Busy Weekend Eating & Drinking...

So with two weeks left in Canada we really should be sorting out our quarter, cleaning, clearing out the rubbish, sorting out the sheds, weeding the garden and so the list goes on - however we have been out eating and drinking.

Tue morning Ralston School held a pancake breakfast for all the students and parents from 8am to 9am. A first happened in our house that morning, Tegan and Fraser were up and dressed ready to go by 7.15am needless to say we were one of the first to be at the school. We were just beaten by our friend Noo, Lexi and Harry - which was quite astonishing as Noo is not known for being on time!! Tegan and Fraser both tucked into numerous pancakes, maple syrup and sausages.

Now that the weather has finally picked up and the snow really has all gone I am able to run around the prairie again much to Jinx's delight. There has become quite a little group of us who all drop the kids off at school and then head out on the different trails around the village. For the last 3 weeks several girls have been taking part in the biggest looser - I managed to put on weight the first week so the running is definitely helping.

Fri night Chris and I were off out with all '6' group - the guys that Chris works with and their wives/girlfriends. We went to Moxi's in Medicine Hat to have some food and ended up staying there until the early hours in the morning and then decided to go dancing at Ralphs. The boys presented Chris with a very unique leaving present - whatever it is Chris is over the moon and thinks its great. The girls kindly gave me a couple of new running T shirts with Canada motifs, a new baseball cap and a fab photo book of Medicine Hat. We had a brilliant night full of laughs, lots of drink, dancing and finished off calling into Tim Hortons for takeout coffee & doughnuts!

Needless to say Chris didn't manage to spring out of bed on Saturday morning but managed to surface early afternoon. The day soon disappeared and we were then off out again - to Seafood Night at the mess. The theme was Pirates. Once again Noo (along with a team of helpers) transformed the mess into an amazing stage of pirate treasurer, boardwalks, ponds, twinkly lights, palm trees, pirate flags and lots & lots of fish hanging from the ceiling!!! Virtually everyone of the 150 guest dressed up with lots of amazing costumes - there were lots of Jack Sparrow's.


Our starters were served at the table - a very large lobster. Chris was more than happy as I cannot eat lobster so he lucked in with 2. We then went to the buffet were more fish was to be had along with salads and roast beef. During the dinner there was a sudden uproar and several pirates lunged into the centre of the dinning room for a dual with several having very long winded deaths. Chris left the evening very early as Prairie Thunder one was starting in the early hours of Sunday morning along with John who is Chris's successor. So Lucille (John's wife) and I decided to carry on the party along with friends.


It was very hard introducing Lucille to new people when they were all in such good fancy dress outfits, she will never recognise anyone. Especially the colourful parrot.


Sunday was a calm day with a dog walk and then purchasing new cowboy boots for Tegan and Fraser with 'room to grow' in them once we are back in the UK.

Three Weeks To Go...

Sun 22 May - This time in 3 weeks we will be off the plane and back in the UK - time is really going far too quickly. So we are doing all the usual things that need to be completed before another posting - cancelling tv, internet, telephone providers, closing bank accounts (not that there has ever been any money in there) and trying to sell things that we do not wish to take back to the UK. The list of 'things to do' is ever increasing including all of Jinx's documentation but I am sure we will get there.

Thursday night we had the Black Devils end of season party - slightly late but it was the first date we could all get together. Sam kindly opened her house for 18 of us to turn up have a bbq and sit round the fire pit which luckily kept all the mosquito's away. It was a great night full of girlie chat, witty poetry by Jilly (who was the Blacks Captain) great food & drink and fun playing with the fire pit the straddlers finally left just after 1am - I think we may have woken a few people up on our walk home!

Friday lunchtime saw Chris's leaving lunch held at the mess along with Tom who is leaving at the same time. Lunch was a curry which is always lovely as there are no curry houses in Medicine Hat. Richard was given the task of doing Chris's leaving speech and took the opportunity to 'highlight' some of Chris's finer points over the last 2 years - not much to do with the prairie!! Stuart (commander) presented Chris with a beautiful silver buffalo as a presentation piece and I really do like it for a change. After lunch the guys took up their places in the bar and there they remained until late evening.





The weekend has been a mixture of work on the prairie and socialising. Sam D, Noo and I went to see Grease sing-a-long at the Monarch Theatre in downtown Medicine Hat. Unfortunately they had technical difficulties and the sing-a-long bit didn't work, so they played the movie and the audience sang along anyway. Good fun - always loved the movie. Sunday night was spent at friends for a bbq - my diet, ready for our return to the UK, keeps being sabotaged.

Monday Tegan and Fraser are not at school which doesn't help my intent to start cleaning the house - oh well.

Moving/Drag Racing/Sheila & Alex/General Fraser....

