Soft Kleenex

On the very last day of our vacation, I felt like I was coming down with a cold. I willed it away (which usually works for me!) because this is the month of "I just need to get through this". It started with Parker's party, followed by our week of vacation, we came home to Jeremy working a 48 hour shift, followed immediately by some big consultants at my work, and then leaving on a business trip at the end of this week, returning to work and then (the icing on the cake) several days in Anne-Francisco with my beloved (sorry, Jer). All of this occurs in three weeks. So no time for a cold because there's no time to recover. Fast forward to Saturday when I had no idea there were so many neck muscles in my neck and throat that could ache and I could hug the inventor of Puffs Kleenex. Seriously. That person needs an award. *On a sidenote, Everly calls kleenex "Blow-nex". It makes me laugh every time.

My amazing parents know my schedule for the next week and a half and insisted that they have a fun-filled grandparents weekend while I get better. I vacillated between delirious cold-naps (seriously. could those dreams get any weirder?) and feeling so guilty that my kids are not with me. Just when I thought I was feeling better today and I was going to call and go get them, my babysitter for tomorrow morning cancelled (flu too!) and I walked upstairs, got winded, laid down, and nearly fell asleep on the carpet. Back to the couch I go.

Mid-day we had a lovely hailstorm, followed by a dramatic and fast 1/2 inch of snow, and then an afternoon of of blue skies and sunshine. I believe the weather is matching my cold. There better be blue skies for me tomorrow.

Whistler (The End)

The entire drive home today (complete with Everly having a meltdown for roughly 2.5 out of 3 hours) we remarked how successful this vacation was (despite the last ditch effort to prove otherwise). This was probably in my top five vacations of all time, even though it wasn't exactly restful or rejuvenating...but there's something about the kids have ear to ear smiles from beginning to end about every little detail of the trip. They laughed, the played, they skied, and they had a blast. And that made us have a blast too. Now, for the last onslaught of photos, and thank you for bearing with me and the million photos documenting every minute of fun.

This was Everly's idea of "getting ready". Every time we told her to get ready for a walk to town, a ski day, breakfast, etc, she put on her swimming suit. It's ironic because every time she was at the hot tub, she tried to take it off. Which led to an interesting conversation between her and some strangers in a gondola about "pool rules". Turns out a 2 year old's experience in the hot tub is not that different from a group of late-night partying twentysomethings.

She also went for this. When we I told her to put on all the clothes on the floor,

I came back to this.

The kids idea of heaven is looking down off the Peak to Peak gondola.

One of Parker's favorite mountain events is "follow the leader". There is only one leader. Ever.

On one of the first days, Parks stopped on the hill, threw down his poles and declared "Mom! I am a mess right now! My pants are undone, my gloves are wet, my goggles feel funny, my helmet is too tight, my shirt is all bunched up and there's snow down my neck!" He has since recovered.

Still leading...
So, on our last day of skiing Everly fell asleep on the chairlift. She was super floppy when I got her off and sure enough, her eyes were closed and she was fast asleep. I scooped her up and transferred her over to Jeremy and she never even stirred. He skied her down to the lodge and it was like a parting of the seas. Everyone made way for this little heap of sleepy as he got her skis off and carried her into the lodge. We found a table in the corner and set her on the floor where she slept for an hour and a half. Grandma was kind enough stay with her while we took Parks for a couple more runs.

She woke up ready for a snack and more skiing.

The last run. *tear*

A tired Parks relaxing after a long week.

Whistler! (The Middle)

Parks has decided that we won't go home for at least 45 days. Or maybe ever. But we won't live here, he said.

This has been our best trip to Whistler so far with the kids. Maybe it's because we can finally all (barely) fit in a room together. (In the past, Everly has always slept in a pack n play in the bathroom because we could fit it in there and so she could be by herself without us waking her up). Or maybe it's because we're all healthy this year (except Tuesday when Parks got a weird high fever, slept from 4-8 pm, then stayed up and watched a movie and was better by the morning). Or maybe it's because we can all (almost) ski together this year. The kids are jazzed about skiing, jazzed about the hot tub every night, and jazzed about ice skating, hot chocolate at restaurants and lunches in the lodge. In general they are jazzed about everything Whistler. And I can't blame them. It has been heaven here.

