My Valentine pick me up

This was my Valentine's breakfast.  Actually Kieran's too.
But he ate most of my Jelly Bellys.  I made sure I got to taste all the flavours before they vanished.

Wow...am I ever getting tardy in my posts.  Usually I do these right away.  No more than 1 day later.
But I'm a week and a half in arrears.
I'm gonna get fined or something.  Gonna get caned by some SNG rebel.

Well it's been a busy busy BIZ-ZEEE time.  We got a new-er vehicle. With only a little over 20K on it. It's as new as it's gonna get. I knew it was time.  We had, well I had prepared myself for the inevitable.  No matter how well I took care of our vehicles, I could not stop them from Father Time.

So we got ourselves a wagon.  I love it.  It's gotta be the best Valentines pick me up I have ever gotten.  Considering it's a car.  It is so nice driving a newer vehicle.  Man.  I totally missed 2000-2010 upgrades and went to the next decade.  It's so ironic that my Subaru, I picked up on my birthday, and this car we got on Valentines.  Makes it easy to remember when we got it.

In any case, our new wagon has so much more room.  We can ride in comfort.  Can't wait to do our road trips now.  It's so funny. Kieran didn't want us to get rid of the Subaru, but he prefers the new car now.

Me and mama too.  We are just not used to all the bells and whistles.  And mostly because it's not really that important to us.  We never had it, so we never missed it.
Now that we have it. We still don't really care.
All that I cared about was that I didn't have to worry as much of a possible break down. Especially this winter.  It's been freezing!
I didn't want something to happen with the family in the car.  It just wasn't worth it.  In the 15.5 years I had the Subaru, it had only happened ONCE.  But that was enough for me.
So after a lot reading, getting details from insurance, lending institutions, mechanics, etc.  Analysis of our budget.  Planned expenses.
We got it done.
I had all the info I needed to make a decision if it came to that.  I had been preparing for months. Probably up to a year.  But it became more intense the last month.  Going to dealerships, sitting in cars, checking them out, test drives.  I checked out every car that Tresa had on her wishlist.  It was important to me that she be involved in the decision.  It not about me and what I wanted.  It's about what is right for the 3 of us.

This is our friend Wayne, he brokered this sale.  Pretty much did all the work for me.  Made the sale painless. Took care of all the details.  It was kind of unexpected.  Well neither of us had bought a car in a decade and a half.  So we were out of practice.  And it's just not something we like to do often.  Cars are a money pit.  If we could live without it.  That would be great.  But we can't.  So we have always tried to minimize our vehicle costs as much as possible.
I was pretty happy.  Tresa was a bit in shock, but we know where our money goes. We knew where'd we could redirect our cash to pay for this.  So in the end it wasn't a issue.  It's a bit of a change, but that's ok.  We'll adjust and we always have.  Together, we've always figured out a way.

It was Valentines day and the start of the Family day weekend.  I picked up our car.  Put on the new Yakima rack. Cuz my old Thule wouldn't fit.  I'm quite impressed with the Yakima.  It went on so much easier than the Thule.
The Thule I just knew how it worked, but the setup of the Yakima.  you do it once and it's done.  Pretty neat system.
This car has a panoramic roof.  I wanted roof rails, but I didn't have much choice. It came with everything.

Just like these home made donuts.
No preservatives.
Also, no leftovers.
All gone.
I didn't eat them all.
There were 3 chipmunks that showed up at Sir Sams.
They may get full on food.
But sweets never fills these guys up.

 They can smell sweets even in the middle of winter when their noses are clogged with boogies, and they're on the other side of the ski hill with the wind going the other direction.
They're more like sharks.
Even the little one has razor sharp teeth.
But that's from candy rotting 4 of her teeth.
I still don't know why she wears goggles.  Cuz that's how she wears them. On top of her helmet.


So that's it.
Nope. Not another Subaru.  That's my brother's.  He just picked that up too.  We opted for a Toyota.  It's bigger. And has way more power.  More than I really wanted or needed, but that's ok.  It's there.
I checked gas consumption and it's more about the weight of the car than size of the engine or hp rating.
So after checking out many cars.  I was satisfied with this one.  And one of my friend's said to me.  If it doesn't work out.  I could always sell it and get something else.  And that's right.  It's not permanent.  Use it until it no longer makes sense.  Then get something that does.

I love the hatch.  It is so handy.  Plus it goes up and down on the push of a button.  I love all these frills.  But I also know that they are more points of failure.  What can you do? It's how they make em now.  In any case. I plan to enjoy it for as long as it works.  Cuz I remember getting ripped off on power seats.  I have them again.  And now so does Tresa. And our bums are heated too.
It is awesome when it's -20 deg C.

Sir Sams on Family day Saturday was great.  Wasn't busy at all.  I even got to demo some 2014 skis.  That made skiing through the trees following these kids so much easier.  And less likely for me to wipe out and hit a sapling.

It also made skiing more fun, somehow.  I think because it made it so much easier for me to ride the snow.  Newer skis are so much shorter nowadays.  They are just so much technology in them compared to pre-2000.  Which I think is how old my used skis are.  I didn't think I would become a skier after riding a snowboard for many years.  But it's been fun skiing with Kieran.  I had bought a used set so that it would be easier for me to help him get on the chair lifts.  He's at the point where he's big enough to ride the lifts on his own.

But after following him, follow other kids through the trees.  Skiing has become pretty fun.
I wasn't expecting it.  But I ended getting a pretty sweet end of season deal on those skis I demo'd too.  Not something I wanted to do, but hey. They're slovenian skis.  All the more reason!  DOBRO!

Family Day Sunday.  was a zoo!  I even ran into Sandra and Tim and the kids. We stayed the entire day.  Until it closed.

Family Day Monday was something else.

This video has Raelen heading over that first ramp (on Saturday).
Then Kieran watching...and chickening out.
He never used to back down from these.  Centennial Park has softened him.  Next year we're going to have to sign him up for lessons at a bigger hill, so he gets used to it.
The next day though he was much better.