19/3/2008 - 30/03/2008

26/03/2008 - 29/03/2008 - The Bonds have come and gone and it was really great to catch up with them all. We managed to get them all up the mountain for skiing for the first day, okay 1/2 day by the time they were already to go, (they seem to come from Dave's time management school). The Bond family all took a lesson for the first day and did extremely well. I think Darrin really wanted to give Boarding ago, but was a bit frightened of doing an injury so early on in the holiday. We managed to get up to see the Vees take on the Westside Warriors at Westbank in one of the play off games. Darrin decided to rename the start of the game - The Face Off to the Puck Off - needed to be careful when saying this out aloud. It was sad to see the Bond's go but I think they were excited to start their next leg. That's the last of our Australian visitors - which was really sad because it meant this leg of our holiday was coming to a close.

The Penticton Vee's won the first play off with the Vernon Vipers. (Best of 7 games.) The final score in game seven was five 5/2. The Vee's now play Westside Warriors for the Interior Conference title. Once again it will be a best of seven series.

We finally put a deposit on a motor home. We ended up buying a new unit because the older ones were far too expensive. I think that is more to do with the Canadian dollar being so weak a few years ago and with the depression of the US economy dealers are heavily discounting new RVs. We also think our re-sale on the new model will be less expensive for us when we go to sell it. Attached are the photos so you will get a good idea on how we are going to live over the coming months.


The Vee's won the Interior Conference title by beating the Westside Warriors in 4 straight games. This will enable them to rest up for the Coastal Conference. The winners of that are now playing off. Hopefully they are giving themselves a battering.....

29/03/2008 - Saturday I spent the day helping Tony grinding tree stumps on their second property. Saturday evening was a great time to have a few drinks with Tony and Lisa to say goodbyes. They have been fantastic in helping us make our Canadian vacation so memorable for us and all our visitors. Tony and Lisa who started out as our Landlord's have really become great friends. It was disappointing to leave Canaon House.

30/03/2008 -Sunday we went to the mountain for one more run and there was still plenty of snow. Over the last week approximately 50cm fell. (Even the rocks under the quad chair were covered.) We skied the first and last day of the season. Bobbie and Brant had organised Sunday dinner and we were able to say goodbye to all the Howard family including May, and Mike and Karen from Victoria Island. The Howard family really has made us feel so welcome. They have really carved a special place in our hearts and we just hope to be able to repay some of their hospitality when they come to visit us back home in Australia.

It has been a sensational winter and now it is time to move on. (Immigration is kicking us out of Canada tomorrow anyway...)

31/03/2008 - We are off to the Kelowna airport (thanks to Bobbie) still not knowing whether we will be able to enter the USA as our I-94 card was still in our passport from when we arrived in LA 6 months ago. We had one last lunch at the Hooded Merganser with Brant, Bobbie, Lisa and Peter. We said our goodbyes and headed off to Kelowna. We stopped of at Maurie and Gwen's house (Bobbie's brother and sister-in-law) for a cup of coffee and to see their lovely house that they have built. We checked our luggage for weight and we had to leave even more stuff with Bobbie as our bags were overweight. It was extremely sad to say goodbye to Bobbie, but we had to leave - our Visa was going to expire at midnight. At this stage we have flights booked to Albany, New York to pick up our new motor home, but because of a bit of a mess up with our Visa we are not sure if they will let us back into the country - only one way to find out. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:35pm however didn't leave until 10:00pm. This was pretty interesting as we had two other connecting flights. The good news was the delays were caused by high winds in Chicago which was one of our flight legs. We managed to get though Immigration and Customs with no problems with our I-94 and they gave us 6 months on our new I-94. Our only problem was we were carrying a bank cheque for the Motor Home which had to be declared. That caused some angst as they have a big money laundering problem in the States. We finally got through and had to run and catch a couple of trains to the other side of the airport. Seattle is one of the biggest airports I have ever been in. We jumped our flight to Chicago and flew through the night. We had breakfast at the Chicago airport and then boarded a 9:00am flight to Albany. (Albany is the capital city of NY state...Not New York City as I thought.) We finally arrived in Albany and headed straight for a motel to recharge the batteries.

