Warmth and Sunshine!

After a very cold 6 weeks, it has finally warmed up!! The warm air blew in on Friday, Saturday couldn't make up it's mind, but ever since Sunday it has been absolutely gorgeous around here! We went for a family ski day (+ Grandpa) on Sunday at Sunshine ski resort and it definitely lived up to it's name for most of the day! The sky was so very blue. Of course, I forgot to bring the camera! The kids did an awesome job skiing - they both successfully navigated a BLUE run during their lessons! (For those of you who don't ski, the colour levels go from green/easy to blue/intermediate to black/hard to double black/expert.) I've decided to only ski green and blue runs for the rest of my life, so the kids will soon be officially better than their mommy! They already go faster than me, but they do need to work on control a little more. Sara was in an all day lesson, so we didn't see her much. She had a great report card at the end of the day and she was absolutely exhausted! Sky skiied with Joshua and Grandpa and I in the morning. Then, he went to day care after lunch for a break and a one hour lesson in the afternoon. Sky almost had a run in with some trees in the morning. We yelled at him to turn, but after we could see he wasn't turning, Joshua pulled in beside him to block his path of destruction. They both fell down in the collision and Joshua fell right on top of our tiny little boy. It was not a pretty sight! Sky cried and cried and Joshua and I exchanged some words (I won't say anymore!), but in the end, everyone was O.K.! Sky's wrist was hurt a bit and he kept complaining and wouldn't ski after that. So, we decided it was time for a break and an early lunch. Joshua and his dad went off to ski a couple of more exciting runs before they joined us. Sky was really whining about the wrist, so I decided to take him to the first aid clinic just to check. After a thorough inspection, the guy said everything was just fine. I think he thought I wanted him to do something, but I assured him that all we needed was a second opinion. Sometimes our kids just don't seem to trust us when we tell them they're O.K.! After the way cool, Mr. Ski Patrol told Sky that his wrist was fine, we never heard another word of complaint!

Monday was Family Day in parts of Canada. Only 4 of the provinces have instituted it as an official holiday, but Alberta happens to be the one that started the whole thing 18 years ago! It was just their way of creating a long weekend in February. It's a very popular day/weekend for family outings, such as skiing, ice skating, hiking, swimming, fun fairs, etc. There is so much going on during Family Day that it's hard to choose what to do! And the crowds and traffic are insane! Since we were exhausted from all the skiing the day before, we chose to stay home and play together. It was so warm that we were all shedding our jackets when we were in the sunshine! We even decided to have a little picnic lunch on the sunny back deck! Tuna sandwiches and fresh veggies never tasted so good! The kids played with their friends outside until the sun started to go down. Joshua decided to play a little Paul Bunyan and do some tree removal in our yard! There were 6 young spruce trees in the backyard that we didn't really want there. They were just going to cause problems in about 10 years for a number of reasons. One of them being the power lines they would have tangled with eventually. So, while they were still small, Joshua chopped them down! He started with a chain saw, but after that broke, he cut down the other five trees by hand! What a guy! We're going to fill the empty spots with other types of trees and/or shrubs. Joshua's also building some planters in a couple of the spots, so I can plant flowers and herbs. I'm really excited to see how it all looks this summer! It was a fun, busy weekend and we made a lot of memories! I guess that's what Family Day is all about, eh?