Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Mt Washington Snowboarding Trip I've been meaning to write about this trip and now it's been over a month and it sort of feels like old news to me. But here goes:
We dropped of our kidlets at Ann's and headed up to courtenay. On the way up, Dave complained about Kyle's driving. At one point there was a huge bird in the middle of the highway and as we got closer it spread it's wings and flew at our car. It was an eagle. Kyle swerved a little and I may have let out a little scream of fright a long with Kassie. After the fact Dave got on Kyle's case and said that you aren't supposed to swerve around wildlife, just hit them dead on. There was some debate around this, and Dave looked it up on his iphone and it says you're not supposed to swerve around anything smaller than a cow. What?! And just hit the eagle? Possibly damage your car? No thanks. There were about two seconds of driving on the bumpy part on the side of the highway to which Dave responded "COME ON!" rather annoyed. Seriously, two seconds. I was amused. We stopped at the Superstore in courtenay to get food. We had arranged to stay in a friend's condo, which was really nice, so we decided to make our own food. Of course we bought way too much food for one day and breakfast the next morning. That took a while. Then we headed up the mountain. We located our condo and brought all our stuff up. Kassie lent me one of her boards and I had to rent boots. Kyle had to rent everything. So, Dave and Kyle left to go get rentals straightened out and Kassie and I made lunch. Yes, it was already lunch time. I got new snow pants for the trip. They were on sale at winners and I quite like them. They're like real pants. We got all geared up. Dave scared Kyle and I into thinking we would be too cold, so we bundled up big time. Only to sweat and sweat.
The condo was at the bottom of the green hill, so we went out and up the chair lift. I hadnt been snowboarding in 10 years. Kyle never had been. His first time trying was getting off the chair lift. Chair lifts are really intimidating to me. I know most of its in my head, but getting off on a snowboard is tricky and if you fall you have to get out of the way right away to clear room for the people behind you to get off. The actual ride up is pleasant though. I pretty much picked up where I had left off ten years ago, give or take. But, I wasn't good then, so... There was A LOT of falling, and I really really struggled with getting back up again, because my board would start sliding before I had my balance and Id fall all over again. Sometime's I would be stuck in one spot for a long time, putting my whole energy into trying to get up, while everyone was waiting for me. There were some brutal wipe outs. One in particular where I had some good speed going and my board caught some snow in the front and threw me forward and I landed with a heave on my front, knocked all the wind out and my face bounced hard off the snow, causing my neck to be severely sore for a few days. My toque and goggles flew off and I lied there and let some hot tears slide down my face. Kyle came and helped me. We named it my biff-it spot. After that, every time I fell, even if it wasnt that bad, the impact would send throbbing pain to my head.
We started out at the top of the mountain where it was really steep. Kassie said that was best way to learn-start at the top and work your way down. I disagree with that now though because it was too steep to really practice on. Our main focus was to get down. Kyle did really well for his first time, as I knew he would. He's naturally good at everything he tries. We split up from Kassie and Dave for a while and did our own runs. We found a hill we really liked and only got to go down it once before they closed it. They close the mountain at 3:30 or something and then turn lights on and you can go in the evening, but only on the runs that are lit. We went in. My whole body was exhausted and aching. It requires so much effort from all your muscles, especially if your'e falling a lot, but even if you,re not, it feels like you aren't working that hard until you stop and you realize you are out of breath. I got the chills. I had a bath. Kassie and dave made dinner for us. Dave did it begrudgingly insisting that he definitely was'nt going to help clean up. Then the minute Kyle was done eating he was putting all his gear back on and ready to go. I was so tired, I honestly didnt feel like going again. But I had to make the trip worth it, right? Its so expensive to go!!
I won't go into all the details because it'll bore you. Kyle and I made a lot of progress. Dave taught us some basics and then we practiced over and over, mostly on the green hill, which was fun. It felt good to finally feel like we were getting the hang of it. I just wish we could go on a regular basis to keep it up. It's sort of a rich people sport I think. You have to pay for all the gear, and a lift pass, and have the time to do it too and it's not cheap.
I left a little earlier than Kyle and went back to start getting ready for the concert with Kassie. I was soooo tired. I felt like I could happily lounge on the couch and watch olympics for the rest of the evening. I did Kassie's hair for her, and she did my make up. She works for MAC (well she was at that time, but not anymore) Then we headed to the pub where Wide Mouth Mason was playing.
It was full. We got a seat way in the back. We still had a while to wait, so were ordered some appys and watched the olympis and visited. That particular day was the day Charles Hamlin won his gold medal and they kept showing his race over and over. Once the band started, we of course, got up and went to the front. Wide Mouth Mason is just soooo good live! They are the sort of band you like way more after hearing them live. Dave and Kassie did their own thing, and Kyle and I were up front and center. It was fun.
