Farewell to the School Holidays

We were very lucky to have a beautiful day to celebrate the last day of the school holidays and decided to take full advantage of it. With the mountain biking enthusiasm still bubbling from the excursion to Stromlo during the week, we made our way to the other side of Mt Majura to test out the pump track and ride a few of the easier trails.

Unfortunately the wild weather from the previous week meant that the pump track was unrideable due to many fallen trees. Instead we chose to try out the dirt jump track nearby. There were several options to explore in this small area which led to many fun laps.

Once we had exhausted the various routes around the jump track, we meandered back along the Crazy Crab single track to the parking area. On the way to Mt Majura, we had dropped Andy off on the west side of the mountain so he could fit in a run. Before continuing on the next part of our adventure we rested at the picnic tables to consume some food and lo and behold Andy arrives. Perfect timing. A quick change into cycling gear and we were off to ride The Flash.

This single track was a little more challenging negotiating rocks, roots and mud. Only a km long, we completed a few laps before taking the sealed bike path under the Majura Parkway to the 'real' trails! As we entered the forest, we spotted a small group of Yellow-tailed black cockatoos enjoying the seeds from the pine cones. Ella was very excited about seeing these large birds in fact I think that may have been the highlight of the outing for her!!

We chose to ride Radicle and Smitten Kitten trails which traversed the lower slopes hoping that these trails would be ok for the girls to negotiate. Radicle was muddy and slippery and it wasn't long into this trail that Katy expressed a desire to go back. We convinced her to persevere and continued on only to encounter a deep ravine which no-one was keen to try to ride. The girls had problems just getting up the other side without their bikes!!

After that, the trail came good and we wound our way up emerging onto a fire trail. A family conference was called with the decision to wrap up our day's adventures and head home. The wide fire trail was mostly downhill which meant it was quick trip back to the car. Coffee on the way home finished off the day nicely.

Sharing the Parkrun Love

We were joined by first timers, Josh, Mia and Susie at Parkrun this weekend. Patrick on the other hand is a season professional!

As in the previous week I acted as sweep accompanying the last of the group. Andy charged off with Patrick and Josh in pursuit; Ella, Mia and Susie started together while Katy and I eased into the race. It wasn't long before we caught up and the girl cousins were happily running along while Susie and I chatted behind.

I was impressed with our girls - 2km out and neither of them had walked. Katy dropped off slightly in the 3rd km but it was Ella who stopped first to walk. It turns out she was offended when Mia asked if they could go faster!!

Susie kept Katy company who was progressing at a very even pace. Ella meanwhile was sorting our her emotions and spent several minutes sprinting to catch up before being puffed out and walking. Eventually she figured it out, reeled Katy in and continued on her way at a much better speed! I didn't see her again until the finish.

Susie also decided to try to catch up Mia but according to the results didn't quiet achieve this ending up a minute behind. Both Josh and Mia ran really well for their first park run and seemed to enjoy it.

Katy began to get tired with a km to go walking several times. Once she figured out the finish line was close she upped her pace and sprinted in.

Both Ella and Katy had massive PB's - 2 minutes and 5 minutes respectively and still seemed happy post race. With soccer beginning this weekend, Parkrun will have to be put on the back bench for another few months. Hopefully we will get a few runs between the conclusion of the soccer season and start of little a's season.

Stromlo bike park

We had our second Dad home day of the holidays last Thursday, and considered heading down to the snow, or off to rock climbing before we decided to test out the bike park at Stromlo. As soon as we arrived, Ella headed straight to ride along the bridges, up the biggest jump she could find and over see-saws. (I would have loved to join her on these daredevil escapades, but I had too look after Katy.) Despite a couple of little slips and crashes she was completely unfazed, and continued to search for any risks she could seek out.

Katy, on the other hand, started somewhat circumspectly. She avoided the bridges and walked over the see-saws. But once we got onto the bumps and mud puddles she came into her own.

