Here it is, the massive, picture-heavy post recapping our big yearly company meetup. This year (and I hope next year and beyond) it took place in Whistler, British Columbia. What a gorgeous setting! Getting there wasn’t my favorite (mostly because of the two-plus hour bus ride from the Vancouver airport) but once we were there, it was fantastic.
Mountains on the way! (And a bus window reflection)
The view from our room. The hotel on the left is where half of the company stayed.
My crazed “I GOT POUTINE FINALLY!!!” face.
I feel like they could be twinsies.
More potential twinsies. (Or triplets since Mikey is in both pics.)
KarKar and me.
The first day was our team day, so I spent the first half with the hiring team, and the second half with all of Happiness.
Athena! Love.
Karen and a bunch of HEs.
Beckett and I got up early one morning and went for a run around a 3.5 mile loop. It was hilly (mountainous, even, for this NOLA girl) and I almost ran all of it. Except for a few steep uphills. I wish I had better photos of the route, but they’re all blurry.
We spent time over the next few days in classes, and I didn’t really take pictures there. But here are a bunch of pretty pictures of Whistler Village:
The whole company took a pic. See if you can find me!
On our activity day, I went up the mountain in a gondola with a few others. It was terrifying and fun and awesome and gorgeous. We hiked a bit, saw some snow, rode a chairlift into a cloud, and saw a giant rainbow. Good stuff.
Video of the chairlift up. It was incredibly quiet and peaceful. Except when I was shrieking in terror. (Kidding.)
On the way up.
My terror-filled face on the chairlift.
Snow! And rocks that we would have plummeted to.
SNOWBALL!!!!!
It was v foggy/cloudy up there. And snowing a bit? Or sleeting? Let’s just say snow.
The chairlift down looked WAY scarier, but because we couldn’t see anything, it was okay! I took a time lapse video of it:
More pics on a mountain:
On the way up.
The weather was so random, as you can see from those photos. Turn one way, and it would be cloudy and gray, and in another direction, sunny and blue.
After the chairlift, we took the peak-to-peak gondola between Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains. It was pretty crazy.
The cable droops between the peaks. So weird and cool and kind of scary.
High above the trees.
A river runs through it. (The valley)
Don’t come up behind the animals and touch them on the back.
A12s in a gondola!
GOLD!!!!
One day I had some free time and spent it hiking with some friends. We went to Lost Lake, and I don’t think we found the path with the incredible views everyone else got, but it was a lovely hike and I did get some nice pics.
Wait up!
Picturesque stream.
Picturesque path.
Elizabeth capturing the picturesque view.
Picturesque Lost Lake
More lake that was lost.
Random rocks.
I have a thing for “path” pictures.
Picturesque grass.
Does it chap my hide that my favorite pic was taken with my iPhone? Maybe a bit.
Ahhhhh. Nice.
The WWWP5K was Monday morning, and it was on the same path that Beckett and I ran a few days before. The distance was a bit vague, but we ran straight for 37 minutes WITHOUT STOPPING AND ON HILLS AND STUFF so I figure we covered at least 3.1 miles. I guess Orange Theory works after all, eh? I haven’t really run distances in a while, so I was very pleased about this.
Proud of those feet.
Okay, one more batch of pics from our closing party. I was wise this year and didn’t stay up until 4am the night before, so I was able to enjoy it a bit more.
YUM.
YES INDEED.
Clicky wins.
The toast.
The stage.
A12s rock!
Tutu queens!
My beautiful be-wigged team.
But not too much, as I had to be up at 3am to catch the bus back to Vancouver, and then fly home for a zillion hours (whyever United thinks a layover in Newark between Vancouver and NOLA is a good idea, I’ll never know.)
First meal in Canada, last meal in Canada.
Finally made it home at 10:30pm, to many, many, many hugs from my boys. Here’s what Oliver drew before I got home. (RIP me.)
Man, couldn’t we have any numbers lower than thirteen that start with “th”? Maybe I should save this for tomorrow so I only have to come up with four things to say. Or maybe I don’t have to have alliterative post titles. Hmm.
However, it has been a while since I’ve posted, so I shall try to come up with thirteen things.
Third grade is going well so far. The boys all like their teachers and when I pick them up, are in good spirits. Woo!
Speaking of school, we now have five kids in carpool! Ann Francis started preK-4 this year and I love having her in the car. She is so dang cute, I can hardly stand it. And she calls me Pammy and it’s freaking adorable. Gah.
Took the boys to see two movies last weekend. Kubo and the Two Strings and Pete’s Dragon. Kubo was fantastic and Pete’s Dragon (or Elliot’s Human, as the boys called it) was good, but suffered by comparison. We all decided we should have seen Pete’s Dragon first, then it would have seemed better.
