Today we celebrated Anna's 15th birthday! It still is hard for me to get my head wrapped around the fact that we are lucky enough to be parents, and now parents to a 15 year old! My goodness! It was an easy morning with a few gifts.
Then it was time for lunch with friends at a local restaurant. They had a really good time and it was fun table to have for the occasion!
After lunch they tolerated a request for a photo in front of the really cool mural nearby!
They tried to carry Anna away...and she was happy when they put her down!
They went to see one of their new dogs and it was a nice way to spend a slightly rainy day. Anna was excited that it was raining on her birthday!
Then it was time for a few more gifts! After dinner, it was time for the birthday treat, and this year it was brownies!
She is telling the candle that she won and it didn't stay lit after all!
And this year there are answers to my silly questions, along with her prior answers. I like that all three kids agreed this year the their favorite thing to do at school is band and their favorite place is home.
Favorite book: too many to choose! (not sure where the answers from prior years went...sorry!)
Favorite Gift: digital frame (jewelry box, Assassins Blade book, tall boots and Harry Potter movies, Hermione wand - from Harry Potter, pen pal kit, doll scooter, roller skates, wallet, pop charm bracelets)
What do you want to be when you grow up: Unknown (Horse vet, Horse vet, Horse vet, Horse trainer or vet, horse trainer, horse trainer, horse hider, horse rider, librarian, librarian)
Friends: Lupe (Lupe, Lina and Lupe, Lina and Lupe, Lina and Lupe, Lina and Lupe, Lupe from school, Lupe from school, Lina her cousin, Sydney from Cal Poly, Sydney and Brooklyn from school)
Favorite thing to do: read and ride horses (ride horses, read, write and ride; read and ride, read, read, read, read, read, read books, play on the structure at school)
Favorite thing to do at school: band (band, sitting at a computer - a sign of COVID times!, read, science, science, science, science, write, play on the structure, write in straight lines)
Favorite food: Macaroni and Cheese home made (Macaroni and Cheese home made, Macaroni and Cheese home made, Macaroni and Cheese, Macaroni and Cheese and ham casserole, macaroni and cheese, macaroni and cheese, Macaroni and cheese, peanut butter and jelly, macaroni, yogurt)
Favorite place: home (not sure where the answers from prior years went...sorry!)
How old will you be when you grow up: 21 (20, 21, 21, 21, 20 because she won't be a teenager anymore, 25, 20, 53, 34 - Same age as Mom, 16)
How old will you be when you get married: unknown (not sure where the answers from prior years went...sorry!)
How old will you be when you have a baby: unknown (not sure where the answers from prior years went...sorry!)
Anna is still growing....barely! She grew just 1/4" and is now 5' 3.5" tall!
Otherwise the week was fairly quiet. We found out late last Sunday that all three of the kids got into honors band! Super exciting! The boys had their first practice yesterday. We had some light rain today (just under 0.25") but it was nice to just enjoy the rainy day. And Anna was happy it was today and not yesterday because she was still able to go for a ride yesterday!
This week was somewhat back to a normal schedule. The boys didn't have school on Friday for the end of the semester which they were very happy about. On Saturday they had auditions for the honors band and Anna got to ride again! The horses were a little crazy after not being ridden for so long with the wet weather but thankfully she stayed on her horse! And today Mason started the volleyball skills class for this season. Nice to be a bit back to normal.
After volleyball we stopped by what we call the train tunnel to see what it looked like after all the rain. This is the tunnel under the road that leads toward the train tunnel. We have never seen it this cleared out.
And this is what the train tunnel looks like currently. It is clear that it got very messy but thankfully, it didn't backup enough to cause issues in our neighborhood.
Looks like it will be a dry week. Maybe some rain headed our way around the 1st. That timing seems like it is good, gives us a bit of time to clean up and get things ready for more. And we are excited to see the local lake levels rising!
On Monday, January 9th,, at 4:30 a.m., we arrived at our local airport. Little did we know what we were leaving behind with the crazy rain. By the time we got on our first plane and had landed an hour away, the notices about school being cancelled were coming through and the kids at home were happy to find out but bummed that they were already awake and ready to go.
After our day of flying, our final stop was in Whitehorse in the Yukon! This is what it looked like out the window.
And from baggage claim. And this was 5:19 p.m., already getting very dark since the sun had already set.
We took the shuttle to our hotel for the night. Glad we didn't have to do any driving! This was the view outside our hotel room.
After dinner we walked around the part of town where we were staying. There was a lot of light displays, made me think this was their way of compensating for the lack of daylight.
That night we opened our suitcase and found wet clothes. Thankfully most of the items were dry but our pajamas were partially wet. Apparently our suitcase was out in the rain before our first flight and got wet. Thankfully we had hairdryers to get them dry before bed!
