Silver Star - Vernon, BC - March 18-22, 2010

....and then we went skiing! And we sure had fun! Now we are hooked and will want to go every year. I think the kids are counting on that already. We left on my birthday, skied for 3 days and came home again on the 22nd. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. We had a great drive out. The roads were all clear and we only saw snow in the distance. It sure made us wonder if we were going to have enough snow to ski on but we did. There wasn't any fresh powder but there was enough. The kids had lessons and we were happy we did that. Dave and I could ski on our own for the mornings while the kids were being taught properly how to ski. Then we skied together for the afternoons. It is amazing how well they are doing. They can all ski blue runs very well and even venture off into the woods. That's the cool spot to ski, apparently I am not cool because I didn't do very well in the trees. Someone had to wait at the bottom for the brave ones, I didn't mind to do that!

Here we are on one of our pit stops just outside of Merrit. The kids stretched their legs and Dave made a few work calls.

Of course Jake found something to climb...way down the hill.

....and yes, I found a flower!

For lunch we stopped in Kelowna at the White Spot. After we had eaten the kids noticed some fire fighters practising with the Jaws of Life. They even took off one more door just for the kids.

Nicole is learning the cartwheel....slowly she is improving.

Ahhhh.....we made it. We found our place and the kids found the hot tub. They didn't even wait for dinner! Hopped in right away. So nice to have our own hot tub to relax in after a long day of skiing. Our place was nice. It was big enough for us with some extra room. It had 2 bedrooms, one for Dave and I with a half ensuite and the other room had bunk beds for 5 kids. Nicole was excited to get the top bunk and Matthew lucked out with a double size bed.

There was no yard at all, not that they could have played in on anyway with all the snow there, but the front had a huge snow bank where the kids started carving out a little house. They even each had their own chair. Now that brings back memories for me! The hours we spent in our back yard carving out houses with a room for each of us!

There you have it! Our family on the top of Silver Star mountain! The weather didn't disappoint and you could see for miles!

Once the kids found out there was a tube hill they wouldn't let up about going there so we went after the first day of skiing. After our ski for the day we went back to our house, had a quick dinner, warmed up, got all dressed up again and headed to the tube park. We had a lot of fun going up and down, up and down for an hour and a half! Ahhh....should have some sleepy kids after that long day! and we sure did! They were all sleeping in a matter of minutes, even Jake who usually takes close to an hour to fall asleep!

Now....as we are skiing down the hill Dave noticed that one of the runs was called Over the Hill. He couldn't have had better timing for a picture like this!

He made me turn it into a birthday invitation for the big party on April 3! You didn't think Dave was computer savvy enough to have created this on his own did you?

Yes, the typical lift pictures!

....and the action shots. The boys discovered the Teluspark and HAD to try it. Of course they thought they were good enough to do the jumps. They did do some of the jumps although on our second time around Jake bit it half way through and that was enough for him. Great that they had the confidence to try it.

Nicole even tried it!

...but this was the result! On her butt AGAIN!

Dave! He's a pro! Got some good air and impressed us all!

Dave, good posing!

Nicole, are you on your butt again? Did you really and truly fall or are you just taking another break! Nicole was much more timid than the boys but she did just as well. At one point when it was the 2 of us trying to catch up to the boys, she said she thought she was the worst skier of the 3 of them because she stopped all the time and was slower. She really wasn't actually she is the most technical of the 3 and has the most control. Probably because she doesn't go kamikaze like the boys. When going down the mountain there are steeper spots, then a more level spot and then a steep spot again. The boys would just keep going but Nicole, like me, likes to see what's coming next so she stops at every level spot to check out the next part of the hill. Smart girl! She'll build confidence over time I am sure. She did try things though, she went through the trees, did some jumps and even lived for speed!

Matthew was hilarious. Even his instructors said he had no fear and lived for speed. One thing he needed to realize was that he had to make some turns. Why he would say, I don't fall! True enough little fire ball but you're going to gain way too much speed by the time you get to the bottom. He had a blast going through the trees too. In fact we actually lost him one time. He was following Jake who fell, went scooting past and headed deeper into the trees. Dave, Jake and Nicole tried to find him while I headed straight down to try to gain some speed and try to see where he would end up coming out. I did eventually find him and he couldn't understand my concern! What? I found you! He was going to keep going but I made him stop. Had a good little chat with him about getting lost on a huge mountain...don't think it really registered but oh will. The others ended up coming out in a totally different spot. Silly little boy! But he sure had fun! Until a tree ate him up...as Dave said. He was going through the trees when we heard a terrified scream. Dave found him plastered up against a tree in a tree well! Too bad he didn't have the camera at the time! Would have made a great picture.

Here comes Jake! He did very well...as he expected to do! He even managed to do some beginning parallel skiing. He was so determined to ski the way Dave and I do, with our skiis together and not in a snowplow all the time! His determination paid off because by the 3rd day he accomplished it! Next was to figure out how to 'snow spray' me! He tried and tried and tried and somewhat succeeded yet too! He was not going to give up and never admitted that he was getting tired. I am sure that one day he will out ski his dad. I think he is driven by the fact that he really wants to learn to board. He figured we should let him do it this year but we said he needed to get really good at skiing before he learned something new. Now he thinks he can board next year!

After our long days on the hill we would come back to our place to warm up, have some dinner, soak in the hot tub and watch some TV.

All in all we had a most wonderful time and if I could spend my birthday this way every year I wouldn't be sad!