25/02/2208 - 18/03/2008

Just another quick update to let you all know that everything is going well.

Since our last update sadly Dale and Kaye have left us and Ross and Liz have come and gone. We have really had some great times with all our visitors - and we have already gained a lot of memorable moments and a huge amount of laughs. Spring has really set in, the birds have returned, to Ross's frustration though not the woodpeckers - he thinks they've seen him shooting and they are running scared. The golf courses are starting to open up and Spring Skiing has begun. Okay not sure about the Spring Skiing in the last couple of days we have received 21cm of snow, however the temperature has warmed up it was a nice -10 degrees.

The deer have also returned a couple of times - and I've finally got to hand feed the deer - I was so excited - they are like feeding horses, all lips. They are really timid and I must admit it took a fair bit of patience for me to get them - as you would probably know patience is not normally one of my stronger points.

Ross being the expert marksman decided to realign the sights on the gun before he could even think about going after a wood pecker. Well Ross had the sights all aligned properly or so he thought - different story from Dave (who sadly still leads the woodpecker count). Ross was shooting extremely well. He then called Dave out to have a few shots - well Dave couldn't hit the side of a bus - he was spraying his shots all over the place and blaming Ross for his handy work. Well I went outside had one shot hit the middle target and left - no problems with the alignment from my side of things - I think this is why Dave is leading the woodpecker count - he had aligned the sights to suit himself when we first arrived at the Canyon House.


Ross, Liz, Tony, Lisa, Dave and I all had a lovely lunch at the Hooded Merganser to celebrate the the lovely Tony and Lisa's engagement. What a great day we all had. Lunch was just beautiful overlooking the Okanagan Lake and sipping several bottles of wine. Of course after lunch we all headed to another bar at the Casino and had another couple of drinks (because we needed more to drink). After these drinks we all headed up to the Casino to have a few bets. Well the night finished just as well as it all started everyone of us had a win - what a fantastic night.

Ross and Liz left with a few more injuries than what they arrived with. On day one up the slopes and Liz's first lesson she had a fall which left her thumb black and blue and very swollen and sore, no amount of ice or strapping was going to fix this in a hurry. Liz being the trooper she is took one day of the skis and was back up the mountain the next day. Ross had a fall on his second day which left him with some very sore ribs, but this wasn't enough for Ross the next day he was back up the mountain and fell on the other side to hurt his ribs on the other side - needless to say it was somewhat painful for Ross to laugh, sneeze or cough. Ross spent the first few days with his ski pants on backward. Once we fixed that he did ski allot better. The hot tub was put to good use to try and help alleviate some of their pain.

The last couple of weeks Dave and I have been trying to purchase a motor home - this task has consumed a lot of our time and energy. We have spent more time and energy on this task than any other task we have faced together - if we get through this alive I think we can face anything together, perhaps even 12 months in a 31 ft motor home. We have done a mountain of research - sometimes I think too much and we start second guessing our choices etc. Unfortunately for Ross and Liz they have been here to witness all our ups and downs. As I write this update we are in the process of purchasing a New Class A Motor home from Albany in New York State, so yet again we have another change of plans on our next adventure. We will still leave Penticton on 31 March and fly into Albany, New York to pick up our new RV, we will then head down the East Coast of the States. Arriving in Texas around mid to end of June and then leaving Texas mid to end July and then heading home for a couple of months. We will put the RV in storage in LA for the time we are at home. We will then fly back to LA pick up our RV and continue our adventure around Mexico, USA and Canada. We are both looking forward / scared to driving our RV and starting our next adventure.


The attached picture is what we are looking to purchase.


This is what a woodpecker looks and sounds like. The only time Ross saw one he didn't have a gun. (only a camera.)

27/01/2008 - 24/02/2008

27/01/2008 - We picked up Lou and Matt from the airport on Sunday night - from what they've said they had a great time and they really liked Banff -more so than Whistler.

28/01/2008 - 31/01/2008 - For those at home that think we have got it just so easy - let me tell you it hasn't been all that easy this week. On Tuesday we drove up the mountain to do some boarding / skiing on 6cm of new powder, we knew it was going to be cold as the temperature in the car at the bottom of the mountain was reading -20 degrees, then when we hoped onto the quad chair and reached the top it was a very very very cold -32 degrees (with the wind chill), so we are living in some tough conditions...