Two weeks until I head to Whister, BC for my week-long company-wide work trip. So excited to see all of my coworkers and to work together in person and all that good stuff.
I volunteered to be a room mom in Miles’s class. Figured it was time to give back a little.
I had to pick up Oliver from school early today for the second time this week. Back to school germs suck.
Last weekend was the fourth annual New Orleans Moms Blog Mom’s Night Out. My hair looked great. It was a wedding theme, so I had the hair people put my wedding hair clips in. Aw!
I really need some new brown boots and am having the eternal struggle – buy cheap and toss them after winter’s over (like I do every year) or buy quality for once? The problem is, apparently only people with thin calves want nice boots because even the “wide calf” versions are too small for my, ahem, athletic calves. Boo.
We got to play with tiny puppies and now the boys are convinced Ziggy needs a friend. I am not convinced at all, but dang, those puppies were adorable!
My hair is finally getting longer. And look at this great necklace I got from my friend Bea! Proceeds went to a family she knows who lost everything in the floods.
Okay, I need to just get this written before I forget everything.
For a good recap of Spain, read Erica’s post here.
Friday morning
Arrived in Barcelona, after a flight with no sleep. I tried. I really tried. At least I got to catch up on some movies.
Had my first jamon sandwich, then met Erica at the airport (her flight arrived not long after mine) and we headed into town to drop off our luggage at a locker, and then we just wandered around until our Airbnb was available.
Walked through the Gothic Quarter, made our way through a path of what felt like miles of blankets covered in fake Michael Kors handbags, “Nike” sneakers, and sunglasses. Finally got to the beach! Put toes in Mediterranean!
Erica and I went to the Sagrada Família on Saturday the 18th, after we’d given our talk. (More details on all that later.) I had tried to go when I was in Barcelona last time, coughcough, but didn’t get to.
Anyway, I’m not usually one for visiting old buildings or churches, but this was truly exceptional. So unique and breathtaking and many other adjectives. Construction began on this church designed by Gaudí in 1882 and it’s not done yet.
Erica and I also booked tickets to the tower, which was fun and hair-raising. (You take an elevator up but a tightly wound spiral staircase down, and it’s kind of terrifying.)
Without further ado…
Details outside
The interior
Views from the tower:
Terrifying staircase:
People right as they walk in, stop, dumbfounded, then take pics.
They say it’s going to be finished (finally) in ten years. We’ll see.
I have much to blog about, of course. I initially was going to try to keep up as the trip went along, but obviously I failed miserably there. But I’ll post a bit now while I sit in the United Club lounge with a glass of wine and free wi-fi. (But I really need to make it fast so I can go call Kristina. I haven’t talked to her in 11 days and that is entirely too long, considering we usually talk one or two times a day.)
It’s hard to believe how long this trip was. Don’t get me wrong, it was amazing. I had a fantastic, exhausting, busy trip. But it felt like a month, not a week and a half. When I think back to when we were in Barcelona, it feels like eons ago.
I also have to give a shout-out to my colleague Erica. She was an excellent traveling companion, and we had a great time together. I think it’s safe to say we’re both suffering withdrawal from each other. We were apart very very little over the course of the trip. This could have gone horribly wrong. Even traveling with good friends can be a harrowing experience, but I can honestly say she was an amazing travel partner. Probably doesn’t hurt that the girl likes to eat. Heh. She was extremely supportive of my ham cone quest, and she’s a vegetarian. Now that’s a friend!
Okay, here’s a little Pam ‘n’ Erica collage (you’ll probably see these again in future posts too. Deal with it.)
Okay, my wine is done, so I’m going to publish this now and go call Kristina. Can’t wait to see my boys! Cross your fingers that the bottle of schnapps I brought back makes it intact. I’m tired. Stop babbling now.
My favorite thing to eat in Spain is the ham. I suppose more specifically I mean the jamón ibérico? Whatever it’s called, it’s delicious. When Erica and I were in Barcelona, I spied a cafe with a sign outside advertising “Ham Cone”, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. A paper cone filled with pieces of jamón. I was determined to get a ham cone before we left Spain, and today my dream came true!
We were walking back to our Airbnb after lunch (I purposely had a very light lunch) when we passed Mercado de San Miguel. Right when we walked in, we saw a stall selling HAM CONES!
It was way fancier than the ham cones at the other restaurant – three times more expensive, and quite a lot of ham, even for me. But I have until lunchtime tomorrow to eat it. And it’s insanely delicious.
Also they gave it to me on a paper silver tray. So fancy!
Gotta give props to Erica, who is a vegetarian, for supporting me on my epic quest for HAM CONE.
Erica and I are working at Google’s Campus Madrid today. It’s a nice space, in spite of the cafe worker who is not a fan of Erica (which is ridiculous, Erica is one of the kindest people I know.)
