McD's Playplace

The cold weather in Smithers inspired PZ to get an engine block heater installed in the truck. He found one and a mechanic willing to install it that day. That left us with some time to spend together keeping two small boys warm in -20 weather and no truck and no stroller (what were we thinking when we left it at home?!). We started off at McD's, as it has a Playplace. I thought Max would love it. Love it, he did. Until he climbed up too high on the structure and was too afraid to swing his legs over the edge to go back down one level. If he just had a few more inches of height, he could do it no problem. So I joined him and taught him that he could stretch his toes out and reach the step, and also taught him not to climb up too high so he could just go down the slide. He was happy with that but the slide pictures are blurry. We were there for long enough that he had his fun but didn't complain when we went on to the next activity. ZELLERS! We couldn't believe that there is a smaller Zellers than our own here in PR. Small. We checked out the mall and found it was empty. Except for Zellers. We finished our walking tour of the shopping centre at Safeway. That's where the nice mechanic man picked us up to return the truck. Smithers has a certain Bavarian charm to it, with a good selection of stores for browsing. If it was about 15 degrees warmer and we had thought to bring the stroller we would have done more exploring.

Here's a photo tribute to Max's first Playplace adventure ...