Winterlude 2006

It's winter in Ottawa again and one of my favorite family activities besides eating has finally arrived. It's Ottawa's winter festival called Winterlude. The festival includes activities like skating on the Rideau Canal, ice and snow sculpture competitions, tons of outdoor shows, concerts, and my personal favorite, ice slides at Jacques Cartier Park. This week the weather was great (i.e. below zero) and we took advantage of the conditions twice by visiting the ice sculptures on Tuesday and the ice slides yesterday. I don't think I've ever missed an opportunity to slide down those small hills covered in sheer ice. Even before kids, I would search high and low for cousins, nephews and nieces to bring to the event. In theory I could have gone without kids but it would have been a bit strange considering I would have been the only adult sans kids sliding. But enough about me, this blog is about the kids and wouldn't you know it I had all three to accompany me to the slides yesterday. The plan was simple, have mom move heaven and earth A.K.A. pack up everyone's winter clothes, a snack, a 9 month old Sophie, a 3 year old Nicholas, pick up a 5 year old Juliette (from school) and dad (from work) and drive us all to the winter wonderland that is Jacques Cartier park. Nicholas fell asleep in the car on the way over but woke up as soon as he heard his sister asking him if he was awake enough to go sliding. This was our second attempt at this, our first failed due to the fact that the park was closed on Tuesdays (I was really upset). As soon as we got to the park we ran up hills and slid down the other side. Sophie stayed bundled under 7 layers of clothes and blankets in a waterproof, windproof and radioactive proof running stroller while each parent took turns going down the slides with Nicholas and Juliette. We took a break for some poutine, during which Juliette complained constantly about sharing it, and then continued with the sliding. Nicholas and Juliette were great. They did most of the running themselves without complaining and Sophie spent half her time awake and the other half asleep in her artic proof running stroller. A local camera crew was around taping people going down the slide so it's possible we were on TV. The weather was pretty cold but not cold enough to stop freezing rain from starting 2+ hours after we had arrived. That was a single for us to go home. The kids were tired the parents exhausted and it didn’t take long for everyone crash.