All About the Z's!

After leaving Spokane, we drove up to Whistler BC which was about 8 hours. Thankfully the border wasn't that difficult to get across - no tests were required, just our vaccination cards. Coming back was also a snap as the US dropped its Covid testing requirements as well.

We got up to the Fairmont early evening, so it was nice to be able to get ourselves settled in before too late in the evening. We had never been to Whistler before, and it is absolutely gorgeous. A very quaint little ski resort village with an Upper and Lower village complete with tourist activities and restaurants.

The conference has meetings in the mornings and then the rest of the day is saved for family activities, of which there were a lot to do - so it made for some fun memories.

Day 1 in the morning, Karis took the kids to do a tree top ropes course and then in the afternoon we went to a 4 wheeler ATV Tour. Amy had never driven an ATV before, so that was a new experience. We had hoped that Zachary would be able to drive it but unfortunately you had to be 19. As he wasn't able to drive, we needed a third adult so our friend Jennifer W graciously let Addison tag along with her on the back. The weather was a little overcast and drizzly, which made the puddles that much more fun as we went through the mountain trails!

Geared up and ready to go

Amy and Kaleb went together

Addison and Jennifer

Part of our group all lined up as we made sure that we all knew how to operate the ATVs.

At the top of the mountain - with the overcast clouds the view was lovely but not as spectacular as it would have been.

Tuesday night was our service award banquet, and Amy was recognized for 25 years of service. It is hard to believe that so much time has gone by! AdventHealth has been a great company to work for, it has been good to us over the years, and we've made some really good friends and colleagues through our work interactions. During Amy's recognition video, Terry Shaw (who she worked for for many years) shared the story about the fact that Karis couldn't find a job as a PT when they first got married and he ended up going to Michigan to work with his brother Korey - which then spurred Amy's boss to encourage the PT department to see whether any of the current openings would be a fit for Karis - Terry mentioned that hiring Karis was a true boon for the company as half of the executives in the room had likely been to see him over the years ..... and he congratulated Karis on his 25 years of service 😂. It was really special - and true - Karis has been the primary executive therapist now for many years in Orlando as he is so good at what he does!

A dear friend that has mentored Amy over the years - Dan Enderson - he also was recognized for his years of service.

Working as an executive would not be possible without a supportive spouse - it takes two in order to pull this all off and have a family.

Afterwards, we had the chance to take pictures with Terry, so Amy dragged Karis along as it was a mutual recognition of service. What a great experience to work with AH for our careers!

The next day, the family (sans Amy) did the downhill mountain biking course in the morning (Zachary liked it the best out of the group, Kaleb and Addison found it a little stressful as you hurtle down the mountain trying to maintain control of a bike!). After that, the afternoon was the Biathlon. We have never experienced a biathlon other than on the Olympics so we decided to give it a whirl. It was unexpectedly fun, and with the metal sights on the gun, it wasn't that hard for any of us to be able to hit the target (the trick is holding your breath so that the gun doesn't move!). We ended up breaking up into teams and doing a "race" in which we would speed walk the loop and then lay down and shoot the guns before finishing the loop. The speed-walking part was the killer - not the shooting part! 😂 We are clearly out of shape and being at altitude didn't make it any easier! While true for most of the Zs, Kaleb showed his hip flexibility and was a MASTER speedwalker - he apparently should go to the Olympics as this is a hidden talent - he won his part of the race handily.

The dirt the morning mountain biking is still on the back of Kaleb's pants! :)

And Zachary's

The track were we did the biathlon is where the Olympics occurred many years ago, so it was fun to take pictures with the Olympic rings behind us. Fun experience - would definitely recommend it to anyone else who is there!

The group that came with us from the AH conference (people could sign up for different activities every day, so you never knew who may be there)

On the way home from the biathlon, we saw a mother bear and 2 cubs along the road. We stayed safely inside the bus to take our pictures! - the mom is on the right hand side of the black bar in the middle of the picture and the two cubs are to the left of the black window bar - two little black dots.

