Happy 10th Birthday, Natalie!

Taking to the Slopes

When we got home, we were happy to find out that the local ski hill had reopened after having been closed for at least 7 years. We are not really avid skiers, but do enjoy the sport, although not enough to make us want to drive really far really often to ski, like some of our friends and relatives do. This ski hill near us (a mere 5 km south of town) is really just perfect. I learned how to ski there when Rachel was little - every Sunday afternoon myself and a few of my girlfriends would take to the slopes with our instructor (small town, she was another friend!) and ski. We took Rachel once or twice when she was about 4, and John tried snowboarding, but when the ski hill closed, that was it.

While living in Australia, though, people naturally asked about skiing, and we had to say, sheepishly, that we don't really ski, and Natalie would pipe up that she had never even been on skiis: how embarrasing. We knew we had to do something about that, so, seeing that the ski hill was now open, we all went on Sunday. We've had nice weather since we got back, lots of sun, only one really grey day (see previous posts), but enough snow for skiing. Sunday was warm (probably -8) and sunny, and the skiing was great. I was surprised at how quickly I became comfortable again on skiis. John, well, as you all probably know, he can do no wrong when it comes to anything that has to do with sports, so he was good to go from the start. But it was the girls that I was most impressed with. We started out on the bunny hill and John and I showed them how to stop (the most important thing about skiing!), then Rachel and I took off to the t-bar and down the easy runs. She was confident, and skiied well. Natalie was just fearless! She must have known instictively how to turn, and kept wanting to be in front of me so I wouldn't hold her up!








Here's the link: http://www.skithevalley.ca/Madawaska-Ski-Area.html

...in the sun!

What a difference sunshine and a blue sky can make! I took these pictures today, Thursday, 8 January at the same time of day as yesterday. This first one is the same view from my back porch steps:














These next two are pictures of Lake Kamaniskeg, the lake that Barry's Bay is on:

January...

This quick blog is mainly for the benefit of our Australian friends. I promised you I would send some pictures of winter at home when I returned, and here they are. These photos were taken at 11:30 am, Wednesday, 7 January, 2009.
This is from my back porch steps:














From the front porch looking across the street (yes, that is Casey Street between me and the houses across the road - it's covered in snow, although the plows came by a couple of hours ago!):














And the view from my kitchen window:














Enjoy!!!

Home!

We spent New Year's Day with John's family; some of his brothers and sisters and their families were there to welcome us home and we had a nice New Year's Day dinner. We drove up to Barry's Bay on Friday, 2 January; the house is the same as we left it, and I'm now in the midst of unpacking, sorting, and re-organizing. John and the girls have gone back to school (as of Monday, 5 Jan.) and are settling back in well. Rachel and Natalie were very excited to get back to their own bedrooms and to rediscover all of their belongings.

After a year of enjoying everything Australia has to offer, it will be fun to be Canadian again (cheaper gas/petrol, the cold, and snow!)

Toronto and New Year's Eve

We made it safely to Toronto after our late night flight from LA and our morning flight from Detroit. We had no trouble getting through customs, they didn't even look into one bag, and we were out of there within half an hour. We had some family members meeting us at the airport, but we got through before they arrived and so we walked out to no smiling faces and waving arms, just the emptiness of thinking, "geez, we've been gone for a year and no one's even here!!!" My brother soon turned up, and my mother, sister and niece (Sophie was keen to see her girl cousins again.)

We spent the afternoon and evening at my parents' house, and my whole family was there, which was nice. Even with a my small family (one sister and one brother, two in-laws and 5 children between the three of us, all living withing five hours of Toronto) it is surprising how infrequently we can all be together. We had a nice New Year's Eve dinner, and finished the evening with champagne and oysters. They were good, but not quite like the Clyde River oysters we had in Australia!

Happy New Year 2009.