The Races

I will not bore you with details, because to anyone other than moms and dads, these ski races can all seem the same! Sara and Sky had races on both Saturday morning and Sunday morning this weekend. Saturday was our Nation's Cup #3, an "in-house" race with just the racers in our ski club. The kids are split into teams, and each team races for a different country. Sara races for Italy and Sky races for Canada. The first video here is Sara, taking her first run of the day. She missed a few gates, but she was a lot more confident than the last race a few weeks ago. You can see the happy smile at the end!

This is Sky, with his second run of the day. A couple of missed gates at the end, but I liked this video because of the thumbs up at the end! Such a little showman! He would want me to tell you that on his first run of the day, he didn't miss any gates for the first time in a race!

Sunday morning, we had to be at the ski hill at 7:45 a.m.! This race was way bigger than just our little ski club. Our ski club hosted the race, but racers from all over the province could register to race. There were 300 hundred racers, which meant 600 runs because everyone does 2 runs! There were so many people in the lodge in the morning picking up their racing bibs, you could hardly even move in there!

We also had the drama of forgetting Sara's mitts. Joshua had the idea to go through the "lost and found" bin and we found a pair of mitts that Sara could wear! They were a little small, but kept her hands warm. Then, when the ski shop opened at 9 a.m., we bought her a new pair that fit properly, so she could race without that distraction.

Also, I forgot the camera... No biggie, I was thinking. I got plenty of good videos the day before, so I would just enjoy watching the kids without the camera always in front of my face. Well, our little man actually won an award and I didn't have a camera to record the moment! Sky finished 7th place in the 5 year old male division! He skied perfect runs both times, with a time of 41 sec. the first time and 40 sec. the second time. Anyone in 4th - 10th place got a special ribbon. The 1st - 3rd places get to stand on a real podium and receive medals! Sky's coaches were very proud, as most of the boys who placed in the top 10, were already in their 2nd year of ski racing.

Sara was even faster and more confident for the Sunday race than she was on Saturday! She missed gates both times down, but she was so much faster. For the first run, she ran over the last gate, caught her ski and it popped right off - about 2 feet from the finish line!! She sat there trying to figure out what to do and I was screaming, "Sara, get up, get up, get across the line!" The next racer actually came up and passed her, crossing the finish line before she did! If she hadn't missed any gates, she would have had the right to a re-run, but she was already disqualified. (We don't tell her that, by the way.) So, that added to her time, but other than that, it was probably her best, fastest run ever, only missing 2 gates! We were very proud of both kids!

Bits and Pieces

This post was originally posted on Thursday night (Jan. 29), but it got buried under my Aloha Friday post and I didn't want my regular readers to miss it! So, I'm re-posting this again today!

I haven't posted much about daily life around here, so here are a few random snippets of what's been going on lately...

1. Remember my new rule about not turning the T.V. on in the mornings? I really thought it would be an issue, but I heard next to no whining or complaining about it! I've had a couple of requests, but when I say "no" and remind them that we're not doing that anymore, they are quick to go find other amusement - happily! It's almost like they are relieved that they don't have to watch the same old dumb shows on T.V. every morning! Now I have to tear them away from building with Legos or their imaginary play, when it's time for school to begin. I like that so much better!

2. On Saturday morning, Sara and Sky had their second Nation's Cup ski race. It was a brutally cold week, so as the weekend approached and things didn't warm up at all, we kind of assumed that the race would be cancelled. It wasn't. I checked my e-mail every 5 minutes between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. on Saturday, and there was nothing. Joshua had volunteered to help with the race, so he felt like we should be there. It was -36 when we left our house and -34 at the hill when we arrived at 8:45 a.m. I couldn't believe they were going through with it! I mean, really, what was the dude in charge trying to prove?? As I bundled up the kids for warm-up and course inspection, I was so stressed out I was fighting back angry tears. The two runs were an hour apart, so we kept the kids inside until it was absolutely necessary to go out. We had toe warmers in their boots and hand warmers in their mitts. I am definitely thankful for those little inventions! Sara and Sky both did well. There were a lot of missed gates this time, but we could tell they were doing their best - especially under the circumstances. I still don't think I've completely recovered, but we did survive....

3. Joshua lost his wedding ring (again - this is ring number 3) on Monday morning. He keeps it in a basket by the phone. The problem is, the basket is full of coins, old receipts, spare keys, a few screws, paperclips, etc. Joshua's ring is made out of tungsten carbide (same thing they make chainsaw blades with), so it's able to withstand the abuse, but it also blends in because it's a silver gray colour. As Joshua was getting ready to go to work that morning, we both looked through that basket very thoroughly and came up with nothing. He looked several other places and finally had to leave for work. Later, I emptied the basket onto the floor, went through all the change and couldn't find it. I checked the pockets of everything he wore over the weekend. No ring. Joshua came home at lunchtime. He looked under the couch, we checked in both of our vehicles. Nothing. I even checked inside his gloves to see if it had slipped off in there! We looked through that basket a couple more times, hoping it would magically appear. It didn't. That evening, Joshua took Sara for her music/piano lesson at 5:45 p.m. I looked a few more places after he left and then gave up. I decided it would just have to turn up on it's own. After Sara's lesson, Joshua decided to take Sara out on a date. Sara picked Swiss Chalet to eat. When they were done, they went to the mall. Joshua called when they were on their way home. He said he found a ring on sale and went ahead a bought it. It was a final sale, but that was O.K. - other ring was just nowhere to be found. When they got home, Joshua was missing his old ring, so decided to go through "the basket" one more time. He dumped the entire contents on the kitchen counter and there was THE RING!!! What??!! How did we miss that?? The next day Joshua took the ring back to the store and was able to exchange it for something else.

