Winter, Christmas/NYE and our UK Trip

The Cold Part of the Year - Winter.

We began preparing for winter in November - and how glad we are that we did as mid November we had snow and a cold snap of -20c to -28c for a few days.
Alastair bought a new car for his commute to work and we begun to kit out our vehicles with winter tyres. Something we never had to think about in the UK - but an absolute must do over here as not only do the tyres help you move in the snow they are also critical to the safety of yourself when suddenly stopping. One test of tyres I read said stopping from 40 mph snow tyres did it in 156 feet, All season tyres in 184-foot and the summer tyres (what we would normally use year round in the UK) - skate to an ultimate distance of 351 feet.

We had a really bad wind at the end of November when out buying snow boots. There was damage to buildings across the city and part of downtown was closed as some window's in one of the sky scrapers had blown through shattering glass onto the street below. Calgary is a windy town because of its proximity to the mountains but this day was particularly bad with winds up to130km/h    and weather warnings across this part of the province.

Standard winter attire: snow boots and descent winter jackets, gloves, hats and thermals - and a sledge!!!

Imogen all nice and snug for a walk around the lake across the road

We had bought a new snow shovel for the drive after struggling with just the battered one the land lord left - and oh how happy we did as shortly after we had this snow fall:

Most people will shovel their drive as soon as the snow stops falling. We have tried to do this every time. If you don't and drive over the snow it compacts into ice and is even more difficult to remove when you eventually get round to it. So there have been days for me which have started by shovelling the drive and scraping the ice off that Alastair has created on his way to work at 6.30am. It is city by law that if you have a public pathway that boarders onto your property that you have to clear the foot path within 24hrs of the snow fall stopping (the foot path on our street is over the road - yey). Although I can imagine this being a pain it also in a lot of ways makes sense. Can you imagine this idea being brought to the UK - especially with the bouts of snow the country has been having over the past few years.
As soon as the snow is falling all of the major roads have snow ploughs/gritters out keeping the population moving. The main bus routes are cleared and eventually after a few days you will see ploughs out on residential streets.


Fun in the Mountains

In November I took some Ski lessons at the Calgary Olympic Park which is a 5-10min drive from our house and can be seen from the upstairs windows. 
Putting the lessons to good use at the beginning of December Alastair and I headed to Nakiska - a ski resort about an hours drive away. We put Imogen in the crèche and headed to the slopes. We had lots of fun but unfortunately on his last run Alastair fell and bruised his ribs badly. He spent the next 2-3weeks in agony and not being very mobile! This affected our Christmas break as he couldn't move much so our plans to go to the slopes again and spend time in the mountains doing activities were cancelled.

What a difference a season makes - this is a photo taken at Bow Falls in Banff.

And here is a photo taken in December.

When we got back from the UK we went to Lake Louise to check out the Ice Magic Festival.

Ice Magic Festival - Lake Louise

The British Entry

The road to Lake Minnewanka

2 Jacks Lake

Just chillin by the road.

Bow Falls Banff

Walking on the Bow River - Down town Banff

 Ice Skating

All around the city when the lakes have frozen many of them are turned into rinks for use by the public - for free. here is the one down town. I made it to Lake Louise for a spot of skating.

Ice Skating - Princes Island Park, Down town Calgary

Christmas & New years

The Holiday Train

Holidays are coming holidays are coming.....The Canadian Pacific Railway dedicate a train every year to travel across Canada stopping in communities to collect money and donations for local food banks. We decided to head on down to see it. The train is lit from beginning to end in festive lights, opening in the middle to reveal a band playing festive songs. It is called the Canadaian Pacific Holiday Train. We had a great evening taking part in the festivity, the weather was nice too!

Festivities & Celebrations

Like many in our neighbourhood we put lights up on the exterior of our house to celebrate the holiday season. Most houses in the area did this. Some where more extravagant than others.We kept it simple.

We had a very quiet Christmas compared to our normal dashing between England and Northern Ireland  to catch up with friends and family. We enjoyed our Christmas morning together in our home and then we were invited to Lesley-Anne's for Christmas Dinner. And what a feast she had been kind enough to prepare.

We had a quiet new Years eve at home. We made steak for our evening meal, played a board game and watched a film. We decided to make more of New Years day and had planned to go out to Lake Louise to Ice Skate. Unfortunately whilst getting ready to leave the house I had injured my toe so badly that I could barely walk on it - so there was no way I was going to be able to Ice Skate - we spent the whole day in the house :-(

Our trip to the UK to share in a very special day and to meet our niece.