When Lou was in Banff she fell on her tail bone again - so she hasn't been able to hit the slopes, she has been enjoying some quiet time at Canyon House and just relaxing.

When we initially arrived we did ask the locals if Skaha Lake ever froze over and they advised us "not too often, perhaps every 20 years" - yep you guessed it with the weather we have been having the lake is frozen - it really is an awesome sight, we've watched the transformation from water to ice.




01/02/2008 - Today we all headed up the slopes we even got Louise up there and she even made it out onto the slopes for a little while. Peter, Lisa and all of us went to watch the Vees play another Hockey game and Matt's lucky program number was called out. Matt had to go onto the Ice with another two contestants and tie as many sheets together as possible within the allotted time. Matt came in third (okay last) but even we believe he was ripped off, the other two contestants just kept tying their sheets together after the whistle. (One was a very very old lady the other was a very old man...."Des and Troy were useless against these season veterans....")


02/02/2008 - Tonight we headed to another Vees game. They played Salmon Arm who are 2nd on the ladder the Vees are 1st - what a great game. The Vees won 4 - 2. Lou and Matt ended up leaving after the 2nd period to go and watch a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fight on TV at one of the local Hotels. Unfortunately for Matt there was a bit of biffo in the 3rd period - which Matt did miss out on - he is yet to see a fight (gloves and helmets off).

03/02/2008 - 24/02/2008 - Yep I know it has been a while since an update, but as you can see I did have good intentions. Matt and Susan have arrived and left. Lou and Matt have left and the Jeffrey's have arrived. We all went to Revelstoke for a couple of nights, Revelstoke is apparently going to be the newest and best resort skiing resort in North America. The weather is warming up, the birds and the deer are starting to return, the snow is melting in downtown Kaleden and it is like spring skiing up at Apex. So that's the short story of what has been happening, and yet again I'm not going to try and recall everything that has happened in order, I'm, just going to do some quick dot points for those of you who are interested in reading more.

• Apex - Susan has had her first taste of skiing, which we think she really enjoys - unless Dave is helping her. On her first few hours on the skis and only after one lesson and at the end of the Day, Dave gets Susan to go down a Blue run on the way home - Susan was totally exhausted (as you keen see by the photos of Susan trying to walk up the stairs, of course the rest of the house had a lot of sympathy for her). We decided to take Matt O over to the Wildside of Apex to experience some powder. Well all of us excluding Matt had finished the run and were waiting down the bottom of the run for Matt to finish his. Well not only couldn't we hear him we couldn't see him either. So after a while and a lot of yelling to see if we could find him, I took my board off to try and look for him, after about 15 mins of searching, we had our first sighting - here comes Matt looking like a snowball - holding a pair of skis. So after that one run Matt decided he had had his taste of powder he had snow absolutely everyone and he was completely exhausted. Matt O and Dale both had their first lessons on the snowboard - lets just sat that Matt returned for a 2nd day whilst Dale went back to the skis. All I can say is that Matt O now probably wishes that he had kept to the skis, he had to miss out on the last day up the mountain due to a shoulder injury. Matt D (Lou's boyfriend) also decided to give the Boarding a go. Matt D and I had a bet that he wouldn't be able to make it down the Bunny slope with two turns on his first run. So after some instruction from the Big Fella - off he goes, 1st turn completed, 2nd turn completed, then he tries a 3rd and splat (he had to show off). After a couple of days he had really picked up the snowboarding and even managed to negotiate the Chute (a black run) ago. Dave finally got to drive a Zamboni (or as Dave calls it the Zambini) - the machine they use to groom the Ice Rinks. After a day of snowboarding and when we are all sitting around the fire - Dave mentions that he hurt his Sternum - he meant his tailbone.



• On one of our trips (somewhere) the song Cheap Wine by Cold Chisel came on. Matt and Lou were singing away in the back, however Matt was singing the words, Cheap Wine and a Freelance Goat - well that had us all in stitches (he honestly thought they were the words, even I know the words to that song) - of course we never let him live that one down. Matt has also nicknamed his biceps one Des and one Troy - Destroy.