By the end of all this, we were so tired and soooo sore. (well Kyle and I were.) I was fully looking forward to a sleep in. It was my first night away from Sloan! Unfortunately my sleep wasn't that great because every time I had to move, there was soreness and pain.
We got up and had a lazy relaxing morning before we came home. It was a really fun trip, and I'm so glad we got to do it with Kassie and Dave. Speaking of them, the just moved back to Edmonton. They left yesterday and I'm feeling sad about it. They were fun friends for us and we'll miss them.
And that was our fun snowboarding/ wide mouth mason experience.
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Sarahstottle posted @ 7:40 AM
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Picture Update I thought it was time for a picture update. Here's one of Adriel when he was Sloan's age next to Sloan, both making a mess out of eating time. I just thought you may be interested in the comparison. I think that while their builds are identical (head shape, face shape, hair (more in the way it lays, not colour) their actual faces are different and of course, to me, both are unbearably cute. I'm glad I have pictures and videos to go back to and look at because I think otherwise, Sloan would block my memories of Adriel out a bit. I find myself asking "Was Adriel like this?" and in many situations, he was. Case in point...Well, what 15 month old boy doesn't enjoy playing with his food?
How could I resist taking a picture of this? Adriel is so cuddly now. I love it.
He was just sitting like that, so I had to take a picture. I know it could be better if there weren't any blind marks across his face, but I take them where and when I can, and I'm not Laura and as of right now, I have no photo editing program on my computer so you have to deal with the odd red eye too. I really just point a click and hope for a good result. I'm not a photo artist.
My big boy, growing too fast.
My chubby faced little monster of a boy trying to take the camera from me with his huge chubby man paws.
What can I say? I just love him!
They held this pose for one second, and I sort of got it. My two boys.
This happened when I wasn't home. Kyle said he was busy running his walking thing (beside him) up and down the hall over and over. Then there was quiet and he looked and there he was sound asleep on the floor. Awake and running around one second, asleep the next. I love how kids can do that. It doesn't matter how uncomfortable the spot they're in, or anything. When they're tired, they're tired.
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Sarahstottle posted @ 3:38 PM
Sunday, March 07, 2010
Alas, the weekends always seem to fly by. Here I sit on Sunday night trying to force myself to not let the Monday blues get me. It's spring break this week. That means I can have fun with Katie and her girls...I hope. Our babies' sleeping schedules are opposite which can make things difficult. Katie said I can invite myself over anytime. We'll see if this holds true.
Right now Kyle doesn't have a lot of work so he's been tiling his mom's kitchen. He went to finish laying the tile Saturday morning and then we were going to do something fun in the afternoon. I went over a little later than him to help him move the oven and the fridge and then I went for a walk with Ann. When we got back to her house it was lunch time and nap time. Sloan was so tired he fell asleep in the car before I even left. Adriel decided he wanted to stay and watch Kyle and Ann was OK with that, so I left. I put Sloan in his bed and made myself a big salad with turkey in it. It didn't disappoint. Then I started putt-putting around cleaning my house from room to room. Eventually Sloan woke up and started to follow me around and he is apt to do. I was determined to mop my kitchen and bathroom floor. This doesn't happen as often as it should, mostly because I get everything clean to the point of being ready to do it and then I have to do something else or go somewhere, etc, and then Adriel will spill something, or track dirt in from outside and I have to get it clean all over again. Since I was without him, I forced myself to follow through. Then Katie called and invited me to the park. So I picked up Adriel and we went to the park. It was really shaded and I wasn't wearing a jacket because I was so hot from all the housework I'd been doing. I regretted that almost immediately. Then Kyle met up with us (because the tiling ended up taking the whole day) and we decided to do burgers at Katie's and Brent's. I was starving by the time they were made, but they were really yummy. We visited for a while and then Kyle left with the kids and I stayed to watch the sisterhood of the traveling pants two. I thought it all worked out quite nicely. There were some emotional parts in that movie.
I just remembered that I haven't written about our Mt Washington trip yet. woops. I guess I'll do that next entry.
Today at church Adriel was tired because he missed his nap the day before and played so hard. Kyle told me that he was so eager to help him with the tiles that when Kyle finally consented and asked him to bring a tile to him he replied with glee "Thank you for letting me help you Daddy!" When I picked him up, he was soooo excited to tell me all about how he helped Kyle using hand gestures and stuff. It was really cute. Anyway, at church he was tired and he started balling in his classroom because there was a misunderstanding about candy. So I had to come and sit with him for a while. When Adriel gets tired he wants me to do everything and no one else. I have to put his shoes on, I have to carry him to and from the car, I have to put his jammies on, and read his story, I have to take him to go pee, you get the jist. I know he's already like that regularly anyway, but when he's tired, he's extreme about it and it's not worth fighting. When we came home he fell asleep right away, even though he slept in till after 7:30 this morning.