He said it was an early Valentine's Day present! Isn't he sweet?! (It's times like these I decide it's O.K. to keep him! Just kidding - I'm not that shallow!)

4. Today it's raining! What's up with that? Rain? In January?! The roads are a mess with all the melting snow and rain! There is so much water! It's going to be pretty scary out there when it freezes tonight.

5. School has been going well. We are in week 3 of our new schedule and disciplines. The first two weeks were a fight. It was difficult and exhausting for all of us. But, I didn't give up and we got so much done! This week has seemed a lot easier, so I'm hoping we're getting into a rhythm and learning some good habits.

6. In just 4 days, my wonderful friend, Karen and her husband Bryan, are coming to visit for a whole week! For 3 of those nights we will be at the Gingerbread Cabin in Jasper, AB. Sara and Sky are very excited about having an extended sleepover with Grandma and Grandpa! Mommy and Daddy are just as excited about having an extended sleepover away from the kids and the normal routine! I think I can say the same about Bryan and Karen! The weather forecast is beautiful, so it should be a great week!

7. I played Candy Land with the kids before bed tonight. It's always a competition to see who can get the most "candy" cards! They haven't quite grasped the concept that sometimes those cards can knock you backwards on the board and should not always be the most desired!

That's all I can think of for now! Hope you enjoyed the update!

Race Day!

Saturday morning the kids had their first real ski race! It was an "in-house" race and they call it the Nations Cup. Sky is on the Dream Team (the littlest racers), so they were all racing as Team Canada. Sara raced for Team Italy and apparently will race for Italy the rest of the year. (We had to do a quick study on the country of Italy for school last week!) Poor Sara was so nervous. I could tell because she kept saying she didn't want anyone to cheer for her, and her hands were cold while I was dressing her, she was cranky, and she just couldn't think straight at all. Afterwards, she finally admitted to being nervous. Sky was just plain pumped to be in a real race! They each had two runs. Here are a few pictures of the big event.

Sky (in the orange jacket), listening to his coach explain the race.

Sara (#48), doing warm-ups with her class. Notice the pink skis and pink helmet! She would have pink boots if they were available!Team Canada was the first team down the hill. Sky missed a couple of gates on the first run, but made them all on the second run! The little racers were so cute and sometimes just downright funny!All that racing makes a little boy very thirsty! Here comes Sara! She had some confusion with the gates at the top of the hill, but got it worked out. Then, she kind of stopped before the finish line and they had to wave her across the finish line so the clock would stop! By the second run she had it all figured out, with a time improvement of 20 seconds!

All the way! Yay, Sara!

Finally smiling after the first run! She was definitely relieved to have that over with!Sky, showing off his Kinder Surprise chocolate egg! All of Team Canada got a prize for racing. Team France was the winning team for the older kids, so only they got a prize. Sara was pretty disappointed. I was surprised that they didn't have second and third prizes.The weather was absolutely gorgeous on Saturday! We've had 6 or 7 weeks of extremely cold, even dangerously cold, temperatures. But, for one day (and one day only), it warmed up so that we could actually enjoy ourselves! It went up to +3 C (about 37 F) and we were so excited! It felt almost balmy outside. It was wonderful not to worry about little hands and feet getting too cold or the danger of frostbite on cheeks and noses. It was a great morning and we were very proud of our little racers! Next Nations Cup is in 2 weeks - they're gonna be flyin' down that hill!

First Day of Ski Racing Lessons!

Finally, the big day arrived! Sara and Sky started ski racing lessons! They've been looking forward to this day for a long time. After arriving home last night at 10:30 p.m. (we went to Calgary for one night), we drug the kids out of bed at 7:30 this morning for 3 hours of ski racing. It was a beautiful, sunny morning, with temperatures above freezing. We still have only had one snowfall this winter, so the local ski hills in Edmonton are very late in opening. In case you're wondering how they got all the snow on the hill, they made all that snow! They have huge snow-making machines that blow a fine mist of water all over the hills. They usually run them all night long when the temperatures are below freezing. It took a long time for them to get a good base of snow. It was a good first lesson. The kids had fun, so that's the most important part! There were some disorganization issues that irritated Joshua and I, but nothing we couldn't deal with. Here are a few pictures of the morning.

Sara, following her class to the ski lift.Sky, giving me a happy little wave as he waits in line at the "magic carpet." (It's a ski lift that you stand on and it takes you up the hill, like a giant conveyor belt.) Sara with her class. She's the one with the pink helmet.I really had to include this video of Sky! We're not sure why they had the kids raising their hands like that - probably something to do with balance - but it was so cute! It was amazing what they had these kids doing on the first day.

Thus begins a winter full of lessons and races. I'm hoping it will be mostly fun! Lessons are every Saturday morning, from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. for both kids. On Tuesday evenings, from 6-8 p.m., Sara has an additional lesson. Joshua will probably take Sky on those nights as well, and just ski alone with him, so he doesn't feel left out. I'm sure there will be lots more posts and pictures, as ski racing will kind of be our lives for the winter!