• Before Lou and Matt and Matt and Susan left Bobbie invited us all over for yet another dinner (yep 8 of us). Brant cooked a delicious feast of Cedar Plank Salmon on the BBQ. The Salmon is placed on a Cedar Plank and placed in the BBQ oven to cook, the Salmon is basted with Sundried Tomatoes, garlic and herbs etc - mmmm it really was mouth watering.
  
  
• Kaleden - With the snow melting and the wildlife returning including the woodpeckers, we all decided to get some shooting practice in. Also, as you can see by some of the photos I tried to hand feed the deer on the first day of their return to Canyon House and they haven't been back since - and no it was my home cooking it was bird seed.






• Revelstoke will have the longest ski run in North America when it is completed - it is going to be huge. Matt, Lou, Matt, Susan, Dale, Kaye and Peter all headed up to Revelstoke for a couple of days skiing and boarding. It really was amazing to watch Peter snowboard - he is just fantastic and as Lisa says he is like a cat he always lands on his feet. Well lets just say Revelstoke was pretty awesome, not to many green runs (I think there was only one open), a couple of Blues and the rest Black. There was powder (Powder is what Revelstoke is known for) and this was to be found in the tree runs, which everyone seemed to enjoy. We had some lovely meals whilst staying at Revelstoke even though Susan had a bit of trouble ordering sometimes instead of a 8 oz steak Susan ordered a 8 inch steak. After one night out for dinner and a few drinks a few of us were walking home - commenting on how slippery the roads and footpaths were with all the ice on them and next minute down goes Dale - and he fell just like Dave does "like a bag of sh*t". Luckily enough he didn't have time to get his hands out to break the fall, so he fell flat on his back - of course we all raced over to help him up.



• Ice Hockey - The Vees have finished in top stop. We seem to be pretty luck at the Rink both Lou and Kaye have now had to toss the dice for a chance to win $50.00 at the Casino - they only needed to roll a seven - so far no luck.










• Another piece of great news is that Tony and Lisa got engaged on Christmas Day

So we are now starting to plan our next adventure, we need to be out of Canada by March 31, so at this stage we are going to pack up our toys and head off to Mexico for a couple of months and then drive back to Canada to sell our car and head home for a few of months - yes Karleigh in time for your 21st. We still have a fair amount of planning to go - but at least we have an idea now on what we are going to do and our first stop is Mexico is a place well know for Corona's @50 cents and Lobster, Lobster, Lobster - we may never leave. On our way back from Canada we plan to stop at Texas to catch up with Gantt family and watch the girls compete- something we're looking forward to already.

13/01/2008 - 24/01/2008 Kaleden, Apex

13/01/2008 - Tonight we went to Bobbie and Brant's for yet another fabulous dinner (yep all 13 of us plus Lisa, May and Buck (the dog)). Bobbie certainly is a glutton for punishment.






14/01/2008 - It was the last chance for the Eames's to have one more day at Apex - unfortunately Simmy and Cassidy weren't feeling to well so they decided to stay at home, so it was just Tony, Jesse, Maddie, Billy, Lou, Matt and I that hit the slopes. Jesse was in such a rush to beat us all down the mountain that he took off down a black run all by himself, unfortunately we didn't know which way he had gone. It took us a while and a bit of hunting but we finally found him safe and sound he was heading down to the quad chair. I had a look at the run that he had come down (after talking to him we found out he came down on his bottom) and it's not a run that I'm keen to give a go.

15/01/2008 - It was a sad day. The Eames's packed up, we loaded the cars (Yes two cars were required) and headed off to the bus stop. I'm not sure how they are going to manage with all their luggage, they are certainly leaving with a lot more than what they came with, Simmy has definitely spent all her Christmas money. It was really hard to say good bye to them all not knowing when we will see them next - I cried. It's going to be just as sad tomorrow when Luke, Dom and Karls leave. Thank goodness that we have Louie and Matt for another few weeks. We all headed up to Apex for the day - unfortunately it was to be a short day for a few of us - to top Karleighs holiday off (she has been sick pretty for much of her holiday) she listened to Dom and Luke (who sent her over first) to do a boarding jump and when she landed she hyper-extended her left arm. So Dom boarded down to the liftees who promptly sent up a snow-mobile for her and Luke. Karls, Dave, Louie and I then headed off to the hospital whilst the 3 boys Luke, Dom and Matt stayed up the mountain. The good news from the hospital was - no broken bones. We then bought Karls home and got her all settled and went and picked the boys up from the mountain.

