Lara's Norquay Race, Day One

Lara had her first race day of the season today, at Mount Norquay in Banff.
She really enjoyed it, even if she wasn't going to threaten a podium place. Dan did a bit of skiing too, and his highlight was winning a race against Papa on one of the green runs. I hadn't realised we were racing, I was speeding up to catch up with him, to tell him to slow down, and he took this as a personal slight, and sped up even more to overtake me. I was very concerned this was going to end in a messy way involving the queue of people waiting for the chair lift at the bottom of the run, but Dan put in a rather impressive stop, turned to me and shouted "I won!". That's my boy, but only once I'd forced my heart back down into my chest from my throat area.
Here is a video Olga took of one of Lara's better morning runs, and some photos from the day.

There's more to come on Sunday...

Dan Skis Freely on the Blue Runs

On Tuesday 29th December we took the plunge and took Dan onto a longer chairlift at Nakiska, that means he had to ski a couple of blue runs (next level up from greens) to get back to the lodge at the base. I held him on his reins the whole time, so there is no video from that first day, but Olga snapped a photo:

Then this last weekend we felt the runs were quiet enough in the morning that we'd let him ski down without me holding him, and he did really well. He didn't seem out of control at any point, though the speed he attained at times had Olga a bit worried to say the least!

And here's Dan following Olga rather closely, but always in control!

Dan the Gymnast

Dan goes to a gymnastics session on Mondays while Lara has her swimming and taekwondo lessons, and here he is in December at the last session of term, swinging like a monkey. He didn't understand that he was supposed to swing and then let go - he was holding on for dear life!

He survived the drop and got a certificate from his coaches for his troubles:

Happy New Year

On New Year's Eve we watched Airdrie's firework display from Dan's bedroom, it gave us a perfectly good view without having to put all the coats, hats and gloves on. Thoughtfully they put them on at 6.30pm so all the kids can enjoy them, too.

After that we went to a house party staged by English friends of ours in Airdrie, Steve & Sarah, with their triplets.  Their daughter skates with Lara so we are getting to know them quite well, and we had a great time, only getting home after 3.30am. 

No-one got up until 12.30pm, and even then it was Olga and I who got up first, though Lara claims she was awake at 11am, but we saw no evidence of it.

I had a nice walk back to Steve's house with the dogs to collect the truck before we headed back off to the trailer for another weekend of skiing.

Calgary ZooLights

We went to the zoo on Wednesday evening to see the Calgary ZooLights - like Blackpool Illuminations at -10C. There were a surprising number of adults there without children - whilst the lights are spectacular, most of the other attractions are aimed at kids, and ours loved it. We did come home with a giant, flashing, insulated cup though.