gigi and pop are here

when  the grandparents are here, the mommies must play!  

my favorite adventure gal pal joined me for a bluebird powder day of epic proportions at therriault pass.  best skiing i've had all year and only a few short miles from home.

 that's glen lake in the distance...

 it was pretty deep for max! 
he loved it and is turning out to be a pretty good ski buddy.

thank you gigi and pop for entertaining 3 kiddos!  so two mommies could play!
(walking over the viaduct in  whitefish.
big mountain in the distance. going to the winter carnival parade!)
bob is in north carolina for the week and mom and i had the plan for her to  come out and play with us. 
but at baggage claim at kalispell, dad sneaks up behind me and starts talking right beside me, over my shoulder!  after i picked my jaw up off the floor, i immediately started weeping!  what a great surprise.  i love my da-dee!

we three kids pulled off a surprise like that in 84 once, now its their turn to travel light and be spontaneous. 
they deserve it.

 view of where we skiied, from my kitchen window.  
therriault pass... named for the therriault brothers, antoine, charles, and michel.   natives of new brunswick, canada, they arrived in the tobacco valley in the late 1880's.   they established homesteads, sawmills, and other enteprises.

excerpt from  the book,  "The Story of the Tobacco Plains" :

"at the election dance in november,  1900,  the night before antoine died,  mrs. cuffe (BOB'S  GREAT GRANDMOTHER) danced while he held her baby boy for her;  and she was among those who were thoroughly astonished the next day to hear of antoine's sudden death, some say from septic sore throat, others say from lye taken as medicine.   Joe Lee had made a coffin of pine, covered with black crepe from leaonard's store.    to get the body to kalispell for burial, charlie young took it in a rowboat down the kootenai river to jennings, montana."