Wednesday 16 January 2008

13/01/2008 - 24/01/2008 Kaleden, Apex

13/01/2008 - Tonight we went to Bobbie and Brant's for yet another fabulous dinner (yep all 13 of us plus Lisa, May and Buck (the dog)). Bobbie certainly is a glutton for punishment.






14/01/2008 - It was the last chance for the Eames's to have one more day at Apex - unfortunately Simmy and Cassidy weren't feeling to well so they decided to stay at home, so it was just Tony, Jesse, Maddie, Billy, Lou, Matt and I that hit the slopes. Jesse was in such a rush to beat us all down the mountain that he took off down a black run all by himself, unfortunately we didn't know which way he had gone. It took us a while and a bit of hunting but we finally found him safe and sound he was heading down to the quad chair. I had a look at the run that he had come down (after talking to him we found out he came down on his bottom) and it's not a run that I'm keen to give a go.

15/01/2008 - It was a sad day. The Eames's packed up, we loaded the cars (Yes two cars were required) and headed off to the bus stop. I'm not sure how they are going to manage with all their luggage, they are certainly leaving with a lot more than what they came with, Simmy has definitely spent all her Christmas money. It was really hard to say good bye to them all not knowing when we will see them next - I cried. It's going to be just as sad tomorrow when Luke, Dom and Karls leave. Thank goodness that we have Louie and Matt for another few weeks. We all headed up to Apex for the day - unfortunately it was to be a short day for a few of us - to top Karleighs holiday off (she has been sick pretty for much of her holiday) she listened to Dom and Luke (who sent her over first) to do a boarding jump and when she landed she hyper-extended her left arm. So Dom boarded down to the liftees who promptly sent up a snow-mobile for her and Luke. Karls, Dave, Louie and I then headed off to the hospital whilst the 3 boys Luke, Dom and Matt stayed up the mountain. The good news from the hospital was - no broken bones. We then bought Karls home and got her all settled and went and picked the boys up from the mountain.


Luke managed to hit his first 180 jump..Check out the video .



16/01/2008 - We loaded up the car with all of Luke's, Dom's and Karls's luggage and headed off to Kelowna airport. As usual it wasn't long before Dom and Luke were having a little nap. Being as organised as these 3 are they weren't even sure which air line they were on it was one of two, yep they picked the wrong one. We arrived at the new check-in counter and when they were weighing in the luggage Luke was the one who was over weight - Karleigh had already successfully put her luggage through. So Luke and Dom were madly trying to rearrange the luggage. Luke finally got his bag at under the allowed weight and then it was Dom's turn and yes he was also over weight, I don't think the check-in gentleman wanted to go through the same ordeal again - he let Dom's go through. Once again it was very sad to say goodbye.

17/01/2008 - Today the 4 of us headed up to Mt Baldy - a small mountain 1 hours drive from home. We arrived around 11:30am and it was really windy so we decided to go in for a quick bite to eat before we headed on up. Once we got out on the slopes we had a lot of fun and we will be back for another Powder Thursday.

18/01/2008 - This morning Louise, Matt and I all headed off to the shops for what I thought was a bit of grocery shopping - but it turned out that Matt and Louise also wanted to purchase a few articles of clothing etc... so after about 4 hours of shopping (which everyone knows how much I love shopping) so by the time we arrived home - the Lyon family had arrived i.e. Bill, Teena, Jaimie, Ashleigh, Jakob and little Emmellie, so once again the house is the way it should be (filled with laughter and chatter).

19/01/2008 - After the Lyon's 5 week crazy holiday (they've been to Vancouver, Silver Star, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon and finally Kaleden) they decided that a day relaxing at home was just what the doctor ordered, so most of us had a nice day at home catching up and just relaxing. Whilst Matt decided to head up the mountain (via the Tim Horton Bus), so I dropped Matt of at the Bus Stop where there were about 15 children all waiting - at least you could pick Matt out easily - he was at least a foot and a half taller than anyone else on the bus. In the evening we all packed up and went to watch the Vees play against the Alberni Valley Bulldogs in which ended up being a very disappointing game. The Valley Bulldogs are running last in the Coastal Conference and the Vees are running first in the Interior Section and we lost.

20/01/2008 - After reading on the Apex site that they had received 19 cms of new snow and it was still snowing Matt, Louise, Dave and I decided to head up the mountain, the Lyons were intending to follow but unfortunately Jakob fell ill, so they decided to take it easy and stay at home. Well what a day the powder was over our knees, there was hardly anyone on the slope so it was a powder powder day. Just a sensational day. So after a lot of fun and a lot of hard work we headed home to a lovely roast beef meal prepared by the Lyon family.

21/01/2008 - Today the Lyons family finally made it up to the slopes the sun was shinning brightly and the temperature was a nice sultry -19 degrees without the windchill. Jakob was feeling a wee bit cold (freezing) so Bill decided to take him back to Teena. After a few more runs the rest of us headed in for a nice hot coffee or hot chocolate. Unknown to us Bill had headed back out to try and find the rest of us, so after our drinks the rest of us headed back out to find Bill who was no where to be found (we think he headed to the nearest bar to sit back and relax child free and pretend he had been skiing all day).

