Owl's Head

Today was the best ski day ever. Our friends Kim, Kate, Ben and Pascal invited us to join them for a day of skiing at Owl's Head. About an hour and a half away from here, it's well worth the drive. Being a Monday (and a PED day for the kids) we were hoping to have a good part of the mountain to ourselves. Boy were we treated right. Look at the parking.

Let's just say it was an amazing day. The girls worked on their techniques, the boys on, well, pretty much nothing as they just flew down the mountain as often as they could.

Owl's Head is an amazing mountain high enough to make you wonder when it is you're going to arrive at the bottom. The main face has a lot of interesting runs, from the majestic Lilly's Leap, to the black diamond Standard, to the oh so very fast Shady Lady, where I got to reach speeds of 89 km/h+.

Thanks so much to Kim, Pascal, Kate and Ben for a wonderful day.

When we got home we got to watch the first episode of Suzanne's show, VoirGrand.tv  -- it's really cool to see her on TV, she has great presence.

Today was ski day... again

The entire family went to Bromont for a fun morning of skiing. We spent most of our time on the "Versant du Lac" as the fast chair on the main hill was out. What I like is that we arrived early enough to park the car in the P5 parking, meaning that we can get to the hill within a few hundred feet of walking, and no steps.

Sabrina had fun taking pictures of Mathieu, and then altering them a tad...

We're currently prepping for Orlando. Our departure is in about 64 hours. Our first few days look so great.

Happy Birthday Chris

We were supposed to go skiing today but Suzanne preferred getting some work done. That said we still drove to Knowlton to celebrate Chris's birthday at Nick&Amy's home. We have a great time and the food was absolutely excellent. We were all there, along with Tim and Diane, and Gail and David. It was the best of times.

Happy birthday Chris. It's good to have you in our family.

What a blistery day

Guess what we did today? We went skiing to Bromont, the kids and I. Low and behold, Pascal, Kim and family were there too and we ended up skiing together for a while. We had a blast. Sabrina was able to conquer her fears and tried her first black diamond of the season: The Knowlton.

Not to say that the conditions were great but we still had a great time.

Soon to return

I am currently re-installing my photo library on my computer. Once this is done I'll be able to take pictures and build my log again.

Getting ready for Christmas

I know it's just a few days before Christmas, but we're only now getting ready for Christmas (fear not the gifts are long purchased). Here we see Suzanne hard at work.

Mathieu is in the Christmas spirit.

Ghosts

I dreamt of ghosts last night. It was at my mom's place, in the summer time. We were a group of us mingling in front of the stables near the house, when some people came out of the open stable doors. They were a bit different, walking among us as if they were part of us. Nobody really noticed but at one point I saw a man who was watering bushes with a hose that was not connected to anything. So I silently told the living about them.

I still remember the feeling of awe I was in, how beautiful everything was. For some reason it was quite touching. Us, the living, were amazed, happy. These feelings are strong as I write this.

I remember us leading them back to the stables, gently, like you help an older person to something.

Ski and Knowlton

Today we went to ski at Bromont. It rained from the time we got in the car to the moment we got to the mountain. Troupers that we were we still did three runs.

But you can only get so much rain before getting tired of it. We went to have lunch with mom. We had a good time but the food was subpar to what we paid so, never again at that restaurant.

The drive back was a tad tiring for the kids.

We ended the day with a nice fire in the fireplace.

Karate Belt Passing

Today Mathieu and Sabrina both climbed a level in karate. Sabrina went from being a blue-yello stripped to a yellow belt, and Mathieu went from being an orange to a blue belt (now in the same mid-category as his sister). Real cool.

Practicing moves

Sabrina doing her katas

Sabrina is now a yellow belt

Mathieu is now a blue belt

Ski, Finally

I was woken up by Sabrina who dumped her Playmobil Advent Calendar on my stomach, all excited because it is the 1st of December. Today is also exciting for us for we are going skiing.

We left late and arrived at 10:00pm, partly because we weren't ready since it was our first ski day of the 2012-2013 season, partly because we were just being relaxed. As I stopped my car in the parking it reached a milestone...

We met Pascal and Ben who had been skiing for an hour (I can't believe they started skiing before us). Here's a nice father and son moment...

Here we are getting ready to go up.

I feel like a fish who's been put back in the aquarium... So good. There was global happiness throughout the family this afternoon.

We were spent, but so happy. I was in bed by 8:00pm.

Swim Eval, Great Wines

This Friday was evaluation day at the swimming course. The kids hopefully did well. Here you can see Sabrina converse with Ben, and Mathieu having a conversation with Kate.

Here are two wines I absolutely like for their taste. A bit pricey, the Cab is $40 and the Pinot $60, but their taste is just out of this world...

Three 3-cheers ceremonies, three 3-cheers; Art

Sabrina just got her third 3-cheers in as many ceremonies. At the end of the month, the entire school is reunited in the gym and one or two students of each class is presented with a reward called 3-cheers in front of everyone for special accomplishments. Sabrina just got her third three cheers. Very proud.

First it was French, then English, now it's math. Way to go love. We're so proud of you.

The kids have become very artistic these days. Here is Sabrina's work...

Mathieu is into zombies...

And here's a two-mast radio control great ship...

Nice Sunday Dinner

Max came to have dinner with us tonight. It was really nice to have the family complete again. When we got into the house, Mathieu yelled his name and went to give him the biggest hug. Really nice.

Sabrina started reading "The Hobbit" tonight. She's really liking the book. She started giggling at one point, when the dwarves come to visit Bilbo, uninvited. It is a really cool book.

Quelle belle journée; Joe Dassin

Nous avons meme eu la chance de prendre une bonne marche. Voici quelques photos.

Fait intéressant: Nous écoutons présentement Joe Dassin au souper. Saviez vous que Joe Dassin était Juif américain, né a New York?

Kids... 90% Love, 10% War

Look what Mathieu did to his sister...

Paper Planes; Play date

Mathieu is into making his own paper airplanes, complete with drawings. When Suzanne asked, he told her he had initiated it himself and had not learned it in kindergarten or in daycare (they go to daycare for an hour on Thursdays and Fridays, at their request). Real cool.

Long time friends came to play over today to give the grand parents a small break. These kids have known each other ever since they were born and the chemistry between them is just beautiful. It's really great to have them over.

Fun Saturday with a tint of grey...

My 27" iMac I've had since December 2009 had a recall because of a hard drive failure possibility and I brought it to the Apple store for repair. Say what you may about Apple, the fact that they send me an email to tell me they need to change the drive on my three year old Mac (for free). I will miss my machine for the next few days though.

Today was a slow day, a perfect one for us to play board games. Suzanne and Sabrina played Mystery Mansion while I played Battleship with Mathieu while I cooked supper. We had a great time.

Sabrina and Suzanne are rediscovering some very old board games.

Clean House

It's so pleasant when the house is clean... I like to work with my portable on the counter and when we're all here it's hard to be zen. But during the day when the kids are out school and Sue's out work...