Harrison Hot Springs, BC - Dec 2015

A few days after Christmas we went on a quick two day trip to Harrison Hot Springs in British Columbia Canada. Have I mentioned how much we LOVE Canada.

View of Harrison Lake from our room

We stayed at Harrison Hot Springs Resort which is on the edge of beautiful Harrison Lake.  Plus, its only a 2 hour drive from Seattle.  It was cold and blustery the day we arrived. We had been talking to the girls about how we were going swimming at the hot springs (they are familiar with hot springs after our trip last summer).  As we drove up to the hotel and saw this beautiful view, with the wind blowing and the temperature at freezing, Elin said, in an exasperated voice "This is NOT what I was expecting!"  Apparently, she thought the lake was the hot springs and it did not look warm enough to swim in.    HA! HA!

The Resort has it's own set of 5 hot spring pools for their guest only.   For more info/pictures of the resort and hot springs click here:  www.harrisonresort.com

We checked in, changed and got right to swimming.

We had dinner in town that night, not worth mentioning (horrible food) then a second round of swimming before bed.  Funny story about bedtime:  The next morning James told me that just after we turned out the light I was shaking the bed like I was having a seizure so he looked over at me to make sure I was ok.  I don't remember having a seizure?  I also felt him shaking the bed, I just thought he was restless and not sleeping well. We learned later that day that about 8 minutes after we went to bed that night there was an earthquake near Victoria BC....which was why the bed was shaking.

The view from our room was just as beautiful in the morning.

Day 2 started out with a quick breakfast....and you guessed it.....more hot springs swimming.

Double trouble....

Elin started swimming, really swimming, on this trip.   I love having a water camera to capture all these interesting photos.  Her hair cracks me up.  She looks like a little mermaid.

We headed towards home that afternoon after doing a little shopping in Vancouver.  We will definitely going back. Elin has already asked when we can go there again.

Maija

Christmas 2015/ Seattle WA

We don't normally travel for Christmas and there are so many fun things to do around Seattle that I thought I would put a blog post about what we did this year for our local "travels".  We pick 2-3 holiday things to do every year and try not to repeat the same thing every year, except Snowflake Lane which is a MUST do for our girls.

NUTCRACKER BALLET

We took the girls to see the Nutcracker for the first time this year. It was a shortened "kids" version of the ballet which was nice. And they did a great job.  The girls loved it.

SNOWFLAKE LANE

Every year they close off a street near BellSquare mall and perform Snowflake Lane.  There are drummers, dancers, people in costumes that hand out suckers, and they make it snow!  It's very loud, high energy and festive and our girls request it every year.

DOWNTOWN SEATTLE

We went downtown on a Saturday to see the holiday decorations, ride the holiday carousel and shop /lunch at Pike's Market.  Anikka chose to wear her bunny ears that day and she wore them the entire day.   James called her our Christmas bunny.

GINGERBREAD HOUSES

The PTSA at our elementary school hosted a gingerbread making night.  Lots of fun!

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS IN KINGSTON WA 

The girls and I took the ferry over to Kingston WA one day to visit my friend, Elli.  We hung out with her boys for the afternoon then went to see the light display by the ferry.  It was one of the best light displays I have seen.  The only problem: it started pouring right as we got there.  But, we toughed it out and got soaking wet.....my girls thought is was fun.  And they always love a ferry ride.  

We had a fun and magical Christmas season.

Maija

Thanksgiving 2015 - Hayden, ID

Yep, I'm super late doing this blog.....

For Thanksgiving this past year we went to Hayden ID to visit with the "Idaho Scoffield's". The girls call their cousins in Idaho their "brothers".   They were SOOOOOO excited to go especially because we were going to be able to play in the snow.

Thanksgiving morning the younger kids went out to play in the snow then came in for hot chocolate.

Trev, Ani, Elin and Hayden

Aunt Lisa had Thanksgiving "craft" for the girls to do and use as the centerpiece for dinner.  Tristan helped the girls assemble it.  They all had a great time.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal prepared by Lisa.  So much yummy food.

Hunter and Anikka

Hayden and Elin

Ani, Trev and Elee

Here as the funny/not so funny part.  We had dinner at 3 pm.  My girls don't usually eat dinner until 6 ish. So, they were confused about why we were eating so early and didn't eat much of anything even though we had not feed them lunch. Elin said "these people eat at weird times".  Anikka (3 years old) had a little melt down and was crying and crying.  I thought she was hungry and tired.  After much discussion we found out that she thought we were eating the centerpiece turkey for our meal.  Everyone had told her that we were eating turkey..... She was very upset that she didn't get to eat the cookie turkey.  Once we got that figured out, Aunt Lisa gave her the go ahead to eat it. Crying over.

The next day we headed up to Schweitzer Mountain so the girls could play in some deeper snow and the boys could ski.  My girls had at the best time crawling around in the snow and playing. They loved eating the snow and the icicles.

The view at Schweitzer is AMAZING

After our second round of playing in the snow, we stopped for hot chocolate then went to the hot tub. The girls said is was the best day ever.  It was so much fun to play in snow.

The girls are playing "salon" with Daddy and putting shampoo (snow) to "wash" his hair.

While in Hayden, we also went to see the Christmas lights at the Coeur D'Alene resort. They are outside on the docks so it was FREEZING. But, the girls loved them so much we had to go back around and see them twice.

What a super fun weekend and a great way to spend our holiday with family that we love.

M