22/01/2008 - Another brilliant day up the mountain for Matt, Lou Dave and myself, no more snow but the sun was shining brightly not as cold as yesterday though only 17 degrees Since Luke has left Dave has decided that he needs a new (faster board) so he has tried out two boards and today he decided to buy a new board (look out Luke he thinks you will have a challenge on - my money's on you).






23/01/2008 - Yet again another brilliant day up the mountain, it's starting to warm up a bit -15 degrees. Half the Lyon family managed to make it back up the mountain, Bill, Jakob and Jaimie. Bill decided to spend the day skiing with the group and it was obvious he hadn't paid attention to his lessons. (He managed to make good friends with a tree...Who would have thought Bill was a tree hugger....)

24/01/2008 - Today Lou and Matt headed off to Banff to catch-up with a few friends and celebrate Australia Day in style. After we dropped them off at the airport we decided to have a look at a few RV's - we now know what we don't want (okay what we want but can't afford and also what Dave feels comfortable driving around). As it was the Lyon's last night we all went out for a lovely dinner at Earl's.

Sunday 13 January 2008

29/12/2007 - 12/01/2008 Kaleden, Apex, Big White

Yet again it's been a while since I've been able to get to the Laptop with all the people in the house, so I'm not going to try and recall everything and try to write everything in date order.


The Elford kids and co all went to Whistler on the 28 Dec until 5 January - they tell us they all had a fantastic time and from the photos it sure looks like they had a great night life. I have heard that a number of lift passes were not used - I don't even think Ashley got onto the slopes at all, but I did hear that she made one Gondola trip for sightseeing.


The Eames's didn't end up making the trip to Banff as Tony had to get root canal surgery, so their friends from Calgary (2 Adults and 3 children - one a Korean exchange student) came to Kaleden and stayed with us for 3 nights.


I must admit the Eames's have certainly made a great snowman and a great snow woman since they've been here - even though Dave and I think that by adding water to the snow it's cheating, but they are claiming victory in the snowman competition.





We have had plenty of snow over the last week with one day receiving up 30cm. Lisa and myself were the only two to take advantage of the fresh powder. (The rest of the crew were too sick, too tired, too hung over.........dhh,dhh,dhh...) The fresh powder is certainly what we came to Canada for. Lots of snow also means that we have plenty of snow to shovel off the driveway. (The price you have to pay for good skiing....)

Tony and Dave both had a go at skiing for a day. For Tony it looked like he had never been off them and he had a great time - so great that he was even looking at buying a set of skis. I wish I could say the same about Dave. The Big Fella looked like a complete Gumby - which I found hilarious as he used to be such a great skier, his comment was once I can't Snow Board anymore I'll be playing golf.

09/01/2008 - 11/01/2008 - We all headed up to Big White for 2 nights all 13 of us (9 adults and 4 children) all with snowboards or skis and luggage in two cars, so as you could imagine there was no spare room anywhere. Big White looks just like all the postcards and was true to form - the first day of skiing / snowboarding you could hardly see two feet in front of you and there was powder everywhere. The Elford's all did a mountain tour with a volunteer host on the first day. He decided to show us a lot of the runs that went through the trees and that had powder up to my chest - so if you fell over it was quite a huge effort to get back up (okay not for all of us).



The 2nd night we were there, Tony, Luke, Dom, Matt, Simmy and I all headed out to Sams Pub. They had these races where you had to ride a tricycle to a barrel and skull a pot of beer, well Matt got us off to a great start, I somehow managed to out skull my opponent (so we are in front)and then it was Luke's turn - well Luke was a bit eager and rode his tricycle into the barrel spilling half his beer the other half seemed to end up down his shirt rather than his mouth, Dom took over and we finished the race in first place - but we were disqualified. We left the tricycle race in disgust and went and played some pool. The stories you hear about Big White having more Australians there than Canadians is true, the first night the boys went out they didn't meet one Canadian. We all had a fantastic time at Big White and it was a shame to have to leave.


12/01/2008 - Today Dave, Luke, Dom and Matt all went up to Apex, whilst the rest of us stayed home and caught up on a few things that we needed to do - yep mine was the Blog Site - it's now 10:45pm and I'm still going on the Blog. Dave's nephew Jono and his girlfriend Jill arrived today they are just staying the one night. So all 15 of us headed off to the Ice Hockey to watch the Vees beat the Westside Warriors. We dropped Louise, Matt, Dom, Luke, Jono and Jill all off to the casino - yes few of you will find it hard to believe that I came home, but it's true.
It's been really great to have all the family here with us, unfortunately the majority will be heading home on Tuesday and Wednesday, we will miss them all. Louise and Matt are here for another 4 weeks.