Skiing

We went skiing the other day at Crabbe Mountain. You drive towards it on fairly flat land looking around for a mountain and thinking it must be a tiny ski hill as there are certainly no mountains around and then suddenly you are in the car park. Once you hit the slopes you realise you have started near the top and you approached and parked on one side and on the other the land drops away to reveal a decent hill (still not quite a mountain) with some pretty good runs on it. 22 runs and 2 tows and a 4 person chairlift. Not bad. The snow was beautiful and powdery, the day was bright and sunny and not too cold. A few scary narrow runs through the trees.
Brendan came to and went into the creche for an hour then Steve and I took turns for a bit. So I got a total of 2 and a half hours skiing and then left with B to visit some friends and Steve stayed with our friend Ryan and skied for a total of 5 hours. All in all a great day.
Skiing was followed by two visits to friends' houses then a "Viva Las Vegas" party which entailed a bit of snacking, drinking and lots of gambling. I never want to go to a real casino involving real money with Steve- he is way too reckless with his money! (Although I didn't do much better)
Looking forward to Eimear arriving tonight. At least we hope so- we are in for some bad weather so there may be delays but hopefully not for too long. She is on her way and has been diverted to Ottawa instead of Halifax but has been upgraded to first class for her trouble- not too bad!

Brendan's first birthday.

16 adults, 7 babies, 3 children, 2 parents and the birthday boy! Busy birthday party. Chocolate cake all over the place. We made three different types of soup- leek and potato, carrot and parsnip and chorizo and bean- and nearly finished them all. There were presents and cards, toys everywhere, food everywhere... Everyone loved Brendan's biggest and best present- his play table made by his daddy.
It has been a long day so we are going to rest now. Here's a video, no sound unfortunately but you get the idea- singing happy birthday and clapping.

busy busy buses

We had a very busy week and went into town three times on the bus. Brendan absolutely loves the bus and gets very excited pointing out all the cars and buses on the road and shouting caaa, caaa, ba, ba. We went to the library three times for different reasons and have met some stay at home mums who are not going back to work like all the other friends we've made so far. So we have a playgroup lined up with them.
Brendan is walking well already and is very stable. We can't believe how quickly he has taken to it. His first attempt was 7 steps taken 5 days ago and already he walks all the way around the room and can stop and start and turn and stamp his foot. He dances whenever he hears a beat and finds it hysterical!
He is currently playing his favourite joke on me. He puts his head down on something and pretends he is going to sleep and then sits up and laughs loudly at me as if to say, "ha ha, only joking, I'm wide awake and loving your attention".

Favourite things at the moment? Playing follow the leader around the house. Hasn't got the hang of being the leader yet- if we try he just turns around towards us and laughs. Steve and I are a little bored of Snappy Little Splashers. I think we read it at least ten times today. Other favourite is Tails. Also bananas, grapes (as ever) apples, buses, cars and bigger kids.

Steve has started his distance learning University course. So far, so good. He booked flights today for us to go to Edmonton in a few weeks.

Back to normal?

Brendan out in the snow.

The Christmas period has been good but we are home again and should be getting back to normal soon. We look forward to a few months with very little planned in the way of travel so we can wind down a bit before spring.
Got back to 80cm of snow so we had to wade through to get into the house and then Steve borrowed a snow blower from a friend and got the driveway, front path and steps cleared in just over an hour. It would have taken hours to do by hand.
Just enjoying our last weekend before Steve goes back to work and starts studying and Brendan and I get back to our regular activities. More later.