Luke managed to hit his first 180 jump..Check out the video .

16/01/2008 - We loaded up the car with all of Luke's, Dom's and Karls's luggage and headed off to Kelowna airport. As usual it wasn't long before Dom and Luke were having a little nap. Being as organised as these 3 are they weren't even sure which air line they were on it was one of two, yep they picked the wrong one. We arrived at the new check-in counter and when they were weighing in the luggage Luke was the one who was over weight - Karleigh had already successfully put her luggage through. So Luke and Dom were madly trying to rearrange the luggage. Luke finally got his bag at under the allowed weight and then it was Dom's turn and yes he was also over weight, I don't think the check-in gentleman wanted to go through the same ordeal again - he let Dom's go through. Once again it was very sad to say goodbye.

17/01/2008 - Today the 4 of us headed up to Mt Baldy - a small mountain 1 hours drive from home. We arrived around 11:30am and it was really windy so we decided to go in for a quick bite to eat before we headed on up. Once we got out on the slopes we had a lot of fun and we will be back for another Powder Thursday.

18/01/2008 - This morning Louise, Matt and I all headed off to the shops for what I thought was a bit of grocery shopping - but it turned out that Matt and Louise also wanted to purchase a few articles of clothing etc... so after about 4 hours of shopping (which everyone knows how much I love shopping) so by the time we arrived home - the Lyon family had arrived i.e. Bill, Teena, Jaimie, Ashleigh, Jakob and little Emmellie, so once again the house is the way it should be (filled with laughter and chatter).

19/01/2008 - After the Lyon's 5 week crazy holiday (they've been to Vancouver, Silver Star, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon and finally Kaleden) they decided that a day relaxing at home was just what the doctor ordered, so most of us had a nice day at home catching up and just relaxing. Whilst Matt decided to head up the mountain (via the Tim Horton Bus), so I dropped Matt of at the Bus Stop where there were about 15 children all waiting - at least you could pick Matt out easily - he was at least a foot and a half taller than anyone else on the bus. In the evening we all packed up and went to watch the Vees play against the Alberni Valley Bulldogs in which ended up being a very disappointing game. The Valley Bulldogs are running last in the Coastal Conference and the Vees are running first in the Interior Section and we lost.

20/01/2008 - After reading on the Apex site that they had received 19 cms of new snow and it was still snowing Matt, Louise, Dave and I decided to head up the mountain, the Lyons were intending to follow but unfortunately Jakob fell ill, so they decided to take it easy and stay at home. Well what a day the powder was over our knees, there was hardly anyone on the slope so it was a powder powder day. Just a sensational day. So after a lot of fun and a lot of hard work we headed home to a lovely roast beef meal prepared by the Lyon family.

21/01/2008 - Today the Lyons family finally made it up to the slopes the sun was shinning brightly and the temperature was a nice sultry -19 degrees without the windchill. Jakob was feeling a wee bit cold (freezing) so Bill decided to take him back to Teena. After a few more runs the rest of us headed in for a nice hot coffee or hot chocolate. Unknown to us Bill had headed back out to try and find the rest of us, so after our drinks the rest of us headed back out to find Bill who was no where to be found (we think he headed to the nearest bar to sit back and relax child free and pretend he had been skiing all day).

22/01/2008 - Another brilliant day up the mountain for Matt, Lou Dave and myself, no more snow but the sun was shining brightly not as cold as yesterday though only 17 degrees Since Luke has left Dave has decided that he needs a new (faster board) so he has tried out two boards and today he decided to buy a new board (look out Luke he thinks you will have a challenge on - my money's on you).






