We went skating today at Bowness, which is just down by the river. This is a lagoon that you can boat on in the summer and freezes over in the winter. It was just lovely to be able to skate outside on a frozen pond on Christmas Eve with Christmas music playing in the background. They even had fires, in concrete drums, on the ice for you to warm your hands (and bum). Just perfect! View some more photos - click here
Every year leading up to Christmas The Calgary Zoo create Zoo Lights, where they employ Clark Griswold to blitz the whole Zoo in lights. They have lots of fires going around the park and activities for the kids. For more pictures click here
Yesterday we went to the Hitmen game at the Saddledome because it was their annual charity event, the Teddy Bear Toss. The Calgary Hitmen are our local ice hockey team playing in the Western Hockey League (WHL). They are lucky because they get to play in the same stadium as our NHL team, The Calgary Flames. At this event you take a teddy bear to throw on to the ice when the Hitmen score. When you consider there were some 16,000 people in attendance for the event and when the Hitmen finally scored in the 2nd period, it was incredible to see all the bears being thrown from everywhere in the stadium to eventually find the ice. It took about half an hour for them to clear the ice of bears so the game could continue. Click here for some more pictures.
The snow is finally back and thankfully I managed to get the lights on the house before it arrived. Didn't fancy getting up on the roof with snow on it!!
As the Olympic torch makes its way across Canada, kids have been given the opportunity to see and hold a torch that will be used at some stage in the relay. The Olympic torch officially comes through Calgary on January 19th. Sophie’s teacher took pictures of all the kids holding the torch and then emailed it to them. Pretty cool!!
This weekend I set about re-newing our deck. There were quite a few rotten joists and boards and the main beam needed to be replaced. It was a big job but I had lots of help from the kids and friends and managed to complete the job late last night as planned. View the construction pictures click here
Today I played golf with Nick and 2 of his friends at Kananaskis Country Golf Course in the mountains. The weather was beautiful, scenery was spectacular and golf indifferent. We all had a great day. Have a look at more of the pictures click here
Last weekend we had our first ever family camping trip. We found a nice site, called Elkwood Campground, deep in the mountains in Kananaskis and pitched our 222 sq ft tent. We arrived on Friday lunchtime, as we were concerned about getting a spot. We needn't have worried.
Today was Derek and Diana's last day so we decided to go whitewater rafting. We had such a good time rafting on the Kananaskis River, which was classed at 2 & 3. This meant that Sophie and Lewis could go too, so the whole family could have some fun together. Class 3 states that you will get wet! And we did. But we didn't care as it was a beautiful day with the temperature reaching 30 degrees C (around 84 F) and we were all kitted out with the correct gear, so the cold glacial water was very refreshing indeed. I have uploaded some more pictures - click here.
We have had a great time so far, and have been made very comfortable. We have had a couple of short holidays in the Rockies, at Lake Louise and Jasper.
Here's a photo of Sophie as "Molly" for her dance school show. They did an "Annie" tribute. Although not truly cast (there were no other parts given out) Sophie was! She had to speak a few lines & do some of the parts where molly pretends to be "Miss Hannigen." It was great fun!
What can I say, we woke up this morning to a little dusting of snow! But it's June, I hear you cry!! The weather had actually started to warm up and we have recently had days of 24 degrees, so it was a bit of a shock to wake up to this snow. This little guy attracted some attention outside our local Starbucks.
Today was the last day of Spring break so Ali and I took the kids to Nakiska in Kananaskis, which is about an hours drive away towards Banff. Unfortunately Becky and Nick had to work, so it was up to Ali and I to sacrifice our day and take the kids skiing and snowboarding. We all had a great day, which was rounded off with Nick, Ali, Becky and I going out to the local Italian restaurant for a lovely meal without children! Check out a few more photos of Nakiska here
Today was my 40th birthday. The day started with tea in bed made by Sophie and in the afternoon we all went to the cinema to see Race to Witch Mountain - a good family movie. We then went to Tony Roma's for dinner. We finished the day with my ice cream birthday cake. Here's to the next 40 years!!
Sophie got her TYC gear the other day. We are sure looking forward to the Calgary Stampede!
We made an offer today on the above house and it was accepted :-) We take possession on March 2nd. If anyone would like to pop over to help us move that would be great!! Here are some more pictures of our new house here
Yesterday we made it to Canada Olympic Park, which is only 15 minutes from home, for our first ski/snowboard lessons since arriving in Calgary. Sophie decided to do skiing and the boys and I did snowboarding. Becky decided not to ski because of her dodgy knee, so she took loads of pictures instead. After our one and a half hour lesson we decided to continue and did another 3 or 4 runs from the top of the slop. We all had a blast! Everything was going really well until the final run when a skier decided to use me to stop. I felt like I had been hit by a train, but after the medics had checked me out I continued to the bottom of the slop. I now have some nice bruises and a rather painful back!! But we all can't wait to go again. Have a look at the pictures from the day, click here
Well, we started the year in the UK and ended it in Canada. What a year!
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