The weekend before Christmas, we headed up to Whistler to spend two nights with Ashley and Amanda and their five kids in the beautiful townhouse they had rented for their 9 nights in Whistler. Another Aussie family, Jason and Rachel and their two daughters, who currently live on Vancouver Island, were also visiting Ash and Amanda for a few days. With six adults and seven kids there that weekend, it was a busy household!
We arrived on Friday night, and on Saturday Ben went snowboarding with Ashley, Kyle, Jacob and Jason. It was "dress like Santa and ski for free" day at Whistler, so here are a few photos Ben took on the slopes...
The Santas getting ready for a group photo
My day on Saturday was much more relaxing. I didn't leave the house at all! (Although I did spend a couple of hours babysitting five of the kids while the other ladies ducked into the village.) Here are some of the views I enjoyed from the windows and balcony...
On Sunday we drove to Pemberton for the meeting and were invited to stay for lunch. The last time we had been there was almost exactly one year before, when we spent Christmas in Pemberton with Roxy, Delle and Heidi! Here are some photos from the drive to and from Pemberton. We stopped a few times for Amanda to take photos, so we made the most of it too!
Unfortunately we didn't take any photos of people... just of snow! But we had a great weekend with both families. :) Thanks for letting us join you!
One Saturday in mid-March, we headed up to Whistler for a day of snowboarding. Only a 1.5 hour drive from where we live, Whistler Blackcomb is the largest ski resort in North America and hosted many of the 2010 Winter Olympics events. Despite that, this was only my second time snowboarding there, and Ben's third time!
Here's a video of me snowboarding (taken by Ben while he was also snowboarding, hence the shakiness)...
Disclaimer: This video is mainly for the benefit of people who've never seen snowboarding. If you know anything about it, this will bore you silly. Unfortunately, linked turns are the pinnacle of my skills!
And here are some roadside photos from the drive home...
As this was Delle's and Roxy's first ever winter Christmas, we wanted to give them a proper white Christmas experience... i.e. actual snow, not just the cold and rain we could expect from a Vancouver Christmas. So, we spent the three nights of the Christmas weekend up at Whistler, BC. The four of us were joined by our friend Heidi from Vancouver, and we had just the wonderful, magical, SNOWY white Christmas we had hoped for!
In a convoy of our car and Heidi's car, we drove the 1.5 hours north to Whistler early on Friday afternoon, December 23rd.
Our accommodation for the next three nights was a fully self-contained suite on the top floor of a B&B in Pemberton, a small town half an hour from Whistler. This turned out to be an absolutely incredible place to stay. It had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a stocked kitchen, a warm and welcoming Spanish/Mexican theme, and an outdoor hot tub. And it was MUCH cheaper than anything else I could find around Whistler over Christmas. An absolute gem that we hope to return to sometime!
The street we stayed on
Our lovely suite took up the entire top floor of this house
Across the street from us
You may observe that many of the photos in this post (eg. the first one below) look a bit different to usual. This is because, at the time, I was obsessed with a new retro camera app I'd downloaded on my Android phone. I quite like the cosy feel it gives to our Christmas photos though!
Dining table and archway through to kitchen
Roxy, Delle, Heidi, me
The present pile!!
The living room
Making dinner (Heidi's photo)
On Saturday (Christmas Eve), we headed to Whistler to spend the day snowboarding (except for Heidi, who explored the Village instead). Delle and Roxy had just started learning to snowboard during the previous couple of weeks, so getting to use their new skills at the largest ski resort in North America was quite a thing!
Here's a video taken as we left our B&B to head to Whistler that morning...
After parking and suiting up at the base of Blackcomb Mountain, we clomped across to the base of Whistler Mountain, as that was the one where I could be guaranteed a chairlift-free day. Then, the four of us rode a gondola high up into the hills to begin our slow and (for most of us) somewhat painful descent back down the mountain!
Delle, Roxy, me
Making our way up Whistler Mountain
Beautiful trees!
Delle and Rox
Us
It took us a couple of hours to get down to the bottom of the mountain again, and by then it was time to meet Heidi for lunch!
Me
Roxy
Roxy
Roxy again... and no, she didn't spend the whole day posing!
She also fell over a lot.
It's just that I'm too nice to post photos of that...
Beautiful, beautiful snow
Me
Roxy... posing again
Ben, Delle and Roxy... taken one of the many times we stopped
for Ben to make adjustments to the girls' boards!
Base of Whistler Mountain
As above
A handsome snowboarder
Me
Lunchtime... Ben, Heidi, Delle, Roxy
(Delle's photo)
(Delle's photo)
After lunch, we headed back up Whistler in the same gondola, but at the top we parted ways with Ben. The plan was that he would make his way down the mountain at his own (much faster than us) pace. And just for fun, we three girls would ride the Peak 2 Peak gondola across to Blackcomb Mountain and back (an 11 minute trip each way), and then start making our way down Whistler Mountain, meeting Ben somewhere along the way.
Here are some photos from the stunning Peak 2 Peak ride...
Gondola girls
Upon returning to Whistler, and Delle being cornered by a tourism representative and completing a survey, we decided to snowboard down the mountain rather than taking the gondola halfway down and starting from there. In hindsight, we should have taken the latter option, as it was approaching dusk and lift-closing-time (3:30pm), we were still a number of kilometres up the mountain, and Roxy in particular (as the newest snowboarder) was pretty tired.
However, if we had made that sensible decision, Roxy never would have experienced what it's like to be towed down Whistler on a toboggan pulled by a hunky Ski Patrol guy...
Don't worry, she wasn't hurt... just exhausted (and slow). No doubt
the Ski Patrol guys just wanted to clear the slopes and go home!
Back at our suite in Pemberton, it was time for some hot spiced apple cider and a soak in the outdoor hot tub, surrounded by snow. Bliss!
(Delle's photo)
(Delle's photo)
On Sunday, Christmas Day, we headed out of town on a short drive to the nearest meeting. We ended up staying for a few hours afterwards, eating snacks and chatting!
(Heidi's photo)
Back at our suite in the afternoon, it was time to finally upwrap our presents. We had all agreed to get presents for each other, and it was a lot of fun to open them. Thanks everyone!
One of Ben's Christmas/ anniversary gifts from me...
a dozen personalised Jones sodas
My Christmas present from Ben...
...A six-string banjo!!
Next on the agenda was Christmas dinner... roast turkey with cranberry sauce and veggies. Yum! While waiting for it to cook, we staved off our hunger with all the chocolate we'd just unwrapped, and played Ben's new charades-type board game.
Turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots
Adding the mushrooms, broccoli, and more cranberry sauce
Gluhwein on the way
Christmas dinner
The next morning, it was time to pack up and drive home. Thanks to all for an extremely wonderful Christmas weekend!