Everly took this picture of Parks getting ready for a walk into the village and I thought she did a pretty good job!

Evie pining for skiing on our day off.
A walk into town.

The Village.

Ice skating. Evie was so unimpressed in the beginning.

Everly had a melt-down after ice skating and this moment of loving snuggle my mom captured is one of my new favorite photos.Hot chocolate break!

Just like the treehouse, we could hardly contain our excitement when we found a castle (A SKIING PRINCESS CASTLE!) off of a run. Complete with more twisty slides.

That superimposed looking bird sitting on Parker's glove is the real deal. Yes, we fed the birds at the castle, just like something straight out of Snow White.

Everly's turn to feed the birds.So, Everly gets a lot of encouragement when she skis. A tiny two year old in pink from head to toe is hard to miss. On top of that, she's been skiing without her reigns more and more and she also likes to follow Parks everywhere. Everly skiing under signs and into trails through the trees brings on a lot of hooting and hollering from other skiers and especially the tough guy snow boarders (who knew?!). And Everly eats it up.

A mid-run break.

One of their absolute, favorite things, hands down. The gondola.

Post-skiing painting. I brainstormed QUIET activities to bring after learning a few things over the past few years. :)

Whistler! (The Beginning)

We have been joining my parents at their condo in Whistler for President's week for about 12 years now. We've gone from staying up late, skiing from open until close and having a cocktail with lunch to wrangling kids into ski clothes in just under an hour, still skiing until close, and sippy cups at lunch. It is awesome. Because this year we have a newly 5 year old who is hard to keep up with and a 2 year old who follows her brother into even the trickiest of runs through the trees. Whistler is probably the thing we look forward to the most as a family. Jeremy can hardly sleep for a week before we head up and ask Parks in August what his favorite thing to do is and he'll still say "go to Whistler". We love everything about it.

Our first run.

Parks scouting his route.

Trying to talk Everly in to NOT following her brother off a ledge.

THE TREEHOUSE! Oh, the excitement when you wander into the woods and find a treehouse in the middle of a ski run.

Treehouse slides.

Everly made a craft and got ready for the pool. Totally stylin'.

Parker's craft.

A visit to town and playing on the Olympic rings.

The village stroll.

The village play structure.

Two tired kids hitching a ride home.

Celebration

Despite Parker's actual birthday occurring nearly 6 weeks ago, we threw a party for him today. He has patiently waited for this party for almost a month and a half because a nearly New Years birthday combined with the business of our family having ski weekends together, pushed out our plans. We forged ahead though, and celebrated in style.

When I asked Parker what kind of party he wanted, he said "Ummm, a superhero party. No, wait. Animals. I love animals. NO! WAIT, CARS! Oooh. I know, a carsanimalsuperhero party." So, that's what we did. Invites went out, the theme was set, and a little planning ensued. I ordered cute wooden cars to decorate and animal masks as favors. Patient Grandma made two (TWO!) batches of adorable cupcakes after the first batch didn't turn out so well. Who knew cars cupcakes were so involved?!


And friends came. Oh, the friends came and they were so precious. They dressed up, just as Parker wished them to. They came as animals, fairies, princesses, and superheros. He met some of them at the door ("Welcome to our house! Welcome to my birthday party! Please come in!"), and he played with everyone. The kids played, and ate and laughed for two hours. Parks opened up presents and thanked everyone after each bag and box was undone and gave them sincere hugs. We ate cupcakes and sang and I marveled at how "easy" this party was - mainly because these kids are all growing up.

I was so proud of Parker and his hosting skills. We have been talking for weeks about how to welcome friends, make sure everyone has someone or something to play with at his party, be thankful and gracious for gifts, and thank everyone for coming. He did such a good job and my heart melted.





All that being said, this morning at church the signs were pointing in a different direction. His Sunday school teacher pulled me aside with tears of laughter in her eyes when we came to get him and told us that Parker had informed her about his party today. She told him that he could come with her and pick out a special birthday pencil out of the treasure box, to which he replied "Um, no thanks. I don't want a pencil. I'm going to get much better stuff at my party today." Oh, I nearly died. And then she said that when she pointed out he might like a fun pencil too, in addition to the much better gifts he informed her that she could come to his party today. And bring a gift. And go to Fred Myer and get him a spy plane. But not a pencil.

You can't win them all!