Winter Has Arrived...

Mon 17 Nov - Chris left BATUS on Monday afternoon for a 1 1/2 week trip back to the UK visiting Engineer Regiments around the country.

Tuesday morning I woke up to hear a message on the radio announcing that Ralston school would be closed for the day. I then looked out the window to see a snow storm going on and 70mph winds, by which time Tegan and Fraser were excited about no school. Some of the day was spent in the gym and ice arena and then an afternoon at home, during which time the snow storm had not stopped and the village was covered in snow but also ice due to the high winds and low temperature. Needless to say it has snow for the last 6 days and it looks like christmas has arrived - or so says Fraser.

Each morning now begins 1/2 hour earlier in order to put on all our winter clothes, including Jinx with her coat. Instead of cycling to school we are back on the sledge. So with Chris in England and a broken arm shovelling the path is not much fun but Fraser does insist on helping - then I'm back to square one. Some of the days have been sunny which makes everything look beautiful, once the sun disappears it is time to hibernate.

BFBS Tournament...

Sat 13 Nov saw the start of a weekend full of hockey. All day Saturday the BFBS tournament took place in Ralston's arena which was hosted by BFBS radio and the Devils. The BFBS tournament is a big part of the season as all teams play against each other including 2 Devils teams. The first puck drop was at 8am (much to Chris's disappointment no lie in for him on a Saturday morning) with the Icemen vs Orange Oilers - unfortunately the Oilers won. However I have to say the Icemen played really well during the tournament probably helped by the brufen and beer in the changing room during breaks!

The Devils had a table full of fantastic raffle prizes along with an auction for several activities/donations given by other players such as sports massage, personal training, karate lessons, swimming lessons, brownies, photography and a cooked meal for up to 6 people. The tournament is a big fund raiser for the Devils so everyone helped out. The Wildcats (junior hockey) also had a table selling cakes and hot waffles which went down very well.

All the games lasted 20mins with a constant turn over of games. During some of the floods BFBS held games for the children including 'pass the parcel' and the best one - pushing children sitting on a tray down the ice, not sure who had more fun the children or the adults pushing. Picture Fraser 2nd from left.

The final game took place just after 5pm with the Flyers vs Black Oilers. They had a great game but unfortunately it came down to penalty shots. After both teams scoring 1-1, then both missing the tension was great, finally the Flyers scored.

That evening we all got dressed up - well put on a pair of jeans and our respective hockey tops and went to party. So along with lots of drinking, a good curry, disco and Sam T doing the auction it was a fantastic day. Chris and I left just after 1.30am.

Sunday Tegan and Fraser had their skating lessons after which we jumped into the car to go and watch the NHL Oltimers vs Med Hat Fire Brigade ice hockey game in Medicine Hat.

The Oltimers had two Hockey Hall of Fame members - Bryan Trottier and Glenn Anderson. The rest of the team was Bob Bourne, Dave Ellett, Jimmy Mann, Warren Skorodenski, Thomas Steen & Jack Valiquette. They were all amazing skaters and such good entertainers especially considering they were in their 50's. Game play consisted of 3 x 20 mins and inbetween 2 figure skater girls came on - also very good. The other highlight was a group of junior hockey players (aged approx 4-5 yrs old) who came out to play with 3 of the oltimers, the guys were so good with the boys and it was very funny. The final score was 14-7 to the favourites, a great Sunday afternoon. Tegan left with a loud mini horn and Fraser bought a signed mini goalie stick.

Remembrance Day...

Wed 10 Nov Ralston School held an assembly for Remembrance Day.

All pupils attended along with parents and invited guest from the military. Pupils from Jenner School also attended as they are located fairly near to Ralston and only have about 14 pupils.






All year groups either sang a song or Kindergarten recited a poem whilst holding pictures of poppies. It means a lot to the children of the school as most of the pupils come from a military family, either British or Canadian and are aware of the current wars. It is also good that they learn the history of previous wars.








