Lost in Translation

I always like to do a sleepless 'Lost in Translation' photo when I am bored in my hotel room. Being in Japan this week makes it a must! Here I am in my standard issue hotel clothes with slippers:

I actually slept pretty well last night, considering I went to sleep around 7am Calgary time and woke up at 2:30pm... One thing I really like about Asian rooms is that they have switches for all the lights in the room from the bed. And of course, who would complain about a heated toilet seat and mirror!

Sam skiing at Silver Star

Here is a video of Sam going down on his own. Except for while I have the camera going, he talks all the time... "Dad - this part is fast, right?" "That is where we went tubing." "Skis are faster than snowboards, right?" "My skis are longer than Andrews." "We needed to put the bar down so we didn't fall off the lift, right Dad?" And so on... I love it :)

Ski weekend at SilverStar

This weekend we went down to Salmon Arm, and then on to Silver Star on Saturday. We had rented a condo, and figured it would be a nice getaway... The first day we tubed, skated and generally played around. Matt and I took the older two boys and Westlee up with us, and Darcy joined us later with Ian, Max and Lily. Ali finally arrived in the evening after her classes and we eventually got everyone to sleep.

Day 2 was a more organized plan, starting out with a lesson. We got Rogan outfitted with skis and got the two boys to their lesson for 8:30. "Jess" looked after them for an hour while Matt and I got in a couple runs. We all gathered back at 9:30 to watch the last few minutes of the lesson. Sam, who has been skiing last year as well as on COP and the park near our house seems to be getting it. Rogan did great for his first time - getting into the idea of the snowplow. Here are the boys pre-lesson:Joking around:

Here we are watching the boys:

Matt and I took the boys to the bunny hill for about an hour, then Matt and Rogan headed back to the condo. Sam and I stuck around for another half hour then 'skied' back to the condo. After lunch and a visit with Lindsay and Omar I took Sam up on the lift to try some longer runs. He was doing great, and aside from my helping him down the first 50m he did the entire run by himself, right to the lift at the bottom.

After that we went back to meet up with everyone. Ali and Matt wanted to take the boys tubing again, so I grabbed Max and Lily and took some photos. The tubing is FAST! They have a radar gun clocking people at 40-50 km/h. Sam had a couple of times where we ended up walking him down, but both Rogan and Sam went on their own as well. I was pretty shocked that it didn't scare the cr@p out of them!

Lily and Max watching:


That night the boys were pretty excited about dessert - and about wearing goggles while they ate it... It was funny to watch them have to look straight down to see the bowl!

Sam was pretty tuckered at the end of the day, as were we all :)

Pre-school skating party

It was time for the annual Haysborough pre-school skating party today! Allison and I went over (Dawn was the helper) and took part so the three boys could skate. Here is Sam looking like quite the little hockey player - but the photos don't show the ups and downs!



Rogan skated around a little bit with Allison and Mrs. Rose, but otherwise enjoyed being pushed around in a chair. Both Ro and Sam are getting good at stopping the puck and passing it. Sam was the last off the ice (he took the chair after Rogan went inside) and we all enjoyed some nice hot chocolate. It is fun to be able to take part in these events - the benefit of a flexible work (well, I did get going to the airport in New York this morning at the equivalent of 3am local time - so I had put in a full day...).

New York, NY

Well, here I am again in New York City! I have to admit it is a lot more fun being on vacation with Darcy, Ali and Matt than working long days... However, given the amount of throwing up going around (the kids) I have to refrain from complaining and congratulate Darcy on taking care of the boys in my absence.

Here is a sign on my way to work this morning - I must also say that I'm not getting a lot of time for photos given the sun only appears while I am indoors. It started snowing today so that should make me feel at home.