Chairlift Exiting - TICK

-10* with windchill of -17* but with bright bright sunshine. So what does a family of four do on a Sunday when the sun is shining and the slopes are just a twenty minute drive away. We go snowboarding of course. Obviously this takes us all morning to get our gear together, have breakfast, think about what clothes to wear and which gloves to take and pack the car.

When we arrived, the car park was full as all the lessons have started now. Smallest forgot his helmet and goggles even though Huffle had very kindly sorted everything out for us before we left. We ummed and ahhed about whether to rent him a helmet but as we were only down the road, I decided to drive back and get them while Huffle queued for lift tickets. Eventually I was back with everyone for about 12:30. Tickets weren't bought as Huffle wanted to get Smallest a lesson and they were only available at 2:30pm. We decided that was fine and went off to the magic carpet to warm up. After about three goes, we chose to go up the chairlift (the smallest one). Small came with me and we were both dreading the lift as we weren't keen and although Small was confident of getting off, I was scared I would fall over at the end again. Small got off well and glided away whereas I fell in a splat and scrabbled on my knees to stop myself being hit by the chair. We watched Smallest and Huffle get off and Smallest did really well and then landed in a heap but he was fine and wanted to do it again as soon as we boarded down the hill.

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Huffle was really good with Smallest and guided him down the hill safely. Small and I zig zagged our way down the hill. At the bottom we did it again and after my third go I managed it. In fact we all did it. Wahooo. We were so pleased with ourselves and even the man at the bottom of the lift commented. We went up and down a few more times and half an hour before Smallest's lesson, me and him went in and got ourselves a hot chocolate and a coffee and a warm. When he started his lesson (just him and another boy) Huffle, Small and I attempted the bigger lifts. Small and I fell down the first time but after that we managed to stay up and had great runs coming down.

Middle Left: a bit of photo trickery with two Small's.

After an hour of lifts and runs we finally joined up with a tired little boy who wanted to go up the lift again. We took him up and he decided he wanted to go down a different way, despite the fact that Huffle told him not to. He fell and hurt his bum and gave up and walked down the slope. We decided to call it a day as we only had minutes left before our passes ran out anyway and made our way to the chip shop.

Small's first go on the Terrain Park with Huffle going through the tunnel with three bumps in it!

We are obviously regulars there now as the waitress came up and said "how were the slopes today? Four specials?". All full of food and limbs warmed, we set off back home. Smallest went straight into an Epsom Salt bath to ease his tired limbs and hurt bottom and Huffle followed him when he finished. I sat and blogged and Small played on the IPad.

We had the best snowboarding day ever. All of us going up the lifts and finding new runs and being able to get off the chair lifts was just fabulous. We are so lucky to live so close. Huffle bought a book of tickets for the resort for just $50 to enable us to get 2-1 offers, half prices passes, night passes etc etc and we have already saved so much money. That's amazing. Smallest's instructor said he was doing well but needed to practice his back edging. We thought his back edging was fine but we will practice and practice. Today he said he was so pleased he could do more exciting stuff. I said he never needed to spend hours on the nursery slopes again. He said he would do it all again when he had kids so he could teach them to board too.

 

 

 

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Extreeeeeeeeeme

HB was woken up by Smallest click click clicking his tongue until she woke properly (we're not sure why).  I opened my valentines card and present.  I had a one cup flask for my coffee and a chocolate orange.  NICE.  I hope Huffle likes the stones I picked up on the beach yesterday all heart shaped and his coke glass and Hershey's Cookies and Cream.

HB, Smallest and I decided to go snowboarding today.  HB had a lesson from Smallest in the garden to check that her boots fit the board okay.  

Then we drove to the slope about 15 minutes away.

HB wasn't sure she wanted to board as she is a skier really, but thought she would give it a go.  On her first go she fell about eight times but got up and had another go.

On her second, third, fourth go she only fell over one each.  She was definitely getting better.  She kept going.

