Whistler, BC, CA

The time change worked to our advantage this morning as we were up and feeling great at 6:30 a.m. their time. We headed out to a restaurant that normally has a line out the door and were the only people in it. Southside Diner is totally worth a stop if you're ever in town. The view of the ski runs from its windows were incredible. The food was also great and we really enjoyed our spunky server.

Breakfast with an interesting view

I love sassy restaurants

After breakfast we made a quick stop at the grocery. Since we have a kitchen in our hotel room we thought it made sense to eat in. Resort towns are notoriously pricey places to eat and we're cheap. :)

Another cloudy day?

By the time 10:30 hit we'd already had a productive morning so we came back to our room to hang out for a bit. When we left again around noon all the fog was gone and it was like a new day!

Back to gorgeous at Sundial

We decided to bask in the lovely day by taking a long hike. The scenery here is just amazing and the hiking trails are awesome. This place is meant to be enjoyed.

A river by the trail

My handsome hiking partner

Not a great photo of me, but whatever

Trying to get photos of the mountains that have snow on them is tricky due to clouds. I did my best to capture the beauty of the area.

Cloud and snowy mountaintop meet

We hiked to a place called "Lost Lake Park" which was just gorgeous. We found the lake, though, so they should likely rename it. ;)

Lost Lake is lost no more!

I tried to take a photo of us and fell down in the process!
I thought I'd share a blooper! :)

There we go. LOVE.

As you can see, Lost Lake was just hideous ;)

Jackson so badly wanted to go play like those kids :)

God does good work.

Really good.

Snow-capped mountains 

We wandered back to town to see what was going on there. The sun was starting to fade and so were we! I wanted to find a cute little painting for my office and Jackson wanted to see the Olympic stuff. Score. We succeeded at both.

The Olympic rings left from when they hosted

My new piece of art for my office!

We really enjoyed the shopkeeper in the store where we found my little painting. She let us keep the easel. The little stone man was the Olympic symbol here so you see him all over the place. We explored the village more before heading back to the room for dinner.

We used the hot tub on the hotel's roof to enjoy the clear evening. There is nothing quite like sitting in a hot tub looking out at snow. I just loved it.

We spent some time this evening people watching at a Starbucks in Whistler Village. There are people from all over the world here both visiting and living. It is truly a melting pot. We did a little shopping and then called it a night. The time change makes us almost elderly! ;)

Headed to Canada, eh?

We got up early on Thursday morning to head to Canada for the half marathon and some fun. Our first flight was a quick on to Toronto that was not even close to full. We each got our own rows which was nice. I feel like you're never on a non-full flight anymore.

The stirs stick was even a maple leaf!

Water without ice...the Canadian way. *Groans* 

I took a few notes on the plane that I'll share below:

I think it is easy to forget that Canada is a foreign country until...

Your cellphone doesn't work

You notice that people simply cannot pronounce "about"

You get no ice in your beverage

And cookies are called "biscuits"

Also, seeing that little maple leaf everywhere is odd
Things get a little boring at 30,000 feet.

Our quick trip through customs in Toronto was a breeze and before we boarded the next flight (5 hours long!) to Vancouver I took an anti-anxiety pill that I borrowed from a friend. I've gotten a little uneasy about flying in my old age and that pill was a lifesaver. Jackson said it was a really bumpy flight, the worst he'd been on in forever. Me? I didn't notice. We did watch a hilarious movie on the plane called "The Wedding Ringer" which we both highly recommend.

We got to Vancouver, grabbed our bags and headed for the rental car place. They had some issues there so we ended up getting upgraded to an SUV with navigation for no charge. Cha ching! That navigation saved us as Vancouver is a huge city and kind of tricky to get through. It only took us a couple of hours to get to Whistler and the drive was just gorgeous.

Cloudy view...we know there are mountains there somewhere

Our hotel in Whistler, the Sundial Boutique Hotel, is just lovely. We have what I am calling an apartment. It has a full kitchen, a living room complete with gas fireplace, a large master bedroom and a nice bathroom. Oh, and a view! I'd live here- no problem!

We settled in and then went off in search of dinner. It was rainy and cold so we ended up at the Mexican place in our hotel! I know, I know we're so adventurous. It was cold out there, friends! Anyway, the food ended up being delicious and the service was amazing.

Nothing says Canada like Mexican food! :)

We headed back to the room shortly after that and crashed for the night. The early morning flight, hectic drive through a new city, road trip and rain took it out of us for some reason.

New place

In typical Petefish fashion, we've decided about 900 times what to do about our living situation only to change our minds. We finally settled on buying a townhouse in downtown Fishers. We close on it in mid-May. We got what we think is a good deal on the place and intend to do some updating before we move in. We're excited and ready to begin work on the place! 

If you know of anyone handy with drywall or hardwood flooring installation, let us know! 

Joss is 3!

We missed Jocelin's official birthday party because of my illness, but we stopped by the next day to see her and drop off her little gift. I cannot believe that she is already 3! These kids keep aging and I do not. How does that happen?! 

Meeting my friend for the first time

Jax was such a good big brother and helped her with all of her new presents. :)

Jossi trying on her new princess shoes

Modeling her new boots

Watching a movie with Mom and Gunny

We just love that little lady! She's just as cute as she is sassy! Happy 3rd birthday, Jossi!

Babies and golf

You'll never know how much we debated who this little princess was

It is never more evident that we are not parents than when we shop for kid's birthday presents. It makes me laugh every single time. We guessed forever who that little boot featured. We guessed that girl from the cold movie (later learned the movie is called "Frozen") and Belle's little sister from Beauty and the Beast (I guess she was an only child...oops!). Finally Heidi told us who she was and assured us that Jossi would love them.

