family ramblings: March 2011

This cheesecake has nothing whatsoever to do with the rest of the post, it was just fun to make and photograph. It was a mocha cheesecake, but despite the amazing amount of strong coffee I put in, it mostly just tasted like a chocolate cheesecake. It was my friend, Jaimee's 30th birthday and we had a party for her here with a few of her friends, complete with wine, cheese and crackers, lattes, cheesecake and pavlova. A fun night, celebrate an amazing woman.

We decided to go to Elkhorn Resort again this year for a week, having had such a good time last year and needing a break after Julio's relentless course load. He wrote his stats exam Wednesday and Friday we headed out on the snowy, treacherous highway down to Elkhorn. That was one of the longest rides of my life, the roads were so terrible we could hardly see in front of us, but Julio kept calm and we made it there, slowly but surely. The wind was coming perfectly horizontally at us and the snow was blowing in drifts and then suddenly, in the blur of white a car or semi would appear in the opposite direction and blur on by. Truly we were amazed and relieved when we eventually arrived! When I checked in, the lady at the front desk told me I better call my dad as he was worried about us. It's awesome when you're 33 and your dad still looks out for you. I mean that too.
After a phone call to pops, we settled into our "home" for the next week. It was a quaint little two-storey chalet with a fireplace and enough space for our vanload of stuff. Our first priority was to go swimming, so we had a quick supper and headed out to the pool, which we swam in nearly every day of our trip. Our skin was all chapped and dry by the end of the week from all our swimming but we really enjoyed the pool. Luke's favorite part was the outdoor hot tub but somehow Julio and I weren't as enamored with the cold trek out there. Anna loved the pool too and even got pretty obsessed with "jumping" in, over and over again. She may not talk a lot but she gets her point made. We would let her jump in, and she would come up and immediate point to the edge of the pool again to do it over and over. Sam loved the pool too, blowing bubbles and floating and doing canonballs which were just about the cutest things I've ever seen. He barely jumps but just sort of flops in holding his knees and makes the teeniest splash.
Other highlights included a 2 day visit from Papa Ron and Gramma Anne, tobogganing, seeing the horses (Anna went up to one of the horses and said "tickle tickle tickle"), skating, a spa morning with a massage and a good soak in the mineral pools for me, exercising on the treadmills, a bit of ping pong, walks in the snow and playing games and reading in the chalet.