Wednesday and Thursday December 25th and 26th, The Dismuke Family Christmas Vacation...Part Two Begins!!

After driving for several hours (and I do mean several), we arrived at the first major stopping point of our vacation...the Canada border!!  The kids were super excited to get to use their passports for the first time and even got them "stamped" entering Canada.  Also upon leaving the United States, the kids experienced their first real snow!  We've been in snow before on previous ski trips with the girls, but Ingram has only seen pictures and heard about the snow and only played in mushy nasty wet Memphis snow a time or two.  We had been passing the snow on the roads, but hadn't gotten to touch any of the snow yet.  Once we got through the checkpoint, the kids were begging to stop and play in the snow.  And this was just the beginning of our playtime in the snow for the next four days. 



Nothing Like Getting Cozy In A Tiny Car For A Nap!

Poor Madison Had The Big Suitcase Under Her Feet!
Poor Little Two Because She Had To Spread Over The Whole Huge Back Seat!

Woohoo!! 
Welcome To Canada!!
 

Baby, It's Cold Outside...But We Finally Got A White Christmas!!
We Spent About 15 Extra Minutes Trying To Get The Kids Back In The Car
Instead Of Them Jumping Through The Snow Banks.

A few hours later, we made it to our final destination and checked into our hotel in Mont Tremblant outside of Montreal and when we woke up Thursday morning our real snow adventure began!  After talking the kids into eating breakfast first, we got all suited up and headed out the door to start playing in the snow...literally! 



Time To Get Our Ski On!

Good Morning Zero Degree's And Snow!
It's Nice To Meet You!


After an hour and a half getting our ski's and everything, Daddy took Ingram on the bunny slope before his lesson with Mr. Ian and I took the girls down the mountain while we waited on the boys.  Once Ingram was with his teacher, Daddy met up with us and we did a couple runs with the girls before we watched the end of Ingram's lesson.  The girls "forgot" how to ski as soon as we got off the lift and hesitated a little before taking the plunge down the first run.  They were funny to watch from behind and even more fun to watch when they fell...which they both did.  The only difference is Madison crashed into a massive tower pole while trying a trick and Lindsey just fell doing her regular thing...going fast!




"Seriously Daddy?  You're Already Taking Pictures?"
(From Lindsey)

"Get Us Daddy!"
(From Madison)
 

What I neglected to tell Daddy was that the girls "forgot" how to ski and had a fall each already, I had a feeling Lindsey would demonstrate exactly what Madison did...and of course she did giggling the whole time.  The rest of the way down, they were all giggles and talking about how they couldn't wait to ski with Ingram.  We watched the end of Ingram's lessons and then his teacher told us that Ingram was pretty exhausted and probably needed to rest and ski tomorrow.  The funny thing was that as soon as he finished that sentence, all three of us looked to see what he was doing and three of the kids were back to playing in the snow laughing and carrying on like nuts!  But we decided to take his advice and head for food instead since it was already 2:00pm and we'd only eaten breakfast so far.  Plus the lifts close in an hour anyway because it starts getting dark and there's so much more to do tonight...ice skating and tubing!




We Can't Go Anywhere Without Detours Into The Snow!
They Said They Were STARVING, But The Snow Just Needed Them!

"Yeah!! It's 3:00pm And We Just Ate Lunch!"

We had sooooo much fun ice skating with the kids once we got down there that is; we had never been on a frozen lake like this and it was totally awesome!! There was also the beginning of a snow fort on the side of the lake so the kids started building more to it and making it really big. After they finished, Ingram wanted to skate one more time around before we left to warm up with hot chocolate and then go tubing. He came out of the fort and was getting back on the ice when he couldn't get his balance and crashed down on the ice...with his arm trying to catch himself. Yep, you guessed it, he cried and cried and cried and we knew right away that he probably had broken his arm. You could say that changed our plans for the night and we headed back to the hotel to get a good look at his arm and warm up by the fireplace.

Heading Out To Go Ice Skating On A Massive Frozen Lake!
Ingram's Actually Roaring For Some Reason??

Ingram's Favorite Snow Bank To Jump In...Right Outside Our Hotel!

Mont Tremblant Village From The Bottom Of The Mountain On The Way To Ice Skate!

Two-Thirds Of Our Snow Angels!
Seriously Though, All This Snow Is Getting In Our Way ; )

Check Him Out!  Ingram Ice Skating All By Himself!
It's A Good Thing We Went In Houston Over Thanksgiving Break!

While Ingram was snuggled up watching TV in bed after a long warm bath (our little trick to help him go to sleep), Daddy took the girls to go tubing and check out the village at night.  While they were out, they had a blast tubing and getting hot chocolate and cookies. They also had a blast playing on the playground in sub-zero degree temperatures. Did I mention that it's a plastic and metal playground, it's covered in ice and snow, and the girls are wearing their cowgirl boots??  You know what's coming next...Not wanting to leave her brother alone in the broken category, Madison decided to break her nose.  Okay so she didn't decide it really, it just happened...on a plastic playground covered in ice in subzero degree temperatures while she wore her cowgirl boots and attempted to climb UP the slide.  I know I've told the kids "up the stairs and down the slide" till I was blue in the face before, but apparently Canadian playgrounds don't follow the same rules.  She didn't make it up the slide very far but instead nailed her nose on the side where it goes up and immediately it started bleeding and swelling up!




The Girls With Daddy In The Village While Ingram Has No Idea They're Out Tubing, Playing On The Playground, And Getting Ice Cream, Cookies, And Hot Chocolate!
(View From The Top Of The Village, Before Hitting The Playground)

Ingram was wide awake 2 hours later when Daddy and the girls got back from going tubing and getting ice cream and hot chocolate, but they had no trouble falling asleep after a very eventful day in the snow.  The current plan is to see how Ingram's arm and Madison's nose are in the morning before we decide what to do next.  We've got three options:  to drive back to the States for the doctor, try our the Canadian health care system, or just wait it out.  There is never a dull moment around here and I wouldn't change any of it for anything!