a very good family weekend

We had a good weekend. A fun weekend like we haven't had in a long time. That we had been missing. It included things like...

* An impromptu visit to my parents on Friday evening.

* Hockey at 8:00am on Saturday morning where Max got his first assist. He was pumped!

* A mid-Saturday-morning trip to IKEA. I have a love/hate relationship with that place. This time, the love was there. We went with the intention of buying a few specific items and did not go home empty handed. Also had lunch at IKEA. For a whole $13.00 our family dined in style. :-) Any guesses as to what we were doing late Saturday afternoon/early evening?

*A visit from LeeAnne on Saturday night which involved a random baking experience. I'm not a huge plain chocolate cake fan....but Texas Sheet Cake? Mmmmmm...Now that's a whole 'nother story.

*Saturday evening marked the first race of the 2010 Nascar Racing Season with the Budweiser Shootout so the boys were pretty pumped around here....cheering for Dale Jr. He placed 11th. (Max pointed out that he placed in the top 20 so he was pleased. Ever the optimist..just like has daddy!) The winner was Kevin Harvick.

*Sunday morning bright and early, we (Keith, Max, LeeAnne and myself) hit the road...

It was a beautiful morning. Sunny, peaceful and still.

Two hours later, we arrived at our destination. Blue Mountain in Collingwood. A day of skiing fun!

We put Max in a full day ski camp which ran from 10:00am to 3:00pm with lunch included. Here he is, ready to head out with his instructor.

Heading up the little hill to get assessed. He's the first one in line (on the very right side of the photo below).

It was such a clear, sunny, beautiful day. The wind was a bit cutting but we made sure to bundle him up! We watched him make his first little run down the hill...

And then, Keith and LeeAnne took off for the bigger hills to get some skiing in. This was a little bit of a switch for Keith from skiing in Whistler and Big White the past few years. 

And what about me? I don't ski. No I don't. I went into the chalet and grabbed a coffee and a good book and sat down to relax and read. The time went by so fast. Before I knew it, Keith and LeeAnne were back in for lunch. And then the next thing I knew, it was 3:00pm and time to go and pick up Max.

Time to pack up and head back home. Here's Keith appearing rather happy (and maybe a bit tired?) and looking forward to a nice dinner at Montana's in a few minutes.

LeeAnne? Well. I'm not sure where she gets her energy but she looks like she could get out there and ski for another 6 hours. Or something!

And the Maxter. He looks well pleased, doesn't he? If not a tad tired...

As we were walking to our vehicle, Keith had told Max it was time for "apres ski". Max wanted to know what in the world "apres ski" was. So we said it's when you go to a restaurant after you're done a day of skiing for drinks and food and relaxing. All of a sudden he informed us he was in a hurry to "go out for drinks!" He was pretty thirsty and managed to down a big glass of chocolate milk at Montana's before his order of food arrived. Obviously, I wasn't paying very close enough attention at the time or I would have had him pace himself. After dinner, we stopped at Starbucks for some lattes and coffees. And finally we were back on the road, headed for home. We thought for sure that Max would sleep the whole way home. But he didn't. He was pretty much jibber-jabbering the whole way home. Waaaaaay excited about the fun skiing day he had.

He had some funny moments and comments where he wasn't actually trying to be funny, but it made us laugh. Things like....

"Dad? Do you think we could stop by a winter store and buy me some ski's?"

We asked Max what his favourite run was. And he announced "Big Baby!"

Well, we all burst out laughing. And he got all offended.

It is indeed a ski run....but it just sounded funny when he said it.

And what was everyone's favourite part of the day?

Keith: "I like driving on an outing."

Patti: "Sipping coffee and relaxing. And people watching."

LeeAnne: "Flying down the hills!"

Max: "Wiping into the trees!"

We got home and tuned into the Superbowl. I fell asleep before the end.

We had a good weekend. A big weekend. A big ole good family weekend. Our most favouritest type of all! :-)