Easter Monday was the last day of the year at the hill. I still feel like I could ski a few more days, especially in the awesome 300 com base spring condition we still have up here. We spent the morning shovelling the back garden. Grayson had the great idea of grabbing our summer toys and the boys played happily with their dump trucks and loaders moving the snow around that i shovelled off the garden. There is still tons of snow in our yard. About 2.5 feet on the garden and much more in the shade on the north side of the house, probably 1 metre.
By 1 pm we headed to the ski hill for a few last runs of the year. We did 2 on Silverlode and then had a snack on the deck. Good bye skiing for the year, can't wait until next year when the boys are bigger and stronger, we will be all over the mountain.
No joke, we spent 2+ hours shoveling, digging and draining this 4" deep puddle. The boys fell many times in it and came out pretty dry. Here's to rainboots and Tuffo rainsuits. This will be their clothing of choice outside until about May when all the snow finally melts and the puddles dry up. Worth every penny.
Cole and Grayson Macaulay, of Macaulay Engineering
Last weekend we went to the Okanagan for a quick visit. We came with all the spring gear, rainsuits and boots for puddles and bikes to ride through them. Since it is still winter up here in Rossland, and I haven't worn shoes except runners for work down in the valley I forgot to bring shoes for myself and only had Bogs to wear for the whole weekend. On Saturday it snowed a bit in Vernon so I didn't stick out so bad that day at least. The boys and I headed out in the morning in poor weather for a bike ride anyway, we found this great trail on the hill near the field that they lapped for a while.
Grayson
Cole
On Sunday morning it was a little nicer out but a bit cold. Grandpa and I took the boys to Polson Park. It was great park, with a road closed to traffic to loop around the park, a pond with ducks to amuse, a playground, and a skate park to rip around on their bikes. The boys were a bit of a spectacle in their matching rainsuits, matching bikes, and matching helmets. Why do they only make gear in yellow or pink, thats not a lot of colour choices for twin boys. The boys were in biking heaven.
The boys are constantly asking to ride there bikes or go back to Mexico to ride their bikes, or just "that it be summer". We have a long way to go around here where it is still snowing and we easily have 1.5 meters in the backyard that hasn't even started to melt. We have had a little rain and the boys took to shoveling the slush out on the road in their new rain suits. Shoveling keeps them happy if they can't ride their bikes at least.
Determination
Ugh, shovelling slop
Caught with their pants down while the plow comes up the road
I always want to have a party and special day for the boys to celebrate their half birthday, but as usual once the day comes I run out of steam. This year they spend the day at a new daycare, came home, didn't nap and were generally not fun to be around at all until they were asleep in bed. So, no special day for us. We are just into our first week of Trev being away on the island, back at work already. Working full time and juggling the boys and daycare etc is exhausting by the end of the day. Fortunately by Thursday they were back to napping, and I got to spend a few hours with my sweet little boys instead of the no napping monsters. Happy 3.5 years old boys! Here's some old picture to catch us up a bit.
The boys with the other wiggly twin boys
Almost as long as the bath tub
"Helping" out with the vacuuming
I can't help thinking that Grayson is squeezing his "nickel" in this photo, when really
they are showing off their name tags for daycare
After teaching skiing for years I knew that some kids just get it right away and some don't. I figured our boys would catch on pretty quick, but I was wrong and it took a few months of a day a week or so to get them snowplowing, stopping, turning and skiing with no leash or edgie wedgies. Today was the first official day without any of the tools. Grayson turned out to be the big ski guy today doing very controlled turns down the magic carpet and a even a run down the lift with Trev. Cole was a little more reluctant to turn and wanted to go straight down the run. After a big wipeout where I had to basically clothesline him to stop him at the bottom, he was a little bit better listener about turning. On the next run, Grayson was pulling off some nice little turns, a borderline schnoodler, and we took a few steps back with Cole to get him back on track. Check out the video schnoodler. We went up the lift and Grayson skied down the whole way on his own with Trev. Cole wanted the leash for the first bit, but after a pit stop, we didn't put it back on and he skied down the rest of the way. I'm still wary of taking the two of them alone on the lift. They seem to need one on one a bit more, but maybe after a few more days on the carpet, they'll get it a bit more.
