Carmen's 17th Birthday and a Grand-baby!!!

It was a little difficult to shop for Carmen for her birthday this year because I knew someone else was giving her a much better gift than I ever could! Jaclyn and Mason told Carmen and Chloe that a niece or nephew is on the way!

They sent Carmen a cute package to unwrap that announced the pregnancy, and then Skype'd in to watch the reaction. It really woke Carmen up (we always open presents in the morning) and feels like a gift to all of us! 

The next day Jaclyn and Mason posted this on Facebook for the public announcement.

Carmen had school and a basketball game on her birthday, so we went out for sushi after her game (winning on your birthday is a pretty good thing) and came home for birthday cheesecake.

Happy Birthday and btw that baby is not yours.

So Much Basketball & City Champs

Carmen was wondering why she didn't get to ski much this winter?

 Um, it was kind of obvious.

So Much Basketball!!! If I were to post all the pictures, it would be ridiculous. It was a busy season with a full academic load, practises or games every weekday, and tournaments every weekend. Once again her team went undefeated in the season, but on top of that they were also undefeated in all tournaments!

It was hard work and good fun, and ended with the most important win of all: City Championships!

Carmen with her fantastic coach.

(Captain) Carmen raising the trophy high for her team!

(And that's why Carmen didn't ski much this year.)

Winter of Chloe (Ha!)

No-one in our family has done more skiing this winter than Chloe

Norquay with Cache and Cheyanne

Winsport (COP) with Mom (twice!)

Panorama with Mark, Camille, and Monte

She also got in some tubing at Lake Louise with Ken, Carmen, and I, along with Natalie and her kids.

Lucky Chloe! 

Carmen asked me why Chloe has been able to do so much skiing . . . there's an answer to that.

Winter of Ken

(Okay, the title is kind of a joke. Summer of Ken was legendary in a way this winter was not.)

Ken was laid off from his job at the end of November. The new job searching began immediately, but Ken has tried to take advantage of the open schedule.

He took me snowshoeing to Chester Lake

He'd done this trip a couple of times before, but it was my first time.

Ken has done a lot of biking this winter. Some of it fat biking (above), but we have had a very mild winter, and more of his biking has been on the highway.

Keith and Mark

Ken also did a little bit of road tripping with my brother Mark. They met up with Keith (another of my brothers) in Utah for some skiing.

Ken

Happily/Sadly the Winter of Ken is coming to an end because he got a new job and is scheduled to go back to work on March 28. I guess we still have A Week of Ken to look forward to!