Monday 2nd May - The packers arrived. I cannot believe that it is our turn to move. During our time in Ralston you watch many removal vans arrive around the village and all of a sudden that truck turns up at 4 Detrick Avenue. Luckily the sun was shinning that day so perfect for the guys to be packing boxes and moving outside, especially as there isn't much room in our house when you add an extra 4 guys and lots of boxes. Although I had packed several boxes it still took them most of the morning to pack, along with quite a few coffee breaks. So with all our belongings on their way back to the UK we are living out of suitcases and the remaining army furniture which is very useful and making the whole process much easier. Slowly we are selling off all the extra things that we have bought whilst in Canada that will not work in the UK.

So with an empty house you would think I have lots of time on my hands, as usual my days fly by. There has been lots of 'socialising' over the last couple of weeks mostly around food and drink, but the summer seems to have arrived in Ralston along with the ever increasing swarms of mosquitos.
At the end of April Kindergarten mums were invited into school for a 'mothers day tea'. All the children had drawn pictures of their mummys and had to stand on stage and say what was special about their mummys. Fraser did a great picture and actually managed to stand on stage and speak, I am still suprised how shy he is when at school. We were then invited back to the classrooms for strawberries and ice cream.





This weekend we have had a fab time - 13 May. Friday night we all went Drag Racing. We didn't quite know what to expect. As we have learnt during our time in Canada most things are very laid back and children are well looked after, hence our entrance was $5 each for Chris and I and the children were free, along with being given stickers. The races started at 7pm so we took our places on the bleachers and watched in amusement as all sorts of cars lined up to race one another. There was everything from normal road cars, trucks & motorbikes (all with fast engines) to proper drag cars and even a hearse - hilarious. We left at 8.30pm although the races went on until 10pm - by this time the wind had increased and was a little cold, but great fun.

Saturday morning Chris was in work and I frantically got our house ready, made easier by not so many things in the house, as Chris's cousin Sheila and her husband had very kindly flown in from Vancouver for the weekend. Sheila and Alex arrived mid afternoon after landing at Calgary and driving down, they did remark at the lack of scenery whilst driving through the prairie. We had a great afternoon & evening catching up. Sunday morning after a lazy breakfast we all went to Echo Dale Park for a dog walk then returned for a Sunday late lunch. Vancouver Canucks were playing San Jose Sharks (ice hockey) for which Alex is a big canucks fan so Fraser was more than happy to watch the hockey. Unfortunately Alex and Sheila had to leave for the drive back to Calgary during the 3rd period, at the point of leaving the Canucks were loosing - luckily whilst driving the Cancuks scored 2 more goals and Alex was very happy. We had a wonderful 28hours together and very much appreciated their journey and effort to come and visit us before we return to the UK.

Mon 16 May - Kindergarten children have recently all been learning about transport and were set a task to build a mode of transport from boxes and there was to be a parade in the school gym. So Chris took the project to hand and with a small help from Fraser produced General Fraser's jeep. It was a great morning watching all the children walk around the gym with their different types of transport, lots of tanks funnily enough. After playing a few games in their boxes it was time to get on with some lessons. Fraser has mentioned how are we going to get his jeep on the aeroplane - haven't told him it is going to the recycling!

R.M.S. Titanic ...

Thu 28 Apr - ,After checking out of the Falcon Crest at Canmore we drove in pretty hideous conditions, to Calgary. We still cannot believe that it is snowing so much, at this rate the ski slopes will remain open until the end of May.

We were off to visit the Telus Science Museum to see the White Star Line - Titanic exhibition. The science museum has removed all it other exhibits and only has the Titanic exhibition through to the end of summer. Both Tegan and Fraser were really keen to go as several of their friends have been and told them about it. So an educational day out - they might retain some of the information?

On our entrance each one of us was given a different 'Boarding Pass' which on the reverse had details of who we were, age, where we were from, accompanied by, the class that we travelled and our reason for travelling. At the end of the exhibition there was a large wall showing how many people in each class or crew that either lived or died. Luckily Tegan, Fraser and myself all survived - Chris was not so fortunate.

We started off by going to the theatre room to listen to a presentation about the liner and those people that were heroes or people, predominately men, who were portrayed cowards. There were many amazing stories. The captain Edward John Smith was persuaded by White Star Line to make one more voyage before his retirement - as all captains do he went down with his ship.



The exhibition included many artifacts that have been recovered from the liner sitting at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean. Including in one of the cabinets were bottles that had once contained wine along with 3 bottles of champagne that still had their eroded corks in and half full of champagne - although a little salty maybe!

