KT and Blair's visit

Karen and Blair were here this weekend for a great visit. We tried to keep plans "low-key" to allow for lots of time to visit, but still managed to head out to Kananaskis for a day at Nakiska, as well as some nice meals together, some girl time, and the highlight, playing with Shandra and Harman's new "toy": PS3's "Rock Band"! We are always so glad to have visitors, and hope that KT and Blair enjoyed their visit as much as we loved having them! We are so looking forward to plans for their upcoming wedding in Toronto in November--Congratulations again on your engagement! Shan, KT and I at the "top" of Nakiska (in Kananaskis)...seems like all of our photos lately are from the ski hill...I guess the day-to-day stuff is not as conducive to photos...



Rob, Dave, Shandra, Karen and Blair

Facebook | Skye Handford's Photos - Wedding

Facebook Skye Handford's Photos - Wedding

Panorama Weekend with the Guelph Crew

We spent this Family Day weekend in Windermere again with the "Guelph Crew": a group of friends (and friends of friends!) from our days at the University of Guelph, who have now made their homes out here in Calgary as well. It was a great weekend, with the weather cooperating for a few days of mild and sunny temperatures, where we were able to enjoy a few days on the ski hill and a great day out on the lake for some pick-up "hockey".
Now that Ontario is also celebrating a "Family Day" long weekend in February, it would be great to be able to celebrate with our families this time of year, but for now we will have to settle for continued opportunities to enjoy the benefits of living so near to the mountains, and celebrating with friends new and old. (I guess that's not really "settling"--we've been pretty lucky!). Here are a few photos from our weekend...
The ski hill at Panorama Mountain Village


Walking up to the hill
Kirsten and Tim traded off so that baby Owen could enjoy the day too...





The whole crew: me, Tim, Andrea & Bruce, Shandra, Dave, Crystal & Marc.





Myles trying some surfing/snowboarding on the lake behind the Matrix...(more successful than I thought it would be!)

Hockey out on the lake in Windermere: unbelieveable surroundings!




Dave is a natural with the kids: like it or not! Here is Keith's son Will giving Dave a hard time...

Dave and I went back to Panorama on Monday, just the 2 of us: NO line-ups! (but somewhat icy/skiied-out conditions)

Here's the "ice highway" across the lake between Invermere and Windermere: a little nerve-wracking at first to get on and off the lake, but a well-travelled road that's pretty neat once you get used to it!

Skating

Another cold weekend of hibernating around the house...We did manage to venture outside briefly for a few minutes of skating at the local rink...

A visit with the Stroms and Wrigglesworths...

We had a brief but great visit with Mel and Lucy Wrigglesworth while they were in Calgary this week. Jody and Ryan Strom came by also with Victoria for some yummy sushi, and Ryan helped Dave to install and fix our new water heater. Mike and Mel are now living in Libya and we are always interested to live vicariously through them: see their blog at http://thewrigs.blogspot.com . We miss them here, but are so glad to see them on their visits. Ryan and Jody are due in a few weeks: a new brother or sister for Victoria, and Mike and Mel are due in April. We look forward to meeting their new little one on their next visit this summer!

Too much snow in Fernie?!

We drove down to Fernie this weekend to enjoy the snow: one of Dave's Christmas presents (from me) was a "CAT"skiing day on the mountain with our friend Marc Binkley. After a very COLD week in Calgary (temperatures -35c for a few days, colder with the wind chill), it was so nice to arrive in Fernie where it was mild (-5c) and snowing pretty much non-stop the whole time we were there! This made for lots and lots of fresh powder for Dave and Marc's ski day, but as you can see from the photos--perhaps almost TOO much snow--it's hard to navigate your way through waist-deep powder, skiis or no skis!
I enjoyed a day on the hill at the resort with Marc's girlfriend Crystal and Shandra and Harman: again, lots of snow everywhere!
We were all pretty tired after yesterday, so only Marc and Dave made it back out on the hill today--a beautiful sunny day as you can see.
I'm off to Edmonton later this week for a work Professional Development opportunity, then we have a quiet weekend planned next weekend. We are heading to Invermere/Panorama the following weekend (Feb 17-19th) for "Family Day" weekend, so should have some nice time on the mountain there too. It is definitely a benefit of living out here that our winter ski weekends seem almost busier than our summer cottage season was back in Ontario! While it's busy, it is nice to actually enjoy and look forward to the colder weather, when there are so many fantastic opportunities to take advantage of the snow!
We will update again with more photos from Dave's CAT skiing--Marc is an aspiring photographer and took lots of great photos. Check out some of his work at: www.marcbinkley.com
The view from our balcony at the condo we rented:

The "CAT"
Dave and Marc
SO much snow!!!