A few weekends ago, my parents and I did a little snowshoeing in K-Country.

On my parent's suggestion we did Penstock Loop, which I have to admit I wasn't thrilled about since they described it as flat.

In the end, it was a great little hike with perfect weather.  Even though it's flat, it has varied scenery, starting and ending in forest, and at certain points we left the forest which opened up beautiful views of the mountains.

An added bonus-you don't have to worry about avalanches.

We started at the Peter Lougheed visitor's center where I took a picture of the great room in case I win the lottery and can one day build my dream home.

The next day, Brendan kindly invited us to his Taekwondo Class.

The first part of the class gave me horrible flash backs to the boot camp class my sister had dragged me to at 8 in the morning.

Roger's Arm

Here's an update on Roger's arm which he injured a week ago while skiing on Mount Washington.

The diagnosis by the doctor in the first aid hut was a strained rotator cuff.

Each day, the arm looks different, and each day he can move it just a little bit more.

Here's what it looked like about a week ago with very little bruising.

Here's what it looks like today.

It would make a pretty lipstick colour, but it's kind of gross.

Courtney and Comox

Last weekend we spent Family Day visiting family on Vancouver Island. 

I was super excited about the trip not only to see Hans and Dianne, but also because I was hoping to gorge on cheesecake at the Gatehouse Bistro and do some x-country skiing at Mount Washington.

Unfortunately, before we headed out I heard that the Gatehouse was closed until May, so no cheesecake for us.

Also, this happened.

Yup, after skiing about 600m at Mount Washington, Roger fell and strained his rotator cuff. 

Fortunately, it wasn't worse, but it means he probably won't be skiing for the rest of the season, although he can still play video games..... thank goodness of course!

I did manage to get some skiing at the mountain, while Roger patiently waited in the chalet eating cinnamon buns.

We were fed really well on the Island, with Dianne and Hans treating us to plenty of seafood.

We also went along to a photo shoot of the local MLA shucking oysters at the wharf.

And.... lucky for us, after the oyster shucking, we were allowed to eat the oysters!

They were soooo delicious, fresh out of the shell, seasoned with sea water.  

Am I ever glad that I discovered my taste for raw oysters a few years ago.

RIP Boots

I recently received the sad news that I would have to retire my hiking boots that I've had for 15 years.  

While hiking in rainy Iceland, my right foot constantly marinated in a pool of water which collected under the toes.  

On close inspection, I realized that the sole was separating from the boot. 

Even my dad's mad skills with gorilla glue and duct tape couldn't save them. 

I have recently replaced them with these.

I sure hope they last another 15 years.

RIP dear boots, you will be missed.

Mushrooms

I had many reasons to be excited for Christmas 2012.

 One of the reasons for my excitement was that I had thought of a gift for my dad months before.  

For those who know my dad, he is near impossible to buy gifts for, so when I heard about these mushroom growing kits, I knew my problems were solved.  I also knew my brother in law liked to grow things, so he was made another lucky recipient of these kits.

I had these kits shipped to Mamma G's house and she notified me when they arrived.  Everything was on time and in place.

When I arrived at Mamma G's house, I went to open the box perhaps expecting cute little mushroom kits wrapped in festive paper and tied with pretty ribbon.

Instead, I pulled out these large sealed plastic bags filled with dirt and well.... fungus.

My first reaction was ewwwww gross.  

My second reaction was mild panic knowing that I had no time to find something else for them. 

Anyways, here's photos of the kits.

Luckily it was Christmas, and they had to be nice to me afterwards.

Mamma G quickly inherited Lars' mushrooms and attacked the care of the mushrooms with much gusto.   We've received several updates on the status of the mushrooms.

My dad was a bit more apprehensive.  He read through the directions multiple times, then grilled me on the directions which i was little help with.

Then he went on-line to verify the instructions and after following the directions he waited, and waited and... waited.

It got to the point that he was texting me to never buy him mushroom growing kits again.  Not only that, but my mom sent pictures to our relatives in Malaysia saying "poor dad" got a bag of dirt from his daughter and son-in-law for Christmas!

And then this happened.

And then they harvested!

And then they ate this!

Which they said was delicious by the way.

And...while I'm patting myself on my back, I'll go so far to say that maybe you were a bit premature about saying you never want another mushroom growing kit again dad!

A Fort Mac Sunrise

I took these photos from our bedroom window a few weeks ago.

It was beautiful, but boy was it chilly. 

You can see an outline of frost in the bottom pic.