Third-Year Boarding

We're winding up our third year of skiing (Otto and the boys) and snowboarding (me). If we hadn't moved up here, I'm 98% sure I never would have tried this sport. When we lived in Victoria, TX, many of our friends would go on an annual ski trip. Otto always wanted to go, and I always resisted. Vehemently. Feelings of "NO WAY!!" stemming from a bad ski experience in high school, where a group of us took a half day lesson, in jeans. I wiped out pretty good that day, skis and poles stuck in the snow so steadfastly that I couldn't free myself and required the help of others. A wipe-out that, I believe, contributed to me needing knee surgery a few months later.

(Photo creds: Otto and his iPhone.)


Fast forward twenty years. We move to Red Deer, a mere two hours from the Canadian Rockies, and some of the world's most AWESOME skiing. Otto still desperately wants to ski, and informs me that I can stay home if I want, but he's going to learn. Well, I didn't want to sit around the house while he was out having fun!

Still VERY leery of skis, I decided snowboarding may be the thing to try. My knees would be locked in one direction. Not as much stress, so went my logic, as if they were free to go opposite ways with me desperately trying to convince them to stay together.

If you had told me 10 years ago that I'd be barreling down a snow-covered mountain on a snowboard at some point in the future (in an upright position, no less), I'd have laughed. There have been countless falls, a bruised if not cracked tail bone - multiple times, and frustration. I'm pretty sure it has taken me longer to get to this point than it would have taken most people. But now I can attack a blue run, even with packed conditions. (Not icy conditions, but packed. And no black runs yet; we'll save that for next year.) I'm proud of myself. And I'm proud of Otto and Andy and Sam. They love skiing.


It was ridiculously cold again this weekend in Red Deer, and had we stayed in town, we would have been inside the whole weekend. Curiously, it was warmer at the ski hill in the mountains. We enjoyed fresh air and exercised our bodies for three days straight, versus getting agitated with one another from being cooped-up.

At some point, as I was resting on the side of the slope and taking in the view, I realized it was Sunday. Not a bad way to appreciate the beauty of the Earth and to give thanks.


I guess I'll file this under nothing ventured, nothing gained. And hopefully we'll get a few more runs in before the snow melts.

Ski Trip

We went to Banff and went skiing at Sunshine for two days this week. It was pretty crowded, but there was lots of fluffy snow, and it wasn't too cold.


Andy and Sam took a lesson the first day, and Sam was very excited that his instructor said he should get some poles to start getting a feel for them. So the day after this picture was taken, he had poles, too.
Me taking a rest at the bottom of Strawberry.

This was at the top of Goat's Eye. I had never been on this run before; it was pretty good, but at the top there was limited visibility, and it was deceivingly fast. It was blowing snow like crazy! Andy and Otto went the second day, and apparently conditions had deteriorated at the top from the day before. Sam and I went on some easier runs while they went on Goat's Eye.

On the gondola on the way back down after a LONG day of skiing. The second day we left a couple hours earlier. I think the first day we were super-excited because it was our first trip of the season. The second day we were a little sore. :o)

After dinner one night. It snowed the whole time we were there!

You can see more of the lights in the background without the flash, but you can't see the snowflakes!


Sam checking out a grizzly bear ice sculpture by The Wildflour Bakery yesterday morning before we left.

The drive home.

This n' that

I haven't been very good about posting to the blog lately. I think now that we've been here a year, things aren't so 'new' anymore, and don't seem as 'new'sworthy.

Sam and I made some zucchini muffins a few weeks ago. Here he is grating the zucchini.


And mixing the batter. They were very tasty - I think the lemon zest in the recipe made them particularly good.

One evening Andy was doing his reading for school. I think Sam was waiting for him to finish so they could go play.... and fell asleep.


Andy helping me stir polenta for dinner one evening - very carefully!


Working on a word search one afternoon.


I took the boys for our first ice skating outing this (almost) winter a couple Sundays ago. Here they are posing with the gear.


Andy got his skating legs back fairly quickly.


Sam was still struggling a bit even at the end of last season, so we had a few of these moments:


But then he started enjoying himself.

And we went for our first ski trip of the season to Sunshine near Banff this past weekend. I didn't take the camera to the slopes, but the conditions were GREAT! (Unusual for this early in the ski season.) We all had a fun time. Here we are out on Banff Avenue after dinner.


The boys wanted their picture taken on this bench made of snowboards. First shot - Andy looking at the passer-byers.One more try...

More skiing, sledding, and losing teeth.

We checked out a new ski spot on Friday - Nakiska. It's between Calgary and Banff on HWY 1, and one of the great things about it is that it's close enough that we can drive over for the day. It was very nice, and back when Calgary hosted the Olympics, apparently a few of the events were held at this location. I still prefer Marmot Basin in Jasper where we went a few weekends ago, but that's several more hours away.

