March Break 2012: Quebec Ski Trip

Team Nelka

Kelly, Silka and Neko on first run of the day - 1st day at Le Massif

Well, we couldn't have had a better trip. No, I take that back. It would have been perfect if we returned without an injury. Alas, Julia's skiing ended on the third day when she blew out her knee at Le Massif. I would have pummeled the ground and cried like a baby but she was extremely stoic. The rest of our ski experience wasn't quite the same without her.

Kelly, Neko and Silka

Injury frustrations aside, we all had a great time in Quebec. We started off in Quebec City arriving late afternoon on Monday. We stayed for two nights in a hotel inside the walls of Old Quebec City. We walked the old city's streets, following the track of the upcoming 'Crashed Ice' race. We had a great dinner at Le Lapin Saute and got off to bed fairly early to be ready for our first day of skiing at Mont Sainte Anne. We had Silka and Rein signed up for ski lessons on the first day so we headed off early. The conditions were a bit icy the first day and I took it easy getting my ski legs back after about a

riding the chair to the top of Le Massif

Tom and Matt in the Gondola ride up

 year and a half away from it. That night we went out for some Moroccan food except for Matt who stayed behind with the kids. they ate pizza in our hotel room and watched Hoot while Matt ate Sushi and drank beer. It snowed overnight which made for some great conditions the next day.

Tom, Silka and Shawnypants 

The next morning, Silka had one more but Rein was skiing with us from then onward. Everyones' confidence kept building with each run. I stuck to the easier runs with Silka and Neko on the South side while the rest spent time the black diamond runs on the North side. Shawn and Julia took Silka and Neko for a couple runs in the afternoon while I joined the rest for some more challenging runs. The glade run through the 'Enchanted Forest' was a highlight.

Kelly and Team Nelka riding ahead into the clouds

After a full day, we packed up and headed off to Petite-Rivière-Saint-François where our rental chalet for the next three nights was located. None of us had skied at Le Massif before so we were all very excited. 

frost crusted chair floating by in the mist

The drive there was incredible - the snow was about a meter deep and hoar frost had settled on the evergreens covering the mountainous hills on either side of us. It didn't take long to get there and we unpacked pretty quickly so we could enjoy our new digs. Matt and Kelly made a great Mexican meal that night. I volunteered to go into the hot tub with the kids which in the end did me in. I fell asleep shortly after putting the kids to bed. The rest stayed up and jammed for a while. We were all at Le Massif early stoked to get acquainted with this beautiful mountain. Matt, Kelly and I took Neko and Silka down the easiest run first and it was magical. We were all enamored by the time we arrived at the Gondola. I stuck to the easier runs with Silka and Neko while the rest went off and explored some more challenging runs. When I arrived back at the upper lodge with Team Nelka that is when I learned of Julia's injury. When Shawn arrived, he helped her back to their car and she headed back to the chalet where she could rest up. 

Team Ruin (Ruby and Rein)

The food at the lodge was excellent and healthy - a french fry or soft drink could not be found anywhere...
When we got back to the chalet, Julia seemed in fairly good spirits. I took on job as sous chef for Shawn that night who made an amazing vegetarian pasta meal. The sauce was divine! 
That night I was ready to party but we all ended up heading off to bed fairly early - Kelly a little worse for wear...
We were off again the next day fairly early and parked at the bottom of Le Massif this time - it was a lot quieter and much easier to access. We woke up to freezing rain that day and it was raining when we got outside and headed up the gondola for our first run. Silka was a different kid on skis this last day barreling down the mountain with a ton of confidence and yelling after Neko to wait up if she wasn't in front of her. We all got pretty soaked in the a.m. and enjoyed a more relaxed lunch (Charlevoix sausage with sauerkraut and a beer for some of us) while our stuff dried out a bit. 

Julia in good spirits back at the chalet despite a blown-out knee...