On the day of the 11th Tegan, Fraser and myself wrapped up warm and set off to attend the official Remembrance Day service at our own cenotaph in Ralston. Luckily the sun was out but the temperature was fairly cool which was not good for the children standing around, or adults. Tegan joined the Brownie group as they all sat together. There were many representatives from the local community, military personal from BATUS and CFB Suffield and guides and scouts. As always the service is very touching especially when the helicopter flew overhead at 11am and dropped hundreds of poppies onto us all below.

Foothills Brass Band...

Thursday 3 November Ralston School had the Foothills Quintet Brass Band visit the school for the day. Each grade had time with the band and got to learn all about music especially the sounds made from the brass instruments. The members of the band were extremely good at explaining music in the form that children could understand and kept them entertained.

A friend called me to say parents could go up to the school at 2pm to listen to the quintet along with the whole school in the gym. So on with my coat and off I went. It was lovely listening to them play Star Wars and Harry Potter along with many other different tunes. A great experience for the children to be so near to the instruments and players.

Brownies & Halloween...

Wednesday 20 October Tegan took her Brownie promise and is now a member of the 1st Ralston Girl Guides, previously she had been a Spark (the Canadian equivalent to Rainbows).

Mums and dads were invited to go along and watch them say their promise. So Tegan now has a new t shirt, scarf and toggle to wear each week.







Halloween weekend was a busy one. It started with the MFRC (Military Family Resource Centre) putting on a haunted supper so Tegan and Fraser got dressed up in their first set of costumes.

Friday lunchtime Ralston school had a halloween parade in the gym where all the children could show off their ghoulish outfits.



That evening it was my turn to dress up as it was John's birthday and Sam D had decided to throw him a party. Sam worked all day and turned their house into a haunted house of horrors, it looked amazing with coffins, grave stones and a smoke machine in the front garden. Inside there were cobwebs, spiders, dead people, limbs lying around and pots of 'blow your head off' chilli, even though one pots was supposedly mild! Everyone that came looked fantastic and it was eventually time to go home, the signal was Sam asleep whilst sitting on her dinning room chair.


Saturday evening Tegan was invited to Holly's Halloween party - another outfit - and again had a great time playing games and eating things that were orange. Fraser and I tagged along much to Fraser's enjoyment.

Halloween night finally arrived. The weather in Ralston was dry but getting a little cold not that the children cared it was more about how fast you could run from one house to the next and hold on tight to your ever bulging bag of candy. People in Ralston had made a brilliant effort with many of the houses totally decorated. Chris managed to get home in time to walk round with us. The evening finished with visiting the fire engines that had come down from the base. So with all their loot Tegan and Fraser checked out what they had and I finally managed to get them into bed. Fraser wanted to know if he could do 'trick or treat' again the following night?

Sheila & Alex's Wedding, Vancouver... Part Four

Sunday we were up fairly early to say our goodbyes and off to the airport. We had a chance to catch up with some of the family over breakfast - Trevor with his hangover was going back to bed. It had been a fantastic opportunity to see so many of Chris's family especially the ones that live in Canada, and the fact of us living in Canada we were able to attend Sheila and Alex's wedding. Vancouver is certainly a place I would like to go back to with all its water, bridges and lovely parks and amazing buildings.


Pat & Rick came to the airport with us as their flight back to the UK was only a couple of hours after ours. As always it is sad saying goodbye to family but we had all had such a fantastic time together and we would be back in the UK next summer. So with hugs and kisses done we waited in our departure lounge for the flight to arrive, much to Fraser's enjoyment at plane spotting.

Our flight was on time and within 1hr 5mins we were back in Calgary collecting cars and driving back to Ralston.

Another adventure over - until next time.....

Sheila & Alex's Wedding, Vancouver... Part Three

Friday night Rick kindly looked after Tegan and Fraser whilst I went out to dinner with Patsy and Kim - fab night at Earls.

