More ski pics

(this is a little out of order, but I'm sure you can still follow the chronology).
Since this was a special occasion, we used our airline miles to upgrade to first class. This is my first flight in first class (actually, business class). I walk past the first class seats all the time and think "what's so great about that?". Well, in case you haven't tried it, IT IS GREAT. Here's the lunch:

This is a salad w/ buffalo chicken and big chunks of bleu cheese on it, chips, dressing and dip for the chips. Prior to that we got hot wet cloths to clean our hands, and before that, WARM mixed nuts. And they bringing you drink refills until you say whoa. It's more like being a guest at someone's home than it is having a flight attendant wait on you.
Folks in economy class got a free softdrink and could purchase chips or granola bars.

Back to skiing....

Here's a group picture taken at Lake Louise. It's sort of hard to tell, but the sun is shining on the top of the mountain behind us.

Scenery picture at Lake Louise.....the actual frozen lake, not the ski area. We did a little sight seeing on the way home from skiing one day. Again, pictures don't do it justice. I think I forgot to mention earlier, but all of Banff and the area we were in is in a National Park.

Other ski pics of interest

Last group of ski pics.....

Here are some sheep that were on the side of the road. I don't have a picture of it, but there are all these small bridges going across the highways, but they aren't paved, they have grass, etc growing on them. They are for wildlife crossing. More info here:
http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/ab/banff/docs/routes/chap1/sec1.aspx

After 4 days in Banff, we went back to Calgary for 2 days. They have a really neat downtown area and we stayed at a nice hotel. They Dallas Stars also played while we were there, so we had to go. It was really neat to attend a hockey game in Canada. They love their hockey! One of the most amazing things was that nearly EVERY person in the crowd was wearing a red Flames jersey. Not just a t-shirt or something with a logo on it, but an actual (replica) jersey. I'm used to seeing about 20% jerseys at Stars home games.

Part of the neat downtown area. There is one street where all the shopping occurs, and they close that down to traffic on the weekends. They have very pretty lights strung across the street, and you can't tell from the photo, but there are long lights that hang down and appear to 'drip' like an icicle. Super pretty!

And as per usual, nearly every time we go skiing, Parker gets sick. I guess it's just a typical February thing, everyone has colds or worse around this time. We usually do a good job of dodging illness compared to a lot of kids her age, but at some point the law of averages catches up with us I guess. In this picture, she's not sucking her finger, she's doing the elementary school child 'check for wiggly teeth'.

She's better now, by the way. I'm not looking forward to the double detox after being pampered by Gigi and then catered to by me while being sick.

Canada Ski pics

This year for our ski trip, we decided to go somewhere extra special to celebrate Bob's 40th birthday. Since Whistler, our first choice, in Vancouver was going to be busy with Olympics, we chose to go to Banff, Canada. We flew into Calgary, and had a 2 hour drive to Banff. It's a very easy drive because with each passing mile, you are getting close and closer to mountains and there is beautiful scenery all along the way.

We went with our usually ski companions, Nick and Cindy. Nick also happens to be Bob's boss, so they also go on the work ski trips.

We went to two different ski areas, Sunshine Valley and Lake Louise. They both had an ok snow base, but really needed fresh snow, so the skiing was pretty good, but not great. Lots and lots of icy conditions, so you couldn't ski very hard or fast. Luckily, there views and scenery were UNREAL. The temps were in the teens, and the sun was usually out and shining on the mountains which made the snow and any falling snow TWINKLE and sparkle. It was amazing.

Here are some random pictures, but they just don't do it justice. Most pictures were preceded by "oh wow, look at that! take my picture!"

Traditional lift picture. Bob takes these by holding his phone out.

One very cool thing was the layer of clouds or fog that would hover over the valleys. After this, I skied down a different direction, not in the direction of the black diamond on the sign behind me.

For whatever reason, the cold maybe, the snowflakes would land and keep their perfect shape. I'm used to clumpy wet Texas snow...I've never seen this happen before.

More pics coming soon....

More snow pics

Here are some more snow pictures of the house and yard - Gigi took these. So pretty!

Front yard

Pretty tree in driveway.

Pretty Parker in snow. She saved this snowball and one other for me and Bob in the freezer.

Backyard view from the back of the kitchen

Most of the snow is melted now....I went for a run today and in nearly every yard there is a slumped, half melted, half dressed snowman. But no people....I guess Texans can only handle so much cold weather and snow play.

Snow Pictures

What? You were expecting some other kind of pictures? Not ski trip pics? Ok ok, I'll do ski trip later.


But to put the other ones in context, all of the RECORD SETTING SNOWFALL in the DFW area happened while Bob and I were in Canada skiing and celebrating his 40th birthday. Ironically, there was nearly zero new snowfall where we skied in Canada.

These are mainly pictures from Thursday, after school. Bob's mom, Parker's "Gigi", stayed with her while we traveled. I was so happy to know that Gigi was able to reach the sled on the hook in the garage.

Our snow angel

It snowed all night, reportedly, and school was canceled. Here's the view from the front walk:

There aren't any pictures of Parker playing in the snow on Friday because it was too cold...both indoors and out. Around midnight on Thursday we lost power along with many many others (180,000?). Gigi and Parker stuck it out for part of the day until they were rescued by Bob's Dad, Parker's "Papa". He drove up, packed everyone up, and they all took the 2 hour trip back to their (cozy, heated, electrified) house for the night.
I can't imagine what a PITB all that was for Gigi and Papa, but Parker thought it was a great adventure.