23/01/2008 - Yet again another brilliant day up the mountain, it's starting to warm up a bit -15 degrees. Half the Lyon family managed to make it back up the mountain, Bill, Jakob and Jaimie. Bill decided to spend the day skiing with the group and it was obvious he hadn't paid attention to his lessons. (He managed to make good friends with a tree...Who would have thought Bill was a tree hugger....)

24/01/2008 - Today Lou and Matt headed off to Banff to catch-up with a few friends and celebrate Australia Day in style. After we dropped them off at the airport we decided to have a look at a few RV's - we now know what we don't want (okay what we want but can't afford and also what Dave feels comfortable driving around). As it was the Lyon's last night we all went out for a lovely dinner at Earl's.

29/12/2007 - 12/01/2008 Kaleden, Apex, Big White

Yet again it's been a while since I've been able to get to the Laptop with all the people in the house, so I'm not going to try and recall everything and try to write everything in date order.

The Elford kids and co all went to Whistler on the 28 Dec until 5 January - they tell us they all had a fantastic time and from the photos it sure looks like they had a great night life. I have heard that a number of lift passes were not used - I don't even think Ashley got onto the slopes at all, but I did hear that she made one Gondola trip for sightseeing.

The Eames's didn't end up making the trip to Banff as Tony had to get root canal surgery, so their friends from Calgary (2 Adults and 3 children - one a Korean exchange student) came to Kaleden and stayed with us for 3 nights.

I must admit the Eames's have certainly made a great snowman and a great snow woman since they've been here - even though Dave and I think that by adding water to the snow it's cheating, but they are claiming victory in the snowman competition.

We have had plenty of snow over the last week with one day receiving up 30cm. Lisa and myself were the only two to take advantage of the fresh powder. (The rest of the crew were too sick, too tired, too hung over.........dhh,dhh,dhh...) The fresh powder is certainly what we came to Canada for. Lots of snow also means that we have plenty of snow to shovel off the driveway. (The price you have to pay for good skiing....)

Tony and Dave both had a go at skiing for a day. For Tony it looked like he had never been off them and he had a great time - so great that he was even looking at buying a set of skis. I wish I could say the same about Dave. The Big Fella looked like a complete Gumby - which I found hilarious as he used to be such a great skier, his comment was once I can't Snow Board anymore I'll be playing golf.

09/01/2008 - 11/01/2008 - We all headed up to Big White for 2 nights all 13 of us (9 adults and 4 children) all with snowboards or skis and luggage in two cars, so as you could imagine there was no spare room anywhere. Big White looks just like all the postcards and was true to form - the first day of skiing / snowboarding you could hardly see two feet in front of you and there was powder everywhere. The Elford's all did a mountain tour with a volunteer host on the first day. He decided to show us a lot of the runs that went through the trees and that had powder up to my chest - so if you fell over it was quite a huge effort to get back up (okay not for all of us).

The 2nd night we were there, Tony, Luke, Dom, Matt, Simmy and I all headed out to Sams Pub. They had these races where you had to ride a tricycle to a barrel and skull a pot of beer, well Matt got us off to a great start, I somehow managed to out skull my opponent (so we are in front)and then it was Luke's turn - well Luke was a bit eager and rode his tricycle into the barrel spilling half his beer the other half seemed to end up down his shirt rather than his mouth, Dom took over and we finished the race in first place - but we were disqualified. We left the tricycle race in disgust and went and played some pool. The stories you hear about Big White having more Australians there than Canadians is true, the first night the boys went out they didn't meet one Canadian. We all had a fantastic time at Big White and it was a shame to have to leave.

12/01/2008 - Today Dave, Luke, Dom and Matt all went up to Apex, whilst the rest of us stayed home and caught up on a few things that we needed to do - yep mine was the Blog Site - it's now 10:45pm and I'm still going on the Blog. Dave's nephew Jono and his girlfriend Jill arrived today they are just staying the one night. So all 15 of us headed off to the Ice Hockey to watch the Vees beat the Westside Warriors. We dropped Louise, Matt, Dom, Luke, Jono and Jill all off to the casino - yes few of you will find it hard to believe that I came home, but it's true.

It's been really great to have all the family here with us, unfortunately the majority will be heading home on Tuesday and Wednesday, we will miss them all. Louise and Matt are here for another 4 weeks.