Earlier than anticipated we were made our way back to the UK to share in Frances and David's wedding day.   We thought getting an evening flight would be best for all - Imogen would be too tired and hopefully fall asleep and by the time we arrive in the UK we could easily get over the jet lag - as its much harder to get over travelling east. How wrong we were! Imogen did not sleep until 2.30am and then woke every hour trying to turn over. By the time we arrived in the UK we had had little over 2 1/2hrs sleep. However we were greeted by 'Gregs' and soon after Rob and Erin who welcomed us into the comfort of their home for our stop over - a proper English brew and non aeroplane food!

We were very glad to arrive in Northern Ireland and to our home for the next week. It took us longer than normal to get over jet lag as Imogen would wake and want to play between 12-am and 3 for the first few nights - play time mama!! Once we were over this we could enjoy our time here and relax a little.

We made a trip out to Giants Causeway taking the coast road:

Hanging around the farm:

 A belated Christmas Dinner:

 And of course - the big day which was great:

  After leaving Northern Ireland we ventured across to England and split our time between, Manchester, London and Leeds - and for some reason didn't manage to get very many pictures of this leg of our trip. No wonder though as we were very very busy meeting with people, changing accommodation 3times and making sure we had some fun too. Needless to say as much as we were missing every one we were very happy to be on our way home by the end of it - no matter where that was - i wanted my own bed.

Before we went to the UK I joked to Ally ' wouldn't it be great if we missed a really cold snap whilst here!' Well we did - we missed a week long of -30c!!!!


We are definitely beginning to look forward to summer. Especially as we hear how warm it is getting back home and cant wait to float down the bow - tho we have spring to go through which is sleet, snow and rain!!

I promise to update soon!!!

I know I know - management of this type of thing has never been my strong point!!
I have so much to catch up on, I promise to do this soon. I've been really busy with lots of different things - including selling hand made goodies for kids!

Imogen's 2nd Birthday - a reflection.

There was a week in June 2009 that changed my life forever. It was the week that I found out I was pregnant, and not many people know it was also the week we received our medical requests from the Canadian Embassy! Fear of the un-kown and the massive change that was about to happen to us set in. We already had a wedding to plan, and now the final stages of our application were beginning. Could we do it, do we still want to go - how are we going to manage this with a child? when will we go? Should we still get married or wait or move it forward? What are we going to do about work?? and breath.....

There were many times we considered not making the move here, being away from family and friends with out a child is hard enough but now being so far away from our support network with a child is not a decision you take litghtly. We had spoken about it for so long. We wanted this for so long - every one was expecting this to happen - and now it is! We soon found our self asking - is this going to be a positive move for our child?

Today is Imogen's 2nds Birthday - Is this move a positive one for Imogen? The answer is not conclusive - not being able to share in the day in its wholeness with our family and friends in the UK is a sacrifice we knew we were making when we made the decision to move here. It was a hard one. But I know we make up for it as much as we can by skyping often - making sure she knows who her family are by talking about them all the time, showing pictures and being involved in their special events in what ever way we can.

So after having many of my friends and their children around to celebrate I am sat here reflecting on our decision to move here. The photo's you see and the activities I write about in my blog are only part of the picture. There are the appointments you need to make and then to find some one to look after Imogen, the crisis days when you want to go round your good friends for a brew and a talk to get it all out.  Missing the big and small birthdays, births, marriages and not being able to physically comfort those close to you in times of sadness are all things we miss.

But here we are - 2 years and 9months after that life changing week - I am sat writing this as Mrs Gray in our home in Canada after a party to celebrate our daughters second birthday. I am so happy we moved here - yet so sad to leave our UK life behind us. Was it right - I don't know- but I believe it was wrong to not even try. 

Vacation - finally!

Well hello, its been a while. and staying true to my promise I am going to write about our summer vacation - how that feels so long ago!

Its time for the North American Family Vacation

Craving for a break we took a family holiday in August. Having exhausted all of our finances moving here we opted to holiday close to home instead of somewhere like Mexico or in the States as many Canadians do. So off we went in our SUV to one of our favourite destinations Banff. Although only an hour away Banff was the perfect location to use as a jump off point  for exploring parts of the Rockies we hadn't seen before. Our plan was to visit Golden & Radium stopping off at various points on the way.

