Snow and mountains

Hi!

Time for some updates. When I came back from my snowboard trip, my host family was still in Arizona so I was home alone! I loved sleeping in without the sound off yelling kids upstairs. After a few days my family came back home and everything went back to normal, at least for a couple of weeks because before we knew it, spring break was there and we were packing our bags to go to Golden. Let’s start with some highlights:

Curling

I went to a curling bonspiel with Blake (Lexie’s brother). I watched curling on tv and it looked interesting. It also looked easy… But it is not. I did the best I could and my team won! (not because of me though!). For everyone that knows me well enough: yes of course my clumsy ass fell on the ice, what did you guys expect?!

skiing

I finished my ski lessons. I’m super grateful for the experience. I gained new friends and a new awesome skill. During our last lesson we threw some beads in the trees at NiteHawk, well… The other girls did, ‘cause apparently I’m better at skiing than at aiming a necklace in a tree, who knew?

I will miss our local ski hill. Last Sunday we went one last time. I took the good old snowboard up and loved the feeling of snowboarding. Guess I just love them both! We also went to watch the Slush cup: a competition in which the competitors try to cross a pond of water with their ski’s or snowboard to try and win a season pass for next year.

Leprechaun traps

So apparently St. Patty’s day is a thing in Canada and the kids all make leprechaun traps. Lexie asked me to make a Leprechaun trap with Barrett. I had to Google what a Leprechaun was…

So the kids all make a trap to try and catch a leprechaun. When they come back the next day the “Leprechauns” (read: teachers) made a big mess in there and they leave the kids some “gold” (read: chocolate coins). For all my Belgian readers: this reminded me of Sinterklaas!

Quads en GT’s

Sometimes I’m jealous at the kids that grow up here on the prairies. One day we spend the whole afternoon riding the quad. The kids have a sled or GT and the quad pulls them across the streets full of snow. I don’t know who had the most fun: the kids on their GT’s or me driving the quad.

Golden

Over spring break we (Lexie, me and all 4 kids) went to visit Lester’s sister in Golden. The drive to Golden is long (8 hours) but SO beautiful. The mountain views you get while driving through Jasper, Banff and Yoho national park are unreal.

The first day the kids enjoyed playing with their cousins (Liam and Reyna) and I enjoyed the mountain views and the sun. On day 2 everyone went skiing. I stayed home with the little ones and we went to the hill a bit later so Barrett could practice his skiing in the magic carpet area.

The next 3 days it was my turn to ski. On Tuesday I had a 2 hour ski lesson from Dennis. He grilled me going down the, steeper than I’m used to, runs in Kicking Horse! A good practice for me. In the afternoon I went skiing with the kids. Liam decided to take us to his secret tree house. The tree house was awesome. The way to the tree house, not so much… It was a tree trail, but since I’m not an experienced skier, it was a crawling trail. Tannis and I had to take our skis off and slide and crawl our way to the tree house.

At the end of the day we took all 6 kids up on the Gondola so even the little ones could experience the top of the mountain.

On Wednesday I had another ski lesson and skied on my own in the afternoon. On Thursday I got spoiled with clear blue skies, a sunny day on the slopes and a visit from one of my favorite Aussies: Abby! We had an awesome day skiing together. The views from the top of the mountain were breath taking and we had lunch and a cocktail at the Eagle’s Eye restaurant on top of the gondola.

The last day in Golden, I explored the little town, played with the kids and met Lester’s parents.

On Saturday it was time to head back home to Grande Prairie. On our way back we did a quick stop at the Athabasca falls to soak in some more mountain views.

I’m going to miss the snow but I’ve packed my bags and I’m ready to leave to go to Palm Springs, California tomorrow to go to the legendary Dinah Shore Festival! I can’t wait!

I’ll be back soon with an update about my first US visit.

Love,

Joke