. This would be the reason for walking out to the plane.

It was an itty bitty plane and it wasn't full at all, but it was quick and a very nice flight.  

Here was a view of Mt. St. Helens from the plane. Poy was proud of this pic

Once we got into the airport, through customs and got our rental car we were on our way.  They are doing a ton of prep for the upcoming Olympic games.

Here are the rings on the side of the highway. 

We decided we wanted to visit Chinatown since we had heard it was a good one to visit. Unfortunately we didn't have a great map and drove way past where we needed to be so we had quite a road trip. We did finally find Chinatown though and found a chinese restaurant for some lunch. We had some great BBQ pork, but I wasn't so impressed by the chow mein. We then did some shopping and found some stuff for Sophie. I finally bought her a pair of chinese PJ's that I've always wanted. We also bought her a good luck kitty and my dad a back scratcher :)

The outfit (I think of them as jammies) are actually bright pink, I think they look red in the photo.

We stopped on the way to Whistler at Shannon Falls. We did a little bit of hiking and took some fun pictures.

Being goofy

Gimme a kiss!

When we finally arrived in Whistler at almost 8pm, we were very happy with our hotel room. We are not normally splurgers when it comes to hotels, but we decided since it was our anniversary trip we were gonna stay somewhere nice.  So, here is our room.

The bathroom has a tub which is VERY important to me and it has heated floors :)

The living area is good sized and has a mountain view.

The bedroom with a pretty bed.

This little note and box of chocolates was on the kitchen island. 

Here is our kitchen

This is the view out our window. This is what the mountain looks like right now. Bikers were taking the chairlift up and biking down. 

After checking out the room we had pizza in the hotel pub and then walked around the Village. Although many shops were closed, it is a very cool area and we are looking forward to some great times.

"We were just excited about water wings..."

And now the kids don't even need water wings!  We went to parents day today for the kids second and final session of swim class for the summer and we were blown away! I knew the kids were making progress, they tell us what they are doing daily, but until we saw it we just had no idea! Sophie is swimming completely underwater and even jumping off the diving board into the deep end with no help at all!  Nolan is doing fantastic as well, but when he's in the shallow end he definitely relies on the bottom more than he needs to. Today I was in search of water wings because I do want to have them for our upcoming trip, and Nolan kept telling me, "but I don't need water wings mom". I just asked him to trust me... the kids don't know that we are taking them to Disney World at the end of September and we'll be swimming a lot.  Anyway, here is a video of Parents Day today. We started to video after Nolan did his deep end stuff so unfortunately we don't have his diving board and deep end swimming.  In case you can't tell, the little one on the diving board is Sophie.  I had originally posted it here, but the quality is not good (you could hardly tell who was who), so click here for the link to the video.

Summer Fun Photos

We have been having a great fun filled Summer. Here are a bunch of pictures of what we've been up to.  

Both kids were in swim class everyday for 2 weeks. They both did great and we signed them up for one more session starting in another week. The class is in a private pool and parents do not watch, so we don't really know how it's going until parents day on the last Friday.  It was very impressive seeing how they were doing.

Nolan is holding the pole and swimming in the deep end. Sophie is waiting her turn.

Sophie swimming in the deep end. She is super comfortable with her water wings on.

Parents join in and swim with the kids on parents day. Nolan loves dropping the rings in and going after them.

Sophie playing with a ring.

The kids playing

Nolan

Sophie swimming for a ring.

One sunny day we decided to find some free fun. We visited a park in Portland and fed the ducks. The kids loved it! I've never seen  a loaf of bread disappear so quickly :)

Sophie and the ducks

The kids running around.

Happy girl!

They even posed a for a couple brother/sister shots

Teeter totter!

Climbing trees

Poy had to work on 4th of July this year, so the kids and I went to my parents house.  My dad put on a great fireworks display for us. We had a lot of fun. Here are just a couple kid shots.

Nolan hanging out watching Papa and the fireworks.

Sophie watching fireworks and smiling pretty.

Anne-Elissa's husband Chris celebrated his 30th birthday mid July and we were invited up to his parents house in Bremerton. His parents live on the Puget Sound and it is just beautiful. We went up to Bremerton on Saturday and when we got there at noon, it was already blazing hot. Nolan was really excited to get out on the wave runner. We had many different trips out onto the water and we had SO MUCH FUN! We camped out in the yard for the night and went home Sunday morning. Chris and Anne-Elissa, thanks for having us come up. We can't wait to celebrate your 31st :)

This is the view from the house. It was beautiful!

Trish and I on our first wave runner outing.

Poy and Nolan on the wave runner. 

Aren't they cute :)

Nolan and I on one of our last trips out. I think we got caught in a little rain storm. We were out and having so much fun it didn't matter that it was raining... then I saw lightning and thought we should probably come in.  Nolan was a little speed demon with me! He and I would go max speed and he didn't even care when the water was spraying in his eyes. 

My Garden

I have never gardened in my life and I'm pretty proud of how well it is doing.  My bok choy (asian veggie-top right corner) is doing particularly well.  I am really excited about the corn although we've had some squirrel trouble and lost some corn. I replanted though and I am back up to my original corn count and it looks good. Today the broccoli looks larger as well. I can't believe how much I enjoy seeing my veggies grow.  Other than those I've mentioned, I also have green beans, edamame (soy beans), lettuce, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and a watermelon. Outside my box I have strawberries, raspberries and blackberries as well.

 

This first photo is of the garden the day I got everything planted.

May 27th

This is how it looks today.

June 20th

 

Check out that Bok Choy!

 

Watermelon, Beans, Tomatoes and Broccoli

White Belt Represents Innocence

Nolan started Taekwondo about 2 months ago with his friend Benjamin. When his instructor told us the boys would be testing for their white belt on June 20th, both his mom and I were a little leery that the boys would be ready by then. The instructor was encouraging though and let us know that he is lenient on the White belt test because it is their first time.  We have been practicing at home and today was the day.  The test lasted over 2 hours because many different kids and adults test at different levels at the same time.  Part of the test is sitting still and watching others. Also, not getting frustrated or upset if you struggle. 

Nolan did very well today. During one part of testing he was asked what are the five tenets of Taekwondo. Nolan answered Courtesy, Integrity, Perseverance, Self Control and Indomitable Spirit. He was then asked which one is your favorite and why. His answer was "self control, cause you always need to be calm and quiet and the usual stuff" It was pretty cute and had the spectators giggling. 

Nolan did great with the board breaking. It is amazing how great the energy is in the room when the board breaking happens.  Nolan had never even tried to break a real board before. They use practice boards in class.  After they successfully break a board in testing they get to keep it!  After the test one of the more experienced kids told Nolan & Benjamin to ask the instructor to sign his board.  He wrote "Nice work Nolan, You are off to a dynamic start!"  It was really cool.

When they gave out the belts it was very thrilling. Of coarse I teared up a bit. I am so very proud of my son.

To watch some of the highlights of the testing Click Here

To watch a longer version of the test Click Here

In case you are wondering, the students get their dobok (uniform) once they  

have received a belt.