In Banff we stayed at Douglas Fir. We have stayed here previously when Alastair and I first came to this part of Canada in 2008. Douglass fir is set a few minutes drive from down town on Tunnel Mountain Road - there is also a free bus for residents. The resort backs into the woods where you are spoilt by wildlife and views. If you ever come to visit us and we have a weekend away in Banff it is very likely that we will end up staying here!

Imogen taking a walk out the back of the chalet.

Banff really is an all year round destination. Serving hikers, fishing (even scuba divers!) & mountain bikers in the summer. By winter it turns into a winter wonderland serving skiers and those looking for that enchanted little alpine town covered in snow. Banff has a great range of shops, restaurants and bars to visit. It is essentially made up of one main street full of shops and restaurants running through the middle of the town and to the west of the main street has a few more streets of shops etc. Down town area is very flat so easy to get round on foot but soon you are met with hills into the mountains. Banff is part of Parks Canada and is in Banff National Park. To stop here you have to purchase a park pass as you do if stopping in any of Canada's 42  national parks. As we visit the area so much we have an annual park pass (as many Calgary residents do).

Golden

So as I said from Banff we went to explore two areas. The first was Golden BC- in particular the kicking horse resort.  Golden is a 2hr drive from Banff and takes you into the province of British Columbia.

The Kicking Horse Resort has a Bear refuge which is what attracted us to the area. We were very lucky to catch Boo (the bear) taking a bath just before the tour started! 

Boo finished with his bath.

On the way back down from the Refuge.

Whilst here we dined at the Eagle's Eye Restaurant (Canada's most elevated restaurant). the views were breath taking - I told Alastair if we could go back and plan our wedding again - it would be here!!!!

Dining on top of the world!

Radium

Again Radium is a 2hr drive from Banff. We stopped for a picnic on the way with our Cob BBQ by Vermillion Crossing.

 And further along at some beautiful sights. If you can see in the back ground of the photo above the trees look grey. Unfortunately this area suffered from a wild fire in 1968. The fire was started by lightening, burned for four days and destroyed 6029acres (that's like 7500 football pitches!). All around the national parks there are fire warnings (low, medium, high) and bans on camp fires etc according to the severity of the warning.

  We were visiting Radium to go to the Hot Springs.Which would have been a more joyful experience if it wasn't 30c out! The springs were however a welcome rest even if they smelt a bit from the sulphur! After visiting the springs we took a little detour to the other side of the town of Radium where we saw the most amazing views of the Wetlands.  The Columbia Valley's are definitely on our to do list for a future vacation.

The weather was very good to us all week apart from the last day - which it rained - typical! By this point Imogen had developed a cold and needed her own bed. So we left earlier than we had wanted which meant we couldn't go to Lake Louise to see our relatives Mat and Mel.

Here is a link to a Holiday Album  on face-book with more photo's. Now to start writing about our family invasion!  Oh and still no bear sightings!

Anniversary, Halloween & Family Invasion's!!

 Happy Wedding Anniversary!

Can't quite believe that our 1st Wedding Anniversary had come round so fast. But as my aunt says to me you have done so much in the last few years its easy to see how. And what a better place to spend it than in the area where we got engaged!  Alastair and I managed to get a baby sitter and went out for a meal at River Cafe where we probably ate the most delicious food we had ever tasted! Celebrations were kept short as we had my parents arriving the next day! 

INVASIONS!

So what possessed us to agree to arranging visits from both our parents over a 5 week period! I don't know. Liz and John had had their flights booked for a while. It was my Mums 50th in September. My parents had both planned on coming out for her birthday but unfortunately my mum had broken her foot so we didn't think it was worth spending all that money for her to be sat up most of the time. But then we found really cheap flights - and thought what the hey - why not, so one very special birthday gift and an 8 hour flight they were here on 25th September.

The Johnston Invasion

The day my parents arrived was weather wise the very last day of summer - its was 28c, so we fired the BBQ up and a jet lagged mum and dad got to taste Ally's home made burgers. The weather for the rest of the time stayed mild but it did begin to get cooler.

You are going to feel like you have read things twice in this blog as we pretty much did the same trip with both sets of parents- as we feel we will with most people who come to visit us.