At midnight something crawled into my hotel bedroom - Chris had finally made it to Vancouver. Up to this point Chris had still been out on the prairie working but his boss had agreed to let him have the 36hrs in Vancouver for his cousins wedding (thanks Stuart). I have to say it made my weekend not only to have Chris at the wedding but more help with my broken arm.


Saturday morning Tegan and Fraser came bouncing into my bedroom to jump all over daddy, Chris thought he was going to catch up on some sleep!!! We opened the curtains to a beautiful sunny day - just what you want for a wedding. Breakfast was great as Chris got to see his family and especially his cousins who live in Canada. For us the morning was a slow start, however Tegan had to join Sheila and the bridesmaids to have her hair and makeup done - very exciting for a little girl. Picture right - Sheila's mum and sister - getting ready.
After 'sushi' for lunch as previously mentioned our hotel was surrounded by Chinese and Japanese restaurants it was time to get ready and make our way to Queen Elizabeth Park and The Seasons in the Park restaurant. To our surprise a limo had been arranged to take us all departing from the hotel to the wedding venue - the kids thought it was great.




Sheila and Alex had organised a series of family wedding pictures to be taken in the nearby gardens, much to the interest of all the tourist people walking around, many of them Chinese who then started taking pictures of the wedding party - very odd.


After all the photos were taken we took our places inside for the wedding to start at 6pm. Sheila and Alex had kindly asked Tegan to be flower girl and she knew what she had to do during the
ceremony but we were still unsure of Fraser and if he would carry out his Ring Bearer duties. Just before the wedding ceremony started Sheila gave Fraser a silver badge to wear on his waistcoat - it was in the style of a sheriffs badge with Ring Bearer scrolled on it, I can't believe Sheila remembered it with so much going on, but it did put a big smile on Fraser's face and he loves it.

A little after 6pm the ceremony commenced with the 2 bridesmaids and flower girl walking in to take their places, followed by the guys (Alex's 2 brothers) and Fraser (so far so good) and finally Sheila and her dad. Sheila looked fantastic and her dress was absolutely beautiful. The wedding ceremony was lovely and with approx 50 guest it was very intimate and such a beautiful setting overlooking Vancouver.

Happy to say Fraser stepped upto the mark just at the right moment handing the rings to Sheila and Alex. After the ceremony we had a fantastic dinner and the wine flowed very happily during the speeches. When dinner had finished we all went down a spiral staircase to a dance floor and the night was carried on with a disco. With 2 very tired children it was time to leave. Alex and his family were wonderful and we all had a great time together getting to know new people, always good fun. As far as I know Sheila and Alex's big day went without a hitch and they both smiled all day and night, many congratulations to you both.

Sheila & Alex's Wedding, Vancouver... Part Two

Thursday morning was spent splashing around with Aunty Kim. Kim, I think, had a fantastic time playing with Tegan and Fraser in the swimming pool and hot tub. Fraser spent a lot of time dive bombing Kim or asking her to come into the hot tub and just as she sighed with relief at the warm temperature he then turned round and jumped back into the considerably cooler swimming pool. Sitting on the sideline it was very entertaining - but many thanks to Kim as the kids had a great time.



By mid morning Rick and I came up with an escape plan - leaving the four sisters to have time together. So we hopped into the car and set of for another Vancouver adventure this time to Granville Island. Granville Island is connect to the city by a small causeway and lies underneath one of the main highways in Vancouver. It is an island that is home to performing arts, art education, dining, artists studios, art galleries, cement factory, brewery, floating houseboats and fabulous public market with lots of fresh food and a great place to have lunch overlooking the waterways. The market place allowed us all to select different types of food for lunch whilst we sat in our window seat watching the aqua bus ferry people from one side of the waterway to the other. After wandering around the market and childrens marketplace, much to the delight of Tegan and Fraser, we then turned down to the shoreline and came across some amazing floating houses. These houses were by no means shabby little boats but two storey luxury homes most of them with ceiling to floor windows with views out onto the water and across to the city, their parking spaces were in the form of boats. We all had a fantastic time at Granville Island with so many things to see and do, a great place to visit and returned to the others full of our adventure.

