Thanksgiving 2021

I'm a little late in posting about our fun Thanksgiving trip!

We kicked off the holiday week with a visit from Evie's old friend, Nicole. These two used to be really great friends, and Diego (Nicole's brother) is a year older than Nora and so playdates worked out pretty well. Sadly, Nicole moved to Atlanta 2 years ago but we've kept in touch with them and when they mentioned they would be in town, Evie was over the moon! We met up with them at their hotel where the kids played in the pool and then we grabbed takeout to eat. 

For the actual holiday, we took off Wednesday to try to beat the holiday traffic because we knew we had a l-o-n-g drive ahead of us! Our destination was SunPeaks, which bills itself as the second largest ski resort in Canada after Whistler. It's in interior BC and the normal route of going straight north towards Vancouver and then veering right after you cross the border would normally take about 6.5 hours. Unfortunately, the recent storms washed out a lot of the roads in BC and so we had to take a big detour, making our drive 9 hours instead! Factor in gas and food stops and border crossing, and we knew it was going to be a long day. We were very excited about our trip though so it was fairly easy to be out the door by 6:15am! We found a GREAT new audio book (Masterminds) to pass the time, the weather was good and the border crossing was easy peasy, so the drive really wasn't so bad! Plus, when we finally arrived at SunPeaks at about 6pm that evening, we were greeted with lightly falling snow. YAY!

Sunset as we headed towards Wenatchee

Welcome to Canada!

Our first full day (Thanksgiving!), we headed out early to hit the slopes! Evie was rarin' to go, but Nora was intimidated so the two of us took our time by practicing on the t-bar. It was actually pretty nice because there were 2 ways down from the t-bar so it felt like you got a bit of variety. I was trying to convince Nora to get on a lift after lunch but unfortunately, the visibility up at the top got bad enough that the Dads did not recommend any of the kids going up - they basically said you couldn't see in front of you so it didn't feel safe for beginners. So, we spent all day going up the t-bar!

Yay for fresh snow!

At the top of the green run next to the t-bar

Colorful crew

That evening, we soaked in the hot tub and made a feast! We roasted the turkey that Edmond brought with him, heated up some mashed potatoes, made some brussel sprouts, and had a side of wild rice and cranberry sauce and gravy and it was all super delicious. 

Nora and I in the hot tub

Turkey carving master

get in my belly!

On Friday, we split up where Evie and Scott went downhill skiing again while Nora and I tried out the cross country trails. It was very convenient that the nordic center was literally across the street from our condo so it was very easy to walk ourselves over. While it was gorgeous out, Nora was not feeling it and whined quite a lot so we ended early and then spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the village and going sledding. 

Evie, Kinsey and the dads going up the lift

Dining al fresco. They brought canned chili to heat up.

They stopped at the mid-mountain lodge for a snack and hot cocoa.

Their view from the cafeteria

Nora and I heading out on the cross country trails

She's pooped

The ski-through village behind me

Another view of the village.

Where to for sledding?

Made it to the sledding hill! The ski runs are behind us.

Nora going down the sledding hill

On Saturday, I was determined to explore more of the cross country trails and this time, Kathy and Kinsey joined us. It was snowing when we set out which meant it was very slow going because the trails weren't groomed. It was still fun though and so peaceful! We skied about 3 miles over to a "warming hut" to eat lunch we packed in our backpacks. The return trip back was way more fun because it was mostly downhill and it had stopped snowing. Evie and Scott went downhill again, and they said they did several black diamond runs! 

Fresh snow!

Lots of snow.

Lots and lots of snow!

Made it to the hut!

Eating our sack lunch

View of the frozen lake

Much happier now that our tummies are full

See? No one on the trails with us!

pretty pretty views!

Nora relaxing after a long day of skiing.

The village lit up at night. Kathy and I had a girls night out and had a nice dinner in town!

 We left bright and early on Sunday, and same as before, the roads were bare and we didn't run into much traffic so the ride home was pretty easy. The girls did amazing on the long car ride mainly by listening to some good audio books and podcasts. As for SunPeaks, we quite enjoyed it even though not all the ski lifts were open (the season only started on 11/20). Even if it was, I think there was still enough variety that everyone was satisfied. It also wasn't nearly as expensive as Whistler and it was pretty quiet. What we experienced might not have been normal though because it wasn't a holiday in Canada and the roads basically blocked Vancouver traffic from coming to SunPeaks. Whatever it was, I'll take it!