I love this man! This is the man that bought me a cross country training course. This is the man that took the first session over again just to be with me. This is also the man that smiled and told me I could do it when I fell down and slid down the hill repeatedly. He smiled through my threats to kill him for taking me skiing and believed that I would learn how.

I have figured it out, somewhat and this past weekend we took our four kids and another family who just moved here with their four kids and took everyone to learn how to ski. It was extremely cold and I was worried that the kids would give up before they learned ow to ski just because the bitter cold wind was terrible. Surprisingly, the kids ALL had a blast!

Jason took to cross country skiing super fast. I showed him how to put his skis on and that was it. He pushed through the deep snow and taught himself how to move and then immediately went up the hills and skied back down like a pro! I can’t even do that! He has amazing control and learned how to snowplow just by listening to me describe how to do it. Crazy kid!

Jocelyn took to skiing really quick as well. She needed a bit more instruction but not much. She loved being out there and even when we thought that she would give up she insisted on doing it again! I am so proud of her.

I wish that I had pictures of David and Laurelyn because little kids on skis are adorable! Laurelyn had fun sliding back and forth but she didn’t brave any hills. I stayed with her for the day which meant that I spent most of my time picking her up out of the snow but she still had a good time. I ad to bring her inside when her rosy pink cheeks started turning red and getting tiny white dots, hypothermia. I took her into the lodge and sat her in front of the fire and let her thaw out. David was a daredevil and wanted to follow his brother so he trudged through the snow with is Dad to the very top of the hill and flew down without falling, just like his older siblings!

I can’t believe that I was nervous about how the day was going to go. I now have four kids that are begging to get back out there but they’ll have to wait until it warms up. I’m a bigger pansy in the cold then the kids are!

We met up at the peter Lougheed Provincial Park Visitors Centre. Isn’t that a mouthful? It’s a beautiful place nestled in the mountains with trails for hiking, mountain biking and tons of x-country trails. First all of the ladies introduced themselves and then we started a game where we were not allowed to use the words ‘kids’ or ‘children’ for the rest of the day and if you forgot you had to pay one dollar towards dinner that night for every slip. Hilarity ensued and I was so having so much fun with a group of women where half of them I had never met before.

This picture above is of the mountains just behind one side of the visitors centre. I am only adding a couple of pictures because I was taking most of the pictures and everyone else took a couple of me so I don’t have many of myself.

My friend Jackie is the woman who organizes this trip every year and I am SO grateful for the work that she put into it because it was flawlessly one of the best times I’ve ever had. We laughed, we ate delicious food…Oh, the food! Everyone brought something that they had made and it was a cornucopia of deliciousness. There was a yummy quinoa kale salad, homemade cream cheese and red pepper jelly on crackers, homemade yogurt…you get the idea. These ladies were amazing women to rub shoulders with!

The first day I went about 5 km and fell atleast half a dozen times. My favorite of that first day was when we met up with an older couple. Jackie and Shary and I were on a small-ish but long hill when Jackie suggested that this would be a great place for me to learn how to snow plow which is when you take one or both skis out of the tracks, turn your skis in to make a v shape and bend inward to dig the edges of the skis into the snow to slow you down. It’s one thing to describe how to do it and it’s another thing to do it while you’re heading down hill, picking up speed and your skis want to separate and throw you on your tailbone which my skis loved to do on that first day.

Jackie was helping me to figure out the snowplow slowly working my way down the hill. I was starting to think that I was figuring it out when a helpful older couple stopped to help me out as well. They encouraged me to “Ride the pole” which sent Jackie and I into hysterical laughing. The man kept talking about how nice it is to ride the pole and that’s a lot easier than you might think. You just put the poles between your legs and ride them down the hill. Shary was at the bottom of the hill and started filming because Jackie and I were having such a good laugh. In the end, I rode the pole down the hill and we went on our  way.

(The picture above is of Jackie. I love that woman!)

I was working hard on that first day to figure out how to glide in the track and not fall over. I started getting pretty good but I still haven’t mastered how to control my skis out of the tracks. As soon as my tracks end I end up on my butt! My worst fall was on that first day. I decided to try to snow plow again but this time it was a steeper hill and the curved twice which meant that I would have to not only figure out how to stop but also turn. I set out on my snow plow and I don’t even remember what happened but my skis went up in the air and I landed on my head – hard! That was a doozy. I don’t remember falling again that day so in the end it was a ton of fun and I learned so much. Shary and I were nooby skiers and everyone else had experience x-country skiing. They were all amazing at encouraging, supporting and teaching Shary and I.

