Snowmobile Holiday in Montana

Nathan & Carson getting ready to go up in the hills.

We booked a condo and went on a road trip to Seeley Lake, Montana.  Originally we booked it as a trip to just get away from the chaos over the holidays.  In the end it became a search for snow as this was a very brown Christmas in most of Alberta.  The weather in Medicine Hat while we were gone was crazy with some daily temperatures of 16 degrees Celsius.  We found this great little town that is a snowmobile haven and although the locals kept telling us how little snow they had, there were amazing groomed trails all around with miles and hours of entertainment.  We were there over New Year's and being the party people that we are, we were all in bed by 9:30 on New Year's Eve!

 We were of course completely shocked that we had to drive 7 hours south of our Canadian home to find snow!  You can see by the some of the pictures though that it was light jacket weather and there were perfect conditions for sledding.  We only have one trail sled so we took turns taking the boys up into the hills on the various trails on most days.  We rented another trail sled on our last full day there and went on a 26 mile adventure on the trails.  We got a little lost but managed to find our way back.  Jay only had one major melt down, Clarke saw the allusive "kitty" in the mountains, and I managed to not tip my sled!  It was a good day!  In the middle of the trip we put together the GT racer and the boys loved riding it behind the sled at the trail head and telling Daddy each time to go even faster.  Nathan looked so small as they were pulling away but the only one who crashed off the racer with any regularity was Daddy.  Carson did take one flying leap off over a jump at the end but everyone was safe and happy.

Clarke had to pick Nathan up once or twice but always right at the end, within 10 feet of our truck.

Clarke driving off with Nathan on the GT Racer and Carson acting as the "spotter."

Nathan in action on the racer.

The boys waiting for us to get the sled unloaded from the trailer and start "racing."

Stinky, poised for the take off.  He always had his toque half covering his eyes and whenever I tried to fix it he would get mad.  The boys also managed to lose all their mitts and although I offered them mine they just wanted to 'race'.

Although there was an outhouse 50 feet away, I looked over to find Nathan watering the snow.  I couldn't get to the camera fast enough to get a picture other than this with him pulling up his pants.  You can tell that this was another warm day as none of the boys were wearing coats.

Our sled is on the left, Clarke is on the rental.  We didn't get any pictures up in the hills this day as it was snowing for much of our ride and you couldn't see much of anything except snow and fog.  Carson was also reluctant to stop for long as he was worried the "Mountain Cat" would get us.  We saw lots of tracks but Clarke was the only one who saw wildlife other than squirrels and deer.

This is where the mountain lion was living, right next door, just before our arrival.

The condo next to us.  There was a mountain lion living under the deck just prior to our arrival.

The view from the our deck.

The row of condos.

Crazy people were out fishing on Salmon Lake as well as Seeley Lake.  There were places where the water was still open!  We had really nice, above freezing, weather the whole time we were there and there were tons of people out on the lakes.

Hipstamatic!

I found an app called Hipstamatic that takes old style photos on my iPhone.  The down side it that the pictures are often not centered, but I do like the effects of them.  This is Carson showing off how big his mouth is.

While in Seeley, we checked out the town one afternoon.  They have an old fashioned malt shop where the boys wanted ice cream and Clarke and I shared a Huckleberry milk shake.  Huckleberries are a local treat and everywhere we went they were selling Huckleberry jam, syrup, pies, tea, salad dressings and everything you could think of that you could have added a huckleberry to.  The milkshake was very yummy but we certainly didn't think it was yummy enough to get one everyday like the boys wanted to.

Nathan wanted some of our milkshake and Daddy said no. 

Christmas Morning 2011

Santa came to visit!

Gingerbread 2011

Gram & Papa arrived on Christmas Eve and the boys were excited for the yearly gingerbread event with Gram.  This year she decided to try out some gingerbread trains for the boys and they were just beside themselves waiting to begin construction.

Nathan warming up his icing!