Smallest's first go wasn't bad but on his second go he got cross with himself and banged his head back against the slope and gave himself a nose bleed again.  We cleaned him up and sent him down.  He was getting better and better but kept losing his confidence.  At the top of the slope he decided he didn't want to go again and then he would board all the way down by himself, get on the magic carpet to the top, by himself, and then get to the top and decide he didn't want to go down. This happened many times.  

He was brilliant.  A true natural.

Smallest boarding from the top to the bottom, rarely falling over.

 A quick break

 A bit of chocolate

More boarding by himself

 "C'mon Mummy, you come too"

At one point HB went and enquired about hiring skis but they wanted a $400 deposit.  She thought that was a bit much and she decided to carry on with the boarding.

Smallest on the magic carpet.

 Cheese

 Us at the top.

 The end of the session for Smallest and HB - I went up for another couple of go's by myself.

 I had the whole slope to myself 

 Tired, a little bit bruised and hungry

The temperature today was around -1 and it snowed consistently.  We came home, watched half a movie and had lunch.

Smallest had a bath and Grandma skyped him at the same time.  Uncle Grump and Unc Pear Skyped.  They have finally got Skype working at home so Aunt Pear can talk to her baby HB whenever she wants to now - Good Ol' Mother Goose.  Uncle Grump wanted to know who was doing the Uncle Grump wink. He he he he - we forgot to do one today, maybe tomorrow!

Aunt Pear went to her friends M&M's and also Skyped to check on HB.  

HB helped me while I made Meatballs and Veg Balls for dinner.  She's a good little assistant chef.

The boys had their meatballs.  Who is that funny cow creature at the end of my table?  oh it's HB.  She's wild, she's crazy, at least she's not got those awful leggings on today.  She has threatened to wear them when we go to Toronto.   Oh No - she will ruin my photos!

Smallest was clearing away his bowl when he noticed the saucepan made him look funny and long.  I caught him dancing in front of the saucepan.  Strange boy.

Huffle came home with a poorly throat.  HB was going to look after the boys while we went out for Valentines Day but with Huffle not feeling the best and me being tired from boarding, we decided to make it another night instead.  We had dinner while the boys played together.

Small won a prize for dancing today at school at the dance-a-thon.  He was really disappointed because he won a ruler!  I'm proud though.

HB put the boys to bed and read them a story.  We are going to sit down now and watch Cake Boss, oh and maybe eat our valentines presents.  NO NOT THE STONES!

Four Boards and a Suntan

We had a bit of snow fall in the night.  The temperature was about -7.

The icicles hanging from our Barn

We all went out and cleared the drive.  A job well done by everyone.  Much nicer when we all do it and much easier too.
Today we decided to go snowboarding at the local slope which was only 20 minutes away.  How lucky are we?

A little practice before we go up

$20 each got us an all day pass on the nursery slopes with a Magic Carpet lift.  (a travelator up the slope) So no traipsing up the hill carrying our boards which meant we didn't waste time or energy.

Huffle, Smallest and Small

Don't fall over Small!

At first Small took to it instantly and just went off on his own with no trouble.  Smallest had trouble with cold feet and then cold hands and then got all upset because he couldn't do it.  Once I had warmed his feet up and sorted his gloves out we rode the Magic Carpet and Huffle and I took it in turns to snowboard in front of him and guide him.

Go Smallest

He did really well, had no fear and snowboarded brilliantly by himself down half of the slope.  With his confidence up he snowboarded down the slope and loved every minute of it.
We had to compete for space with lots of lessons but it wasn't too busy and the kids loved it.  Huffle and I did too.  We haven't snowboarded for ten years so it was nice to get back to it and we were over the moon the boys liked it too.
We stopped for lunch of baguette and laughing cow (our favourite Saturday lunch while out with nowhere good to eat!).

Snow Lunch

Then we changed to a different slope, still Nursery and we were off.  Small had many more goes than any of us because he just got his board on, snowboarded down and then straight back on the magic carpet and back down again. He had lots of falls and hurt his bottom but it didn't put him off.