Here I am watching Andy and Sam on their magic carpet ride to the top of the bunny hill for a few warm-up runs before we hit the chair lift (there aren't any T-bars at Nakiska).


Here's Andy on the Bronze chair lift as we went up on our second run.

And here are Sam and Otto on the chair behind us.

And we all took the Silver high-speed quad chair up a few times. This one is nice because it goes really slowly when you're getting on and off, but zooms up the mountain once it gets going.

After a few runs down the mountain, Sam decided he wanted to head back to the bunny hill, so while I watched him I took a picture of my snazzy new snowboard pants for your viewing pleasure.
We made it home around 9pm after stopping in Calgary for dinner. Our first time eating at Swiss Chalet. Kind of like Denny's.

In other news, Andy lost his second tooth!

This tooth was was hardly loose at all. Apparently there was some type of run-in with the wall that precipitated the early loss. I'm still not real clear on the details, and he wasn't talking much. I think it was one of those, "Hmmm, let's see what happens if I do this" moments. He was fairly shaken when he came down and handed me the tooth with a huge wad of toilet paper in his mouth and tears streaming down his face. I asked if it hurt, and he said no. I think the tears were from fear that the tooth that he just knocked out was to act as a guide for the adult tooth coming in next to it. Once I assured him that it didn't matter that the tooth fell out, he felt much better. But I don't think he'll be banging his teeth against the wall again (or whatever it was that happened)!

And I took the boys sledding today while Otto worked on some tax stuff. I'm still not clear if I'm supposed to call it tobogganing or not. I hear it both ways, so I think I'll stick with sledding. We went to our neighborhood pond where there is a decent hill to sled down. Here the boys are going down over a jump someone made in the snow.

Valentine's Day 2009

We celebrated Valentine's Day this year by heading to our local Canyon Ski Hill for a fun day in the (VERY!) fresh air. Before we headed out, we exchanged a few cards.

On the way to the hill (about 15 minuted from our house), we came across an isolated area of trees covered in hoar frost. You can't see it very well in this picture; it's far more beautiful. You can see some more spectacular pictures of hoar frost here.


I also took a shot of our frozen Red Deer River. Again, not as pretty as it was in person.


I found this area much trickier to snowboard in because the snow was pretty packed down. I guess I was spoiled by all the fresh snow we got at Marmot Basin in the mountains last weekend. But Andy and Sam did great!

Here's some footage of Sam coming down the hill. Sam went up the tow rope here and came down so many times that he was complaining of sore leg muscles this morning. But he was sure having fun at the time!



And Andy.




Sam went up on the T-bar with Otto a couple times to come down a green run, and Andy even went on the chair lift twice and came down with Otto on the blue run very well. I, on the other had, went up on the chair lift, made a wrong turn and ended up on the blue run, looked down at how steep is was and decided it would be safer for me and anyone in the near vicinity if I went down most of the way on my butt.

We ended the evening by going out to dinner at Moxie's, and I stayed up until midnight watching "Pretty in Pink", which I somehow had missed back in the 80s! Andrew McCarthy was always by favorite out of the Brat Pack. And I no idea James Spader was in that movie.


Happy Valentine's Day!

Weekend Getaway

We took a trip over to the mountains this past weekend, primarily to learn to ski and snowboard at Sunshine Ski Village. I have no action shots, as we were all in our respective lessons at the same time, and weren't anywhere near each other. I would have taken a self portrait, but I was too busy trying to keep from wiping out. Andy and Sam really enjoyed the program they were in, and Otto has so much fun he started trying to figure out when we could go back before we even returned home. I actually enjoyed myself, too. I far surpassed the expectations I had about what I might accomplish in one lesson. That's not to say I don't need a few more lessons; I think I had a little thought in the back of my head that I wouldn't get it, at all, ever.

Here the boys were after we picked them up from their lessons. Going down on the gondola.
Sam was wiped out! And on the way back to the hotel, they both took a snooze.
The next day we stopped by the Banff Springs Hotel to see all the pretty decorations, and to walk around a little because we had never been inside before.
This was a candy/food replica of the hotel. Pretty cool. The boys just wanted to eat it. We found some snowy areas in the back of the hotel to run around in. After working up an appetite we and had lunch at Magpie&Stump. I had eaten here many years ago. I like the food, and they play groovy music - Coldplay and Crowded House's live album while we were there. Sippin' on a Coke. We've cut back on soda consumption around here, so I think they were both savoring their beverages. We strolled a little more up and down Banff avenue after lunch. Here were some ice sculptures advertising the annual ice sculpture event they have at Lake Louise. And here was a parting shot of the mountains from the front seat of the car as we rolled out of town. Otto already found a way to go back. Some fellas from work are driving over for the day on Friday to ski and invited him along. He's ready! My tailbone, on the other hand, needs a little more recuperation time.