Jay with "train wheel eyes"

Gram helping Carson with construction.

Uncle Jason and Nathan building.

Gram is the expert!

Jay & Papa decorating up a storm!

Final touches!

Nathan was very creative with his decorating.  You can fortunately not see the chewed up pieces of bubble gum that he used as decorations on his train!

Jay didn't want anyone confused about who his train belonged to!

Carson was of course meticulous with his, complete with a color pattern to the candies!

Now that the houses are done we can get serious about Christmas.  From this activity we went for Chinese food dinner and then the boys got ready for bed and for Santa to come visit!

Jay's Birthday

Jay wanted a Pokemon cake.  I couldn't find one and hoped that this one would do.  Thankfully he loved it!  

 Having a birthday a week before Christmas can be difficult for parties.  We discussed with Jay that we would have a family birthday party and then in January we will have a party for him with all of his friends.  I was asked to work in Brooks, Alberta from December 15 to 18, and Jay thought it would be fun to stay at a hotel with a waterslide for his birthday.  He planned for his Birthday lunch at McDonald's and Brooks has  a great playplace.  Uncle Jason drove down for the party as well and was the official photographer in the playplace.

Nathan getting off the slide!

 As per usual, Brooks McDonald's was an adventure in and of itself!  The boys had lots of fun though.  They got Alvin toys from Alvin and the Chipmunks.  They all got Alvin's with surfboards.  The boys took Alvin to the pool later and sadly we didn't have the camera to prove it, but Alvin surfed nicely all the way down the waterslide!

Carson in the maze.

Jay peeking out of the tunnel.

Blowing out the candle after hearing the Happy Birthday song.

"Helping" Jay open presents - why do kids think that everybody needs help?

Showing off his present from Fiona!  Thanks Fiona!

Trying out the new game from Uncle Jason.

The new game turned into a mess of whacking!

 The boys love when Uncle Jason comes to visit as he always bring fun games and plays with them.  He went down the waterslide too many times to count, and Sunday morning after I had been up from 2-5 at the hospital he helped Clarke downstairs at the breakfast buffet wrangling the boys while I had a shower and tried to pack up our stuff.

Jay was obviously tired based on this position he fell asleep in!

Family Fun Night at Connaught

Nathan, waiting impatiently for the choir to sing!

Rather than having a Christmas concert this year, the school opted for a family fun night.  The kids could make crafts or play street hockey and they actually managed to find a team of horses and wagon to do sleigh rides.  The junior and senior choirs were to sing as well.

Jay waiting...

 The best way to describe the night is CHAOS!  They wanted the kids in the gym at 6:45 and the junior choir was to sing first.  Carson was so worried about missing his singing that when he finally stood up to sing he actually was doing a little dance and I had to yell at him to run to the bathroom.  He missed the first song and then we left as soon as he was finished singing so we could go home and clean him up.  Poor guy.  Anyone who knew him knew there was something wrong as he sang all the songs but didn't participate in the actions, nor did he even smile.  There are about 4 boys in the choir and 30 girls. I think he is there for the attention and not the singing!

Carson singing with the junior choir.

Santa!

I promised the boys that we would go visit Santa at the mall.  I must say I preferred last year's visit on a weekday when the lines weren't crazy alike on the weekend.  Anyway, I had to include a picture of Santa's elf.  This is at least the second year that this elf has been helping Santa.  Personally, I find him a little scary and can't imagine what the kids think.  I was surprised this year when we actually saw him smile!

 After an hour of waiting the boys got to see Santa.  Carson and Jay were excited to ask for Lego while Nathan wanted Mommy to ask on his behalf for a guitar!  When the boys first went and say on his lap, Santa looked at me and said, "I bet you are here to ask Santa for a little sister, aren't you boys?"  Mrs. Clause then volunteered that she also had 3 boys and found life quite busy at times.

Sitting with Santa

Getting books and candy canes from Mrs. Claus