Ten Years!

     August 17th was our ten year anniversary.  We actually celebrated earlier in the month by going to Whistler for three days while my mom was kind enough to watch the kiddos for us.  We went to Whistler on our honeymoon ten years ago, so it was fun to go back.  It's definitely changed and seemed to have a lot more shops and restaurants  than we remembered, which makes sense since they hosted the winter Olympics in 2010.  

      We went to church in my parents ward Sunday morning and then started our drive.  It was so nice to just be able to talk without interruptions.  On the way up, we stopped at a park to see a waterfall.  It was really cool and the lower parts of it were full of people just climbing up in the water.   

That evening we got checked into our hotel, had dinner, and walked around exploring the town.  The next day we woke up ready to do some hiking.  We rode a gondola up to the top of Whistler mountain and took the "peak to peak" gondola that connects Whistler to Blackcomb.  It is the longest gondola in the world and it was really cool.  I would not say I am afraid of heights, but I would not want to go on that if there was any sort of wind at all.

When we got to the Blackcomb side we chose a hike up to a lake to go on.  It was a couple hour hike and was really pretty.  You could almost pretend you were in the middle of nowhere until you saw evidence of a ski run.  I can't believe people ski down some of the mountainsides we saw marked with signs!

      After hiking we ate lunch and then rode back to Whistler mountain on the gondola.  We did some more hiking and exploring and then headed back down the the village where we changed and got ready for dinner.   We love Whistler because there are things to do outdoors all day long and and then fun places to go out to eat at night.  Since being outside and eating out are some of our favorite things to do together, it was a perfect fit for us.
      That evening there was rain and a thunderstorm so we got a little wet walking to dinner (we didn't even bring a rain jacket!)  I was in charge of choosing where to eat that night and I chose Thai food.  I had been craving it and it was so good.  It was definitely the best thing I had eaten in months (probably has to do with the fact that I am feeling so much better) and possibly one of the best things I have ever ate.  Mike said it was good, but just average Thai food, but I disagree.  It was delicious!  I could have ate every meal (minus breakfast) there.  Afterwards we went to an ice cream place called Moos which claimed to be Canada's best ice cream and I believe it.  Even though it was raining, there was still a line out the door, but it was worth every minute of the wait.
      Tuesday we got up and went biking.  There are tons of mountain biking trials of all different abilities to go on.  I obviously stayed on the easy ones (even not pregnant, I'm not up for anything too technical...or really technical at all).  Mike did some of the intermediate trails while I sat in a nice bench area we found and then we joined up for more easy trail riding.
      The most eventful part of the morning happened just as we turned off the main gravel bike trail onto a dirt one.  Mike is a faster biker than I am and a lot of the trails we went on were just wide enough for one, so he would go ahead and then stop and wait up for me.  As I crested a hill and turned a corner, I could see Mike about 200 meters up stopped on his bike.  I assumed he was waiting for me, but as soon as he saw me he very loudly and very calmly said, "STOP."  Confused, I stopped my bike.  He then said, "Melissa, turn around.  TURN AROUND.  There is a bear."  He was saying it all so calmly it took me a couple of seconds to process his words.  Sure enough up ahead was a mama bear and two little cubs just off the side of the trail.  They were between Mike and I, closer to him.
      I turned my bike around and started pedaling in the opposite direction of the bears...and my husband!  The bear had seemed to care less that we were there (I don't think she ever even saw me), but my mind was still racing as I rode away.  What was I supposed to do?  I figured since Mike had already passed them, he would continue on the trail and I would have to find where it ended so I could meet up with him.  Was I supposed to tell somebody I had seen a bear?  But who to tell and what to say?  Um, there's a bear in the forest.  There were multiple signs around talking about Whistler being bear country, but I had not actually anticipated seeing one (or three!).   When I connected back up with the main trail, I stopped for a minute to try and figure out were the closest map was.  Before I had even made my plan, Mike was right next to me.  He had watched the bears walk back into the woods and then went back on the path and caught up with me.  He was pretty unfazed about the whole thing, but I still don't like thinking about it.   A few minutes later, we found a map and stopped to make our plan.  There was a couple that was hiking who were contemplating starting the trail we had just exited.  I told them about the bear and while that changed the woman's mind, her husband just seemed annoyed I'd even brought it up.  Yes, I am sure that they see lots of people and are used to us, but still, it is a BEAR!

       After a couple hours of biking we headed to town, stopped a grocery store to get some lunch and headed back out.  I was getting pretty tired though, so we didn't last much longer.  We went back to our hotel, got in the pool and hot tub for a while (well Mike got in the hot tub, I sat on the edge with my legs in the water).  Earlier we had decided to splurge and get a massage, so late in the afternoon we headed off to both get an hour massage! 

       Afterwards, we went to dinner and then tried to play mini golf, but it was closed, so we wandered around the shops for awhile.  And got some more ice cream at Moos, of course.  

         Wednesday morning we got in our mini golf game.  We have played mini golf many times in our dating and married relationship, but I have only beat Mike ONCE.  And that was in Whistler on this course.  I have never let him forget it and he wanted a rematch.  I started strong and it looked like this just might be my lucky course, but one bad hole (I got a seven!) and I was never able to recover.  

Smug winner.

Dejected runner up :(.  

      We also played checkers on this huge checker board and managed to come to a complete stand still with no winner.

       We headed out about noon, stopped and ate lunch, ran into traffic (of course) and ended up picking the kids up about 6:45.   We were all excited to see each other and they loved the little stuffed animals (bears of course) we had picked out for them.  It was a really fun three days and we are hoping to return to Whistler again before another ten years goes by.