Passing Winter

Unlike the East coast of Canada, Alberta enjoyed a relatively mild winter this year. We hardly had any snow and even the very cold -35 type days were few and far between. The months of January, February and March are still dark and dreary however so I thought I'd share the new things we tried this winter to help pass the time.
We went bowling! Brandon's first time out on the lanes proved to be fairly successful. The bowling alley had shoes that fit him and we took up a spot on the 5 pin bowling lane with gutter guards (thank goodness for those!) Brandon quickly noticed the score board and was determined to win. I'm embarrassed to say that he was actually beating Jamie and me for the first half of the game. In the end, the score ended up being quite close so still not a good sign for the Fontaine family bowling skills. No matter, we all had fun and we wrapped up our bowling day with hot dogs and slushies.

Another new discovery this winter was a fabulous place called "Brickz 4 Kidz". This is a creative centre full of Lego and it's based on the premise kids will learn engineering and math by playing with Lego bricks. One of their centres is located just a few blocks from us and they have drop in sessions on Sunday mornings. We decided to give it a try and Brandon loved it! All the Lego a little boy could want and free to build whatever he wanted out of it. We ended up visiting this place a few times over the winter as it was such a hit with B.

Speaking of hits, Brandon also attended his first live hockey game. Jamie was given free tickets to see the Calgary Hitmen from his work. Brandon has never expressed any interest in hockey but we thought it was time for him to check out Canada's favourite national sport. Armed with a bag full of popcorn, B settled in his rink-side seat for two whole periods. When the boys got home I asked him "So, how did you like hockey?" B replied "hockey's boring Mommy". Great! Now we know not to spend any money on hockey games in the future :-)

This winter our local science centre was hosting an exhibit called "Dinosaurs in Motion". On a chilly Sunday morning we decided to check it out. It was fantastic! An artist had created life-sized dinosaur fossils (made of metal) that viewers could move by way of pulley systems or remote controls etc. Brandon liked it so much we went through the exhibit twice. It really was well done and it's a travelling show so if you ever see it in your neck-of-the-woods, be sure to visit it.

Jamie's birthday is in mid-March and, for me, always marks the end of winter. This year we decided to celebrate by spending a night in Banff. It had been about a year since we spent a night in the mountains and I was looking forward to the change of scenery. I scored us a deal on Hotwire and we ended up staying at a hotel called the Banff Park Lodge. It was okay. The room was dated and right beside a busy road. The hotel did have a really nice pool and hot tub though - which Brandon and Jamie enjoyed many times while we were there ;-) Our weather was cool and rainy but we tried to make the most of it by walking around Banff Ave and shopping in the stores.

We celebrated Jamie's birthday dinner at a quaint little tapas bar and afterwards B enjoyed ice cream at the Beaver Tail. After a quick swim in the pool we all headed to bed for a terrible nights sleep (seriously, the worst in a while as party goers and traffic buzzed by our room). In the morning we went to the hotel restaurant and Brandon enjoyed his first breakfast/brunch buffet. The selection was huge and Brandon was really quite funny. He started out with typical breakfast fare like pancakes and bacon but when he went back for seconds he chose broccoli and shrimp. He was also fascinated by the juice machine which let you pick from six different selections. At the end of breakfast I took him to the chocolate fondue fountain and he REALLY liked that. Later I asked him how he enjoyed breakfast and he said "Mommy, breakfast was beautiful." Cute stuff.

We ended our quick trip to Banff with a hike around Johnson Canyon Lake. It was cold so we didn't stay long but Brandon loved it. He could have thrown rocks into the lake for hours . . .

The rest of winter was passed in the usual way. Sledding when there was enough snow, play dates with friends and movies with popcorn beside the fire. All-in-all not a bad winter at all.