After a fascinating time at the Telus museum we jumped into the car and headed back to Ralston, luckily the weather had calmed down and the journey home was fine. This was our last time in the Rocky Mountains which we will certainly miss, the mountains are always breadth taking and we have a lot of amazing memories from our time staying there.

Monday 2 May - the packers arrive, so Sat & Sun will be spent throwing things into boxes - nothing like last minute preparation for the Leonards.

Last Day Skiing at Sunshine...

Snowwhite is missing one of her seven dwarfs - he came skiing today!!












Well for our last day skiing at Sunshine Village we had a full day of snow which started about 11am and didn't stop all day. However it made for awesome skiing as there was glorious powder on the slopes and still the mountain was fairly empty. Tegan and Fraser both skied well and we played amongst the trees finding lots of jumps to their joy and cries from me as I went over them. During the morning we skied the top part of the mountain and then as the cloud came in went down lower to ski Rollercoaster and several other runs of Wolverine chair lift. Rollercoaster is one of the kids favourites as it is a small run amongst the trees and all about 'bumps and lumps'.

What has become the norm we left the mountain and after a quick stop in Canmore headed for the hot tub which we sat in with snow falling on our heads, although it felt considerably warmer than when we skied during February when temperatures were -30degrees and below.

Farewell to Sunshine....

Today (Tue 26 April) we woke up for our penultimate day of skiing in the Rocky Mountains. To our joy the sun was trying to appear and more to our surprise it was warm as we parked up at Sunshine Village car park - a first as before now we have been putting on our ski boots in minus lots. Friends have very kindly lent us their VIP parking pass which enabled us to park very near to the lifts. So onto the gondola we jumped and headed up the mountain. The first part of the morning we had snow showers but still wonderful skiing, especially as the mountain was so empty. After lunch the sun came out with blue skies which just made the whole ski experience great, especially as Tegan and Fraser just wanted to go over jumps.

After leaving the mountain we popped into Banff and then headed back to the Falcon Crest for a bit of hot tubing with a view of the three sister mountains. Then back to our room for a bbq and to watch the Stanley Cup hockey games - we have become so Canadian.

Easter...

Whoops the weeks have yet again flown by, I will catch up for the end of March beginning of April on my return to Ralston.

The week before Ralston school broke up for Easter holiday the Kindergarten class went for a trip to Police Point Park to visit the nature centre to see the chicks and bunnies and have a walk outside to look at the first sights of Spring. As a parent helper I was asked to come along much to the joy of Fraser who I 'had' to sit next to on the bus. It was a great morning out and really good to see all the childrens faces as they got to stroke the chicks and bunnies.

Ralston school broke up for their Easter leave on Good Friday. Fortunately Chris has also been able to take leave as it was decided that Prairie Thunder One should be cancelled. This was due to the awful weather that we were still having, lots of snow, therefore making the prairie hazardous and the troops coming over to take part in the exercise would not be able to achieve the training. So much to our delight we could take leave and have another adventure.

It was all planned that we would go to Yellowstone Park and friends kindly had lent us their RV (campervan) but again the weather was not on our side with the forecast for Montana's weather as snow, ice and rain. We waited until Wed night before making a decision that it was not going to be much fun driving for so long and not being able to 'fling open the doors of the RV and run around Yellowstone'. So Plan B was put into action.

Easter Friday was spent at home and Saturday we went to watch the Medicine Hat Tigers vs Kootenay Ice game. Fraser was so excited, I cannot tell you how much he is into his ice hockey - given the choice of watching childrens tv or an ice hockey game there is only one choice. So as always it was great to watch live ice hockey but unfortunately the Med Hat Tigers lost 3-0 with lots of pushing and shoving.

Sunday morning we were up and packing ready for Plan B trip to Calgary and Canmore. Tegan and Fraser were up bright and early and ready for the easter egg hunt for all the eggs that the Easter Bunny had left in our garden. First stop was two days in Calgary staying at the Sheraton Eau Claire which is located in the city centre and on the Bow River. After the drive up to Calgary, lunch at the Chinook Mall and check in to the hotel we went for a walk down by the river and to the park - it was a glorious day and great to have a play. We had supper at Joey Tomatoes and then called it a day.

Easter Monday we decided to visit Calgary Zoo as again the weather was perfect. First stop was the gorillas enclosure and we were just in time to catch the commentary by one of the park keepers. There was a silverback male, five females along with a 3 year old - all very interesting and entertaining to watch. The day was spent meandering around the zoo and due to the lovely weather all the animals were happy to oblige their audience. The elephants were very interesting and Tegan got to hold some elephant poo - which had apparently been cooked and therefore became hard!! Late afternoon we decided that we had seen all that we wanted and hopped into the car to drive to Canmore. After checking into the Falcon Crest we had a bbq for supper and then to bed - skiing tomorrow.