OH Canada

"I officially hate Canadians."
Yep, that's what Clay said as he reached the bottom of the mountain after their first attempt at skiing down.
You see, he had wanted to take our littlest man down a "nice, easy run" since he hadn't been skiing for a few years - so Clay humbled himself and stopped to ask directions. Unfortunately, they got sent toward a more "challenging" hill than they had bargained for.
It was an interesting trip down (our munchkin seeing sky, then ground, then sky, then ground).
We weren't even IN Canada yet, but since it was a Canadian ski patrolman who did the pointing and guiding - the whole country to the north of us got the blame.

My chiropractor "forbid" me to go skiing due to a few disk bulges I have in my back.
So, I took pictures throughout the day (and tried not to be too jealous).

The munchkin soon got his "ski legs" and kept up with the other two just fine.

No worries, the Canadians didn't stay on Clay's hit-list for long.
We made it to Montreal and Clay decided that an entire nation should not be condemned by the poor decision of one man. (He's gracious that way.)

It was neat to be greeted in French (and a relief when they switched abruptly to English as we said, "Hello.")
It was educational to drive around town and explore the local "Super Market".
It was exciting as my boys had room service for the very first time. They even brought us a TABLE.

Like the room service incident, my most memorable moments of this trip had little to do with experiencing a new country. Giggles with the family are what make our trips memorable.
For me, this trip was all about the car ride.

We like to make up stories when we are stuck in a car. One person starts and we each add a part when it is our turn. (If it starts to get boring, someone ALWAYS interjects, "And then...out came a BEAR!")

The story on this particular trip was started by our youngest son. It was all about "a girl named Jenny". By the time it was finished, Clay and I added Jenny's friend. This friend had braces on his legs when he was young, but ran all the way across America. He also joined the army and got shot in the derriere. Eventually, he even became an international ping-pong champion. We never actually named the character, but we did name his other friend, Bubba (who LOVED shrimp) and Lieutenant Dan (who lost his legs during the war).

We were cracking each other up...and our children were clueless.
Our 11-year-old finally glared and asked, "Where are all these characters coming from? You think this story is WAY funnier than it actually is."
He's getting too smart.
We confessed that we stole from the movie Forrest Gump...but until he gets older and actually watches it, Clay and I will have our fun.

Another humorous aspect of the car ride, was my limited visibility. We traveled in rain and snow for different stretches of the trip. Clay had sprayed Rain-X on HIS SIDE of the front window - and used a rag to wipe the excess over to my side of the window. (Just in case you were wondering, this method does NOT WORK.)
Clay doesn't like to use windshield wipers, so I spent much of the trip looking through a window that looked like this:

Clay's view, on the other hand, looked like this:

 He could see the snow sticking to each individual branch on the trees.

It took quite a while for me to capture a picture of my blurry view. Once I finally decided to get out my camera, Clay would turn on the windshield wipers and clean up the window. He snickered each time that he foiled my efforts to record my hazy predicament. (At least his ornery actions allowed me to SEE patches of the trip.)

Normally, the car ride is the part of traveling that I dread the most; but this trip, it was the part I chose to remember. It's amazing what a little laughter can do to the most mundane circumstances.

Thank you Lord for laughter...help us to find it in every situation.
Amen.