Birthday Skiing at Lake Louise!

Well today was Nigels 21st (+10) Birthday and we decided to both head out to Lake Louise for a days skiing. We brought our days pass from Costco for $50 each the week before so we set out early (via Timmys!) out into the mountains. Now we have been into the mountains and to Lake Louise many times but we were not prepared for the amazing scenery that the slopes had to offer. We'll let the photos and video do the talking!

The sun rising over the mountains

View of the mountains from the top of the ski resort

(can you spot Lake Louise and the Chateau?)

Here it is zoomed in a bit

Any one recognize why the top run's name brought a smile to our faces?

The Olympic Torch Visits Calgary

As many of you will know the 1988 winter Olympics were held in Calgary and they are still very proud of this fact, so we were to expect a big celebration when the Olympic flame returned more than 20 years on. The olympic torch has been traveling across canada since October and celebrations in Calgary took place over three days whilst the torch travelled to key destinations in the city. One of these locations was the Olympic Plaza in downtown so this evening we headed off on the C-train into the city centre.

The Calgary Tower was transformed into an enormous flaming torch!

There was entertainment planned from 5:30pm with local artists preforming, local athletes that are due to compete in the 2010 winter Olympics and local medal winners from the last 25 years. The atmosphere was amazing with over 20,000 in attendance at the Plaza waiting to welcome the flame and the route through the city lined with thousands more.

At first we positioned ourselves on the last section of the route so that we could see the torch arrive, and when it did it was electric with everyone cheering and clapping, traffic blowing their horns and cameras everywhere.

Next we headed into the Plaza to watch all the entertainment

finishing with a large firework display.

We had a wonderful evening and are now looking forward to catching all the Canadian Olympians compete on the TV in the next couple of weeks!

Exam Stress!

Well with the conformation recieved a couple of weeks ago of my place to write the Canadian Registered Nurses Exam-CRNE, (for the 2nd time!) on the 3rd February, the revision is well under way.   Although before coming to Canada I purchased a few Canadian Nursing text books and an exam prep guide, I joined the hospital library and got myself a few other book to help me with my revision. 

I basically went through every question in the book 100 at a time, marked them and then made a note of those I got wrong.  Now I am slowley going through them all reading around the topics, then after I have done all that I will repeat all the questions.

As I have previously mentioned, the format for the CRNE is two 3 1/2 hour multiple choice exam papers.  Now although it may sound easy, as my first failure showed, that its very different than passing a nursing exam in the UK which was question and essay format.  I tend to find that most questions in the exam have one very definite wrong answer, then two very possible correct answers and then another thrown in for good measure. Now as I have gone through all the test papers etc, i have began to realize that what they want you to do is to not think too much about patients as individuals and just to give a 'text book' 'if nothing else was taken into consideration' answer, which can be difficult to a nurse that has been treating every patient as an individual for the last 6 years!'  I am hoping that now i have a better understanding as to what CARNA are looking for that I will pass this time, but not wanting to tempt fate, we shall just wait and see................

Dancing Domino!

We had to put this video up of our little girl, unfortunately we video'd it in Portrait so you'll have to either turn your computer on it's side, or lie down to view it at it's best! We just bought her some new winter 'shoes' and tried them on her in the house. This is what she thought of them.

She really suffers with her feet getting cold in the snow and -15c or lower, so we hope she gets used to them quickly!!

Nakiska Jan' 2nd 2010

I will let the pictures and Videos do the talking here!

Just arriving at the Nakiska Ski resort, 1hr and 15mins from our house.

Stunning scenery from the top of the Gold Chair.

The Mid Mountain Lodge where we like to re-fuel.

There's Sophie in the distance.

'Whoop-Up' was our next challenge, a Black Diamond run which we survived to tell the tale!

So warm we had to open the jackets up. Very nice!

I meant to do that, honest!

A great day had by both of us and we feel like we're getting the hang of things now. It really is a great past-time.

Christmas and New Year!

We always knew that it would be really hard to be away from our family and friends over the festive season, but thanks to modern technology we were able to attend christmases in England, Wales and Australia and a New Years Eve party in North Wales with some of our closest friends! Christmas morning we visited the people whom we stayed with when we first arrived. They used to live in the UK and as we have friends in common we always feel close to home when we're with them so it was great to spend time with them over Christmas.

We had decided to start a new tradition as we were in a new country, so on christmas eve at 9 pm we had opened our first present of Jingle Jamas, a pair of pyjamas that we were to wear that night and for when we opened our stockings the following morning.

We awoke to a breakfast of croissants and coffee, and below is a picture of our table setting! Also is a picture of the Christmas cakes I did again this year. Unlike the UK though they were a lot more work, and although I love making them, I always prefer to spend my time decorating them, rather than making them. The ingredients cost Almost $100 per cake and I even had to make my own marzipan (it sounds simple but it wasn't!), but as always I had a great day in the kitchen!

We went out for lunch Christmas day and when we got home we opened the remainder of our presents!

For New Years Eve we had booked to go for a meal at the 360 restaurant at the top of the Calgary tower, a rotating resturant that gave us amazing views of the city all lit up and even a few fireworks.

After Dinner we headed to Muriettas, a bar that we had been to before which had a great live band!

The band!

We danced the night away til the early hours theheaded home on the C-Train (that, as it was new years was running all night) and had a cold walk home from the station in (-36 with windchill) but it was worth it!

As you can see in the picture below (it was taken just round the corner from our house after our walk back) Sophies hair is frozen! Considering the temperature though only bits of us that were slightly cold were Sophies' knees and my toes, so we must be getting used to all this cold weather!