Teodoro Family: March 2013

After two glowing reports from the younger kids teachers at their student led conferences last week, we packed up, and started our drive to Whistler with Mike's parents.

We started out our morning with a stop in Bellingham for lunch with a church friend who is going to school at Western. It was fun to catch up with her!

Mike had heard good things about the Britannia Mine Museum that we pass along the way on the Sea to Sky Highway. We decided to break up our trip a bit and stop there on our way into Whistler.

It's a pretty impressive building built right into the side of the mountain.

We didn't have the best weather.

It was raining buckets and was cold, but we made the most of our stop.

We started our visit and did some gold panning.

Isabella tells us this was her favorite part of the whole trip!

The water in the pools was warm, and we were told that they restock the gold daily.

You had to be patient and really get in there to look, and when you did you were rewarded with some flecks of gold.

It was quite exciting!

There were several barns in the area that had old equipment and it was fun to read about that.

This truck is huge, but no one was willing to stand next to it in the rain to give you perspective. So just take my word for it!

We then headed up to get our hard hats on so that we could enter the mine.

While this particular mine is closed for operation, our mine tour guide was a former employee at the mine when it was working back in the 70's.

After visiting inside the mine, we got to wonder into the mill.

Check out those stairs!

We were told that the railings on the side are a new addition.

Um, no thank you!

I couldn't get over how much everything looked like a Disneyland ride!

I was convinced that I should leave my camera at the condo when we skied so I don't have any pictures of our time on the mountain. However, they were eventful!

The younger kids were signed up for Whistler kids ski school on the first day of skiing.

They have both done lessons at Whistler before and we really thought that they could benefit from lessons again.

Owen learned a TON, and became a much more confident and competent skier.

He really turned a corner with lessons.

Seven seems to be the magic age for our kids and skiing.

They all have taken off in their abilities at that age, and now that Owen is there, it's fun to have all five of us able to ski the slopes together.

Ski school runs from 9-3, so when Mike and I downloaded from a day of skiing ourselves to pick up the kids at ski school, we were given a full report from Isabella's instructor before we waited for Owen to return.

Isabella was pooped after a long day of skiing (she skied 14 miles) and really just wanted out of her ski boots. We were told by the coordinator of the ski school around 3:30 that there was a slight delay with Heidi's class (Owen's teacher) and that she would get an ETA in just a few minutes.

Mike decided that since we had one key to the condo (Aidan and Grandpa were skiing the peak to creek run-five miles from the peak of Whistler mountain to the bottom of Creekside) , he would walk Bella back with Grandma, help her get out of her gear, and then come back with the key to get Owen and I.

Minutes after Mike left, Charlotte (the coordinator) came out and asked "Who are Owen's parents?" Not what you want to hear when you have been waiting and wondering where your kid is!

Charlotte informed me that Owen had been separated from his group and had connected with a different ski instructor who assumed that he was with the Whistler kids group in the Village.

I labeled a map to help you see where everyone was.

Owen was at the Roundhouse during white out conditions with his instructor when a little boy in front of him fell. Since kids this age don't ski with poles, they are told to yell "wipeout" in their outside voice, and help out the kid who has fallen. Owen helped him up, but when he helped him up, he fell down. Once Owen got moving again, he wasn't able to find Heidi and Heidi wasn't able to find him. I posted an image of the roundhouse. Since it's nearly at the peak, it's quite populated and really does have this many people at it most of the time. Now, imagine it with foggy white out conditions. It's tough to see and find anyone, especially if you have been separated for a minute or two.

Owen found an instructor in a green ski school jacket (exactly what he should have done) and asked him "how do I get to the bottom?" Of course, the ski instructor is Australian and told him "Come on Mate, I'll help you meet up with your group." The instructor assumed that he was with with Whistler kids in the Village (since the majority of them are), and they started skiing down to the children's learning center.

At this point, Owen says he got a private lesson as he made his way down a few runs.

He was pretty excited about that!

During all of this, Heidi realized that Owen wasn't with her, called in his information and the coordinator pinged the safety device called a flaik (pronounced flake) that the kids wear.

Charlotte said that she was able to see that Heidi was on one side of the mountain and Owen was moving down the other. (refer to the map-Owen was heading down to the Village, Heidi was heading into Creekside). We were assured that Owen was without an instructor for about 3-5 minutes before the new instructor scooped him up. I was worried about him being scared, but Charlotte assured me he wasn't since she was in communication with the instructor who had Owen.

At this point, Mike was still back at the condo and I was asked by Charlotte how I would like to proceed.

Owen was heading into the village, so our options were to go and pick him up ourselves, or have him hop into a taxi with an instructor and be brought back to Creekside.

I wasn't thinking clearly. Our cell phones don't work internationally, so I didn't have that, we did have walkie talkies for communication, but Mike and Don had those, I had forgotten that we had a car, but I didn't have the keys anyway. The only thing I remember thinking was that Don was still on the mountain with Aidan, they could go and snatch him up, but then I remembered I didn't have the walkie talkie, and so it seemed like the only option was for him to get in a cab from the village to creekside.

I kept expecting Mike to return during this time, but he didn't, and I just paced back and forth between the ski school drop off and the stairs looking at the condo waiting for Mike.

The parent of the other kid in Owen's group offered to let me use his phone after about five minutes, and I remembered that I had the condo number in my ski jacket (thanks Carol!), I called that hoping that Mike would grab the keys to the car and we could go scoop Owen up, but he had just left the room and I missed him. Ugh!

Mike finally returned, I filled him in and we waited about 15 more minutes until Heidi came back with the other kids in her group. She was so stressed out and apologetic. She has worked at ski school for 6 years and never one time lost a kid. I did my best to reassure her but I still hadn't seen my child yet, so I couldn't fully feel confident in reassuring her until I had seen that Owen was back safe and sound.

We waited another 20 minutes or so until we got the news from Charlotte that the cab was on it's way. Around 4:30, nearly an hour and a half after pick up time, Owen arrived in a taxi with an instructor and seemed relieved for his adventure to be over!

We heard bits and pieces of Owen's adventure from him later on that evening. We were thankful to have him back. Things could have gotten bad really fast in that situation, but I must say the people at Whistler Kids did everything they could to get Owen back to us safely. It could have happened to anyone.

The next day, with the promise to not lose Owen on the mountain, we headed into the ski school to ask if we could borrow the flaiks for the kids as we skied as a family that day. We were all a little gun shy and nervous about making sure everyone was kept together and knowing that we had those tracking devices on the kids made me feel better.

Heidi is a fantastic instructor and I would recommend her to anyone who takes lessons.

She was Isabella's instructor when she was that age and both kids under her instruction learned so much and became much better skiers.

Aidan would love to spend most of his time on black runs, but greens and blues are good for the rest of us!

Thankfully, Grandpa is a trooper and took Aidan on some hard runs later on in the afternoon.

I ended up downloading with the little guys and we celebrated that we made it off the mountain together with some hot cocoa from Starbucks.

Nothing like Starbucks in the hot tub after a long day of skiing.

19 miles to be exact! Those flaiks not only track where you are, but they also give you your average speed, and your mileage. Thinking I need to embed some of those chips in the kids!