A TIME TO CHERISH

Once I was naive enough to believe that when my children could walk, talk, and go to the bathroom by themselves that I would have more free time!  Very funny statement I know, my boys are 10 and 12 and I am busier now than I was when they were babies.  I never stop, I go to work every day and come home at night to make dinner, make sure homework is done and drive here or there for practices or games.  I’m certainly not complaining, I love my boys, my husband and I love my life.  I’m always tired and sometimes cranky but wouldn’t change it for the world.  Last weekend the boys and I headed to Manning Park again for one last weekend of skiing before the hill closed for the season.  My husband had to work so we left him behind!   Skiing for three days is a lot of work and tiring but it’s good exercise and it’s great to get fresh air.  My mother-in-law has a cabin about 15 minutes from the ski hill and she still works as ski school director at the mountain – she’s 76 years old.  I haven’t blogged about my mother-in-law because she’s not the type of person that would appreciate being blogged!  However, our relationship is unique and she is a big part of our family, therefore she should be blogged.  The children call my mother-in-law Nonna -Italian for grandmother as she is Italian.  Her and I are two different woman, we don’t think the same, we don’t act the same but we are identical in our trait of being very stubborn.   Nonna has been on her own for a long time as my husband’s father died when he was 18.  About 8 years ago, Nonna decided to sell the family home and to make a long story short, she moved in with us.   Nonna is very independent but she winters up at the cabin and just wanted a place she could leave, lock the door and not worry about anything.  So move on to a family discussion over dinner one night which ended with Nonna moving in with us.  She first moved into our old house – it was tiny and we had to move the two boys in the same room.  We did this for about a year and then went house hunting, found this house and we built a home in the basement for her.  Even though Nonna lives in the basement she comes up to break bread with us daily, comes grocery shopping with us, attends the boys’ hockey and lacrosse games when she’s in town,  the boys join her to watch tv downstairs at least once a week and Nonna has joined us on the odd holiday.  The relationship works, her and I  get along and the children adore her. When my own mother became ill with Alzheimer’s, Nonna was a huge support to me.   She didn’t really say a whole lot but she listened to me for hours on end and I can’t tell you how much to this day I appreciate her support.  We may be two very different woman, but we respect each other immensely.   Our family enjoys the trips we take several times a year to go to the cabin.  On the last day of skiing this year, Nonna took the afternoon off and skied with me and the boys,  76 years old and still skiing.  Really a time to cherish because the boys will look back at this one day and remember the time at the cabin and remember the special times with Nonna.  I couldn’t be happier for all three of them and I’ve  had a great view of their relationship just hanging back and watching the bonding that takes place between grandmother and grandchildren.  Nonna may not know it but she’s a living legacy and my boys will talk about her to their children – “Your great grandmother skied with us at 76 years old!”  I hope I live long enough and be blessed with good health to  share the same bond with my own grandchildren!

ROAD TRIP

 

My mother-in law has a cabin at East Gate in Manning Park, BC.  We decided to go skiing for five days during our Spring Break.  If you like to ski, this area has great conditions for skiing.   It’s a no frills ski resort, a place that offers beautiful scenery, great downhill skiing, great nordic or snowshoeing trails and enough nature to last you a lifetime.  If you are looking for lots of restaurants, pubs and bars then Whistler would be more appropriate.  There  is a lodge, one restaurant and a pub located at the resort.  There is one restaurant in the area and it’s a little hole in the wall.  East Gate Diner it’s called and the chef (Dave) makes fabulous food, in my opinion better than anything they serve at the lodge.   Dave and Melody know how to greet guests, make them feel like they are in a country kitchen and  serve some amazing grub.  Check out the link for hours and information.

We are lucky as we have a cabin where we can stay.  It’s a very rustic little cabin, but it’s a place you can hang your head after spending the day on the hill.  At one time there was no tv or computers, but in the last several years my mother-in-law has Satellite TV, dial-up connection for the computer and an extra TV upstairs so the boys can bring all of their games and gadgets.  Technology is good, but there was a time when we played board games or read for a past time, now we can watch all the latest shows.

 

Considering it was Spring Break, the weather was all over the map.  Most of the days were beautiful and sunny.  We had a blizzard one day that lasted 24 hours and more than three feet of snow fell.  Powder,powder and more powder we’re the conditions of the hills after that snowfall.

   

This family can’t go away without something happening, this time it was water.  The cabin is old and so is everything in it.  A friend of ours came up with us and he could hear from the well something not quite right.  He opened the hatch and found that a leak had sprung from one of the hoses.  He insisted if we didn’t fix it, the whole thing would blow.  Another friend of ours who has experience with all things water said to him to leave it as sometimes when you fix one thing it leads to another thing.   To make a long story short there was no one small enough to fit in the hole except for my youngest  son and me.  Our friend was talking about tying a rope around my son’s chest so he didn’t fall down this fifteen foot well.  No bloody way, so it was left to me – went down three times because just like the man said – we fixed one thing but ended up with more problems. At one point we ended up with no water and that was the third time I went down that hell hole to patch things up.  No, I’m not that inclined – I had men yelling instructions from the top and I managed to figure things out.  Pretty funny when you think about it – send the deaf chick down the hole and yell at her!

All in all it was good five days and as far as I know the water is still holding!

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