Yes we are still alive..and a little recap of the last month

Okay, so it has been a long time since our last post and we apologise sincerely, so we will attempt to catch you up on the fun and games over the last few weeks in as much detail as we can remember and without making the post too long! We are now up to day 95 of our trip and day 80 in Whistler! We are definitely still loving life here, our extended vacation and are still making the most of what the town has to offer.


  
       

First event to recap on was my birthday which rolled around in the middle of December like it does each year! This year it fell on a Friday; one of my days off and a Giants hockey game! We had a pretty big night the night before so the day started off a little rusty. Turns out the crisp mountain air, fresh powder and being strapped to my snowboard is the best hangover cure yet! 



After an epic day on the mountain Em and I headed down to Vancouver for the Giants game.. Just so happened that night at the hockey was ‘Teddy Bear Toss’, which was a charity event for kids where everyone in the stadium bought a teddy bear and tossed it onto the ice after the Giants had scored their first goal. It was kind of annoying that the Giants scored after the first 2 minutes of play as it meant the game was paused for a while to clean up the bears of the ice. The Giants are in the WHL league so the fights during the game weren’t as impressive or as eventful as I would expect in an NHL game, it was still a pretty good introduction to hockey and a good night out for my birthday! 

Rhys

If this guys last name was any longer i don't think it would fit on his jersey! 

Dinner, provided by Whistler Blackcomb ($20 ticket for game, dinner and transport to and from the game!)

                                        

Rhys's birthday celebrations were not long followed by the arrival of my long lost family! The boys arrived first and we had a ball showing them around the mountain, through the village,  hosting them in our massive unit and of course sharing their hot tub ;) ! 

The first day on the mountain with my little brothers!! 

A few days before Christmas mum and dad arrived and everything started to feel real! our first white christmas!  It was so nice to spend Christmas with some familiar faces as Christmas doesn’t feel the same without family around! 

At the 'fire and ice' show

I had a more than memorable Christmas Eve with mum and dad as I took them both on a 'site seeing' tour of Whistler and we went up on the Whistler Gondola and across the peak to peak. We had picked an incredible day as the weather was perfect. There wasnt a cloud in the sky, it was beautiful, perfect photography day for dad and I! Even had to pull out the sunglasses! ! 

Ice skating 

Unfortunately, work decided the arrival of family to be honoured by finally giving me 40 hours of work in a week so family events had to be scheduled around work; but we had such a ball, thoroughly enjoyed our Christmas (or Boxing day) dinner with Turkey from Vancouver, salmon from Whistler and the gluten free Christmas ‘pud’ imported all the way from Australia! 

In action

Dad of course, enjoyed taking photos of the different landscape and we marked the occasion with a father daughter excursion where I got some much needed tips and tricks off him! Taking photos in sub zero temperatures is tough though; one has to take gloves off to set camera and take photo resulting in not being able to use your fingers! I don't think I lasted very long..

Photos from our 'evening lights' excursion

My hero! 

We managed to convince mum that she had to go skiing at least once while in Whistler, so we all decided it would be fun to ditch the boards and try skiing for a day. It turned out to be probably one of the most fun (and funniest) days on the mountain! There were many falls and spills and I think we are still trying to work out how to get out of the inevitable ‘death position’, when you are flat on your back but still clipped into the skis! Rhys also had a bit of a run in with a tree after getting a little too much speed … but by the end of the day, those left standing (that’s right; you know who you are!) made it down blue runs and moguls and came off the mountain for a well-deserved hot tub with the biggest smiles on our faces! I think there is also some video footage of the day, so it may be aired at a later date after editing!  

We had ordered ‘ugly Christmas sweaters’ for Christmas, but due to the incompetence of the staff at the post office, our sweaters didn’t arrive in time for our boxing day dinner! Luckily they arrived before everyone left though so we were able to show off our attire at our farewell dinner!

It was so nice to spend some quality time with the family over the break. Mum and I rekindled our love for shopping (of course), I enjoyed my photo excursions with dad and we had a great time on the mountain with the boys! I also survived the whole 2 weeks riding with them without joey knocking me off the chair lift too so I spose I could say it was all a success! It was sad to see everyone leave, especially not knowing when we were all going to be together again, but at least we parted knowing we’d had an awesome time together and there is still skype time!

The bestest parents a girl could ask for.. xxx

(photography effects courtesy of Dr. (tba) A.J.M Douglas)

After Christmas came New Years;  the boys were still around as they’d decided to postpone their arrival in Vancouver. We were pretty stumped for things to do that night and Rhys had to work at 6am on New Years day so we didn’t really have a massive night, but it was nice to welcome the new year in with some familiar faces and a glass of Bailieys! 

On top of the world..

All in all the family visit was a blast. It was exhausting to squeeze in work and making sure everyone saw as much of Whistler as possible but in the end I think we exceeded expectations and I could've asked for a better week (or 2 ) with my family. I discovered a new way to spend time with my brothers (one which i do hope rolls around at least every couple of years now that we all have the gear there are minimal excuses!) and I was reminded how amazing my parents are and all the little things that I miss about them every day (from the 'arguments' and shopping with mum, to the photos with dad and the general 'silly buggers' with the boys!) ! 

Emma x

Then life went back to normal; the holidays ended, people disappeared from the village and all the Aussie tourists arrived! The holiday period was not as busy on the mountain as predicted, but at the peak period the mountain held 26,000 people per day and people were EVERYWHERE! I managed to pick up a few extra shifts and was ready for some time off by the time the majority of the crowds had left. We still manage to have fun at work and have time to build inukshuks, make time lapse videos of the lifts and sunrises and kidnap dinosaurs from the childrens learning centre!

A few of the other lifties and I have start doing some hiking as part of our days off in search of some nice snow and we managed to build a little jump into the powder recently which was a bunch of fun! Definitely need to work on the moves…

Hiking flute bowl and our awesome home made jump! 

Em's riding days

As the village got quieter, Emma’s work dropped off again as quickly as it had become busy for the holidays which meant she was back to only getting a few shifts a week. Being the nut that she is and that she goes crazy when she’s not busy, she started the search for a second job. On Monday evening, she sent her CV to the local grocery store; Tuesday at 10am she had an interview and on Wednesday at 1130am she started her first shift as their newest check out chick!  Pretty good effort really, especially when everyone complains about how hard it is to find work in Whistler! And working at the grocery has its perks too, with decent hours, steady work and of course; discounted groceries!

As we said, life has pretty much gone back to normal.. or as normal as it is in Whistler! With Em’s new job just starting our hours have sort of clashed but they’ll settled down next week so we’ll get to spend a bit more time together.. Hopefully that means more time to sit down and write posts!! x