The next morning we got up and had breakfast and walked around the town more since the stores were open. They don't have many open hours for the small shops! We liked the name of this store.
After lunch we were picked up and taken to the lodge were we would be spending the next few days. It was a beautiful drive but we didn't get to see all the mountains, just some of them, because of clouds.
This is the view from our villa.
We put on some of the winter gear included (the boots!) and went out exploring. We headed to the porcupine bench, then we went to moose meadow.
It was amazing to see the ice crystals on some of the trees. Made them look like the were covered in glass!
This was along the path to moose meadow.
And this is as the sun is starting to go down. We didn't see much beyond this slivers of sunlight.
We knew our chance to see the northern lights was basically none because of the clouds but we woke up in the middle of the night to see if we saw anything. This is from the night mode, and you can see some light from the moon rising behind the clouds.
Wednesday morning we got up and went to breakfast, and shortly after 10 a.m. we started to see the first glimmers of the sun coming up!
We put our snow shoes on, in addition to the snow boots, pants, gloves and jackets. Then we went exploring! This is a photo of the back of the villa that shows the large windows that face the lake.
And this is looking toward the lake.
We walked out to the tree a ways out on the lake. It has a cute sign that includes directions to the "tree" pointed to the left, and to the "lake" pointed down.
And this is the view we had from the tree on the lake.
This is what the view back toward the lodge and villas was.
We then went back to our villa and filled Matt's pockets with snacks and headed out for more snow shoeing. This is just after 11 a.m. which is after sunrise but due to the mountains no sign of the sun yet.
We headed to grizzly falls and I made Matt stop a few times along the way and one time he got more rest while he waited for me to get ready to get moving again.
As the sun was coming up over the mountains, the view through the trees was breathtaking!
And we made it to the clearing! Whew! We stopped for a bit to eat some frozen granola bars and had some apple juice.
We were very warm from getting there and yet also cold!
And this is what Matt looked like when we made it back to the lodge.
The view did not get old!
And this is from our table at lunch.
And during the afternoon we had an ice fishing demonstration, which included us ice fishing for a bit. We both agreed that it is boring but learning about the lake and the way the ice forms and the environment was very interesting.
And although we didn't see the northern lights, it was much more clear and we saw lots of stars, and the moon rise!
Matt laying in the snow watching the sky.
On Thursday (Happy Anniversary!) we went snowmobiling! It was another overcast day unfortunately.
This is near the island in the lake.
We went around a large amount of the lake and on the far shore we saw the chunks of ice that had formed before the lake fully froze over. Check out that large piece of ice!
An ice fishing hold that had frozen over solid. It happens super fast!
As the water runs down the mountain where there is natural water runoff and it makes these banks of ice. It is thin lay on top of thin layer.
We saw otter holes and tracks and where one had recently eaten a trout. We saw lots of tracks for the wolfs and caribou. We also saw an area where the wolfs had a meal which turned out to be a moose. And as our guide noted, they were very hungry because they left next to nothing behind. It was crazy to see and a vivid remind about the realities of nature.
After a snack, we headed back to moose meadow but this time with our snowshoes. And this time we saw moose tracks! They look big right?
And it looks even bigger when you compare it to Matt's handprint! Wow!
And with all the cloud cover it was another cruddy night for the northern lights. Boo!
This view of the sunrise on Friday morning was nice to see.
And then we headed off to dog sledding! We did a path on the lake where the team of eight dogs two sleds and three of us, one of us in a sled, our guide standing and guiding the first sled, and the other one of us standing on the second sled tethered to the first.
For lunch they had an area setup with a fire pit and benches.
Matt had a near miss with a tree, and if it had been me trying to make that turn it would have been a full hit! Eek! Thankfully everyone and everything was okay.
On Friday nights they have a pickup hockey game that starts around 10 p.m. Yup, that late. It was a lot of fun and there are people who skate and people in boots. They recruit guests to play and Matt joined them for a bit and got an assist! And some lungs that felt like there were on fire!
This was someones dog who was convinced the puck was her toy.
The fire was nice to keep a bit warmer, and keep the adult beverages from freezing!
And here is Matt!
At this point each team had three players and a goalie. That meant a lot of running back and forth!
Here is a little clip of the action!
It was another bummer night for the lights... Not even sure if you will be able to tell that these photos are actually different but they are!
Given how crummy the sky was overnight, we weren't surprised to wake up on Saturday to a very foggy morning! This was well after sunrise.
Bonfire spot in the summer time.
This is the front of our villa.
We started the journey home and spent the night at a nice hotel attached to the Vancouver airport. The lights on the hills are areas were there were ski resorts. We had a telescope and could see the different ski runs.
Thankfully all of our flights went smoothly and we made it home Sunday night. And today we have spent the day relaxing and being with the kids.
