Snowshoeing in Whistler for the first time with kids (Callaghan Valley, British Columbia)

All Christmas the hubby and I talked about how we were so excited to go to Whistler for the first time with kids and how we hadn’t been in 6 years, but as we were walked through the village we both got some weird deja vu feelings and then realized we’ve actually been here before. Sometime just before the Vancouver Olympics when the guys were nearly two, I booked some kind of deal in the summer months and we stayed somewhere in the village.  We ate at Spaghetti Factory.  We sat in some bobsled thing.  And I don’t remember what else we did and neither does the hubby.  So I guess with twins you really do forget the first couple years-I wonder what else we’ve forgotten

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This most recent trip will definitely be memorable for all of us.  Our friend Steph invited my sister and I up to her family’s cabin and we spent a few lovely days hanging out together.  There wasn’t a lot of snow, but any snow is better than no snow at all and we soaked it all up.  The guys loved exploring the icy lakes.

And they loved trying out their new snowshoes.  We got our whole family some for Christmas and we tried them at the Callaghan Valley where there is even an off-leash area that was perfect for my dog-nephew .  It’s nice that they had a dog-friendly area for snowshoeing that we could all enjoy.

While the hubby skied with my brother-in-law and Steph’s dad on a questionable ski-weather day that turned out AMAZING, we visited the gorgeous Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre.  (FYI-If you are a BC resident, an adult admission gets you a year-long pass.) It was such a neat place full of beautiful art and interesting things to see.  There was even an interactive children’s area where we spent a bit of time.

We also joined a tour and made woven cedar rings.

My favorite part of the tour was learning about this big basket.  Our guide told us a story that the elders told to keep the kids out of mischief.  Apparently, an old woman spirit would catch misbehaving kids in this giant basket and eat them for dinner so kids were encouraged to behave.  My guys were terrified and enthralled at the same time.  I was amazed at how much they liked this tour.

We also found something we REALLY liked in the village.  I sniffed out another fantastic bakery and we ended up going there TWO TIMES during our visit.

The Purebread bakery is adorable and I bought a carrot cake to eat at the cabin and had some delightful treats after our museum visit.  I would probably go back to Whistler just to eat their pastries and I had fun looking at all the other fun foodie finds they had in their store too, like Noble Mable Syrups and salts from the Vancouver Island Salt Company (I totally bought this as a souvenir.)

With all the eating, relaxing, adventuring and shopping, we had such a wonderful time and I know this time we’ll definitely remember our trip for a while.

(PS. thank you M family!  We had such a glorious time)

(PPS. I wandered into the Green Moustache Juice,Smoothie and Live Food Bar  a few doors down from Purebread because of the adorable store attached to it and noticed they had a kids’ kitchen and chalkboard to play on, so this would be a great place if you were looking for something to do in the village with kids.  There was also an awesome looking playground near the ice skating rink in the village but it was really wet the day we visited so we didn’t play on it this time.)

(PPPS. if you’re looking for Purebread bake goods outside of whistler, they sell at some local Vancouver markets too.)

Terumi

Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys.  She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live.  She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)