Still Spring!

I can hardly believe it has been almost two weeks since my last blog; time is just flying by and at this rate we will be home before we know it! We have had a fairly eventful fortnight, mainly organising our move back to the UK. Almost all of our belongings have gone - the house is pretty bare and all we have to our names are a suitcase each worth of clothes! I am now beginning to think that I was a bit hasty with the packing now though as I've only got 3 pairs of jeans and a few tops to wear for the next 7 or so weeks! The children have got even less I think! Oh well, at least we will be travelling light!

On a more positive note though almost all of the snow in the village has gone and we have been enjoying some real spring-like days with temperatures a few degrees above freezing. Believe me, when you've had had six months of extreme sub zero temperatures, even zero degrees feels really warm! This is Canada though and I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of the snow yet! To quote Billy Connoly "There is no such thing in Canada as bad weather; only the wrong clothes". How true!

The children are all happy and well. Busy with school and their friends. We are all looking forward to the Easter break and are heading up to the Rockies again for what will be the last time during our stay here.

As ever, the disappearing snow means the onset of the Prairie season and Leigh is already working much longer days in preparation. He only has the first two weeks of the first Med Man exercise to do this year though as his successor arrives later this month to take over.

Due to the lack of photos taken since the last blog I am digging up the archive! The top photo is one taken by Leigh during a helicopter flight over the Prairie (as you can see there is not much around!) and the other is of Leigh in his 'TSV' (2nd in I think) during an exercise last year.

Spring is in the air!

Another 10 days has just flown by! We are in the midst of organising our move back to the UK - for anyone that doesn't already know, we are London bound at the end of May, which scarily means that our belongings that we want shipped back to the UK are being collected on Monday! On top of that we are busy trying to sort out the new house, schools, flights, hotels, hire car, new car... the list goes on. It feels like we have only just unpacked!

On a more chirpy note, since my last blog we have managed to squeeze in another
lovely long weekend in the Rockies. When we arrived in Canmore last Thursday, the sun was shining and the temperature was well above freezing... a far cry from the lows of -32 that we had in Ralston earlier in the week. So the Rockies felt positively tropical and we all had that lovely 'holiday' feeling. Happy children + warm sunshine + cold beers & a hot tub = bliss!


Leigh & Ben skied again at Sunshine for a day and were doing Black Diamond runs together - impressive stuff! Olivia, Charlie & I pottered around Canmore taking the more life preserving option of walks by the now thawing river which they spent hours throwing stones into (whilst watching out for Grizzly bears!). We all went to Banff again for a day and it felt a little sad knowing we only have one more weekend planned there before we head back to the UK.


There is a big thaw happening here in Ralston at the moment. There is a buzz of spring in the air and we even have a large patch of grass, albeit dead grass, in the garden! Gophers are being spotted everywhere (a sure sign of spring) although I have only seen squashed ones on the Trans Canadian Highway!

So back to reality; we have a weekend of clearing out and packing planned - I'm not sure that the party we are going to tomorrow night (Friday) is going to assist with those plans! Oh well, there is always Sunday I guess!

Mostly skiing

The main event this week has been getting Olivia and Charlie on skis. We went to a place called Hidden Valley in the Cypress hills which is about an hour and half drive from here and is only about 80k from the US border.

The great thing with Ben now is that we can just get him a ski lift pass and he's off for the day; we don't see him again until he's hungry! (It's funny how Ben has gone from a child who ate hardly anything to one who is always planning his next meal!)

Olivia was first up for a skiing lesson and she did really well, dear of her! She got the hang of it pretty quickly and had a fair few goes down the bunny slope. Like her Mamma though, she is just as happy doing Snow Angels at the bottom of the hill!



Next up was Charlie who just couldn't wait to get his skis on and get going! At just 3 years old he did amazingly well and loved every minute. Everytime he got to the bottom of the slope he shuffled himself back over to the hand lift telling the instructor "5 more goes"! There is definately something daredevil about those Tingey boys!




And finally... Ben who I spotted from the comfort of the ski lodge bar....

Ex Frosty Frolics

I'm back and just about recovered from the annual wives winter exercise; Ex Frosty Frolics! (Phew!) On Friday 40 of us girls were bussed up to Trails End Camp in the Rockies for an action packed weekend of Snow Shoeing, Dog Sledding, Quad Biking and Ice Climbing. What fun! Trails End Camp is the Army Adventurous Training base up in the
Rockies and true to it's title it is rather remote with camp style accommodation, dormitories and bunk beds! Luckily we were able to spread out and each had a lower bunk (I'm sure you can imagine the giggling!).

After arriving on Friday evening & being issued our kit we all went out for a curry in 'near by' Cochran. Despite the distance and the late hour, a curry is always a welcome treat! We were all quite sensible though as our day was starting at 6am the next morning. My groups first activity was Snow Shoeing and I had visions of strapping tennis bats to my feet! Technology has advanced though and we strapped these rather fetching flipper type things to our shoes and went on a 3km stroll
through trees & the open with the mountains for a stunning back-drop. And unlike others in my group (Gill!) I managed to stay upright - it was great fun!

Our next activity was Dog Sledding which is something I have wanted to do since we arrived in Canada - and I wasn't disappointed. Julie & I 'drove' our sled whilst we were pulled along by 8 dogs. Contrary to my belief, it is not a case of sitting in the sled and enjoying the view; you need to be behind the sled helping the dogs pull it along by 'paddling' with your legs. It was such an amazing experience and set in
one of the most stunning places I have ever seen; Spray Lakes. We even passed some people Ice Fishing!

After a busy day of Snow Shoeing & Dog Sledding, we had a 'Granny Bingo' night in the camp. We all got dressed up and had a laugh and as we were all so tired the majority of us were in bed by 11pm! It was good fun though.

Our final day was another 6am start and our first activity was Quad Biking. This wasn't something I had in mind when we arrived in Canada! Again it was great fun. Having never driven a Quad Bike before I was a little on the nervous side, but once we got going it was a real adrenaline rush and there was no stopping me! Such an experience; biking through a snow covered Forest. We were even lucky enough to see a pack of wild horses run past in front of us. Amazing.


Our final activity was Ice Climbing. I have to admit to looking forward to the 1/2 hour hike to get to the climbing area more than the actual climb! It was truly stunning; picture postcard scenery. And as I thought, for me the walk was the best bit about it! A few brave girls from our group got really high up the ice wall; I however, settled for giving it a go and only getting a few feet up. Not my thing; but hey, at least I can say I have done it. Ish!


So a fantastic weekend all in all. A great bunch of girls doing some extraordinary stuff. Truly a weekend to remember. Of course, so I could go off and do this in the first place, Leigh was temporarily promoted to 'Commander-in-Chief Home Command'! I think he coped rather well; when I got home the children were fast asleep, all was tidy and even the packed lunches were ready for the next day. Maybe I should do this more often....