Forget the alarm clock!

Right before the winter break, we had five snow days. Five! During that time, the kids and i stayed at home and didn't leave the house in the car for a solid week. We left by foot, snowshoe, ski and sled. It was awesome. Rich put chains on the car and went out twice for gear and groceries. Once the snow had largely melted, and then into the official school break, we stocked up on fun family outings. One of our last activities on our family advent calendar was making the "what to do on the winter break" list. We went to the zoo, to BBG, the children's museum, the tea shop, winterfest, family swimming, and got out to the mountains. It was a very fun first real "winter break" and we savoured each of the extra five days. I didn't mind the respite from awful thing called the alarm clock as well.


Another highlight outing was going to PacSci to see Lucy, the oldest, most complete, and best preserved adult fossil of any erect-walking human ancestor. She is 3.18 myo (million years old). It was a great exhibit both in terms of content and wonder, and great for kids of the age of five and up. Mina loved the audio headset. At the exhibit, a PacSci employee came around with a measuring stick and told Mina that she was taller than Lucy. That really made an impression on Mina, as well as all the facial hair on this early human/ape gal. They have some cool displays showing how to measure the fluid capacity of the brain, walking abilities of apes/humans/Lucy, how fossils are made, and how paleontologists deal with a fossil puzzle. Not to mention little Lucy herself!


Biking around the zoo. New Year's Day. It was somewhat cold and quiet but we had great views of the animals.

And Rich really wanted to make fresh pasta over the holidays! Mina really got into this. She is a great bagel, tortilla and now pasta maker.