I apologize for my long absence for we took a week to enjoy one of our favorite places…Mont Tremblant, in the Quebec Province of Canada. That was followed by a week of  getting things back together after being away for a week while getting our daughter ready to go back to college. Boo hoo!

This is a view of the village and as you can see, one of the things we love about this place… is the village. Check out the colors of the roofs and how the village nestles itself into the mountains.

Tremblant is a pedestrian village, and once you get there you could go the entire week without getting back into your car! Speaking of your car… or our car for that matter, I wish you all could have been flies on the wall to experience our drive up to Tremblant. You would probably never be the same! My daughter and I, being the lone females in the car of seven that was planning a departure of 1:00 am, prepped for the ride by hitting the Body Combat class at the gym at 7pm before the 1:00 am departure. We just wanted to get into the ready mode.

(Warning…this is not a blog entry that deals with style or design but about life)

As we were approaching the Canadian border, after the sun had risen on the new day, some of us were resorting to hiding under our blankets while dancing with pillows on our heads. Except for me, who after asking a million times, “Did you make sure to bring a blanket and a pillow for the car ride,” forgot hers. Packing seven people into even a large car for a ten hour period of time with all their gear, can be a test of even the most stable of an individual! Four of them being boys, between the ages of 11 and 20 should be a test that is conducted BEFORE having more than one child!

Anyway, we arrived all safe and sound (thanks hubby) and embarked on a fun filled week packed with adventure. We joined three other best friend families who we have been making this trip with either just the couples or with the all the kids in tow for a few years now. The profile of the trip looks mighty different, with children and without, except for the fact that my husband has been dubbed, “The psycho hiker”, in both scenarios for leaving us all in a trail of dust as he makes his ascent. That is another story though!  The kids have all grown up together and treat each other like brothers and sisters. The parents have all grown up together in the process of raising our delightful children and thus can parent any one of the children. The car ride was just a preview of the adventure that was to be had on this trip!

While the girls (and one of my sons who is a lower key personality) posed beautifully for a picture…

the boys attempted to “fly” over the edge of the pool.

The girls soon caught up with the activity level of this bunch and before you knew it, they were cruising up the mountain on our 4 mile hike to the top (some refute the 4 miles saying that it was 6 miles…either one…it was long.) This was not the top of the mountain, but just a mere resting spot along the way. The views were already breathtaking at this point.

We hiked a little higher..

and a little higher…

and a little higher…

Along the way, people jockeyed for position up the Grand Brule’ Trail until it was just my youngest and I bringing up the rear. He was a trooper!  We discussed every possible subject on the planet to divert his mind from the fact that he has already hiked this trail in the past and knows the mile markers and how far they are from the top. That is a bad thing!

Picture taking got a little easier at this junction, being that it was just he and I.  It is amazing how the topography changes as you ascend up a mountain of this height. We passed through moss laden areas where the humidity and moisture was so heavy and everything was green.

and trees grew ON TOP of the rocks.

We passed through foliage laden undergrowth where White Paper birches seemed to scrape the sky.

The forests opened up to grassy meadows which look so incredibly different from the snow laden ski slopes we have traversed down in the winter

Strange to see the ski trail signs surrounded by green!

Finally we arrived at the top! My apologies, for the weather did not cooperate and by the time we got to the top, it had hazed up quite a bit.

Thank you for bearing with me on the hiking pictures! The rest of the trip was filled with not as strenuous activity but activity non the less. Often that activity was more strenuous on the psyche than the body!

Take the rock climbing for instance…

or the Acrobrache’ Course (obstacle course in the trees).

Both involved heights…and believe you me…there were a few in our party of 21 who would rather have been reading a book on the screened in porch! (they shall remain nameless) We kept up never the less and were glad that we did!

Climbing seemed to be a reoccurring theme, so instead of climbing up mountains they climbed up Le Ice’berg! A huge floating iceberg in the lake which you then slide down. Believe it or not, the hardest part of this was getting yourself out of the water and onto the berg itself. We had some face plants from those who thought flipping from the apparatus would be a good idea and some reddened body parts from hitting the water where you did not want to hit the water.

Beach volleyball rounded out the beach day along with a few kayakers.

Can Jam (a game where you have two cans with holes cut in the sides and a frisbee) filled in the down time for the boys and men…along with a scavenger hunt held in the village in the rain for all of us! The girls did a tremendous job organizing this and we had more fun than I think we anticipated running around the village.

 Board games, listening to the bands in the village perform, partaking in tasty meals (both home cooked and out…how can you not partake in enjoying a crepe’ in the French province?)

and enjoying the company of those around us created memories to last a life time!

Au revoir Canada…until next time!

Thank you for traveling with me through our trip, now you can see why it took me so long to post…I was exhausted…but in a good way!

I hope that you are creating memories this summer which is all too soon coming to a close!