Huffle is right at the top

Can you see him coming down

There he is

Smallest got more and more confidence and would have gone down the whole lot on his own if we had let him.  He even went over some of the jumps!

Small on the Magic Carpet

A quick stop for a chocolate break

Huffle on the Magic Carpet

Small on the Magic Carpet

Me and Smallest on the Magic Carpet

US - Top of the slope

We called it a day after about four hours and came home.  We've all got red cheeks and noses!  Have we caught the sun? Or are we snow chafed?

A tired little man

The boys had a hot bath, hot chocolate and then Huffle and Smallest went off to buy chips from the local chippy.

Chip tea with our new friend Baaaarnaby (he kept our tea cosy warm!)

We obviously ended the day with a game of Disney Monopoly.  Oh Huffle won!  And we have caught the sun.  Can you believe it?  A suntan in January in Canada.  He he he he he he.

GOOD DAY

Health, Food and more snow

On our list of things to do today was:  winter tyres for Huffle's car, bank for Credit Cards, Health Cards.  

Huffle took his car to the garage and walked back.  After a leisurely breakfast we went to our local town to get our health cards and stood in line with everyone else, produced all our documents, only to be told we needed to be somewhere else, half an hour away.  We went to the bank to get a credit card.  We have been trying to apply for credit cards since we have been in Canada but they keep declining us because we have no credit history here (good rating in UK but nothing here unfortunately).  So the only way we can get one is to take some money from our account and buy a Visa Gift Card.  Use the Visa as a credit card but only up to the limit we have put by.  Doesn't make an awful lot of sense but it does allow us to get a credit history here, so one day they may allow us a proper grown up credit card.

The boys playing on the IPad whilst waiting for us (Moo's shoes next to them keeping a watchful eye)

Off we went to Newmarket and sorted the cards.  A bit long winded but a friendly helpful person sorted us out.  We should get them in February, in the meantime Huffle's work is sorting us with temporary ones.

We had lunch at the Pickle Barrell.  We had a booth all to ourselves.

Moo and I in our booth 

Huffle and Small doing a wordsearch

Moo had soup and bruschetta shaped like a tee pee!  (the Bruschetta not the soup).

Smallest had bacon and eggs with toast and it looked like a face!

Smallest's cheeky looking dinner

It has been a very foggy day today.  No more snow (after a good sprinkling last night) and quite mild.

Foggy snowy fields

Then we came home and played in the snow.  We sledged, snowballed, snowboarded and ran around like idiots who hadn't seen snow before.

Huffle pulling sledge with the boys on

Looks like they are being nice to each other but that can’t be right - that never happens!

Moo sledging - a bit blurry but I had to add this one - I think I am laughing alot

We got the snowboards out - Huffle and I used to snowboard before the boys were born so we were a bit wary.  Huffle had no problems.  I was a bit shakey but not too bad.  It wasn't much of a slope though.

Smallest's first attempt at snowboarding - not bad, no fear but a tumble at the end

Small's first attempt - good, don't think it will take him long to master it.

Huffle looking thoughtfully into the distance - oh and I managed a bit of a tree too

now, remember I said that Huffle was now Mr Fixit?  Well this is he trying to fix the satellite dish, and yes , that is a snowball in his hand and not a hammer!!

Tired boys dragging the sledge back

Action shot of Smallest being pulled by Huffle - they were going very fast.

Moo waving - I was lying in the snow to get that shot

Ooh another tree.  Lovely

A caring shot of Smallest, looking after the stone duck.  This was on the ground but Moo picked him up cos she thought he might be cold (yes the stone duck!) and Small wanted to cuddle him (almost!).

I skyped LizzieDotDot this evening.  She is looking very well (not at all like someone who has just had a baby).  Both doing well.  Ahhh it was nice to see her and chat just like we used to (only a bit further away!).