Tomorrow night we’ll be giving another talk here. Eek!
Not going to write a ton about my first day in Barcelona, but it was lovely. Didn’t sleep on the plane, so the first half of the day after meeting up with my coworker Erica were a bit of a haze. But the weather was gorgeous and we got a lot of walking in.
Mmmm. Pastries.My food upon arriving at the airport – jamon on baguette. Heaven.Dog at the airportGothic QuarterGothic QuarterErica!
More Gothic Quarter
Toes in the sand!The Mediterranean Sea
Rose on the Mediterranean.Blue sky
Dinner the first night.
I meant to post this earlier, but the wifi at our Barcelona Airbnb was terrible.
Oh, I mean, it wasn’t exciting or anything, I just didn’t want more than a week to go by without blogging so I shall blog about what we did this week.
The boys started camp, which has been great for me. It’s nice and peaceful at home, and I can go to Orange Theory to work out, and of course, they’ve been having a great time too. Their friend Ethan is at camp with them, and from what they’ve told me, they’re all thick as thieves. So that’s fun. They’ve been swimming every day and went to Laser Tag yesterday and blah blah blah mainly they’re not doing anything electronic for 6-7 hours a day and that’s the best part.
Of course, I’m the worst mother ever and forgot to put sunscreen on them for the first three days of the week, so by Wednesday they all had rather pink shoulders. I definitely felt like shit.
I went and had dinner with my triplet/quad mamas, that was always lovely. Here I am with the mamas from here.
Saved up some Amazon gift cards and got some amazing (and eye-wateringly expensive) noise cancelling earbuds. I feel quite confident that I’m going to snooze like a baby on the airplane next week because of these as well as this travel pillow I bought. YES I DID.
I don’t care in the least how goofy this looks if it means I can get a few hours of sleep on the plane. Erica and I arrive early Friday morning, and that night we have a presentation to give. So if I don’t sleep on the plane, it could get really ugly.
In non-travel-related news, we made pizza bombs! I love Tasty. I am addicted to watching the videos, even though half of the recipes look less than appetizing. These were a big hit with the boys.
Okay, I should have sealed up the dough better. Whatever.
And now I shall end this post with this ridiculously adorable picture the boys found online.
It’s been way too long since I’ve posted a real post. The kind with words and stuff. I feel pretty bad about just posting a bunch of pics about Austin, when I have lots of great memories that I really should be writing down. Let’s just hope the pictures help me remember them later. Or maybe I’ll end up editing that post with more details. We’ll see.
I think the best way for me to organize my thoughts is with bullets, since this’ll be all over the place.
I’ve been thinking for a long time about doing some kind of bootcamp fitness program, but I’ve been unable to find one that was at the appropriate times, etc. I was talking to someone a few weeks ago and she mentioned she was going to Orange Theory Fitness so I looked into it and ended up going to a class yesterday.
It was tough, I gotta say. It’s funny, you think “I can run a few miles at a time, and I can do half marathons without dying, so I must be in some kind of shape” and then you do a class like this and
It’s high intensity interval training, and there are treadmills and rowing machines and weights and floor exercises and wow, when I got off the rowing machines after a few minutes my legs were like jelly.
So I signed up to go as much as humanly possible and try to get really fit over the next two months (and beyond) because in two months, this is happening… Say hello to our next group of #WCEU speakers!
Yes, my coworker Erica and I are giving a talk at WordCamp Europe in front of, oh, I don’t know, more than the 20 people I spoke to at WordCamp Dayton. At least I can hide behind Erica, except she is tiny.
Anyway, my only point is that I want to feel good about myself before getting on a stage in front of more than 20 people.
In non-me related things, I continued to allow my children to really express themselves through their hair. I mean, it’s not hurting anyone. It’s temporary (ish, I mean, I did have to bleach their hair to get it this vibrant, but hair does grow) and if you could have seen how happy Linus was after we made his green, well, any doubts would have been wiped away.
Miles wanted to be in the picture too. He of course also now wants to dye his hair, but I pointed out that his actingcareer might suffer if he does. So we’re leaving it as is for now. Anyway, if I have to end up dying Linus and Oliver’s back, I’ll need a reference for the original color. Ha!
I had a really fun weekend with the boys, not just dying their hair. We saw Jungle Book (really good) and watched a bunch of baking shows on Netflix. MilesCupcake Wars in particular inspired us to whip up a batch of homemade vanilla cupcakes and vanilla buttercream frosting. I even scraped seeds out of vanilla bean pods, that’s how serious we were. They were deeeelish, in spite of the fact that I apparently left a box of powdered sugar at the grocery store after paying for it, so our frosting was more butter than anything. Nothin’ wrong with that
Erica and I are 
pyjammy dot blog 