Time spent with my children is always special but time spent with them individually is totally precious. I was lucky to go and spend a day with my youngest daughter up island. She is expecting her second son in a month so I went up to help with her toddler and also to just have a day with the two of us.
We started by going into town and having a pedicure. It was very relaxing sitting side by side chatting while our feet soaked and later were massaged an then our nails done up. It was fun as well.
Following this we went out for breakfast and talked about the old days of her and her siblings and well it became quite obvious that her memory is better than mine.
We finished the day off by doing some shopping before picking up her daughter from daycare.
The time spent with children one on one is so important right from their very beginnings. It is important as a parent to make time for them when they are small, when they are teenagers and when they are adults. It is precious time and creates such special bonds.
Our lives get so busy that it is not always easy to find time for family and even harder to find time to be with your adult children free from their children but it is important to do what one can to make that time.
They are always and always will be very special days!
With my life being so busy and a new grandchild soon to arrive I feared I wouldn't get up to Mount Washington to snowshoe this year but thankfully my friends found the time when I was free to take me. It was Monday, Family Day but my children were all in favour of me taking the day to go snowshoeing. We can go hiking together with the littles a little later in the spring.
It was a beautiful day up in the mountains. My plan was to leave the trails of Paradise Meadows and snowshoe out to Battleship lake and then if I was lucky head down to Helen McKenzie lake and do the loop. As these trails are not groomed by the mountain staff they are not marked so one has to have some idea of where they are going to find the right trail.
I however had an idea but my distance was slightly off so instead of heading up the trail to Battleship we headed up the trail to Helen McKenzie and did the loop in the opposite direction of what I had planned.
The trail had a few other folks on it but was in no way crowded. We didn't talk much between the three of us, just enjoyed the silence that comes in the woods blanketed in snow. There was some incline at first...quite a bit I felt and we didn't always know where we were but I had my gps and was using the caches at the lake to help me decide which trail to take. It wasn't long before we arrived at the Lake and sat down to have our lunch along with many other small groups who also stopped to enjoy the view.
Some folks had made a trail across the middle of the lake which I am guessing when out to Circlet Lake or Kwai Lake.
Our destination however was to the left and along the lake shore. It is a much shorter route when you are snowshoeing over frozen water, one can take a few shortcuts.
At the end of Helen McKenzie we headed to the right and came out onto a cross country ski trail...walking up it a short ways we found another trail that headed up and over another hill. We took this and sure enough we eventually came out at the far end of Battleship Lake. It was a straight trail along the lake edge. It was so open and beautiful looking. Half way we found someone had dug out an ice cave. As I looked at it I wondered if they had camped in it over night but it was pretty small.
We headed down to the end of the lake and then back down the side of the mountain to Paradise meadows. There we chose to go back to the lodge via the orange trail. I have to admit I was rather tired and looking forward to sitting down. Three and a half hours to do the loop which was pretty good time seeing as we stopped often to decide which way to go next.
I love being up in the snow covered mountains. It is so peaceful and quiet. It gives one time to just think about life and all of it's ups and downs. It is restorative and I'm sure always brings a smile to everyone's face. You don't find any grumpy people out snowshoeing, that is for sure.
We are so blessed here on the island...it's just wonderful! It was a great day and I am so glad I was able to finally snowshoe the loop to the lakes. One more thing to cross off my bucket list!
