The Last Day but One

Yesterday was our last day but one, and what a day we had.  Finally, not really leaving it to the last minute or anything, I skied the cliff, my aim complete...and actually it was not as scary as I thought as long as you don't spend too much time looking over the edge before you start.  Ned and Charlie both did it too helped by some lovely friends....Marc to help the boys and Don to guide me down! Many thanks to them both. In the afternoon all the children wanted to go to ski school and so we took a bottle of wine and some cheese and crackers up the mountain and had the most picturesque picnic ever.

This morning all the children went skiing with their favourite instructor, Charmainiac! (as Charlie calls her).... not in a lesson she just took them off for a morning of free skiing. Here she is burying my children outside ski school.!!

And here are the children with the slightly more sane Adam...another favourite.

So that's it...we fly home tomorrow..the end of our Canadian adventure, and what an amazing time we've all had.  Big thank you to everyone in England who helped...Kerry (especially you) for looking after our house, Tom and Mandy for looking after Chilli, Liz for looking after the chickens (and keeping them alive!), Upottery School for letting us come, to everyone who's kept an eye on our house.  Also, new friends here who have helped us so much...Miss Liebel and Mr G, all the instructors at ski school which is an amazing place, to members of the Bird Family but particularly to Don and Judy who have given their time, their patience and their fun to us on the slopes every day.  Finally, thanks for reading.... xxx

Ice Climbing

Last Thursday the children all went ice climbing with mixed success.  Ned did great managing half way up the ice tower, Charlie made to about a quarter of the way up before getting scared, and Lucy struggled to make it off the ground, she needed a leg up and then couldn't really lift the ice picks never mind stabbing them into the ice, and watching Lucy's arms flailing around with a couple of ice picks in her hands was pretty scary! The photo is deceptive as she was actually hoiked up off the ground for the sake of artistic licence!

The children are now back at school for this week before we come home. On Monday night when I asked Ned whether he had any homework he said he didn't but he did have some for me! I had to write half a page on "Do you think that Elizabeth May should take part in the round table talks". Well...I had to Google the whole thing, not knowing who Elizabeth May was or what round table talks were! As much as the I like the Canadian education system this is taking parental participation a bit far!
Today I went to Ladies Day which is a lesson in the morning followed by a boozy lunch! Because it was the last one of the season it had a 1970's theme so all the instructors were wearing very fetching 1970's jump suits and Kevin Keegan wigs.  Ours wore his tight jeans, a blonde wig and sported a particularly nasty nylon jumper (I think I might have had one similar when I was about 10!)

And this is Mark...singing us a song and playing his ukulele over lunch!!