Bye Bye Banff

Hilarious!! Good times... thanks for all the rides, laughs, Bon Jovi singing and stool dancing!! We're going to miss you guys!!

Winter came back in April!!

Our last month here in Banff has provided more great, great times.. Don't have time to write too much around these photos right now. But sometimes the photos say all you need to say anyway.

These are some shots from our Giorgios ski day. It was the coldest , windiest, gloomiest day we've had this month. But certainly made you feel like you earnt your beer afterwards, during and before!! We're going to miss this crew.





We've had some of our biggest dumps right at the end of our time here. I don't have that many photos because my camera always freezes in the cold and won't take any more shots. But in the last 2 weeks we had a 60-70cm dump and then quite a few more that weren't as big but still awesome around it.
This is driving into the car park.. there were people coming from everywhere!!

So much fun!!! Some runs took a long long time because we kept losing people into trees or just massive amounts of snow.. Claire!!



Yep. We hike to runs these days!! Hardcore...

and this is what happens when you don't wear a helmet!! 20 staples in the head later..

Our last round of visitors and a good round

We still have to laugh when we think how lucky we've been with all our visitors this year. 2 weeks before we leave we're blessed with Josh's good friend from Melbourne, Matt Pannoussi and my good friend from Brisbane Scott Adam.

Their visits coincided on the same weekend and Banff treated them to spectacular blue skies, slushy snow (that got quite difficult to move in by the end of the day) and some good beer drinking in the sun. Matt is an awesome skier (and did we mention hot curler - keep an eye out for him at the 2010 Olympics!!) and was giving me and Scott great tips, so by the end of day one Scott was already looking really good and I was doing moderately well :)

Then the Pow Pow hit
Matt left Sunday afternoon and Scott still had a few more nights. We thought we'd spend the day cruising around town until we heard that there had been a 20-30cm dump at Lake Louise. So up we went again to give Scott a taste of Pow Pow. Well... I don't think I've laughed so much since I had Mum and Dad up on the hill in balaclavas!! Scott was hilarious (powder is difficult). But, true to his form no matter what we put him up to, he could always make a turn and after getting through a very difficult first run, his form improved dramatically and he was carving up the pow by the end of the day (albeit not prettily). So... I successfully got him down day three without any injuries leaving him more than capable to fulfill his duties as a new daddy in a few months (I had to promise his mum).

I have to say.. and I know Josh will agree that the best part about having people stay with us is that we really get to spend some quality time with our friends. Scott and I had the best catch up we've probably had in 2 years!! I feel like in brisbane I was getting to the stage where I could only squeeze in one dinner, once a month for a quick catch up with a lot of my friends. I really hope if there's one thing I can bring back after this year overseas is having a bit more 'free' time available for the special peeps in my life.


We also did a lot of hanging in the sun...

I was trying to get better at skiing while Scott was here but I was finding the conditions a bit tough with skiis that are too big for me and rental boots. But I was making standing still look good!!

A beautiful 20 degree day at Lake Louise. The outdoor deck was pumping that afternoon (the snow got too slushy to ski in anyway) and highlights included our flatmate Kelley getting up with the band and singing this hilarious song that had the whole crowd whooping adn this little 8 yr old kid who was like a mini Tommy Emmanual stealing the show...


This means spring is here right???


Josh and Matt stylin it on the slopes!

The pow pow day.

This shot is taken from the same spot as one of Scott up above. He's at the top of the gondola.. what mountains???

Scott's first run in the pow - I haven't laughed so much in a long time.. scott wasn't laughing so much here...

and then he got the hang of it (more or less) and it got much more fun.

My birthday!

Yep. I turned 29. Eeeekkk!! Sounds so mature...

Josh cooked me breakfast, we hung out, went to the hot springs (at exactly the same time as 60 13yr olds - so not quite the peaceful experience I was hoping for), went for sushi and then met some friends for pool and beers. A great birthday :) although it was a day that I missed my closest friends and family (miss you guys!)