Caroline & Ram Falls, Alberta – October 28th to 30th

Near the end of October we headed away with Darwin, the young worker in the field covering Didsbury, to visit his grandparents, which was lovely! We headed away from the snow which was still solidly on the ground in Didsbury after the first snow fall for the year the day before, and headed north west to where there was much more snow! Darwin’s grandparents live on a small farm property out of the little town of Caroline, and they have about 20 cows as well as a few kittens.

Darwin and his grandad

We spent lots of time playing with the adorable little kittens (so cute to watch in the snow!), and went out to give a couple of hay bales to the cows in the snowy paddock, played around with the icicles hanging off the roof, and just generally relaxed (and ate… a LOT.)

Lawrie, who insists that he 'hates cats'...

Lots of cats, including 3 adorable kittens...

Heading out to feed the cows in the snow - a new one for us!

Icicles hanging off the house

We also drove out (in a ‘truck’ with 4WD rather than in our van…) on a beautiful and absolutely snow covered road through a mountain pass to the Ram Falls Provincial Park, a not crowded at all (ie. No one else was there) but spectacular waterfall in the midst of all the snow and ice! It was such a beautiful drive there and back, with some of the road that had been groomed, and some we had to plough our own way through J. We saw a bunch of white tail deer, a coyote in the distance, some wild horses, and a few cows being kept out in the mountains, but no moose like we were hoping for!

On the way to Ram Falls

Cows in a snowy paddock - sight not really seen at home!

Lovely snow ploughed road on the way to Ram Falls

Beautiful but not so ploughed road

Coyote in the distance

White tail deer

Bighorn sheep lamb

Wild (we think?) horses

Ram Falls

Darwin and Lawrie at Ram Falls

Nicole at the falls

Snow covered hay bales! :)

The time went pretty quickly, but we loved being in a winter wonderland, in such a beautiful spot, and it was so nice to spend time with Darwin and his grandparents!

Darwin with his grandparents, John and Ventress

Pincher Creek again… October 24-26 & early November

Before we headed away with Darwin (and in fact before it snowed in Didsbury), we headed down to Pincher Creek for another weekend with Boyd and Brit, and little Beau and Rio, and went through some of the Rocky Mountains on the way. We though it’d be a great time to visit the Rockies again because now there’d be a whole heap of snow on the mountains (we’d seen it in the distance from about a month before!), but we were sadly mistaken with the snow – the weather had been so nice and warm that it had pretty much all melted away, and looked much the same as we saw it in summer!

All the same, we had a great couple of hours looking around Banff again, and then we went through the little town of Canmore to the Nordic Centre there, to see how much cross country skiing there was happening – there was one track open (with man made snow stored through the year!) and LOTS of people training on it!

Checking out Bryce Quigley's mechanic workshop on the way down to the Rockies

How they practise cross country skiing before the snow

Cross country skiiers

We drove south via a more scenic route than the big highway, and discovered halfway down our road that it was closed due to flood damage… But it was such a nice spot that we drove all the way to the road closure, then turned around to go on the main highway, and saw lots of snow alongside the road, impressive mountain scenery, deer, and bighorn sheep! So we were a little later than planned…

Driving on Highway 40

Whitetail deer doe

The reason they're called White tail...

Some bighorn sheep on the side of the road

Little bighorn sheep lamb!

We got down to Stavely where the friends play some pretty serious hockey, and watched the second half of their game, then we headed down to Boyd & Brit’s in Pincher Creek, where we arrived at about midnight… And so we slept a bit the next morning, before heading out to Castle Mountain, a nearby snow field (no snow yet though), where Boyd was working on replacing a roof on a house right at the bottom of the ski hill. So Lawrie helped with that while I caught up with Dena Lewis in town, and it was such a nice sunny day (no hint of snow on the way, that’s for sure!).

We had an awesomely fun game of hockey with lots of the Pincher Creek folk the next morning, and both improved our skating and hockey skills a little, then we headed back up to Didsbury to spend a bit more time with David Jury (worker who is now on a convention run in Pakistan and India) before he left!

Mule deer buck from our bedroom window at Boyd & Brit's place

The roof Boyd was working on at the Castle Mountain snow field

Mountains from Pincher Creek

Beau helping to sweep the garage floor

Beau :)

Little Rio!

Saturday morning hockey

Some Kiwi hockey players - Savannah & Jane

A week later we headed down to Pincher Creek again… Took down David Manary from Didsbury, and stayed at Boyd & Brit’s place again J We played hockey once again on the Saturday morning, and had a fantastic time! Had a big pancake breakfast with a bunch of others back at Trent & Dena’s place, and then slept it off in a relaxing afternoon, as well as having a go on a snowmobile!! In the mud… It was snowing a little, but definitely not enough for a normal snowmobile – this one works on dirt and gravel as well though! Not really any photos of it, was too much fun… But should be able to have another go soon, there’s snow everywhere again!

Lawrie after having a go on the snowmobile

We had a lovely Sunday meeting and gospel meeting down south, then headed back to Didsbury where we got stuck in the snow on a back road… Got out without too much hassle, but it was sure a first! J