The weekend was nice, Lara is nearly fully fit now, the physio hasn't quite released her to full action, but she's out of her protective "boot" completely now, and wears just a normal, soft, ankle support for taekwondo and school. On Saturday morning she returned to dryland ski training, where a bunch of the kids do exercises for 90 minutes in a sports hall, all related to improving their physical condition for skiing. After that we bought her a new helmet for skiing, one that's hard plastic all over, as opposed to a normal ski helmet, which has soft bits over the ears to make it more comfortable, I presume. This "full-shell" helmet is a requirement for the 4 races she will enter this winter, and we'll not put kids' stickers all over this one! It's red, rather than pink, so it can be handed down to Dan as well, given it was rather expensive!
After that we went out to the trailer, and a little hike up a valley by a babbling stream. There was some snow on the ground so the kids practised snow-ball throwing, Dan is definitely a lefty. A dog walker we passed told us she'd just seen an elk on the other side of the river, but we missed it.
There was enough to build their first snowman, but they had as much fun knocking him down a couple of hours later - Lara practising her taekwondo on it!
Whilst walking the dogs on Saturday night, I was struck by their shadows as I walked them in torchlight and couldn't resist trying to take a photo:
On Sunday we picked up our ski lift passes from Nakiska, and had a look around, so the kids could see how it looks when there isn't much snow around. Those slopes look different when you can see the grass, I would think twice about walking up or down some of them, but I have no problem skiing down them.
Then I took the kids and dogs down to the river for a bit of adventuring while Olga cleaned up the trailer - Nakiska is due to open on Wednesday, and then on weekends for the rest of November, so if there is any good snowfall in the next few weeks, we might well be skiing at the weekends, so it's important to get the housekeeping tasks done now while there's time!
Yesterday was a full-on sports day once the kids were home from school/nursery: Dan had skating then gymnastics, and at the same time Lara had a swimming lesson then her taekwondo. It's just as well the main sports centre where three of those activities happen is only a nice, 15 minute walk away around the lake.
After her lesson Lara took great pleasure in demonstrating some self-defense techniques on me, she really does know where to pinch my arm to tweak the nerve!
Today Lara's school had their Remembrance Day service, as 11th November is a public holiday here. Lara was singing as part of their Senior Choir, and it was an outdoor service, which in temperatures around 0 degrees, was quite a brave thing for them to do.
Today is a relatively quiet one, with only Lara's skating to deal with after school..
After that we went out to the trailer, and a little hike up a valley by a babbling stream. There was some snow on the ground so the kids practised snow-ball throwing, Dan is definitely a lefty. A dog walker we passed told us she'd just seen an elk on the other side of the river, but we missed it.
There was enough to build their first snowman, but they had as much fun knocking him down a couple of hours later - Lara practising her taekwondo on it!
Whilst walking the dogs on Saturday night, I was struck by their shadows as I walked them in torchlight and couldn't resist trying to take a photo:
On Sunday we picked up our ski lift passes from Nakiska, and had a look around, so the kids could see how it looks when there isn't much snow around. Those slopes look different when you can see the grass, I would think twice about walking up or down some of them, but I have no problem skiing down them.
Then I took the kids and dogs down to the river for a bit of adventuring while Olga cleaned up the trailer - Nakiska is due to open on Wednesday, and then on weekends for the rest of November, so if there is any good snowfall in the next few weeks, we might well be skiing at the weekends, so it's important to get the housekeeping tasks done now while there's time!
Yesterday was a full-on sports day once the kids were home from school/nursery: Dan had skating then gymnastics, and at the same time Lara had a swimming lesson then her taekwondo. It's just as well the main sports centre where three of those activities happen is only a nice, 15 minute walk away around the lake.
After her lesson Lara took great pleasure in demonstrating some self-defense techniques on me, she really does know where to pinch my arm to tweak the nerve!
Today Lara's school had their Remembrance Day service, as 11th November is a public holiday here. Lara was singing as part of their Senior Choir, and it was an outdoor service, which in temperatures around 0 degrees, was quite a brave thing for them to do.
Today is a relatively quiet one, with only Lara's skating to deal with after school..
