We seized the occasion when Chris signed up to "track" his car for 3 days on the Mont-Tremblant Circuit in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec Canada. I've spent many winter days in Tremblant, it's a wonderful place to ski but also a wonderful summer hangout. So we rented a condo at Borealis condo in Tremblant for 1 week ( www.enjoytremblantborealis.com ). We loved the condo, we strongly recommend renting from them, the condo was beautiful, clean, and it had so many nice touches like coffee (and a fully automatic capuccino machine) and detergent for the nice washer (and dryer). We spent many hours on the deck on the back and in the pool enjoying the condo amenities. Here is a set of mixed up pictures, I have separated the rest in the major activities we did.
We were also very busy with visitors, my parents came to visit and so did my best friend Stephanie with Pierre and their kids. Alec and Will really enjoying that!
Now for activities, we were SO busy.
The first day we got there, it was around 5:30PM after a fairly painful trip from Boston (we left at 8:45AM!) We got caught in major traffic in Montreal (it was 2:38PM mind you!) and that added almost 2 hours to the trip. Kids were sick and tired of being in the car and even the DVD wasn't quite keeping them busy.
The next day, Chris and Mathieu went golfing at the Royal Laurentian golf course while Marie-France and I grocery shopped and spent time walking around the Mont-Tremblant mountain village (very beautiful!)
Next day, Chris, Mathieu, Alec and I went to the Mont-Tremblant peak and luged down the mountain; the boys LOVED that. Of course, we forgot the cameras so you won't see pics of that, but here's a link so you can see what I'm talking about (Luge in Tremblant) Even Alec who didn't enjoy most of the rides in Disney was into it, he and I rode down the hill 4 times, and one of those times, his helmet got caught in wind and almost fell off. He was pretty upset about it screaming HELMET! Since I couldn't take my hands off the steering handles I had to try to put it back with my chin, it must have been a pretty sight!
William loved it too, he's the one who wanted to do it 2 more times after we did it, even grand-papa got to try it out.
We spent a lot of time in the pool, both kids really enjoyed that, I need to find a pool near here to take them. Will can hold his breath under water now and is starting to try to swim on his own. He jumps in the pool on his own too! Alec is completely nutty in the water, throws himself, no fear, loves to be dunked it's hilarious.
On Monday, Chris was tracking his car so we headed to the go-kart track without him, you'll see pics of that when I get them up (there are just not enough hours in a day for me to do everything, that's the goal for tomorrow night..) William and Alec both loved go-karting, Alec continued his love of helmets and William was really proud that mommy and him lapped Grand-papa TWO times! In the afternoon, I was lucky to get a 90 minute Sweedish massage at the Scandinave Spas, it was awesome, I never get to do anything on my own, let alone that relaxing, it was really nice.
Chris and Mathieu golfed the Golf le Diable, where our condo was located. It was the hardest golf course they had ever golfed, check it out it's breathtaking. They stopped at whole 14 because it was already 8PM and they were so far away (the course sprawls forever..)
Pictures of the go-karting experience:
Tuesday was a ton of fun, we went to the water park in St-Sauveur with Stephanie and her family, that was so much fun. The kids really get along and enjoyed the kids island (very shallow water with lots of slides and activities). Arielle even went down the water slides with Alec, he was so proud and so was she, she's such an adorable little girl. Benjamin and the boys had fun together too, going down the slides together. The kids all wore their Crocs, too cute!
William even went down the big water slides with mommy, we really had a BLAST, he wasn't scared and loved the speed. He even asked to do it againa s soon as we got down after the first time, he's turning into quite the little dare devil, Arielle was also a HUGE fan, she's such a great swimmer now!
Wednesday, we headed to see Chris at the track, all the kids wanted to see the race cars and it was nice for all of us to get to see Chris on the track, we also had a picnic before our friends headed back home. We really had a great time with them, we really wish we lived closer :-( Ana, the boys and I went to the old Tremblant village to enjoy yummy ice cream, I really miss Quebec ice cream! Here are a few pics of Chris racing, he really enjoyed it!
Thursday we went to Val-David, Quebec to eat at a nice breakfast restaurant called the Petit-Pousset. After that we headed to see SANTA! We went to the Village du Pere Noel (Santa's Village). It was a great mix of petting zoo and children activities, we really enjoyed it and got to try everything except the water area since it was COLD! This was the only cold and rany day the whole vacation!! So no complaints here, everyday was 75 degrees + and sunny for the rest of the trip, we couldn't have been happier. We got to meet Santa and William asked him for some Christmas presents, it's too bad he wouldn't even look at him, at least he addressed Santa, we're making progress :-)
That night, Ana and my parents took care of the boys (they got to watch Shrek which they both really enjoyed). Chris and I went to the restaurant at the hotel Quintessence, I wish we could stay in that hotel, it was so beautiful, and the food was exquisite. It was a fun night, great waiter and it was nice to get out by ourselves during the vacation too.
Here are some pictures of Santa's village:
Friday was our day to leave the condo, we decided to cut the trip in half and stop at the Grandy Zoo in Granby Quebec. What a beautiful zoo, you'll see the pics when I get them up. We loved the Elephants, Giraffes, Kamgaroos, TIgers and all the other animals we got to see. We enjoyed some awesome Quebec ice cream and then we had to head home again.
We had a very funny border custom's experience. Ana was in the car with me and Chris was in his car behind the van. When I pulled up and gave him our pile of passports the border office said "wow, I'm really getting the weird stuff today" refering to Ana's passport, they must not see a lot of Brazilian passports (Brazilians need a visa to get into Canada and I imagine they don't often drive through the border) So I told him she is our au pair and he proceeded to ask about the program, how I got an au pair, how it was working out for us. Then I told him my husband was in the car behind (they had to comment on the nice red BMW), then he asked me why he was in a separate car, when I said he was lucky not to have to drive the kids, he told me I should swith with him, hum not a bad idea for next time!), they let us go after that, vey nice and chatty!! Apparently, Chris had the same experience, they wanted to knwo how fast he went on the track and how long he ran. They also made sure to ask him if he was planning to speed on the highway, lol! I can honestly say I've never had such a pleasant experience going through the border.
We got home late on Friday night. It was nice to have the weekend to get back in the groove of things... We have so many beautful pictures from the trip, I am attempting to organize them and will post them tomorrow!
Moral of this story? We need to do family vacations more often!
Steph
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1 comment:
ahem - pictures? I know you've found those extra hours and are keeping them all to yourself. ;-)
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