Apologies for a long overdue Xmas blog from The Rockies... We all had a great Christmas. We stayed at home in the village as did a few other families, so we had some rather jolly festive get togethers! Which was nice! The children were more than pleased with what Father Christmas left for them - Bob the Builder sit and ride digger for Charlie, a princess castle for Olivia & Ski's, boots and poles for Ben amongst alot of other things. We couldn't have gone away for Christmas even if we wanted to without hiring a 10ft trailer! So here we are at last in The Rockies...again, staying in a great hotel called The Windtower in Canmore. We have a self contained condo which is just what we need and use of the outdoor hot tub which is great! Seems a very odd thing to do when it's at least -9 outside, but once you are in it you can see why they are so popular. It's kept at around 40 degrees and being the sensible one, I kept my hair dry, where as Leigh and the kids got theirs wet so it froze to thier heads! With all the steam it's not a problem - as Ben pointed out it's like were in are a giant saucepan of people soup! Leigh and Ben have been skiing together already and today we went in another outdoor spa in Banff which is a natural hot spring a fair way up Sulphur Mountain. Tomorrow Olivia & Charlie are going into day care and Leigh, Ben and I are skiing together for the day at Sunshine Valley. I shall make sure I dont make a wrong turn at the top and come down a double diamond black run! I'm sure the boys wouldn't mind that! I have a few reservations though! We have a sleigh ride booked around Lake Louise for New Years Eve which will be a real treat. Sorry you haven't been able to see the sledging videos from my last blog - I keep trying but there seems to be a problem with the web page. I'll blog again at New Year. Hope you all had a great Christmas & have a great New Year x

Another great week! Ben & I have had such great fun skiing...obviously we have been singled out for the next winter Olympics! Well perhaps not me...but Ben was brilliant and whizzed past me a few times on the ski hills! Whilst I was working on my technique (zig zagging slowly down the mountain) Ben just pointed his ski's down the hill and went for it! No fear..I'm so envious! I couldn't even get off the ski lift without falling on my arse! Anyway,enough of that! Olivia & Charlie are great. Olivia has had her school nativity...sadly I missed it as I was skiing but Daddy went and was ever the tearful father. Friday evening we had the Mess Christmas party which was great fun. Scottish dancing (bizzarly!) and lots of carol singing...and drinking.. So as not to let the English down, we were there until the very end! This weekend we went sledging at Kin Coulee park (near Medicine Hat - hopefully you will see the footage below) - it was a great family day and the kids had such fun hurtling down the big hill. And being the biff that I am, I managed to get taken out by a teenage snowboarder (ouch!) Hillarious!. So, a pretty chilled week ahead. Kids at school and Leigh on leave (though he he went to work today)..Ben's Xmas concert tomorrow though Leigh won't be there as he is playing Ice Hockey at the Med Hat Arena v the Ex-pat's. Not many beers after the game then!...

Back from another weekend in The Rockies... It looks even more beautiful there now with lots of snow everywhere. We went back up the Banff Gondola (cable car) to the top of Sulphur Mountain and looked down over a very white Banff with it's frozen river - so pretty and so very cold! We also went back to Lake Louise to see the now frozen lake. Absolutely stunning - there was even a game of ice hockey happening on part of the lake! At -20 (plus windchill) we didn't stay there long though - infact we had a real 'National Lampoons' family moment where we walked the short distance from the car to the lake, paused slightly to take in the scenery and then very quickly walked back to the car! It was sooo cold, it's hard to describe! I don't think the kids were particularly chuffed either! So after a spot of indoor ice skating we went back to the condo with it's lovely real fire to thaw out! Everyone is well apart from the usual seasonal colds. Ben and I are off on a 3 day skiing course starting on Weds so we have been busy kitting ourselves out for that. Sadly Olivia & charlie are too young to come with us on this course, though don't think they are bothered! So Leigh will temporarily become CIC Home Command! The good news is that the weather forecast predicts it should not drop below -10! Positively balmy! I shall let you know how we get on...

Back from a long weekend in Calgary which was great fun and very cold! It snowed alot and the temperature did not get above -16, but as that is the norm in Canada everything was business as usual. We went up the Calgary Tower which apparently is the highest tourist viewing tower above sea level in the world which has fantastic views across Calgary. Part of the floor at the top of the tower is glass which was very wierd to stand on! We also went to the Science Museum which was full of interactive things for the kids to do, they loved it - infact we got turfed out at 5pm when it closed! We had a good look around the city with all it's impressive sky scrapers, had a look around the shopping malls, and went to the cinema (where Leigh & tried not to stay awake!). Another impressive sight there is the Olympic Village (Winter Olympics '88) which is still open for skiing, tobogganning, and ski jumping - what a shame we didn't have enough time! When you get up close to one of those massive Ski Jumps it makes you reaslise just how crazy those guys are It's huge!....!
Other news, Olivia received a Recognition Award at school last Thurday which was presented to her during assembly for all her hard work and enthusiasm - just another day at school for studious Olivia.
Everyone else is good. Its still very white everywhere. The plan is to go back to The Rockies this weekend so my next blog may be from there...