Nice day at the office

I realized the other day that I don't often take time at work to really soak in how pretty it is so I stopped and snapped a photo of my office. Campus is always at its loveliest around graduation.

Country golf is king!

We went to have dinner with Jason, Kortnee and Sir Liam Mauck on Friday evening as Jackson worked in Grant County that day. Jason keeps a little golf course on his farm's land so Jackson joined him for a round complete with a gator as a golf cart. Hilarious.

SIR LIAM!

Meanwhile I hung out with this little charmer and his momma. It was great!

Starting to crawl!

It was so fun to hang out with the Mauck family. We just adore them! 

The next day I was so sick that I did not leave my bed. I don't know what happened, but thankfully by Sunday mid-morning I was on the mend. 

A night at the range 

Jackson hitting a shot

The perfect swing

Speaking of perfect swings, I went out to the range with him and hit the ball as well as I ever had. I think it is due to having Lasik. Whatever it was, I'll take it. Jackson and I had the range to ourselves. It was a lovely, lovely way to spend a Sunday evening!

Alex turns 5!

My sister kindly delayed celebrating Alex's birthday (April 1) until after tax season so that we could make it to Evansville to help him celebrate. NOTE: I didn't believe that she delayed it for me, but she swears she did so I'll roll with it and feel honored. 

Mont and MacK

We drove down Friday evening and got to see Mr. Montgomery Coomes. Kathy was out of town so we got to puppy-sit for our furry friend. He looks great!

She even lives close to a Donut Bank so we had a yummy breakfast on Saturday morning. We took a long walk around Evansville because it was a beautiful morning. We explored the University of Evansville's campus since Kathy lives near there now and I'd never been. It was cute! Then we headed out to celebrate Sir Alex turning 5! Can you believe he is 5?!

Birthday boy and his Mommy

Playing with some friends

Playing with Grandma and Grandpa Craig

We loved playing with all of Alex's new toys. He got an awesome Nerf gun that I think the Petefishes enjoyed more than he did! HA! After the party we napped (because that was a ton of playing for old people) and then we went to old town Newburgh to walk along the riverfront. It was lovely down there and I cannot believe we had not been sooner!

We left town on Sunday morning and were moving along the new stretch of Interstate 69 when the car in front of us crashed. We immediately stopped to see if the driver was OK as it was a pretty nasty crash and the airbags deployed. It was POURING down rain at this point and MacKenzie was in the back of the car just barking wondering what on earth was going on. He stumbled out of the car shaken and said he was doing fine. He had a black eye already forming, some cuts on his face and a gnarly gash on his leg, but he was walking just fine. We offered to call for help and he asked us to instead take him to a gas station. For whatever reason, that did not seem odd at the time.

Only it was odd. Very odd.

As we are driving towards the next exit we both realize that the guy we picked up, later revealed to be named Joel, was completely wasted. I mean smelled worse than a frat house on Saturday night wasted. We also soon remembered that the new stretch of interstate has no gas stations. We got off on the next exit and told him that there were no stations around and he'd need to call for help. Joel called his dad who was about 25 minutes away to come get him and kept assuring him that he was not in trouble. That was a lie. Driving drunk is no joke, Joel. I started getting more annoyed the more time I had to think about it. If he had been even a minute later losing control he would have hit our car at 75+ miles per hour. Jerk. He was so blitzed that he did not know we were ever traveling on the new interstate. We had to tell him 5 times where to tell his dad to come get him. He got out of the car at the exit and thanked us for the ride.

We started to drive away and realized that we'd accidentally helped him flee the scene of an accident. CRAP! I immediately called 911 to tell them what happened. Yes, they too thought we were idiots. Has no one ever heard of Good Samaritans?! Come on. We thought we were helping out a guy who had just been in a wreck. We weren't thinking that he was drunk or that he could have a weapon on him. Those thoughts came later. He seemed harmless, really. Just super drunk. Plus MacKenzie sat on his lap and he didn't even complain.

Law enforcement made us return to the scene of the accident sans Joel and explain what happened. They told us to not pick up strangers again and let us go on our way. It turns out Joel had a suspended license for, you guessed it, drunk driving so he was going to spending some time in the slammer. Poor guy clearly had a problem. I hope he gets some help. We decided that he was lucky to have been drunk because a sober person hitting that rail at that speed would have tensed up and really gotten hurt.

Note added: to add to the craziness of this event the first responders wrote Jackson up as the driver fleeing the scene and his license was to be suspended. That was nothing that a few hours on the phone with the BMV couldn't clear up. Ugh. No good deed goes unpunished!! ;)

This isn't a good shot of the wrecked car...the front was entirely gone!

Weekend roundup

MacKenzie riding shotgun with Jackson

Jocelin enjoying a cookie

Jax, Gunner and Jossi playing in the yard
(not pictured, Jackson hogging the ball)

We got to have dinner with the Porterfield family. MacKenzie even got to come and bother the kiddos! We played and played in the yard because the weather was finally nice. I love these kids for many reasons, the least of which is not the fact that when I come over after a long day at work they greet me like I'm a celebrity: "JENN!!!! YOU'RE HERE!!!! PLAY WITH US!!!!" :)

Grace and Kathy after G's game

We caught our first lacrosse game EVER. Grace is playing for her school's team and they had a game/match/meet/I-have-no-idea-what-they're-called at Cathedral in Indy so I hopped out from work at Bill's to attend. It was neat to see her out there, but we were not sold on the sport.