About Sweetmama Editor
Nadine Silverthorne’s love of journaling began in Grade One with the entry, “I am the greatest dancer!” Two babies (and countless diaper changes) later, she has found her home away from home as editor of SweetMama. Don’t miss her humorous bi-weekly accounts of the joys and pains of working while raising them fabulous.
Winter Wonderland
silver spoonscanada
(Feb.22.10)
4 of 6
The Laurentians: Everybody Tube-a-ruba
Getting our eldest, Nate, to do anything that revolves a remote risk is a challenge on even the best day. Getting him to go up a steep hill and then down in something that doesn't have a seat belt, when he hasn't eaten and his stomach is doing flip-flops... well...
A good thing to note if you're headed to the Laurentians, there are two tube hills of note next door to each other. Mont Avila's tube hill requires a trip up a ski lift, so it's pretty adventurous for kids under 7. Next door, Glissades des Pays d'en Haut offers a number of tube slides of varying skill (and bravery) levels. Starting at $78 for a family of four (for 4 hours of amusement), it's not exactly cheap, but way cheaper than skiing, especially when you factor in the fact that you don't need a lot of gear (or coordination for that matter).
We headed for the rafts, thinking that going up and down all together would be more palatable to Nate. Unfortunately, a group of hip American grandmas behind us kept saying how worried they were for us being only four in a raft with not a lot of weight. So there were tears at the top of the hill, but the way down was ridiculously fun. "This is SO MUCH FUN mama!" Nate exclaimed.
Me: "Great! Let's go again."
Nate: "No way, too scary."
So daredevil Lucy went up and down the incredibly well-maintained inner tube slides with me and daddy taking turns and Nate stared out the window of the bunk house. *sigh*
Back to the Chateau St. Adele for a special fireplace dinner and hope that things would go better for our dogsledding trip the next day.
Next stop: Dogsledding at Les Skis Doux