2018 Wrap-up: Cervical Collars and new iPhones

We walked in to U-Village Apple store yesterday for a $29 iPhone SE battery replacement - 4 hours later we walked out of Apple with new iPhone XS's for both me and Dae! I was fiddling around with the demo XS while my battery was being worked on (I eventually canceled my battery repair) and took some identical photos with the XS and Dae's 7 just for fun. We couldn't believe the difference, so much so that we were wondering if Apple purposefully lights the store so that iPhone photos are extra nice. But then Dae brought up the point that iPhone 7 photos should also be nicer in the store if that were true.  

So, it's a very Merry late Christmas gift to ourselves. :) Below are four photos I took at random today. I think I have yet to explore all the possibilities of this new camera!

(Below are old iPhone SE photos. Note the difference. :) Olin woke up with a very sore left side of neck and was crying every time he moved. We think it's from a couple of bigger falls he took while skiing. Dae got him this 'cervical collar' from Walgreen's he wore out, all day, like an old person, with his neck tilted to the right. Hilariously, Christian fished the cervical collar box out of recycling and repurposed it in to a craft. So if anyone visits us in the future and gets a neck kink, we have just the thing for it!

To wrap up, 2018 was a really good year. They're all good years, really. We are extremely fortunate.

Winter Miscellanea

Holiday Program this year. Kids were broken up in to 5 different groups and they worked hard on making presentations. Christian made this Ancient Egyptian home. His Target sweater looks very nice. :)

Olin and Henry were assigned China. They did a very cute skit. 

Dae's DNA results came back. NO surprise to anyone....100% Korean. ha! My results are taking considerably longer to process as I am no purebred!

I haven't taken the kids to a professional haircut in about 5 years but figured it's time for me to get some tips. The kids absolutely loved Sports Clips. I am not sure why they loved it so much, but maybe because the women were really nice, and the place is kind of fun and cozy, and it was clean, and they got to sit down in comfortable chairs.

Olin particularly has been upping the whining and complaining. It has been out of hand this past month so good old Santa wrote them this letter and the kids did not get stockings this year. Christian approached me after he received the letter and asked for a private talk. haha. He said "mom, I'm not sure if this will make you mad, but I kind of think you and babz are Santa". I asked him why and he said the presents were in the same wrapping paper and he thought we might have printed out this letter. I told him I left Santa some wrapping paper since he was delivering presents early. He said "oh". (and here I thought I did a bang up job on that letterhead! hahaha)

Whistler Christmas - Part II

In front of our Airbnb building

Hot cocoa at the lodge (Rendezvous Lodge mid-way up Blackcomb Mountain)

Nintendo break at Rendezvous Lodge

Whistler Christmas - Part I

Whistler has been lots of fun. We are staying in Upper Village and it is a pleasant and fun walk to Whistler Village (10 minutes). Weather has been ideal because it has been alternately sunny and snowy.

Day 1. Total disorganization. We took our time lazing about Monday morning, thinking there was no way lessons would start earlier than 9am, and possibly even as late as 10am. Dae and I finally strolled downstairs at 8:15am to get our tickets and figure out what time lessons began. imagine our panic when the lady informed me kids are to meet for lessons at 8:30-8:45! Dae ran upstairs to get the kids dressed STAT, while I continued to wait in line for tickets. We then rushed downstairs at 8:45am to get rentals for the kids. We waited for 45 minutes and the rental line was barely moving, so we did a quick change of plans and ran up to a sports shop in our hotel to get the kids rentals instead. We ended up showing up to the lesson an hour late (9:45am) and I was aghast. ha! The staff, however, were very nice and very accommodating and they took the kids without a problem. Both kids started off at Level 3 (low 3 for Olin, high 3 for Christian). After two days of lessons they are both at 4 now! Dae and I plan to ski with the kids on Friday all day so I'm looking forward to that. I'm pretty sure we'll stick to greens and blues!

Night 1 - ramen dinner at Ohyama Ramen

Christmas morning in our condo. Kids got Harry Potter legos, a plasma ball (Olin), an all-terrain vehicle (Christian) and some other tchotchkes.

We went sledding on our day off Tuesday (Christmas Day)

Very first night we arrived, we sled down this little path near our condo, in the dark, and Olin crashed in to this tree branch. Poor fella. I told him his scab is like Harry Potter's lightning bolt scar but he wasn't buying that comparison.

Peak2Peak gondola connecting Blackcomb and Whistler mountains. By the way the weather has been perfect. It was very sunny on Day 1 of skiing, then it was overcast and snowing on Day 2 of skiing.

A run called Ratfink. haha. Dae and I took it and it was hard. Dae said it about did him in.

Rock & Gem shop that the kids loved in Whistler village. Whistler village is so cute. Tons of fun shops and restaurants.

This red contraption is a snowball maker. It is actually really effective.

Tubing park at Whistler today. We are skiing every other day and this was one of our off days. The tubing runs (7 of them) are fun, and somewhat steep and pretty long.

Nagomi Sushi last night. The places we've eaten are Tacos La Cantina (lunch two times - good), Teppan Village (Christmas dinner, teppanyaki style, and turns out the owner of our condo owns Teppan Village! We saw him there and I was like "is he a waiter here or something?" haha), Green Moustache (delicious green juice, healthy food), Nagomi Sushi (good), Il Caminetto (Italian for dinner, fancy but my fish was super salty unfortunately), Blenz for coffee (yum), Beacon Pub (dinner first night - good burgers), and Ohyama ramen (kids loved, I thought it was ok). 

Week of Merriment

A present Olin made for Christian (a rubber band gun of sorts) with "Instruckshins" that took a looong time to write.

Christian got his finger caught in the door at Garland's Gym last week. It's pretty black. TBD if that nail falls off or not.

"Elf" at the Academy of Children Theater

Annual Cookie Decorating

Kids with trophies. This tournament, Christian qualified for the "Open" round which are the players ranked over 800. There were 17 players. I told him he was playing the highest players so he may not win as many games. Their school ended up finishing second in the Open round and first in the regular round.

He ended up doing great. He won 2 games and stalemated 1 for a total of 2.5 points. These were the standings after 4 rounds so he finished a little lower than this chart indicates because he lost his last game.

Olin won 1st place in K-1 grade. His first 1st place trophy!

 

Budgeted in a quick catnap before Nel's ball game at HHS that night. I faintly remember Olin squeezing in next to me twice - once on the outside (above) and once on the inside between me and the couch. Every time he left, he very gently pulled up the blanket to cover me, like he was the parent. hahaha. Dae took this photo.

Gingerbread house fail. The pieces came broken, which was the fatal flaw in both homes. Must write email to gingerbread house company..... :)

Olin's completely fell apart - "and after I worked so hard and spent all that time doing the icicles!", he cried. Indeed, he did spend probably 30-45 minutes squeezing that frosting to make icicles. He was so sad.

Christian's remained intact but it's bulging out a little bit currently.

While Olin was crying I refashioned his house in to a mid-century modern design, as I described to him. All flat. He wasn't very impressed.