2011 – the year in photos

1.1.2012

January – We were visiting Australia for the first half of the month. The photo here is Finn with his great-grandfather (who didn’t make it through to 2012, but at least they got to meet).

 

February – Skiing, friends visiting, baby swimming lessons… the photo was taken at the Canmore Nordic Centre, where I spent a lot of time towing the Chariot around

 

March – I bought a 29er mountain bike after admiring it in the bike shop for weeks. But then there was nothing but snow to ride on, so I waited impatiently and skied some more. And we did our first overnight ski trip to a hut with Finn (to Elizabeth Parker Hut – photo taken just after leaving the trail-head).

 

April – Still heaps of snow around. We tried to bike, but there ended up being snow, and we tried to hike, but there ended up being snow, so it was more skiing. And a Winter Triathlon at the Nordic Centre that involved biking on snow anyway. I discovered the world of Waldorf dolls, and made my first one.

 

May – Brendan took off on his mountain-biking in the USA trip, and the hiking and biking season began in earnest.

 

June – Climbing, biking and hiking. Repeat.

 

July – Started off with a trip to the Okanagan, camping and visiting wineries. Riding lots of single trail, training for the 24 Hours of Adrenaline (mountain bike race in Canmore – photo taken at the transition zone). There were a lot of mountains hiked as well.

 

August – Iceland! And Finn turned one! And started to walk! (Photo from the highlands in the middle of Iceland)

 

September – A lot more hiking, and a lot of nice warm 25oC days. And I made my first pie.

 

October – A visit from one of Alex’s brothers, and some last ditch attempts to fit in some hiking and biking before the weather turned to the worse for good. And a lot of doll-making. Finn started using walking as his regular mode of transportation.

 

November – First ski of the season, then a last minute plan to spend a few weeks in Australia – starting with the disastrous 65 hours in transit flight epic, followed up with the gastro-bug of doom. The photo was taken at my parent’s farm.

 

December – Back to Canada, where the winter has been suspiciously warm. Snow has been skied on, we had our first Christmas tree, and Finn met Santa for the first time and merely stared at him with suspicion, rather than crying like most of the small kids.

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Christmas again! Already? Surely not.

25.12.2011

For the first time since we’ve been in Canada, we got a real, genuine, not-made-out-of-newspaper-or-a-stack-of-old-tins Christmas tree. It smells of tree and has covered the house in pine needles, even if it is only sparsely decorated with home-made cinnamon stars (although now we have a rock-climbing Santa and a telemarking Santa to fill in the gaps a little).

We spent the traditional morning at the ski hill – and it snowed! And it was really warm, continuing the trend of this winter.

Unfortunately just as the flakes were getting lovely at fat and soft, I had to head home to get some cooking done. The offspring thinks the gondola ride is pretty cool though.

Christmas dinner was tasty, and silly hats were worn.

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Skiing Skogan Pass

13.12.2011

This was another of the “really local but never done it before” outings. Earlier in the year, in Spring, we’d try to bike up Skogan Pass from Canmore but got turned back by snow near the top. This time we were approaching from the Nakiska side on skis.

Once we skied through Nakiska and gained a little elevation the snow was in great condition, and almost untouched. It’s a really gradual climb up to the pass, no steep hills, just lots of weaving back and forth through the trees, then under the powerlines. We saw some cat tracks crossing the path at one point near the summit (maybe a lynx?)

After a really late lunch at the summit, we realised our late start was about to get the better of us – if we didn’t hurry the sun would be gone soon. And although we did have one headlamp between us, it would be dark and cold, and there were wolves.

Luckily the ski back down was just that (it went down), so we were back at the car in just an hour – barely managing the last section through the trees without a headlight.

We weren’t eaten by any wolves either.

Distance: 24km (I think?)
Elevation gain: 200m
Chariot skiability: Perfect for towing a Chariot up
We started at Ribbon Creek trailhead, although it would have been easy enough to park at Nakiska too. Full trail description here.

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The King Bed conundrum

10.12.2011

For two relatively small people, and a still relatively small miniature person, you would think that a king bed combined with a cot/crib would allow for plenty of sleeping space. Heaps.

Here is the sleeping set-up we’ve been using, and how it would work in an ideal world:

King bed, then cot/crib with one side removed, pushed up against the bed. Lots of room for everyone. However, in reality I’ve found it tends to work a little more like this:

It’s hard to convey in stick figures, but often my arms end up crossed over my body as there isn’t any space for them beside me. I could lie on my side, but then face getting trapped there, as my available space seems to only ever shrink.

And then there’s always the times I come to bed late. Faced with a small lower portion of bed available to me, I curl up as best I can:

Perhaps what we need is TWO king-sized beds…

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The teapot

30.11.2011

Loose in the wild, this magnificent beast grazes on the asphalt. A solitary creature, it spends most of the summer months foraging in the semi-arid plains of Australia, before digging a den and hibernating for the winter.

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More adventures down south

28.11.2011


 


 

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Recovering in the Great Southern Land

24.11.2011

I’ll never complain about travels that take thirty hours door-to-door again (well, I probably will, but not for a year or two at least). Our flights to Australia were booked fairly last minute, so I took a cheaper option rather than the shortest, and we were going to have an eight hour layover in LAX, followed by another seven hours in Melbourne airport before a regional flight. It was going to be about 41 hours door-to-door. But that was before the flight out of LAX broke down, and they had to wait for the part to be flown in the next day.

We’d been stuck in the same small part of LAX for about ten hours by the time they decided the flight wasn’t going to go. It had been an exciting ten hours of trying to keep a toddler entertained – as soon as you put him down he would go and stare at people who had touch screen phones or laptops (one girl was nice enough to let him play with her iPhone). Once he tried to steal someone’s pizza. He was also a big fan of the stand in the middle of the area that had lots of exciting food and toys at toddler height. He wasn’t a fan of sleeping there, as it was bright and noisy and there was too much going on – and when he did drop off there’d be a boarding announcement of something similar within a few minutes to wake him up again. So being herded off to hotels for the night was a bit of a relief, even if it took a lot of queueing and confusion to get there, and then get a room.

The next morning was spent eating buffet breakfast and then running around the Hilton (up the stairs, down the stairs, up the corridor, down the corridor). And finally, in the afternoon, clearing LAX security and actually getting on an aeroplane. Four hours at Auckland (it was supposed to be a two hour layover, but became four as the plane from LAX left two hours earlier than originally scheduled), and we were upgraded to Premium Economy (so much leg room!) for the flight to Melbourne. Then just a simple five hour drive, and 65 hours after leaving home, we were at the farm.

And then the toddler, followed shortly be me (and then the rest of the family) came down down with gastro.

We’ve now recovered, and are back to eating normal food (without having to throw it back up again). But after getting over gastro, the toddler has started teething. Molars coming through = supreme levels of crankiness, clinginess, and fear of random household objects (but not the dog, who he likes to chase, despite her uncertainty on the subject).

And so ends the first half of the visit.

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