Sledding at Cypress

Finally, my first real post of 2014. I must say I got quite behind last year. I'll try to be more timely this year. I wanted to get caught up before our trip to Disneyland this coming weekend.

We took a trip up to Cypress mountain at the beginning of January. As you can see the hills aren't getting a lot of snow this year. Most of the runs at Cypress aren't even open and the sledding area was about 25% of what it was last year. We went in February last year so maybe things will be better by Family Day.

Carter's favourite sled is the flying saucer and based on the sleds I saw at the hill that day, still one of the most effective. He was making it to the end of the hill every time and sometimes I'd introduce a bit of spin at the top when I got him started. He was also getting pretty good at controlling his speed with his feet.

Callie had a blast with the crazy carpet. I think she likes that she can control where she's going yet still get up enough speed to make it fun. Most of the day she went down on her stomach which I think is the way it's designed, however one of the Cypress people stopped her for a few runs as he felt it wasn't 'safe'. I can sort of understand because she's going head first but she's so low to the ground I think it's almost safer. As soon as he was gone we went back to the old method.

This was another outing with Kristen and Ryan. Kristen had a flying saucer too and she squealed the entire way down every single time. We also had to be careful with her because she had no speed control and was going right to the net at the bottom unless someone stopped her. The funniest thing was her toque that would go down over her eyes on every run so she had no idea where she was going.

Public Skating at the Ice Palace

This year we found out about the Ice Palace in Coverdale. Apparently they've had it since the mid-nineties. They take one of the ice rinks, add Christmas Lights, trees and figurines and have public skating all day for most of the month of December and all of the Christmas holidays. We had a bit of trouble getting Callie on the ice. She didn't like how tight the skates had to be and we went through 4 different pairs and two helmets before we could get her on the ice.

Carter had no problem at all. I might have to see about signing him up for hockey in the next few years. He wasn't too stable but we still had fun with me pushing him around on the ice.

Once we got Callie on the ice she seemed to have a bit of fun though it didn't last very long. She's still using the skating helper thingy but she's pretty close to not needing it. Last year she managed to skate with just me holding her hand. Perhaps we'll go out skating a few more times this year and she'll feel more confident.

For anyone that  has checked the Ice Palace out it's a great public skate around Christmas time!

Christmas

Christmas started somewhat early this year with a trip to Science World on the first weekend of December. BC Hydro always has a Children's Christmas Party for BC Hydro staff with kids 12 and under. They book Science world for the first two hours of the morning before it opens to the public and you get refreshments and free run of the place. You can then stay for the rest of the day if you wish. For the first time we managed to get at least one of the kids to have their picture taken with Santa. Carter was not very interested though. He didn't even want to look at him. I guess it's too real when he's right in front of you.

I don't think Christmas is Wilson's favourite time of year. The kids always torment him by putting hats on him and we always forget, and wrap his present and place it under the tree. He knows it's something good but he can't get to it. He's especially not fond of the saxophone playing Santa.

Once the holidays rolled around we become the Christmas hub for both my family and Kerry's. Barb and Reg came down a few days before hand and we have Christmas #1. The kids get to open one present on Christmas eve but then they have to wait until Christmas morning. Unfortunately Callie figured this meant 4:45a. Kerry managed to keep her quite till about 6:00 but it was still a very early morning. Carter's favourite gift was his seat pet. He saw the commercial and had to have one. He would quote the commercial and tell us that "Then he wouldn't have to ask 'Are we there yet?'"

Callie's favourite gifts were definitely all of her lego. One of the sets she got was over 1200 pieces. She still managed to have it done by the end of the day on Christmas day. The lego that they have designed for girls is called Lego Friends and she got Heart Lake High and Hear Lake Stables as well as a house boat. As you build the set it allows for a lot of imagination however she tends to keep everything in it's original configuration and doesn't take it apart so it's more about building the city. I had to make her a table just to hold it.

A continued Christmas tradition is for Santa to buy the kids pajamas. Kerry... I mean Santa.... has done it since Callie and Carter were born and the last couple of years he's been getting it for Kristen and Ryan as well. This year they looked like Christmas prison convicts and each had a different Christmas character on the front. We finally managed to get a picture with all of them together, even Ryan who is notoriously difficult to keep in pictures.

We finished Christmas and New Years with Mom and Dad coming down for Christmas #2. I think this year we opened presents the evening they came rather than waiting for Christmas morning. That's more in line with what our family used to do anyways so it felt like the right thing to do.

We also had Christmas Dinner, Two Fondus and a mini new years party at our house. A very busy holiday. It almost seemed like a vacation to go back to work.

Halloween

Carter finally got to wear his Spiderman costume on Halloween. We actually got it for him about a year and a half ago at a garage sale but he didn't wear it last year because he decided to be a horse again. He's been randomly wearing it whenever we have company over, at birthday parties and dinner parties. Pretty much anytime he wants to interact with people in a group setting. I think he likes having an alter ego for these occasions.

We got Callie's costume via mail order. She's Hermoine the witch from Harry Potter. The costume came with the robe and the scarf and she added in the white dress shirt and book. I got to try out my new lathe by turning her a wand. It was actually my first useful project off the new tool. Turned out to be a bit harder than I expected since it has to be so thin. She designed it and I somehow managed to meet her exact specifications.

