Whistler

Ross surprised me for our four-year anniversary and took Wyatt and I on a three-night trip to Whistler, Canada last week. It was our first wedding anniversary together in three years as one of us was always out of town on business and it was our first real vacation since our honeymoon.

The drive there took about 5 hours with terrible delays due to road work in preparation for the city hosting the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. We're thinking of trying to catch part of the games if time, money and kids allow. I've always wanted to go to the Olympics and we'll probably never be closer than the Whistler Games.

We had a wonderful time away together and stayed at the Pan Pacific Hotel with a view of the mountain. Right outside our window the slopes had been converted into a mountain biking course and we spent a lot of time in our room watching people race down the mountain. Twice we saw people carted away in ambulances. Ross says he'd love to do a man trip and try his hand at the slopes. We'll see...

Our room was awesome and Ross was smart enough to get us a suite complete with a kitchenette so we could easily feed Wyatt his hot dinners and save money by buying groceries and eating some of our meals "in". Wyatt loved the suite and explored every inch of it. His favorite things were the strings on the mini blinds and the spatulas and wooden spoons he found in the kitchen drawers.

We spent most of our time going on day hikes and Wyatt loved to be carried around in the backpack and take in the sights. We trekked around Lost Lake on the first day and stopped to have lunch at the Lost Lake Park.

The next day we decided to sight see from the car so Wyatt could get in a nice long nap and we ended up at Joffre Lakes Trail. It was gorgeous, complete with a view of the glacier at the top of the mountain.

The trip home made for quite the adventure as road work prevented us from driving faster than 30 mph for the first hour. Then we came to a complete standstill for 2 hours when there was a terrible car crash a few minutes in front of us that required the life flight helicopter. A couple of more hours getting through the work zones and we stretched our trip home into 8 hours. Luckily for us, Wyatt was a trooper and was content with his food, juice, snacks and toys for about 7 of those hours. I hope we can do another trip like this next year.