Cypress Winter Kids Camp

January 21-22 , 2006

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Aton & Dennis (age 4.5), Sue & Kaylee (11), me and Monty (12) and Michael (10) and Jason (the biggest kid of them all) descended upon the Scout's cabin deep (10 minute hike from the parking lot) in the backcountry of Cypress Provincial Park this weekend for some low key, kid friendly playing in the snow.

It took longer to get sorted out in the parking lot than it took to hike in to the cabin which was perfect as no one had time to complain or whine.

The cabin was cozy & rustic with a wood burning stove that heated the place up very nicely. While Sue & I unpacked & got organized, Aton took on the more serious duties of snow man building & cave excavation. Monty, Michael & Kaylee immediately got to work on building a jump for the toboggan & crazy carpets. The cabin held up well to being pelted with snowballs too.

The kids came in to warm up & cookies, chips & candy were consumed by all over a game of Cadoo.

Anton & Dennis finally joined us & shortly after, we decided to head up to the lodge for a bite to eat and some live entertainment provided by Scrambler's band.

The lodge was a blast. The food was good and the music was even better. Apparently they have live bands there every Saturday night so if you're looking for something different to do, you should check it out. The kids perked up and had a really good time both inside listening to the music and outside playing on the hills.

We headed out around 8:30 to meet Jason who was planning to meet us at the cabin around 9:00. Unfortunately the inflateable tobboggan was leaking so when we got back to the cabin, I decided to run back to the car to get the patch kit. Much to my surprise, when I rounded the corner, there was a futon snowshoeing down the trail. I had told Jason he needed to bring a sleeping pad so he opted for the LE model!

Jason scored major brownie points with the kids by packing in his laptop and a selection of DVDs so we parked the kids up in the loft with a movie and got down to the serious adult business of polishing off the bottle of wine he had also packed in.

Michael joined us for an animated discussion of foreign affairs, gun legislation, the effectiveness of daisies as ammunition, cdn vs. us health care systems, George dubya & other light topics. He was way too smart for us so we decided to send him to bed before he noticed.

It was cozy & warm in the cabin and we attemped to sleep while being serenaded by the dulced tones of Russian snoring. Around 5am, Anton got sick of us inturrupting him and went out to sleep in the entry way.

Morning came WAY too early. We sent the kids back to bed with some books to read which bought us another 30 minutes or so but soon it was time to face the day. We bundled up and headed back up to the lodge for breakfast.

The 'egg units' (that's what the call them... no idea why) were very yummy (english muffin, egg, tomato & cheese). So was the fruit crumble. There weren't any other breakfast options but it still beat the hell out of oatmeal.

The kids played on the hills some more then we headed back to pack up as we all have things to do in the afternoon. Once back at the cabin however, Jason decided that it would be more fun to set up a tyrolian traverse than it would be to do homework so we stayed a little longer to play with the kids as they swung, bounced, & pulled their way over a creek from one big tree to another.

Anton & Dennis left around 1pm. The rest of us were back at the cars by 2pm. Thanks very much to Sue for organizing the cabin & to Jason & Anton for being the recreation directors of the first Alpine Scribes Kids Camp! My kids are already asking when we can do it again!

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