Family

We just got back from a Family Reunion in Canada this week. We decided a few months ago that we were going to rent a mini-van rather than drive our car for two reasons. One-we knew it was going to be extremely tight with all the stuff we needed for Chunky Monkey-Portable Crib, Stroller, Lots of diapers, pumping stuff, extra clothes-and our trunk barely fits the stroller alone. The second reason was that in order to feed my baby, I would need to sit next to him, and try as I might, I could not get in the back seat with the baby's car seat, Munckin's car seat and my hips. Anyway, we went to pick up the car, and they were out of mini vans. Now, I'm still trying to figure out how they give away all their mini vans when it was reserved in February. Any ideas?? So we ended up with a Nissan Armada. It was an SUV, which I was not excited about, because I wanted better gas mileage than SUV's typically get, but it did alright. (between 17 & 20 mph, depending on wether we were in the mountains or not)When we walked out to the car, it didn't have a license plate. It still had temporary plates. It was brand-spanking new! 2009, 117 miles on it. It also kept a log of drive time: 37 1/2 hours of driving! I honestly thought that driving that long with two children was going to be a challenge, but they were amazing! They both did so good. We're home, and a bit tired, but we had a great time.

We went up to Kicking Horse resort in Golden, BC. It was beautiful. Hikari's uncle was so generous to have the entire family up there. I think they said it was over 300 people. There were so many fun activities to do and family to meet. There are so many people in Hikari's family that I had only heard stories about and it was fun to meet them all.

They have a bear enclosure up the hill. You can see it from the gondola up to the top of the mountain, or you can take the chair lift to the enclosure and get out and look for the bear. I never saw it but Hikari did. He got really close they got lots of pictures. Then it started to downpour and the shut the lift down, so him and his Brother in Law had to walk down. Luckily a maintenance guy went and brought them down in his truck so they didn't get too soaked.
We went up in the Gondola and it was such a beautiful view. Munckin wanted to get a lot closer to the edge than I was comfortable with. The first day that we went up, the clouds were so low that you couldn't see the car behind you until you got up through the cloud cover.

Hikari had the opportunity to go see the sights from a helicopter! It was supposed to be Heli-Hiking, but the weather was questionable, and they didn't want anyone to get stuck and the helicopters not be able to get them. So the kids and I watched him take off and he had a wonderful 15 minutes in the air going in and out of canyons

And this was just in the first day! More to come...