The Worst Parent in the World

So I went down to Kelowna today to visit Grampa Allan and to get Tobin out on his bike to enjoy some snow free times. It was a good visit, but somehow, whenever I'm looking after the kids the shizzazle always hits the fan and it's chaos all day.
It didn't start out so badly. I was fairly well organized with diapers for Nick, wipes, snacks, lunch etc etc. All those things that parents take with them. Chaos level 2

Then we stopped in for a visit: diaper change, lunch, crawling baby, concrete steps, esophagus sized decorative pebbles. Chaos level 3.

Okay let's hit the bike park! Lots of awesome bike riding, swing swinging, poking sticks at things, throwing rocks at ducks etc etc. Chaos at level 1.

So on the way home we stopped at Tobin's number one stopoever: The Caboose.

Good timing, Nick has a turd in his trousers. Oh gosh*, where's the diaper bag? Okay, think fast... Quick, tip the little pancake out onto the shoulder of the road and we'll make it home on a recycled diaper. Oops, Tobin's birthday present from GA just fell out of the car. Hmm, where did that turd go? Oh here it is stuck to the gift! Where's Nick? Right, he's crawling all over the car with a poopy bum and a half installed diaper.... Chaos level 5.

Meanwhile Bear has decided to go bananas** at some strangers walking by, barking and running around in traffic... "Good heavens Bear, you scoundrel hound!***" As this is happening Tobin is calling for me from the caboose, Nick has no pants on and the gift still has a turd stuck to it like a decorative bow. That's when the middle-aged-stranger-lady gives me the look of judgement and disapproval. At that point I started to enjoy it. Chaos level 15.

* What I really said starts with an F.
** What's it like, Bear, to have an ephemeral connection between your brain and the rest of your body? Especially when 5 of the 6 brain cells you have are dedicated to the random operation of your mouth parts?
*** Language was quite a bit stronger.

Oh well, at least I got to ski this, summit of Mt Begbie. Right from the top.

The flat looking trails way down there are our 'gigantic' ski hill

A bit rambly there, but I had to get that off my chest.

Finally downloaded all the images off the camera, so here are a few.

Tobin and Nick chillaxin' in their fort

Getting ready for bed, Nick looking like wise and amused. Tobin saying "I wanna see!", the same thing he says every time I take a picture.

Tobin and Coen riding the gondola. Tobin looks like a deer in the headlights because I told him there was a deer down there, the only way he would look at me.

Same day, getting ready to rip up the magic carpet!

Super-awesome magic carpet. Evidently the only reason to go down is so you can ride the magic carpet back up.

Some scenery: Grizzly Peak and Grizzly Chute

Looking towards Abbott Ridge, Afton and Bonney in the distance

Troy, working his way to the top. You can see Roger's Pass 1300m below.

Salvation!

We've entered a blissful stage of our child rearing lately. In the nick of time I might add, if sanity was a publicly traded commodity ours would have been totally worthless.

In the last 10 days Tobin has toilet trained himself and Nicholas has decided that it's better to sleep 12 hours a night than to get up every hour. I doubt either of these has anything to do with the quality of our parenting; on the contrary, Nick's strategy may have been one of self-preservation.

"Rollin' in my 5.Bowl"*

Protective older brother. Or is that a choke hold?

Mr Mobile

*Reference to a really lame white rapper from the 1990's. Can you guess who it is?

Major A.B. Rogers

I just got this really great book called 'The Great Glacier and its House'. It's all about the history of mountaineering in Roger's Pass as well as the history of the railway line. A good read and filled with some inspiring characters. Many of whom had mountains named after them. Major AB Rogers was one of the early surveyors who has been credited with finding the way through the Selkirks. Hence Roger's Pass. However, there's also a peak named after him and it's a classic ski mountaineering objective. I skied this yesterday on a bluebird, cold, windy and deep pow day. It was amazing. Skiing right off a 3100m summit 1900m to the car was a real treat.

A foreshortened view of Roger's on the left, Fleming, Swiss and Truda on the right. We skied the giant snow face.

Roger's is one of the highest around so we were looking down on everything except Sir Donald and Bonney.

Tupper, MacDonald (Sir John A) and Sir Donald

I forgot the camera so used the 'camera phone' to take these lousy images.

Point of View Awesomeness

Inspired by all those helmet cams you see on the ski hill

Christmas Day

Christmas is exhausting.

Unleash the children!

Chaos

Tobin had been eyeing up this pot of cars since Christmas eve

Singing Christmas Carols

Christmas Eve at the Gillatrons

Getting four boys under six to sit still long enough to take a picture is challenging...

All ready for Santa. I think the adults are more excited than the kids.

Nick has started crawling, just in time for the myriad choking hazards associated with this festive season. Fortunately most of the decorations are situated above the height of the dog's tail so he'll be safe.

We've been hearing lots of hard-to-take news about friends near and far so I think we'll be spending the day appreciating our good fortune and trying to send our best vibes and thoughts out to all our best people.

Love from us.