So far this winter has been mild and windy in comparison to last year and although we have had low temperatures of -10_-20 and some snow fall it is no where near as cold as last year, but we have had the freeze/thaw effect making the pavements icy. James and I did not really get into much skiing until the Christmas break and while working in emergency it seemed that the ski hills were needing more snow as the runs that were open were skied out and icy.Not tempting us to go with the kids. In the emergency department we have seen our fair share of ski and snow boarding accidents, but there have been an increase in people falling and slipping on ice.
With some people moaning about the mild winter and and comparably less snow than last year I have been tempted to moan myself, however have stayed tight lipped as I would be called a hypocrite after all my constant moaning about the frigid long cold winter of last year.
We were sharply reminded about that two weeks ago when the temperatures plummeted to -34 with a wind chill of -40 that began on the Monday, school was still on and so were all the activities that they have on our manic Mondays. It gave me a sharp reminder of the length of time in a day that is spend bundling and unbundling layers of clothing just to get from one place to the next.Town was very quiet and people were not venturing far. Tues morning was the same if not slightly colder but really at -40 who is counting!!! Nice quiet warm morning at home doing some baking and cooking with the kids playing. When it was time to start the dressing process and warm up the truck to take Heather to school , the truck would not start. It had been plugged into the timer overnight but had obviously cooled down a bit during the morning -40 temps, no kidding. So I switched the timer to on and hoped for the best, in the meantime was trying to think of the best way to get Heather to school. Any wise mum would just give the school a break, but before I knew it, I was dressing the kids in their winter gear with ski pants, fleeces, ski jackets, hat, mitts, neck scarves up to their eyes and hoods, deuvet on the sledge and me in my ski pants and off we went, I ran the whole way in under 7 minutes and by the time we got to school they were both complaining of cold hands. Heather went off to her class and Finlay and I waited a while until we were ready to make the journey home. Finlay sat with his hands between his legs and kept his head down as I raced back home with him as quickly as possible to the warm house. Sure that the truck would start after 3 hours of being plugged in, I was sure the truck would start, but at 14.45 that engine again was not catching on and there was no way I was making that journey on foot. I had to call my neighbor who was due to be collecting his 2 sons to see if he could take me to collect Heather and then we were joined by another boy who's mum's car would not start either, so in the end there were 5 kids and 2 adults in his car!!We were held in the freezer until the Friday and I then I realised why I had bad memories of last winter .
During the milder times we have still enjoyed time outside on the local skating ponds and Heather and Finlay have been getting used to their skates again. Heather didn't want lessons this season and is happy to continue dance instead, so we have managed to get out and let her practice with us.Finlay can stand and is moving a bit, but at one point he refused to go on the ice unless he had his hockey stick, much to my surprise and slight dread!!! I don't know where he gets the interest from as we aren't huge hockey fans, so never talk about it or watch matches, however he is pretty interested and is always talking about his hockey stick or the Zamboni. Recently we have been going to the rec center for Heather's swimming lesson and now he enjoys watching the zamboni clearing the ice or watching the team practice. Today he was watching them and asking when he could play hockey....Now if it was up to me...it would be .....only on the pond with family and friends...but for him it may have to be more!!!!!!Lets hope not Eh!!!
skating 101
On the trails.
The Nordic centre is a great facility that Canmore has for cross country skiing attracting athletes from all over the world, It is a great family orientated place too and is used lots by the young families in Canmore, from novice to expert. They have been lucky with having great snow making this year and there are lots of places to go sledging in the areas where they store the snow. The kids have been on the ski trails and we found that if we put a ball in one of the tracks it motivated them to go quite a distance as they kick it along with their skis......perhaps this will engage Finlay's interest for soccer as opposed to hockey!!! One on particular day I took Heather and Finlay to go sledging and we found these huge mounds of man made snow, so instead of sledging we just slid down on our bums.
Hello up there!!!
Coming down!!
Days like these are made even better by our flask of hot chocolate and mini marshmallows.
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