A Weekend of Good experiences (I have given up numbering these things because I am so far behind)

Our family does a lot of stuff together.  In fact, it is odd when we all go our own separate ways to do things.... so that made this weekend a little different - but good.

For example..... Katie stayed home by herself for the first time ever (at least for an entire weekend).  She has just started a new job and it was going to be hard to ask for time off, so she stayed and worked.  Many parents would worry about leaving a 17 year old home alone (parties, being irresponsible, etc) but not us.  We knew she would be a "grown up girl" and she was..... she even got up and went to church and herded all the little kids all on her own (That was not surprising given it was Katie.... but not normal 17 year old behaviour in many cases).  She was sad that she was stuck in town - and so were we - but she earned some cash for more fun things down the road.

The rest of us headed to Manitoba.   I was speaking at a youth rally/ski event(more about this later), so on the way we dropped Sari off to visit with her best buddy Laura.  It just so happened that Brandon was having a multi-cultural celebration thinger like Regina's "Mosaic", so they went and hit up the Scottish, Irish and German pavilions among others.  Seems that was not the only thing that got "hit up"..... apparently everywhere they went guys were talking to Sari, flirting with her, hitting on her...... when you got it you got it, right?  :)

Megan and I carried on to the youth event.  It was a lot of fun.  About 100 of us stayed in a hall in a small town near the ski hill.  Let me tell you, a large hall full of about 40 dudes sleeping is not a pretty thing to see or hear!!  I woke up at about 4 am both mornings to the sound of "snore.... wheeze.... sneeze..... cough.... snore..... snore.... cough.... snore......"   You get the idea.  But, other than that, we had a great time.  I did three lessons.... the kids were great.... I saw some old buddies that I had not seen in years (they brought their kids to the event)  Super fun!  (I have one good story to tell about this weekend but I will save it for coming days).

And Megan.... well she learned to ski this weekend.  Started off on the bunny hill looking like a baby giraffe walking on ice and by the end of the day she was flying down the hills.  It was incredible.  No real big wipe-outs and now she is hooked..... actually "now" she is sore..... but she will get over that.

Now that the weekend is over, we are all back home, safe and sound and together - as we ought to be.... but it was fun for each of us - though for different reasons.

Here are a few pictures from Megan and me..... Sari and Katie will have to post their own because I do not have them

(Ps.  Some of the pics are blue b/c my camera is frozen.... it was - 25 with a wind chill of -40..... and a much higher wind chill when speeding down the black diamond runs!)

One quick shot of the hall where we stayed..... set up for the next lesson.  Chairs and sound stuff were moved out of the way and this is where the boys slept (girls were downstairs).... if you look on the right you  can see some of the mattresses that we slept on..... about a 1/2 an inch thick!!!  Better than the bare floor.... but not much.  :)