The end of the season

Well, the skiing has all finished, everyone has left the mountain leaving just us locals.  The shops are closed, the restaurants too, no more tourists and no more ski lifts, and yet there is still snow everywhere!  And it will still be here in June!  There has been 30 feet of snow this season and it takes a hell of a long time to go!  So, I won't be posting any more skiing stuff, but I thought I would end the season with Charlie's finest moment...we spent two glorious weekends at Silverstar, Big Whites sister resort, at competitions that included moguls and slopestyle.  Charlie's first mogul run was epic with spectacular running commentary from an ex-DJ who hypes the crowd and children up into a frenzy.  Please listen to what he says, his timing was brilliant and Charlie said he could hear the cheering!  Once again, dodgy videoing...but you'll get the idea!

And here he is in action! 

Silverstar is a beautiful resort with some gorgeous views...I especially like this one as you can see Big White Mountain in the background!

The Dark Side!!!

Need I say more......

Big White School skating tournament.

We have had such warm temperatures that the skating rink in the village has completely melted.  The children were skating twice a week from school and hoped to end the term with a tournament, but with no rink the school hired a rink in Kelowna instead.  The Fire department got all padded up as the goalies and they had just as much fun as the children.  My hopes for Lucy to learn figure skating have been dashed as she's announced that she wants hockey skates instead...typical!!

Easter

Easter Sunday was a day of firsts....we started off the day with an Easter egg hunt, collecting chocolate in ski helmets instead of baskets.  Also, the temperature was 23 degrees...unheard of in April, the children just wore sweatshirts and there were several girls in bikinis, not me obviously!! Then Lucy decided she wanted to ski the cliff, like you do!  The lovely Judy came to my rescue and took her down as I was a bit reluctant after a monumental crash there a couple of weeks earlier...the person I was with said it was the best crash he'd seen all season!  Lucy had tried the cliff before but had chickened out at the last minute but this time she loved it and did it twice!  I waited patiently at the top to take a photo next to the sign...who's the chicken now?  We finished off our day with a family photo shoot at the top of the mountain, climbing on the snow ghosts.

Lucy's last Freeride

Lucy has finished her 10 week Freeride program with a bit of dressing up and a race.  Her group was called the Dragon Slayers which caused a bit of a problem when trying to come up with an outfit.  We went with a How to Train your Dragon theme...it was the best I could do!

She then had to do a race, please forgive the crap recording, I kind of lost her half way down but luckily managed to find her again before she finished.  Also, she did 3 runs and this was the best one...shows you how rubbish the other 2 were!  Also, she had lost most of her costume by now...I think she overheated, the sheepskin waistcoat was a layer too many!

Helen, Chloe and Sam

Our amazing guests have left, and we have all loved having them to stay, it's going to be very quiet around here, no more music echoing from upstairs, no more Scattegories, no more non stop 94S and Settlers of Catan, no more freezing night skiing, no more taking Sam down Telus Park jumps even though he'd never skied before!!  I would say no more whistling but Charlie has carried that on non-stop (thanks Sam!).  My children miss you all so much,  thank you for coming all that way to see us...here is a montage of your visit.....

Jamie, Helen, Chloe and Sam

 Helen and Chloe

 It wasn't all skiing...Chloe and Sam very kindly came to school to show the children their instruments and to play them some of their music...the children loved every minute...

  Tubing

  

This was night skiing and it was freeeeezing!  It's not mist you can see, although the visibility was dreadful...it's freezing fog!  Everyone had frozen hair and frozen clothes when they got home...

 Oops!!

 I love this picture..the way the children are in between the adults with a fabulous view in the back ground.  You'll notice a change of snow pant colour for Chloe...she had a major wardrobe malfunction the day before, but she wouldn't let me take a photo of it because she thought I might put it on the blog...as if!  Thought I'd mention it anyway!

Just Helen left now, did some gorgeous skiing every day and took in some breathtaking views (as Jamie is pointing out!)

 Chilling out in Snowshoe Sams

Valentines Day

Today is Valentines Day and the Canadians just love it.  Last time we were here I got caught out by the  extent of the celebrations so this year I was a bit more prepared.  Each child has to make or buy a Valentine for everyone in their class, so feeling quite creative, I encouraged the children to make them....with mixed results!

 This is Lucy's.  She worked really hard with the cutting and just needed a bit of help with the eyes.

 This is Charlie's.  He loves origami and painstakingly folded each one while following a demonstration on youtube..it took him hours!

This one is Ned's.  It was all his own idea because he wanted to create a box to put chocolates in for his class mates...nothing too girly, he'd also been learning about nets at school.  But....when it came down to it, guess who was the mug who ended up cutting out 20 bloody boxes.   More fool me!!

On a different note...Helen, Chloe and Sam arrive tonight and we are soooo excited!!!