As per usual, Kerry takes the kids over to Kristen and Ryan's to trick or treat at their house before coming back to our neighbourhood. Kristen was part of Lightning McQueen's pit crew and Ryan was a monkey. A very fitting costume for him since he's quite mischievous like Curious George. I always miss this since I stay home to great the Halloween trick or treaters. This year we had a new record with 86 kids.

I continue to add to our halloween decoration kit each year. I usually like to buy things the day before Halloween or right afterwards as by then they've marked everything down. This year I even got some halloween decorations as Christmas presents so. It only takes a couple of hours to set up and it makes our house more inviting for the neighbour hood kids. We're in a bit of a side street so anything we can do to entice them on to our street helps.

Pumpkin Patch

We went on our annual trip to the Aldor Acres Pumpkin patch. We've been going since Callie was 2 and it gets better every year. This was it's 25th anniversary. It's a nice family run operation and since they live on the farm, they pretty much give up all semblance of privacy during the day for the  month of October. It has an excellent variety of pumpkin sizes and you know they are popular when the price keeps going up each year. You pay to get everyone in the door and you still have to pay for your pumpkin.

The last couple of years we've been going with the cousins, Kristen and Ryan and Auntie Carmen and Uncle Corey. The kids really enjoy these outings. This year we went in the second week of October and the weather was still quite warm, as evidenced by Callie deciding to wear shorts. Everyone had on their gum boots but the fields were still quite dry as we hadn't had any significant rainfall yet.

One of Callie's favourite parts is of course the petting zoos. She's especially fond of the bunnies. In previous years I've had to protect the bunnies as she didn't quite understand what 'gentle' meant. This year though she knew exactly how to handle them. She also enjoyed the cows, goats, pigs and horses. I may have to try to convince Kerry that we should buy a bunny. There's plenty of room in the back yard.

I'm not too sure what Carter's favourite part is. He just seems to enjoy everything, from the petting zoos, to the picture taking to the hay ride out to the field. I guess if I had to pick something this year it seemed to be the popcorn and the pumpkin pie. He definitely loves his popcorn.

We got to go to the upper field this year. They have several fields and you don't really know where you will end up until you get there. I like the upper field because it has a great view of the farm and it's usually drier without being too dusty. We let the kids each pick out a pumpkin though we encourage them to get smaller ones. They charge based on the width so it's cheaper for us to get small ones here and then buy a bigger one at Superstore.

Carter's First Day of School

I'm often amazed that both our kids are ours. I swear at least one of them was switched at birth as they are polar opposites. Callie is always very nervous on the first day of school and it was like trying to get a picture of a well known celebrity. She ran from me as if I was the paparazzi. Carter on the other hand couldn't wait to go. I had to stay home for most of the week because of gradual entry for Kindergarten. His first day only required him to sign-in and then we went home. This meant that Callie went earlier with Kerry and Carter and I picked her up when she was done as she only had an hour.

Since Callie always has a few butterflies on the first day since she's been in Kindergarten we've always scheduled ourselves to go to Rickey's for breakfast. It gives her something to think about and I like that we get to have some Daddy daughter time. Now it will be three of us since Kerry has to stay at the school for most of the day. Carter is adapting very well and keeps us well informed of his progress. It's January now and he's on the letter M.

Family Fishing Trip

We had bought a fishing rod for Carter when we were in Prince George and his cousin Kristen got one for her birthday so both families got together for a family fishing trip at the end of the summer. Not in a real lake but we figured a fish farm would be better for their first experience since we were pretty much guaranteed a catch. Carter was the master at casting and was able to get it farther and more accurate than most of the adults. I was glad they let him use his smaller rod. It's pretty well made considering it's kids size.

Cousin Ryan had lot's of fun throwing rocks in the pond which we later learned was frowned upon. Because the fish get fed with pellets anything thrown into the water looks like food to them. It was an adventure in itself running after him as he ran from pond to pond attempting to throw everything in sight.

Things started out a bit slow in the first pond but as soon as we moved to the bigger pond we started to get nibbles. I wasn't intending to catch anything but accidentally got a bite while holding on to Carter's rod for him. First one in the bucket. Things got really exciting when Carter got his first bite. It was a bit more forceful than he was expecting and the fish ended up taking his rod. We had to chase it around the pond and used another fishing rod to catch his fishing rod. A very skillful catch. Second one in the bucket.

It became an event we'll never forget when Kristen managed to catch her Daddy with a hook in the shorts in his backside. We eventually had to get help from the owners of the pond to cut the hook out. By this time of course Corey was not happy that Kristen or himself hadn't caught anything. He decided he'd go to his fancier lures and managed to pick up fish number three.

When we got there, Callie had no intention of even attempting to fish but I think she got a bit jealous when Carter got his so she decided she'd try it as well. She had lot's of patience but in the end no luck. We had to drag her away from the pond at the end of a fun day.

The pond owners took care of clubbing the fish, Corey took care of prepping them and I cooked them up on the BBQ. Very satisfying even if it was a bit of a cheat fishing in a pond stocked full of fish.