More fun in the snow!

Well, the snow has stayed around! Every week or so there is a few more inches to top up whatever has melted or gone brown, so a new white coat over everything!

Sunset over the tree farm

Joel leaving for work in the morning...

All covered in snow!! (click to enlarge)

We’re getting used to it, but we’re definitely not getting over it! Minus 5 or so is starting to feel like OK weather, although today at maximum minus 15 was not so much… J

We’ve had a go on a snowmobile here at the Stewarts’ place in Didsbury, and towed a snowboard behind! Lots of fun J Lawrie and one of the young friends, David Manary, took turns driving the snowmobile and on their snowboards, while I gave both a go and wasn’t terribly fantastic, so resorted to taking some photos before trying again another day! The snow is mostly so powdery and soft, and everything is so pretty!

Keen to try out this snowboard

David Manary having a go with no board

Lawrie loving this snowmobile business!

Dragging David in the snow

Lawrie snowboarding - wakeboarding style

Me having a try :)

I think I maybe made it 5 seconds? :)

Lawrie and I also had a go at cross country skiing in Canmore, in the Rocky Mountains. This was hilarious! If you ever want to feel extremely uncoordinated, try cross country skiing for the first time! It looks deceivingly like normal (downhill) skiing… Except your skis are even longer, and narrower, and I’m sure they don’t have nearly as much grip on the snow… Your feet are only clipped in to the skis by the very front of your toe so your heels can lift up – which is great in theory for going up hills, but it’s so hard to adjust to this rather than just lifting the whole ski at once!

Other skiers out there make it look ridiculously easy, just coasting up each hill as they come to it – we didn’t think it was going to be anywhere as easy as it looked, but while we were prepared for the effort it took going up small hills, we weren’t so prepared for the level of coordination it took, not to slide back down the hill! We would have been hilarious for others to watch… As it felt and looked like every other person there could cross country ski pretty well! When we got to the top of our first hill (these are pretty small hills mind you…) the thought of going down was almost laughable, as we hadn’t worked out any way to stop or to turn! Then we both couldn’t breathe for laughing after Lawrie started off, and stacked rather impressively twice in a row within the first few metres!

Before the laughing fits of the first hill!

Trying to lean forward like everyone else does...

But getting caught in someone else's tracks...

Apparently to stop, we learnt afterwards, you either snow plough, like on regular skis (which we had thought of and tried, but was disastrous, as the skis are very long and cross over really quickly, plus it just didn’t seem to work!) or you do a ‘hockey stop’ (ie. Skid to the side quickly – one thing on ice skates, which we are slowly getting, but a completely different thing on nearly 2m long skis!). So we had to make do without stopping… As for turning, you either go down the hills in the deep ski tracks that are already there on each side, and lean to the side to go around the curves rather than slipping out of the tracks, or you ‘simply’ skate down the hill, lifting your feet and steering like on rollerblades or ice skates. Sounds pretty good in theory, but it seemed pretty impossible to lift my feet and expand the possibility of stacking, once I was moving down the hill!

Lawrie pretending to fall (although we did it enough for real...)

Others gliding apparently effortlessly up a hill

Canadian biathlon - skiing and shooting

All in all, we had a fantastic and oh so funny time cross country skiing – it was what we had imagined and so much more! Highly recommended!

Fairmont Hot Springs – November 8th to 12th

The day after the rodeo we drove down to the cute little town of Fairmont Hot Springs in BC, for a weekend with lots of friends from Pincher Creek (most of the Lewis families!). To get there, we drove through the Rocky Mountains, after being caught in a decent snow storm on the way (debated pulling over to wait it out, but there was nowhere to pull off… Saw a few cars in the ditches beside the road though!). We drove up to Norquay ski field just out of Banff to have a look, and were delighted to find that part of it was open! Although after planning to go back via there, we’ve since realised it’s only open on the weekends so far… As it was the first time I’ve been to a ski field wearing a skirt rather than ski pants, I got a few funny looks… But didn’t freeze at all! Must be getting slightly accustomed to the cold J

View of Banff from the road up to the Norquay ski field

At the Norquay ski field

There was a tad more snow on the mountains than last time we came through, so the drive through the Rockies was pretty impressive!! We were pretty thankful though that the roads were pretty clear when we started heading down the mountain passes out the other side of the Rockies through Kootenay National Park, to get to Fairmont!

View from the road of some of the Rockies!!

View of Castle Mountain from the Bow Valley Parkway

At Fairmont we spent lots of time in the hot pools nearby, which was fantastic and made for a pretty relaxing long weekend! Interspersed with lots of games of squash, which was also great, some running around outside, and lots of just catching up with friends, which was also fantastic!

Jane and Savannah playing squash in a racquetball court...

Some of the boys playing football

What I understand of Canadian football - lots of planning between each play!

Dena and Jane, with Renita and Savannah behind

Dena, Savannah and Jane

Micaela and Annika coming to join us

Some of the girls - Annika, Nicole, Jane (Kiwi), Dena, Renita (Aussie), Micaela, Savannah (Kiwi/Canadian)

On the Sunday night, after it had snowed quite a bit that morning, we spent the evening inside playing games, and had lots of fun re-living parts of our childhoods, with games and tricks from way back J

Pushup competition to 'Bring Sally Up' - Lawrie, Boyd, Monty (and Berwin, not in the photo)

Arm wrestling - Brant vs. Monty

Lawrie failing to support himself by his neck and toes

Trent looking like a spider while climbing around a table

Micaela and Jane balancing (well, almost) on Jane's arms

Donny climbing through a broom

Crabwalking race - Carma, Brittany, Jane and Micaela vs Lawrie, Luke, Joel and Stewart

Charades - Brittany and Dorothy, with Beau

Beau :)

Jane tricking Monty into drawing on his own face

Luke and Stewart trying to get a cookie off the floor without touching the ground with their hands or feet

The nicest photo we could get of Trent and Dena (Annika's photo) - normal apparently?!

Brant and Renita (Annika's photo)

Most of the family - Annika, Joel, Micaela, Sandra and Berwin

Dorothy and Ken

It was so great to spend time with Kim & Robin and their whole family – Jaclyn and Chad and their boys (Carter, Jake, Axel and Braver), Carma, Boyd & Brit and their girls (Beau and Rio), Trent and Dena; Berwin and Sandra and their family – Micaela, Annika, Luke and Joel; Ken and Dorothy (grandparents); Brant and Renita and Stewart; Nathan and Alex; Savannah; and a few who weren’t actually Lewises – Jane, and Monty. Lots of people, and lots of fun and relaxation, made for a wonderful long weekend! J

Chad and Jaclyn and their boys - L to R Braver, Jake, Carter, Axel

The group of us :)

Robin & Kim's family, plus Renita

Boyd & Brit, and Beau & Rio

Nathan and Alex

Group of bighorn sheep rams in the middle of the road on our way back

Beautiful snow covered drive back through the Rockies