When we got back out there, it had stopped raining and we had a great afternoon - except for that part when Silka refused to go down a steep part and screamed at me as she slid down on her bum while I skied back and forth beside her with her skis in one hand and my poles in the other. When she saw Kelly and the rest of the junior team that were waiting below appear out of the mist, she immediately perked up, got her skis back on and continued on as if that demon child a few moments before never existed. She apparently thought they had abandoned us. We skied until about 4:30 p.m.and called it a day. We left knowing that we will definitely be back next year.
That night, Tom and I were on dinner and we decided on a french classic - a cheese fondue. There were lots of giggles at the table (especially from Neko's and Rein's end) when one had to kiss the person on their left if they lost their bread, etc. in the pot of cheese. We tried to stay up to celebrate our last night and my 43rd birthday (yikes!) but we were all in bed by 10 p.m. and Tom by 11:30 p.m. 
The next day we packed up and headed home. We stopped in Baie Saint Paul - a quaint, artsy little town 5 minutes East of where we stayed. We toured a bunch of art galleries and Tom bought me a box of locally made chocolates for my birthday. We then headed West with some stops at Montmorency Falls and Trois Riviere for lunch, and then home on Buck Lake where we were greeted by the cacophony of spring peepers. 

March Break begins with making some Maple Syrup!

Mom pouring sap...

Maple Syrup season begins!

Team Olvet pouring sap out...

friends and neighbours come by during first boil up

boiling down sap on Buck Lake

Before heading off on our Quebec ski trip on Monday, we decided to take advantage of the warmer weather and make some maple syrup. Tom and the kids tapped the trees last Tuesday night in anticipation of Wednesday's warmer weather. We had a few nights of late night dinners as they got the operation up and running.
We ended up with about 80 litres of sap by Saturday morning. Tom gathered and chopped wood throughout the day on Saturday so we could get a fire started early Sunday and start boiling.
Sunday morning, I got up at 7 a.m. that was really 6 a.m. (the time 'sprung' forward during the night). I got dressed in my syruping digs and headed out to where Tom set up the cauldron. I stripped some bark off a log of Birch and gathered some kindling. Over the next hour or so, I got a fire going, feeding and fanning when needed, and reading Emma Donoghue's "Room". Rein was the first to join me at around 8:30 a.m. and kept me company.
When Tom arrived with more wood, a good bed of coals was established and some wind had picked up. The fire was roaring - yippee!
I went back into the house to continue working on my first painting since we came back from Australia.
It wasn't long before I heard more voices coming from outside. I went out to investigate and we had curious visitors - our neighbours and friends, Jay and Jana, and Brynna and her daughter, Stella.
What a beautiful day - 10 degrees and a blue bird sky. You can feel that spring is just around the corner...
We will add the last batch of sap around 4 p.m. and boil it down until we've got our first batch of Buck Lake Maple Syrup. Yum!

Rein puts a new spin on going for a bike ride!

Storrington Stingers win the Novice A Championship

Storrington Stingers: Rein playing defense (black & white jersey)

 Well, it was a nail biter - they tied 2-2 and they won in the second 5 minute overtime!
I don't have much of a voice left. It has been rather shocking - I never knew I had a hockey mom hidden inside me. As I yelled" Go, Rein, hustle! Hustle!" and saw Tom laughing next to me, I knew I had been sucked in.

the Championship win! (Rein front left)

Rein has really taken to the sport since he got back from Australia and has even requested to play in Spring Hockey.
What is a mother to do?? Get a really good bum warmer and some throat lozenges, I guess....

Family Day weekend spent with friends

Friday night game of Settlers of Catan with Mike and Paula

Tom and Mike's Saturday morning skate marathon

 This year's Family Day weekend was spent with friends we haven't seen for about a year and a half. Mike, Paula and their boys, Sam and Ezra, came up from the Hammer on Friday night, and Tanya, Andrew and their girls, Sierra and Ella, came down from the Gatineau on Sunday morning. It was a fantastic weekend. After a week of warmer, wet weather we were graced with a colder night on Friday night which carried through until Monday. This created fantastic skating conditions for the entire weekend - phew! As soon as Mike and Paula arrived, it felt like we were never gone for a year - the same with Tanya


and Andrew. Time and distance only makes you appreciate such friendships. We skated our hearts out all weekend - up the lake, down the lake, across the lake around the lake. There were also daily shinny games that got the hearts racing and the blood pumping - it was so much fun! Mike brought up his kite to try it on the lake but there wasn't enough wind - next time! We had great meals, played Settlers of Catan, enjoyed the sauna and dipped into the cold lake. We look forward to a repeat again soon.

skike? through the woods

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a stop at the icicle store

Silka towing sleeping Ezra

the skate sled team

testing out an ice fisherman's ATV 

Ezra

another skate up the lake...

skate, skate, skate...

a beautiful, sunny day

Shinny game # 2

Saturday night at the Olvet Cabin

Are you just going to lie there? Up stick, Up!!

