Special Surprise from Grammie & Jack

On December 1st, Jack had a special surprise waiting for Arabella when she woke up.  Grammie had sent a Christmas Countdown House with Jack for Arabella to receive on December 1st.  Similar to an Advent Calendar, the house has 24 windows and doors that open and inside each one is a adorable woodland animal or bird.  She was so excited to see the surprise and note that Jack had written to her.  She loves opening a new door/window each morning and was very excited this morning when there was a little squirrel eating a nut inside door #3!  She is the perfect age for this tradition to begin!  Thank you so much Grammie (and Jack) for this special surprise!

Interesting

At Tremblant, they had a big outdoor advertisement for difference activities that were taking place around the Village.  At the very bottom of the sign was this disclaimer...

-25c...that is pretty cold!!!  (That converts to -13f!)  I don't think you would ever see that in the United States, the activity would have been cancelled when the temperature dropped to freezing!

Photo-A-Day Challege - Day 3 - Red

Winter Weekend in Mont-Tremblant

Ever since I did the Spartan Race in June at Mont-Tremblant, Arabella has been asking us to go back.  We decided to make one last weekend getaway with her before the little guy arrives in January.  I have to say, we had a great time, but I am very glad to be home.  Traveling at 33 weeks is tiring and I just want to crash, plus I am feeling like there is a ton of  "nesting" to do before he gets here!  Anyway, enough about me and more about our weekend.

We left on a snowy morning and the snow followed us all the way North to Mont-Tremblant.  It was so beautiful to see the mountains and trees covered in snow.  The drive wasn't too bad and Arabella was way, way excited about the snow and getting away. 

We stayed at Club Intrawest - Tremblant and it was great.  Our suite was great and they had a bunch of fun activities - we went to a wine/juice & cheese welcome reception our first night, they had the kids write letters to Santa and then there was even a movie night in the theater on site.  We were not right on the mountain like last time, but there was a free shuttle bus to get us there in no time flat!

The view from our room was amazing.  And we had the cozy little reading nook in our bedroom that looked out on the mountain.  It was so peaceful and relaxing.  I spent an afternoon reading there while Arabella and Jay went to the game room and then took a nap!

We had dinner out at Tremblant on Thursday  night.  It was so tough to keep Arabella out of the snow.  She wasn't dressed for it but still had a ton of fun.  Jay and I froze our rears off while she climbed the snow mountains!

Friday morning was beautiful!  We got bundled up and took the shuttle to the mountain.  Arabella was having her 1st ski lesson and Jay was going to go skiing for the afternoon.  She was so darn excited!  It was adorable!  She did amazing and if she wasn't so headstrong she would have been passing Jay down the slopes.  Her instructor said she did great and if we had put her in the all day lessons, she would have no problem getting all the techniques down pat.  (Now I am just deciding if we should enroll her in ski lessons this winter at a nearby mountain.)  She loved it!  And was a natural on skis!

 On skis for the very 1st time!!!  Look at the smile!

What better place to here to learn to ski!

 Going up the magic carpet lift for the 1st time!

 First time down the hill!

She had it down even before her lesson!  I wish I could have been on the hill with her!

 Arabella in her official lesson! 

 Jay on skis!  He had a fun time on the slopes! 

Saturday was  pretty cold day, but that didn't keep us inside.  The resort had sleds that we could borrow so once again, we bundled up and took a walk to find a sledding hill.  Arabella loved it and she and Jay had a blast going down the hill!

Last night, when we walked to the clubhouse to watch the movie, a deer was right outside our door.  We were able to get pretty close to her.  Arabella thought it was so neat to be able to see a deer so close.

We had a wonderful weekend away and are looking forward to being able to go back for another visit!

Photo-A-Day Challenge - Day 2 - Favorite Holiday Movie

Photo-A-Day Challenge - Day 1 - My View Today

Mont-Tremblant from the Club Intrawest Resort

December Photo-A-Day Challenge

One of my friends on Facebook posted about the December Photo-A-Day challenge and I decided that I would try it out.  It sounds like fun and I think it will be good try to try and be creative with the photos I try and take.  So here is the challenge...

Let's see if I can keep it up all month!