It is coming up toward the one year anniversary of the COVID lockdown for the Lee family. Around March of last year, the idea of physical distancing and staying at home as much as possible became begrudgingly in vogue.
We had a lot of travel plan for 2020. We had a our first cruise booked, a Disney one at that, along with a few days in San Diego and Legoland. It was my fortieth birthday, so certainly there was some debaucherous outting in the plan. Shannon and I had our 10th year wedding anniversary, and we contemplated a trip to Europe, perhaps without the kids, over the summer. We had a winter ski trip planned for Panorama which the resort canceled and refunded us as restrictions closed the mountain. And a Disneyland trip with my parents that we had postponed from the year before, due to accomodations being full at the time.
Of those plans, we managed to complete a fantastic sailing trip in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and a stay over in St. Lucia. When lockdowns eased over the summer, we roadtripped to Vancouver and the island which was also very enjoyable.
These last several days, we spent on our rebooked trip in Panorama along with the Whitkenzies and Hardys. I wasn’t entirely convinced at first that the trip going to be a dud due to ongoing COVID concerns (now the variant), the long drive, possibly hordes of visitors given that it was reading week, and just in general being in a cramped hotel when we could have just spend the time in our nice big house.
But the trip had turned out to be very pleasant, “really, REALLY good” as Everett put it. Our days were filled with skiing, swimming and suprisingly fine dining.
I would spend a couple of hours with Kyle, Jill and/or Evan in the mornings on fast near perfect runs, followed by several hours later on the mountain with the kids. Despite having had no snowfall this past week, the runs were not rock hard nor icy, and groomed nicely. I don’t remember having temperatures as perfect (eg. not freezing), and being so uncrowded on a mountain resort.
Everett has become quite a good little skier also and accompanied Kyle and I the first day all the way to the summit. He was the littlest kid up there by far and did very well on challenging blue runs. We had one mishap where he fell off the chair right at the loading point, but he got to hang out with the chair operator until we returned, telling him that he skied faster than his dad.
Sierra took some lessons as well and is starting to do quite well as a little Piggy too. She did some practice with mom on the Magic Carpet and bunny hill, and we joined up afterwards for some fun in the swimming pool.
I recently read the article “I’m spending more time than ever with my children” by Mark O’Connell, which was published in the Economist last week. It was about what constituted “quality time” with children, and tried to take a glimpse from a child’s perspective what might constitute quality time.
The thesis is that it is not the march of activities that we shuttle the kids to and from, nor really those opportunities where we sacrifice ourselves to attain for them, but probably what they cherish most is just being together with them holding your attention.
Everett expressed to me on several occasions on this trip that “this was the best day ever!” A lot is probably because he and I got to hang out together. Often it was just me and him on the mountain, me and him having talks while ascending the chair lift, and me and him in the swimming pool that one time past his bedtime. “It’s fun when daddy doesn’t have to go to work. We get to do fun things!”
It was enjoyable as an observer watching Everett joke with his friends Natalie and Maebyn on the chair lift. There were talking about poop and underwear, but they thought their nonsensical jokes were the most halarious lines in the world. Even though I was on the kid chairlift, I didn’t mind.
And with mom and Sierra, we got to spend time playing Charades For Kids, the kids’ new favorite game, and talk about all the exciting things that we did that day over nice meals.
Piggy is not yet at the point where she understands the quality time concept. She is happy splitting her time between coloring and running around the hotel room with Everett. She gives me a big hug when we run into each other at the bunny hill, and then is ready to go on up the Magic Carpet for the next run. She is most content watching TV, and would have no problems staying in the hotel room the entire four days in front of the screen.
Everett told us when he’s older, he’s going to move to the United States. It’s because he likes the name of that country. Then he will live in France and learn French, followed by Russia (reason known only to himself). When he is forty, he will move to Panorama.
I think the kids, particularly Everett, will remember this holiday as being good quality time. But even if he doesn’t, I will.
