A GREAT Weekend

Wanna be jealous???

(the gorgeous view from the cabin)

Tim had another great surprise for me this week. He arranged for his parents to watch the kids overnight on Friday, and we went up to Zerin's cabin for the night. (Zerin is Tim's team manager at work) We dropped of the kids, (without too many tears) went out to dinner at a Greek place near Tim's work, then headed up to the cabin. After parking the van in the designated area, we rode snowmobiles up to the cabin. I was a bit nervous at first, since I had never been on one before and didn't really know what I was doing, and there was a drop off on one side of the road that I was afraid of going over - but it was fun.

(I know you can't tell, but this is me)

Zerin's family has 2 cabin's up there, and Tim wanted to stay at the upper one - which is smaller and doesn't have electricity, but Tim liked the "rustic feeling" a bit more. We stopped at the lower cabin so I could see it, then tried to get up to the smaller one. No such luck. The first trail we took, (which is how Tim got up there when Zerin took a couple of the members of the team snowmobiling during their lunch hour one day) was now impassible due to the snow that had melted, exposing a big ole rock in the middle of the path. After getting a snowmobile stuck, and then killing Tim's back getting it unstuck - we decided to try going the other way. (the way they got DOWN last Tim they went) My snowmobile was running really rough, and kept losing momentum (until it was at a dead stop) on the hills. We finally gave up, and decided to just stay at the lower cabin.


We were pretty much exhausted by the time we settled into the cabin for the night, being as we kept having to turn the snowmobiles around (using human muscle power instead of the preferred snowmobile engine power...) Suffice it to say, we are not skilled at the whole snowmobile thing, but we still had lots of fun.

Once we got a good fire going at the cabin, we played a round of Canasta - and I WON!!! This is a big deal to me, because I seriously can't remember the last time I beat Tim.

(standing by the fire, getting warmed up)

In the morning did some snowshoeing - and I soon discovered that I am WAY more out of shape than I thought. I have used snowshoes once before, and I don't remember it being SO HARD! We didn't go too far, because I was dying!

(trying to snowshoe - ski poles would have helped, but we forgot them)

Snowmobiling back out was even more fun, since I now felt more comfortable on the machine. We got back to pick up the kids, and what do you know - they all survived just fine. (I was really only worried about Caleb, I knew the others would be fine)

On the way back home, we stopped at my parents house to return the snowshoes and pick up Jasmine. We found my mom and dad working hard to install the piping needed for the new secondary water the city is using. We ended up staying there until about 7m to help, and made great progress.

(Caleb is "helping" daddy lay pipe - by throwing dirt into the trench)

(a close up of the little "helper")

(eating dinner at Grandma's after laying pipe)

Now today - Tim's back is still pretty sore, my right arm was sore yesterday from constantly holding (aka - gripping tightly with everything I had...) the snowmobile throttle, the house is a mess, I have stacks of laundry waiting for me, Caleb is a bit extra cling-y from being left overnight... but believe me, IT WAS WORTH IT!

Thanks Tim - I love you!

(and many thanks to Zerin too - not that he would ever be reading this blog, but I'm sending out some "gratitude karma" his direction anyway...)