Family Day Weekend

We had an amazing family day weekend. We headed up to Ottawa on Friday after work. It was late by the time we arrived in Ottawa, due mostly to the fact that it took Liam an hour to eat a six inch sub. I'm sure when he's fifteen we'll be talking about how quickly he devours a sub rather than how slow he is.

Saturday morning we headed off to Gatineau Park for some cross country skiing. We weren't all that optimistic about the conditions. Much to our surprise the conditions were excellent. They still have a ton of snow! We skied the 6.8 km Gatineau Parkway in the morning and headed back to the hotel for lunch. After lunch it was off to do a little shopping. Following the shopping we headed to Nathan, Julie and Becca's for a great visit with the family and with grauntie Al.

Sunday morning we hit the ski trails again. We decided to do the 8.0 km Fortune Parkway. I was a little concerned at the beginning since what seemed like the first kilometre was all up hill. We weren't concerned about the climb. We were worried about what it would be like on the way down. You see, Liam doesn't really like going downhill anymore. At the beginning of the winter he loved it. Unfortunately, I did wipe out a few times while he was on my back and yes every time we were going downhill. As a result, he now hates going downhill.

At the halfway point of our trip we stopped for some water and snacks and watched the racers of the Gatineau Loppet. Wow! Can they ever ski fast. We watched for 10 or 15 minutes. Liam seemed to enjoy the speed of the skiers.

The return trip was quite comical. The trail was extremely busy with skiers headed up the hill. We descended very slowly. Liam was crying his head off and I was laughing as we went by all of these people. Everyone felt so sorry for Liam. Needless to say we made it to the bottom with no troubles. Hopefully he gets over his fear of going downhill soon. I'd like to get him downhill skiing next winter.

Monday morning we were up pretty early. We packed all of our things and headed to the park again for one last ski. The conditions were great. It was cold, the air was crisp and there was a beautiful blue sky. We had a great ski then we stopped at the visitor centre to have some lunch. We took highway 7 home and stopped in to see Grandpa. He was very surprised to see us.

The first two photos were taken a couple of weeks ago when we hiked at Sager Conservation Area. The third and fourth were taken on the Monday of our trip.