Sloan is getting pretty devious. Today while we were eating dinner, once he decided he was done, he started putting his plate on his head upside down, getting rice and things all over his hair and face. I was like "Sloan! Don't do that!" In a somewhat bewildered tone and his reaction was a mischievous grin and a grunty short giggle. When I'm folding the laundry, he'll come and snatch something up and take off in full speed, and giggle with delight at my reaction, and if I chase him, he laughs even harder. Why do babies love to be chased so much? That's his favourite game at church too. He takes off for the the pulpit and loves to be caught. It's not very fun at church. He also climbs onto our kitchen chairs and then onto the table and stands up and taunts me. It's so cute sometimes, the look on his face of triumph and defiance that I just want to squeeze him!
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Sarahstottle posted @ 8:34 PM
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Today my bangs dried so that they're hanging right in front of my right eye. As for the rest of my hair? I wasn't given the name Poof-among- us at the family reunion in '07 for nothing...
Sloan has impetigo. It's not bad. You can't even really see it, which is good, I guess. I just hope it goes away with the ointment I have so I don't have to get oral antibiotics. This also means I can't do my regular things, like go to the gym, or spend time with my other friends who have children that my kids can play with. It means for the most part we stay at home and are bored. This is my plight.
We've had lots o fun lately, what with going to visit Jordan and Tracy and doing some olympic stuff, and then our mt Washington Valentine's day stint. Adriel had so much fun visiting Jane and Maria's house. They showed him how to make soup outside with rainwater, and they played endlessly inside too. We took him on the skytrain, which he of course loved, but Sloan? Not so much. Sloan was the wet blanket of the trip, thinking it was his right to get down and walk wherever he wanted and climb whatever he wanted, and when he was confined to his stroller or my arms, he was completely unhappy and let the world know about it.
Mom and Dad showed us yet another yummy place to eat called the green lettuce, in Surrey where it's a cross between Chinese food and Indian food. It was very good. We got a bunch of dishes and shared, except for Mom, who didn't want prawns or anything overly spicy. This was after they picked us up from the ferry and we attempted to go to a livecity site downtown where Dad had been working. There were hoards and hoards of people lined WAY up the street and there was a sign that said "Full to Capacity. No Further Entry" All the people were just hanging out, hoping that people would leave and then they could get in. At this point we were hungry, children were tired of traveling and waiting, so we settled for the green lettuce and went home. With Krispy Kremes in tow of course.
The next morning Kyle went with Jordan to do a window washing job and I sat lazily in the kitchen while Tracy slaved away making crepes. After Kyle and Jordan got back there was a lot of sitting around and talking about what we should do. You know how Clarkes can be. We take forever and get off topic so easily. We finally decided to go to Surrey Place where they had an Olympic venue with fun stuff for kids. We had to go to the sky train station first because Dad took the van which had our carseat for Sloan and our stroller in it. Tracy was thinking Dad probably got a good parking spot due to the early time in the morning he had to park there, so she drove close to the station and we found a white van that resembled Mom and Dad's. Mom got out to check and came right back and said it wasn't it. We drove all over the place looking and looking to no avail. Mom finally called Dad who directed us back to the place we looked right at the beginning of our search. We approached the white van that Mom had already rejected. It really did look like their van, but Mom said she saw a green corduroy bag on the front passenger seat, so she knew it wasn't theirs. But just as we were passing I saw my stroller in the back... Turns out mom didn't try the key or anything, just a quick peak inside and she managed to overlook the picture of her and Dad on the dashboard, instead she saw a bag, which was actually her green towel that she had been holding on her lap the night before. We had a laugh about that.
The actual park wasn't that fun for me personally because Sloan just cried in his stroller the whole time. If I let him out, he'd just take off into crowds of people who would trip over him and knock him down. Adriel and Kyle got to have fun though. There was face painting. Maria and Jane both got butterflies on their faces, and Adriel got a dump truck on his hand. The three of them shared some cotton candy. Maria got lost and gave us a scare for a little while. Adriel tried curling with Kyle and they got to go down a fake toboggan hill which he very much enjoyed. There were line ups for all those things though, so by then end of that, given my state with Sloan I was done.
Mom, Tracy, Sloan and I went to the mall where I bought some pants for Adriel that were on sale and Tracy got a gift for a birthday party her girls were going to. That's when Mom discovered that the "sippy cups" she got for Isaiah's birthday party were actually bottles, and therefore Sloan got to have them because I looking to buy a bottle for him as Kyle lost the one we brought. In situations like the one we were just in, with Sloan in the stroller and unhappy, a bottle would have come in handy for sure. By the time we got home and ate, it was 9:30. Kids went to bed. We were going to play games but certain people (Jordan) fell asleep on the couch.