Friday morning we decided to visit Grouse Mountain. We left the hotel with sunshine but when we arrived at Grouse Mountain the summit was covered from sight by a large grey cloud that did not appear to be moving, all around however was blue sky. So we had a coffee and then went to look at a dam just down the road but judging that the cloud was in fact moving and we should go for it. So the 6 of us (Pat, Rick, Kim, Tegan, Fraser and myself) jumped aboard the skyride and took the 8 minute, 1 mile journey up the mountain standing 3861ft.

Once at the top and with our zips firmly done up (the temperature was a cool 4 degrees - not good for Pasty) we could see the views across Vancouver and the range of things to do on top of the mountain, I got excited seeing all the ski runs - just a few more months to go! Our first point of call was to visit Cooler and Grinder two grizzly bears whose home is Grouse Mountain. They had both been born in June 2001 and although not related had separately become orphaned. Both bears were brought to the mountain refuge for endanger species several years ago and now have a 5 acre habitat to live in. All of us loved seeing the bears and managed to catch a theatre presentation on how the beer cubs were found and their life story so far.

After wandering around the mountain top it was decided we needed warming up so lunch was in order. At this point we noticed lots of people were very sweaty and wearing sports kit (ie not a lot of clothes much to Patsy's shivers). It was then that we found out about the Grouse Grind.

History
Hikers were first recorded on Grouse Mountain back in 1894 when a hunting party shot a blue grouse bird and named the mountain in the bird’s honour. It wasn’t until the 1920’s and early 30’s, however, that Grouse Mountain saw the first big wave of adventurous hikers. Several thousand people flocked to the face of the mountain each year looking to reach the cabins located in the Grouse Mountain village, at the foot of what is now known as The Cut ski run.

The Grouse Grind®, as we know it today, was first developed in 1981 by mountaineers looking for a challenging, convenient aerobic workout to sustain them for their longer hikes. They began by following the existing British Columbia Mountaineering Club trail, which still exists today, and offers a slightly less strenuous climb. People soon wanted a steeper route and about a quarter of the way up began using well-worn animal paths as their guide. The trail route was completed in the winter of 1983.

The Modern Day Revival
The revival began in the early 90s, when the trail was appropriately named the Grouse Grind® in conjunction with the first ever Grouse Grind Mountain Run®, now Western Canada’s premiere trail challenge. Often referred to as “Mother Nature’s Stairmaster,” the trail has become part of the fabric of Vancouver. More than 100-thousand hikers a year take on the challenge of the rugged terrain and steep climb, up an approximate 56 per cent slope (30°), which starts at the Valley Station of Grouse Mountain and finishes at the Peak’s plateau.

In 1996, the original cast of builders, along with a number of enthusiasts from the B.C. Federation of Mountaineering Club and Grouse Mountain, rebuilt the trail ensuring optimum safety and enjoyment for the high volume of hikers while maintaining the highest level of environmental protection from erosion.

Length:	2.9 kilometres (1.8 miles)
Elevation Gain:	853 metres (2,800 feet) - Base: 274 metres above sea level (900 feet) - Summit: 1,127 metres (3,700 feet) - Total Stairs: 2,830
Statistics:	Annually, over 100,000 people hike the Grind™.
Average Time:	On average it takes up to an hour and a half to complete the hike. For novice hikers, up to two hours is recommended.
Participants:	Hikers range in age from 7 to 90, with an equal male/female split.

Course Record
The official course record to date for men is 25:01 held by Sebastian Salas set at the 2010 BMO Grouse Grind Mountain Run®. For women, the record is 31:04 held by Leanne Johnston and set at the 2007 event. Unofficially (that is, a record set outside the annual Grouse Grind Mountain Run®) the course record is a blistering 23:48 that is also held by Sebastian Salas.