This was our first time doing a snow vacation with our little guy and we were nervous. International travel is hard enough but we were exposing him to cold weather, altitude and snow for the very first time. The plane ride actually isn’t too bad! Pretty much the same as a typical flight to the mainland… then we got on our shuttle bus, stopped for groceries at the store with the rest of the group and finally we were dropped off at our lodge.
We booked through a travel agency, Schewe travel, and at the last minute decided to room with Tannya Joaquin and her family – GREAT decision! The kids loved playing with each other and it was awesome to get to know the Joaquins better and spend some quality time. Their kids were old enough to be a part of the keiki program and even got to ski! So adorable! Our little guy was 2 weeks shy of being 18 months (18 months is the cut off for the day care program) so we couldn’t put him into the kids program but we were given a long list of babysitters – complete with information on whether they were first aid certified, spoke other languages or had skills like a nursing degree for example – this was awesome. We ended up booking a couple of babysitters for the week and go out on the slopes, even had a date night!
Probably the coolest thing about this whole experience is the people – they literally call it “Hawaii week” because there are 50 + people from Hawaii. Howard Dashefsky goes every year and brings all of his friends! A bunch of TV folks/ colleagues of mine ended up coming and a slew of others made this trip truly memorable! There are group activities like a FREE tubing day complete with hot chocolate and a bon fire … or FREE race day – where you get to actually race on a course (my hubby got a fat lip from wiping out on that one! lol)… in the evenings there are activities for kids, karaoke, jumpy houses and more. It’s such a family-friendly resort – I wish Jackson was a little older because he would have appreciated it a lot more. Not to say that he didn’t, but I think this year it will be a TOTALLY different experience for him!
Anywho, I only got around to putting the “video” together now so I thought I’d write a little blurb about our epic family / friend vacation in Canada. We have totally lucked out every time we’ve been to Big White with at least a couple days of powder! It was awesome! Their ski/snowboard lessons are great too… I’m really looking forward to taking a lesson on the next trip to advance my skills. 
Can’t wait to go again next year!
