Kicking Off Our Winter Getaway

Last year, in the midst of Covid restrictions, we were looking for fun ways to celebrate Dave's 40th birthday. Eventually, we found a resort which looked like it offered a lot of winter fun and so we booked it for the weekend of Dave's birthday in January. And then, five days before we were going to leave, my lung detached and I was put on bed rest and we couldn't go. (You can read about that here if you don't know what I'm talking about.)

So we were eagerly looking forward to last weekend and hoping we'd all stay healthy and be able to travel. Thankfully, we were able to leave Thursday night. Sam had a high school open house so we weren't able to leave until 8pm and it was a three hour drive. Dave and I kept each other awake and we collapsed into bed around 11:30.

The next morning we were up somewhat early because we had an appointment with some goats!!! We had not planned on walking goats but, as the weather has been so warm, we weren't sure if we'd be able to do some of the other activities we had planned so we added this in as an extra.

If you ever have the chance to take a goat on a walk through the woods, DO IT! We had so much fun! We laughed so much. And goats are so cute!!! 

I don't remember the last time I saw Sam have so much fun. He had a perma-grin on his face and laughed so much. We all laughed but I think Sam especially enjoyed it.

Goat walking is where it's at!!! This will be a family adventure we'll remember for a very long time.

 

 

You all know I'm not an animal person and even I enjoyed holding a goat.

 

 

After walking the goats, we grabbed some delicious lunch at a cafe in town. Then we spent the afternoon skating in the woods. I was so looking forward to this and I kept checking the website to see if the track was open. We've had a warmer than usual winter and it wasn't until that morning that it showed it was open! I was so excited to be able to do this!

It's a 1.3 kilometre (.8 mile) loop through the woods at one of our provincial parks. Rachel skated around once with Dave and once with an ice skating helper (which you can see in the middle picture). Sam, Dave, and I all skated around it three times.

We had tickets to go back in the evening for the Fire & Ice event (they were setting out torches along the loop in the afternoon) but we were all exhausted so opted to not return.

After skating, Sam, Rachel, and I went to the pool and hot tub, while Dave (who didn't think he "needed" one) tried unsuccessfully to buy a swimsuit. We stayed in a one bedroom suite at a resort so decided to take advantage of the supper buffet at one of the restaurants in the evening. Sam especially enjoyed the chocolate fountain!

The town we were staying near had a light show at the pioneer village and we also had tickets to that in the evening. However, the kids were extremely exhausted so we let them stay in our suite and Dave and I had a mini date.

There was narration through out about time (which Dave and I didn't think added to the experience), and some of the lights got brighter if you yelled! You can see the dimmer lights in the picture on the left and the brighter lights in the picture on the right. With all the yelling, it wasn't really a peaceful date :)

The lights were really pretty although the walk was quite short. I think it was okay that the kids missed it.

I loved the lanterns hanging in this tree and the lights changed colours too.

It was a very fun, and full, first day of our getaway and we were glad we got to experience so many new, and fun, adventures.