Carry on.

Canoeing 20 feet from shore in Green Lake for the first time $20.00
Biking around Lost Lake with the baby buggy in tow for the first time $29.40
Making homemade west coast cuisine for two by yourself $45.00

Three days with your wife and son ignoring all phone calls….. Priceless!

This past weekend has got to be one of the best weekends that I have ever had in a long, long time. For three days, I didn’t worry about work or school. I just focussed on my family and having fun with them. Not once did I feel stressed. Not once did I feel disappointed. Not once did a bad thought pass my mind as we had fun and enjoyed each other’s company.

Manang Tess and Manong Russ allowed us to stay at their hotel room in Whistler for a few days.

On the Friday evening, while Evelyn cooked dinner, I took Nico to the swimming pool. At first, he really didn’t want to go in. It was cold outside, and he thought it would be too cold in the pool. But it was a nicely heated pool and we swam. The water was much too deep for him so I let him go on my back as I floated on the water. With all this fat, it wasn’t too difficult. We’d swim here and there, and I’d make sudden movements left and right and he’d laugh and squeal with delight. It brought back memories of how our family would go to Canada Games Pool. My dad would let me go on his back. I’d grab on for dear life as he dove underneath the water. I’d ask him to do it again and again, just as how Nico would ask me to do it again and again. I quickly learned that like my father, the human body eventually gets tired with a kid on your back as you swim! At the end he didn’t want to leave but we went up to eat a yummy five star salmon dinner that Evelyn made. I was so sore the morning after since It’s been awhile since I have done any excercising.

On Saturday, we spend the morning on a gondola ride up Whistler mountain – a new experience for Nico. Nico was understandably scared at first, but Evelyn was a little scared too, being able to see the underbrush underneath the gondola. Me? I knew that the gondola was safe so I didn’t worry that much, just as long as I had something to grab onto during the ride up! For me, there wasn’t much to see up at the top except this beautiful breathaking view of the Coast Mountains. Going down was a lot easier. On the way down, we saw a mother black bear with her three cubs! Amazing how they can live so close to this big touristy area.

For Lunch, we went back to the hotel room and I cooked her Bruchetta on crispy bread and garlic sausage. Simple, cheap and delicious!

In the afternoon, we decided to rent a canoe. At the recommendation of the kind proprietor, we declined the tour guide and set out on our own for an hour. After all, the lake was only knee deep in most places. Nico Enjoyed the little baby paddle and Evelyn took a picture of a Great blue heron on the side. I think we may have just found our own yearly family tradition for the summer. It was amazing. We would slide through the water without making a sound as our paddle would cut through the surface of the water pushing us through. Evelyn was so happy! It was nice to see her smile again – a smile that I would like to see more often since I’m away from home so much.

Before we went back home for dinner, we stopped by lost lake and rented a few bikes – $9 an hour per bike and $7.50 for the baby tow. Come to think of it, I don’t remember the last time I rode a bike anywhere! But biked we did around lost lake – the regular site for cross country skiing. Thank goodness for the gear shifters that made going up hills a breeze. An overweight guy tugging a large tower with a 3 year old in tow… by the end of it I was exhausted with lactic acid burning through my thighs. Evelyn went through the whole thing as if she just had a nice stroll in the park. Shows you who is the one who’s more physically fit!

We went home and I cooked Evelyn a nice Dinner. It’s funny… but when I started cooking, it was 8PM, the same time Iron Chef Started. I felt like I was competing against them! I imagined I was Iron Chef Batchoy cooking five dishes: Grilled Chicken breast with Italian sauce, Sauteed shrimp in Tomato sauce, Baby Spinach Salad with creamy Italian Dressing and Baked Potatoe slices in Sour Alfredo Sauce. Evelyn loved it. Too bad we couldn’t finish it.

It was so nice to be able to sleep with her in the same bed for more than four hours a day and that’s what I really enjoyed the most. I look forward to the day where I can just work a regular shift and come home to her at night, just like those three nights that we had together in Whistler.

To top it all off, we ended off with Nicolas’ three year old Birthday party – a post that I’ll leave for another time. A perfect end to a perfect weekend. My wife was with me, my son was with me. For a few short days, everything was just fine. It was priceless.