Speaking of bears, as we walked home one night from supper in the lower Village, we walked over the bridge and as we approached there was a black bear down on the one side near the river. Foolishly we stopped and took a few pictures, before the bear then decided to come UP the bank and walked to the other side of the bridge where there were picnic tables and a couple finishing their evening supper. The bear smelled their food and walked all the way over to their table - one of the men in our group whistled loudly to get their attention to warn them of the danger, and the lady slowly walked away and the man gathered his food, leaving a sandwich there to serve as a tasty treat (instead of him!) and then he walked around the other side of the table. We all stood on the same said bridge watching as the man and lady walked away......well then the bear decided to follow the man across the same bridge we were on! We all started to run (which you should NOT do with a black bear which we learned later) and the bear followed us all the way across the bridge. As we were running, Amy thought after about 5 steps (Wait, I have a daughter, where is she!? But Addison was WAY AHEAD - again proving that all you have to do is outrun the slowest parent and you'll be fine. 😂

The bear walking over to the picnic table.

The next day - Thursday - Addison, Kaleb and Karis did canvas painting in the morning and the afternoon was ziplines. As Addison was small, she couldn't go on the big ones that the boys went on so the Z-ladies went on one set of ziplines and the Z-males went on the larger ones. It was great fun - and on the last run, Addison and Amy flipped and went upside down! Hope about that - Addison did it, so how was Amy to not at least attempt it! It wasn't as scary as one would expert.

Unclear what animal is green, but this is her masterpiece.

Upside down she goes!

The boys were with their friends the Biris and Luke D for their zipline adventure

Friday, we had the full day off to do family activities so in the morning we went on Razors - basically 4 wheel off-road cars that are roll-cages. Zachary was allowed to drive these, so after a little coaxing he decided to do it and had a great time! It was super fun to race through puddles, and up and down the mountains - those things can climb whatever rocks you put in front of them, easy peasy. Amy and Zachary went in one car, with Karis, Kaleb and Addison in the other. Along the way, Kaleb went to take a picture with Karis' phone and as he put it into his bunny hug pocket, it ended up falling out and was lost. Karis was able to retrieve it later with Amy's phone using "find my phone" so that was a blessing - although it didn't charge properly after that and so he did end up getting a new phone out of the adventure after all. Karis went out with a mechanic afterward to find the phone (as we didn't backtrack on the tour) and he said they went twice as fast in the Razor and it seemed to just "float' along the way over all of the rocks and bumps.

Car #1 - Amy and Zachary with Karis and the others in Car #2

Racing through wheel deep mud puddles - so fun!

Quick family picture in the meadow near the top of the mountain

Beautiful views along the way

We were touring with Azevedo family - the four boys are similar ages and are good friends - Lucas, Zachary, Erick and Kaleb

Friday afternoon, the ladies and the male Zs split ways so that the males could go on the Superfly ziplines - which is the longest zipline in North America - and goes up to 60 miles. It was fun for them to do that - they went with the Azevedo friends. At the same time, Amy took Addison along a guided tour to a waterfall. The weather was beautiful in the woods. Addison bonded with the guide and they had a lovely little time - Addison telling her all of her life details and how she is "Canadian" even though born in the US. That seemed to tickle the guide's funny bone so she had Addison walk with her the whole time and they had a grand time.

Learning about the ecosystem

Gorgeous water fall at the top

The water was in the 40s, frigid but a beautiful green!

Striking a pose!

Ready, set, ready to go!

Hang on tight!

Once the sabbath hours arrived, there were lovely worship services that the conference put on. Addison was tuckered out and fell asleep.

Addison found several girls her age throughout the week and had a blast playing the hand game "Tarzan the Monkey Man" (albeit they changed the some of the lyrics for the blood part!). It was fun to see her make new friends.

Sabbath morning they had an organized hike for all of the younger kids at the conference that Karis tagged along on - it is always fun to see all of the young kids and get to know their personalities.

On Sabbath afternoon, a large group headed out to do the "Peak 2 Peak" gondola ride from Blackcomb to Whistler mountain peaks. It was a lovely clear day with perfect weather to do it!

This odd duck walking through the lobby - she was getting inquiring looks from those passing by!

Is she coming or going?

At the top of the mountain, we were amazed by the amount of snow up there! Huge snowbanks in the middle of summer!

Towering over Karis!

Jonny, Lucas, David, Erick, Kaleb and Zachary

So cute!

We took the ski chair lift up the final way to the highest peak - look at all of this snow!

At the top they had this Canadian Inuit symbol

The Whistler village had lots of restaurants to try, so we went out to Italian, Mongolian Grill, Spaghetti Factory etc and the real treat that we found was "Cows Ice Cream" - in which we enjoyed some daily ice cream trying out different flavors. Some of the favorites were Orange Cowsicle, Peach Melba, Caramel, and many more. Yummy!