family life: Catching up with the Bishops

This blog post is going to be a photo hodgepodge of various family activities that we’ve been up to recently. I’ll start with a mini vacation that we took to Mont Tremblant this past week since the kids were on February break. We knew it would be a fun getaway because we visited there a couple summers ago.  You can see highlights from that trip HERE!  (I can’t believe how little the kids looked then!)  Anyway, it’s a great place to visit since it’s only 3.5 hours away by car and it’s a French speaking area, so it feels like you are far far away. We found a perfect place to stay through friends called Chateau Beauvallon, which I’d highly recommend.

I dropped the family off at the bottom of the Mont Tremblant village where they started their day of downhill skiing. As I’m not a big downhiller these days, I headed for some cross country skiing at Domaine Saint-Bernard, where chickadees eat right out of the palm of your hand. It’s the sweetest thing!

It’s moments like this that you realize your youngest baby is starting to grow up.

My handsome hubby.

Au revoir!!

My friend Melissa, who is a writer and a fabulous person, with her cute family.  We were staying at the same hotel…and I bumped into them at the xcountry ski place too. So fun!

Summer doing her favorite relaxed activity after a big day of skiing.

We can never seem to pass by a candy shop without stopping in.

Usually clowns are just creepy, but these candy ones are kind of cute.

There is something so sweet about this photo to me.

We went swimming for a couple hours at this really fun indoor pool called Aquaclub La Source.  I locked up my camera, so no photos.  Sometimes you just have to take photos with your heart. In any case, we were quite hungry and my friend had suggested this crepe place called Creperie Catherine so we decided to give it a try. 

It was packed with eclectic kitchen collectables.

This is what Baxter looks like when he tells a story.

Cappucino + crepes.  mmmmm…

The kids’ eyes must have been bulging when our waitress arrived with their lunch.

Bickie got the peach crepe a la mode.

Summer ordered this berries and chocolate a la mode.  yum overload.

Here’s our hotel. 

 A rare photo with me in it. 

The second set of photos are from a recent day at the  Bill Koch League.   The kids cross country ski each week for part of the winter at the  Sleepy Hollow ski area with about 8o kids.  Andy has been coaching it for 3 years.  The kids have fun, get exercise and make friends.  In the spirit of the  Olympics  they had a little tribute to the games a couple weeks ago.  They skied and did a little mock biathlon.  Here are a few photos from that day…

And they’re off….. 

Kids brought flags from the U.S. and various other countries.

Mia + Summer.

Coach Molly holds the very impressive ”Olympic torch.”

Baxter and Nate.

Summer competes in a mock biathlon.  They used plastic balls and soda bottles instead of rifles. 

A skier does a penalty lap after missing her soda bottle target.

Here a mom and son do a penalty lap. 

Hello Coach Andy!!

How cute is this?

Patty + Mia.

Moving on to basketball….  Baxter just completed his first season of basketball.  He loved it.  It was so much fun to watch Baxter and the kids at these games because they were so focused and driven.  Baxter noticed that ”some kids think they are on a team of one.”  But for the most part they are really learning to play together.  Here are a few shots I took at the end of the season.

I wonder what these boys are talking about. 

Here’s one of Baxter’s teammates, Jeff, getting some air time.  We’ve known him since he was born. 

And last, but not least…Summer went out for the school dance team.  Her team danced during the half time at school basketball games.  FYI: It is not cheerleading, even though the day I brought my camera they had pom poms.  In any case she was AWESOME!! 

Hooray Summer!!