We stayed the night at a hostel in the mountains and it was my very first stay at a hostel. It was so much fun! We slept in bunks, had a full kitchen to use and a great sitting area with a fireplace and showers downstairs. Everyone that stayed there visited with our group and we talked about our plans for the nest day. Most people were there to ski. There was even a young family with two kids who were spending the weekend skiing! I was so impressed when I saw the little kids zooming past me on the trail! They are amazing! I wish I had pictures of the hostel but the only picture I have is of Jackie laying on a bench at the front door.

Our second day out we took a different set of trails and I was more excited then I expected to get on my skis. I wanted to do better and go farther than yesterday. That all came true! I went just over 7 km which put me at 12 km for the weekend and I was feeling a lot more confident. I had figured out how to glide and let the skis do most of the work. I was getting better at being out of the tracks and although I still can’t do hills without tracks I figured out how to slow down while in the tracks and then walk my way out and then turn sideways and dig my edges into the snow and walk down the hill that way. It’s may not be pretty but it works and I only fell three times and none of them hurt. It felt more like sliding than falling.

I’m now feeling anxious to get back out on the snow! I’m hoping to go out on Tuesday and then my class is on Wednesday and then hopefully I can talk Chuck into going out with me this weekend. It will be when we plan on celebrating Valentine’s Day and what better way to celebrate love than to glide through the mountains!

I can’t wait for next year! I can’t wait to see how I’ve improved by next year and to see how far I can go. My goal for next year I think is to go 10km each day! That would be awesome!

I’m still planning on eating my way through the winter but this past Wednesday I actually had fun at our class! It was a real shocker to me too! I was still slow but I wasn’t always the slowest person in the class and I had a great time. I felt like I hit a stride and I could get moving along really well and we actually went up on the trails and did some hills. It was so beautiful. The mountains were all around us and they were lit up by the full moon. It was absolutely amazing!

It’s the perfect timing to catch my stride because I have been invited to go away for the weekend with some of the homeschool moms on a cross country weekend. We are gone all day Saturday and Sunday and they’re planning on skiing 10 km both days. I can’t even imagine how I’m going to survive that distance but I’m super excited about it!

I’m planning what I’m going to pack for me to eat while we’re out in the bush and I’m planning on taking a bunch of pictures although i don’t know how to do that when I have skis on my feet and poles in my hands but I’ll figure it out!

Wish me luck!

Sherry-Ann has an amazing camera that she uses to take pictures of her life so she can scrapbook. I am amazed at the brilliant colors and how wonderful everything looks. I’ve also been feeling bad for not posting for a long time so I’m going to make up for that absence by posting pictures that Sherry-Ann took of my kids at her house. Prepare to be amazed!

We had a great time in Sherry-Ann and Kurt’s backyard pool. Some of the kids felt more comfortable in the little pool until they realized that life jackets actually work!

These next couple of pictures are from our trip to the Ellis Bird Farm. We did a scavenger hunt to find items related to birds and their habitat and then bought some birdhouses that we assembled, painted and then put up around the property.

This statue shows the kids how their arm span compares with a birds wing span. It was really cool!

There weren’t just birds at the bird farm. There was also these sheep and a couple goats. They were very friendly and the kids loved being so close to them!

The kids used nets to fish in the water, pull out the nets and dump them into a clear tub so they could see closer all the insects and living things that call the pond home. There was a giant board with pictures and names for all the creatures. The kids loved finding all the creatures that they could.

Everyone made friends while on the farm!

There has been a lot of rain on the farms near Sherry-Ann so we went on a wet walk. Loaded into rain gear we went running through giant puddles and hunted for worms to feed to the chickens.

This cowboy hat was a little small for David but he was thrilled to look like a real cowboy. We made a fire to roast hot dogs and marshmallows one night.

This is a picture of how Laurelyn loved on her big cousin Isabelle. It was so cute we had to get a picture!

Jason was wanting to learn how to use stick matches.

Colton and Jocelyn found a ton of green caterpillars in one of the trees.

I planted a couple of different seeds into my garden and in my humble opinion my garden is anything but an eye sore!

My beets are getting taller!

Jason is cutting lettuce for a lunchtime salad.

Sugar snap peas have finally flowered!

I had planted different herbs in this area but they didn’t come up so my friend gave me some onion bulbs that I planted two weeks ago.

I love these flowers under my basement window. I want to add more flowering plants to my backyard but it will have to wait for next year.

Carrot tops are just starting to get us excited about fresh garden carrots.