I forgot to mention that the room we were staying in was right above the bedroom of the tenants downstairs and they had their tv on super loud all night. Kyle got up and left and slept on the couch eventually. We had bad sleeps. So we were tired and went to bed. That night Kyle got up to go pee and woke Sloan up therefore banishing him back to the couch since Sloan would only settle in bed with me.
I feel as if I'm droning on and on...
Next day was Sunday and Tracy woke up feeling like she had mastitis so she decided to stay home from church. While in church, Adriel stood up on the pew and said "My penis hurts!" Kyle and I tried desperately to get him to sit down and whisper, but he kept repeating himself in a whiny voice until we got a handle on it. Then Kyle left with Sloan, and I was dealing with just Adriel. He just doesn't get whispering in church. He won't do it, no matter how many times I ask him to. He turned to me and said-very out of the blue- "Mom, why is your bum furry, with fur on it?" I was of course appalled at the question, and a little confused because my bum isn't hairy. I whipsered "It doesn't have fur on it!" "Yes it does" he insisted out loud. Then it dawned on me. Adriel thinks that boys have penises and girls don't have anything, just bums, and so as far as he's concerned, what's in front is a bum too, and according to him, mine is furry. I told him that's what mommies look like...But seriously, where does he get this stuff from? In the middle of church he has questions like that?? Luckily I don't think anyone heard...
After church I was unsuccessful at having a nap. Mom made a really yummy salmon dinner for us and then we headed over to D&D's for Gabriel's birthday. This is when I didn't get to see Laura. I was sitting on a couch with Jordan who decided he wanted to leave after we had barely gotten there. Then I was isolated. All the other women were on the other side of the room talking and because of the children and their wild play in between us, I wasn't able to listen all that well. It got late. We left. We stayed up with Mom and Dad for a while, while Kyle showed them different funny movies on his laptop. Then bed.
The plan was to wake up early and head down town on Monday morning to meet Evan and Esther and get a head start to the line ups. Dad slowed us down saying things don't open that early. We caught the skytrain and met up down town. The line ups were already too long. I wanted to see the torch. Kyle had to take pictures of certain buildings for his portfolio for his applications. Evan was anti seeing the torch. He'd already seen the torch. I ignored his protests as one must do with Evan at times. Between our kids and theirs (we had Maria with us) they were all trading strollers and running around, and it was a challenge to keep track of them all. We didn't lose anyone though. We stopped for kids lunch at McDonalds and then Evan and Kyle left for more picture taking and Esther, Mom, Dad and I perused the busy streets of downtown until we decided to check out a pavilion. The closest one had line ups and Dad said the one he worked at wasn't far from there, but with fast line ups to get in, so we decided to go there. Dad got called into work, so after the long walk to get there, he pretty much had to get to work. Kyle and Evan finally showed up again. We ate. They had tastes of things from different countries. I told Kyle to surprise me. He got Greece and China and both were wonderful. Evan and Esther got in a really long line to get into the Coke pavilion. I don't do long lines with my kids. However, the only stuff there was to do had line ups. So we bit the bullet and got in line to see a 3D showing of olympic highlights. Adriel had some melt downs. He drank so much that he had to pee every 15 minutes or so. The show was neat. Sloan feel asleep on me. And after that, I'd had it. I wanted to make it back to the sky train while he was still asleep so as to not have to deal with him on the train. Kyle wasn't so keen on leaving. Evan gave him a hard time, so I told him to stay. and he did. Sloan didn't stay asleep as I'd hoped. Mom and I got lost a little bit. We bought cheesies and popcorn and water to keep kids happy on the skytrain, and it worked for the bulk of the time. On the way home I asked mom to take me by our old house in Surrey. It took her while to find it due to wrong turns, so when we finally did, it was exciting. We passed Evergreen park, which was smaller than I remember it, and so was the cul de sac that we lived in. I guess because I was smaller in it. Our house hasn't changed much on the outside. The people who bought it from us still live there. It's flat. I'm glad we got to do that. Adriel and Maria conked out with their heads on eachother, it was cute.
For some reason that evening I did four haircuts even though I was exhausted from pushing a very heavy stroller and walking around all day.
The next morning I was having trouble sleeping after Sloan had woken up and joined me in bed. Then Dad came in and said they were opening their mission call. So I weasled my way out from between Sloan and Kyle and got to witness it. It was special, and I'm glad they let me in on it.
We had a nice visit with everyone and I'm glad that we went. I'm done droning for now I guess.
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Sarahstottle posted @ 12:12 PM