Silka and Ezra

Getting reacquainted with home...

Getting reacquainted with our backyard winter wonderland
- the swamp

We had a pretty seamless journey home from Oz...
We flew out on December 17th in the evening and arrived in Auckland, New Zealand at 5 a.m. We had a 15 hour stop over so we checked into a hotel at the airport and slept for about 6 hours. We then headed into downtown Auckland for a little sight-seeing and some lunch and then headed back to the airport for our evening flight to Vancouver.

Tom back to clearing a ski trail

When we arrived in Vancouver, we were steered to the customs line for questioning and to have our baggage checked. They must have been skeptical of our $300 worth of goods claim after a year of being in Australia. The guy in front of us insisted that he wasn't smuggling in food in his suitcase only to have the customs officer unzip his rather large suitcase and try to explain why there was packages of rami noodles spilling out and onto the counter....hmmmm. Well, I guess they felt we were probably not toting similar cargo so they checked our passports again and let us go. Yippee! We made our way through the arrival doors and found uncle Steven among the waiting crowd.

Winter's beauty

skiing through the back swamp

We had a lovely visit with Steve and Theresa - spent 5 days with them. The kids stayed with their uncle and Theresa every night while Tom and I camped out at our friends, Jay and Sherry's place. We went to the aquarium, the science center, and even got up to mount Seymour to play in what we hadn't seen in a long time - snow. We managed to hook up with Jill, Mark and Ruthie and had a great visit with them - rode the Christmas train in Stanley Park and had dinner back at their place.
Before we knew it, we were back on a plane (our last plane ride for a while) to Toronto where we spent some time with Papa and Gramma G and Vana Ema, Peter, Vana Vana, Andy and Violetta. We discovered that Rein had a head full of lice eggs that we had brought back with us from Australia - I was devastated. I was so diligent with Silka because she was the one that kept bringing them home while we were there and didn't think of Rein. Then Rein also got really sick with a gastro bug at Tiiu and Peter's place. So, we left a bit of a wake of destruction. Thankfully, neither afflictions were passed on....

skiing on nearby Goldfish Lake

We had a fantastic visit with the Tippings, our exchange partners, at Tiiu and Peter's place. We only had a few hours, so we talked none stop about our experiences over a nice dinner that Tiiu and Peter put together for us.

A winter wonderland...

Buck Lake Sunset

picnic and ski with Shawn and Julia

The next morning, we packed up, had breakfast and headed for Buck Lake. As we got closer, the kids and I would excitedly yell out familiar landmarks and cheered the whole way in on our road to the house. When we arrived we spent some time walking through the place - it was nice to be home. Friends had left us a welcome basket full of food and wine. We also got a classic Canadian welcome...Tom and Silka were standing out our windows and looking out at the lake when Silka eyed a red squirrel on a branch of the white pine in front of our house. Just as she pointed it out, it took a leap towards another branch close by only to narrowly miss the talons of a large hawk that swooped down to snatch it from mid-air. It was thrilling!
There wasn't any snow but when we woke up the next day we were in a world of white - winter had arrived. We enjoyed some fantastic visits with our local friends, Kelly & Matt and their girls, Ruby and Neko, Julia and Shawn, Jay and Jana, and Rob and Cyndy and their girls, Ruby and Skye.
We hosted New Year's eve and enjoyed a lovely dinner with Kelly & Matt, Julia and Shawn, Jay and Jana, and Samara and Justin and then ended the night with our first sauna since being back.
Since those first days, we have been settling back into our Canadian lives - back to school, back to work and catching up with other friends and family when we can. Visits from winter have been in the form of freezing rain or rain more often than flakes of snow. We have made the best of it, though, skating, skiing and tobogganing when the opportunities arise. I have even gone out on the lake with the kids and flew kites and played soccer one day...