Weekend family fun

A weekend at Mosquito creek Youth Hostel came with a little adventure for Heather and Finlay. The Hostel is set quite a way from the road and there is no vehicle access to the cabin. So we parked up and had to sled our equipment and food down trench pathways as tall as Finlay. Another added adventure was the lack of indoor toilets and we had to use out door toilets into a hole in the ground.. I was already aware of this before our stay and aware of potential temperatures of -20, I had acquired some useful equipment curtsy of Canmore hospital !

Heave ho!!!!

\

Nearly lost the kids!!!!

The entrance to the cabin.

Anyone for marshmallows!!!!!!

The following day after a late night of socialising and excitement we decided to go for a snow shoe in the valley. It has been a few years since James and I have gone snow shoeing, infact I think the last time was with Auntie Helen when Heather was 9 months old .

This time we carried the kids in the back packs and went looking for animal tracks. We found Lynx tracks and hare tracks close together so I wonder if something had a good meal!! WE stopped to have a picnic and enjoyed the sunshine and the scenery in the company of a raven sitting squawking at the top of a tree ready for us to depart to then fly down to peck at the crumbs left behind as we trampled away.

Rocky Mountain Ski challenge

From receiving an email from a work colleague rallying for people to become part of a corporate team in the Rocky mountain ski challenge, held by the local nordic ski club, it got me thinking......
"Well I can tow a 4 yr old round 7.5 km of undulating terrain, I could probably do quite well doing a 10 km loop at the Nordic centre in Canmore"
Events available were a 30km skate ski individual, or part of a relay team 10km each or an individual 10km classic ski.
So I entered to do the 10km classic ski with my distance adding toward  the corporate team " Canmore Hospital"
In the morning I discovered that the event was to continue despite -19 temp and for  my event there were 10 competitors in my age category .The grueling race lasted 48 minutes for me I overtook 3 lagging racers on the way back and then they all returned the complement in the final down hill, to push me into last place!!!
However I was still proud of this (the only race ever that I have been last) as first postion went to Chandra Crawford, Olympic Cross Country Gold Medalist 2006 Who completed the course in a 29min.

It was great to finish and see that my faithful group of supporters had come to see me finish even though their over whelming support seemed to put me off my stride!!
Heather's first question was..."Mummy did you win the race?"...My response,"Not quite, but nearly!!!"
Perhaps in another time and another town!!!!

Dragons and Ice queens

This year the Ice carving festival was held on 22nd Jan and after Heather's gymnastics class we headed up to Samson mall to take in some of the action for the kids. There was face painting, balloon sculpting and crafts. The line up for the bus up to the main event was so long that we decided to stay down in the village and visit a little competition called "One block one hour". We saw the start, then enjoyed a hot chocolate and then saw the end results before heading back to canmore.

So in the One block, one hour competition you see results of art from this........

......turning to this.........

At the face painting we saw results from this......

.......to this.......

The next day we decided to return to see the final finishes to the two day competition up at Lake Louise itself and added in a bit of a cross country ski trip. We did the Fairview Loop. Heather and Finlay skied down the Old Tram Line to Moraine Lake road and the James and myself towed them round the rest of the way. Thankfully they both fell asleep just as we left the Moraine Lake road and did not see their mother's attempts  to ascend a few steep sections into the trees.....Mum was not the most coordinated or gracious skier up the narrow steep sections and as I was trying to wish bone up the hills towing a 4yr old, getting my skis stuck in the deep snow banks at the sides it was a slow and painful process full of laughter and slander from my husband. Anyway, after the initial steep section the rest of the way was great.

We finished with time to go and see the final results of the ice carving festival and to see which sculptor won.

"Heather's and Finlay's choice"

And then Heather and Finlay seemed to enjoy a well earned rest in the ice castle on the lake