We had a weekend in Banff (at Douglas fir of course) and Alastair managed to talk his way into getting one of the cabins.

Whilst in in Banff we visited Johnston Canyon -

 Moraine Lake, which is only open until early October as the road to the lake is not serviced in winter so Is completely impassable. On your drive up to the lake you can see evidence of avalanches. The lake is fed by a glacier (like Lake Louise)

Imogen sat on the logs at one end of Moraine Lake

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We also went to Lake Louise:

Columbia Ice Field Parkway

We attempted to go to the Columbia Ice Field. We drove all the way there on the Ice Field parkway. On the way up we could see that the weather was becoming colder and snow was starting to fall (-1c). We decided to wait to see what the weather was like when we got there. Well - we arrived in blizzard like conditions and decided not to waste our money on the tour as we couldn't see anything - a beautiful drive tho!

The Park way began being built in 1931 by hundreds of unemployed men put to work buy the governement. They were paid 20cents a day and used picks, shovels and horses for mechanized equipment the crews had only a few small tractors. The road opened quietly in 1940 and was widened with the auto-tourist boom of the 1950's and 60's. The parkway is classed as a destination in itsself. Its purpose is not to simply get you from a-b but to expose you to the beauty of the area, its many lakes and waterfalls.  It is open all year round except when closed due to severe snow fall. The road is patrolled everyday by rangers and in winter there are no patrols after 4pm - you are advised when entering the parkways (which is part of Jasper National Park) to have a full tank of petrol and supplies just in case!

Sulphur Mountain

Those of you who know my mother will know what a feat this was - we went up Sulphur Mountain on the Banff Gondola. A breath taking 2,292ft to the summit.

Look- proof Mum made it!

Down by Bow River Falls

 So that was our weekend in the mountains. the rest of my parents time here was spent doing other touristy things like - visiting Heritage park -

Steam Boat

Going for a trip downtown:

This is a picture of my mum at the Famous five monument  in the Olympic plaza downtown Calgary. It is this area of downtown that has had the Occupy protesters in for the past few months. It was cleared - or rather the protesters left before the deadline - in the beginning of December - good job too as i couldnt imagine camping in -25c!

The Calgary Tower:

Yes we got her up here too! 

My parents left on Sunday 9th October. Alastair's Parents arrived on Monday 17th October. The weather by this time was much cooler.

The Gray Invasion

With Liz and John we again went to stay in Banff for a few days. From here we went to Johnston Canyon - but this time we saw a Bear!!

We also visited Lake Louise, this time we went for a walk around. It was much much colder than a few weeks before.

 The Lake should be frozen by now and ready for ice skating on. Soon there will be the Ice Magic Festival.

We visited Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park - British Columbia. The area harbours some magnificent scenery and fossils. 

"The Burgess Shale preserves the 510-million-year-old remains of more than 120 species of marine animals, many of them new to science when Charles Walcott studied them. The fossils are so exquisitely preserved that scientists have been able to see what these ancient creatures ate just before they died!" from Parks Canada. 

If you would like to know more about the significance of these fossils follow this link. 

These guys were rather friendly flying about our heads hunting for scraps of food!

 On our way home from Emerald Lake we saw another bear!! This one was walking in the ditch at the side of the road and was spotted by Ally who promptly stopped the car and swung round.

Two Jacks Lake - near Banff

Bow Falls, Banff

 Whilst Liz and John were here Alastair and I went to see Frank Turner and the Foo Fighters! How lucky were we that they were playing whilst we had grandparents visiting! Unfortunately whilst here we all managed (apart from Liz) to catch some stomach bug which meant at one point or another we one of us was out of action for a day. Imogen and I missed going downtown with John and Liz and John missed coming to Elbow Falls with us.

Happy Halloween! 

Liz and John left on 31st October - all hallows eve! Through the week (as many do here) I had decorated the house with cobwebs, pumpkins and ghosts.

 Unfortunately for our little trick or treater we had to drop Liz and John at the airport at the 'prime' trick or treating time.  All was not lost - as we got home in time to visit a few houses.

 Check out her stash! most of which we still have!

Well That's it for now folks. I had aimed to get this out before Christmas, but the festivities took over! I hope you all had a great Christmas and a fantastic New Year.
We leave fore the UK tomorrow for 2 lovely weeks so I hope to blog when I get home about - must remember rain coat ;-)

Oh and here is a little video for you!