Ella was adamant that this trip would involve no single track riding. In essence, we were banned from doing anything that resembled exercise. But, when giving the option of doing some switchbacks, off we went. Again, Ella zoomed off, but after the first lap Katy got the hang of it, and managed to stay with Ella on the second lap around. The ride finished with Ella hitting some large jumps at high speed and losing control. In fairness, she took it well, but we all decided it was time to cut our losses and head for the coffee shop.

Kspace Explored

We'd heard on the grapevine about an area known as Kspace at the National Museum where one could build their own robot then time travel into a place of Australian history to explore! Sounded like the perfect activity to get out of the house on a cold Wednesday afternoon during school holidays! We coerced seasoned Kspace adventurers, the Walter clan to join us and take us through this interactive game.

Kspace took 3 years to build, costing $2 millions and opened exactly a year ago. Our first stage in this three part experience, was to design our own robot. Each person is positioned in front of a massive touch screen with 4 people making up a team. Using the touch screen, the kids selected different types of parts for their robots head, body, arms and legs. Each section could then be manipulated in relation to the pattern and colour. This process needed to be completed within a 5 minute time frame before a photo was taken of the participant and superimposed onto the head of the robot! Giggles all round as their robot did a little dance!

Waiting to start

Listening to instructions!

Choices, choices!

Katy, Max, Mira and Ella's robots.

Photo being taken.

Robots dancing!!

From the Design Studio we were herded into the darken space of the Time Pod. Here the journey into the past began. A video clip explaining where they were and what was happening around them beamed up on more massive screens. This time however, each child using their own control panels to explore and completed missions unique to that time and place. These were done both as a solo participant and also as one robot where each participant controlled a part of the robot (i.e. Katy was responsible for moving the robots head to look around).

The fun was quickly over and we headed into the Cool Down area, where we were suppose to learn and reflect....ours just emailed their robot and joined the queue for another turn!!

No doubt we will return on another rainy day to complete another time travel mission!

No Words Needed

Ice Skating with the Cousins

A great advantage of the school holidays is the swapping and playing with the cousins whom we don't see much during term time! Andy had Josh and Mia for an afternoon. Together they ventured into civic to go to the Winter Festival in the City and more specifically ice skating!

The outdoor ice skating rink in Canberra is not exactly the highest quality. It's always crowded with people, very few of whom can actually ice skate (Ella and Mia were just about the most competent people there). The ice skates available for hire are pretty atrocious, and there is a permanent 5mm deep puddle of water sitting on the ice. So every fall ends up with a wet bum. Despite these issues, all four kids loved it, and by the end even Katy was skating about by herself.

Afterwards, all four wet, soggy, cold kids were happy for a coffee stop to warm up before heading for home.

See You Next Year

And so we farewelled our fantastic neighbours Karen, Nathan, Sofia, Louis and Loretta off on their year long adventure to the US where Nathan has taken up an opportunity to complete further studies. Their last supper was chaotic with so many little people who were pumped about their imminent plane flight! We will miss them but I think Katy and Sofia will miss each other the most!

The Start of School Holiday Fun

It's back to reality for the first day of school holidays after a weekend of skiing fun. The agenda today was to get the car serviced. It just so happened that the car service centre needed the car for at least 4 hours. Luckily for us, the mall is a short walk away and thus the girls and I headed down there.

The cinema seemed like a good idea and a few weeks previously I'd googled to see what movies were on. There were several options - Alice Through the Looking Glass, Finding Dory, The BFG or Ice Age 5. We discussed the pros and cos of each....and Alice Through the Looking Glass came out on top however a week later I discovered that the viewing for Alice had stopped.

That left the BFG which was fine except Katy hadn't read the book and I doubted that we would be able to read it to her in time. Problem solved though when it was suggested that we listen to the audio book in the car on the way to skiing! And so we did. It was 4+ hours of listening time perfect for our drive there and back finishing as we arrived back into Canberra.

The cinema experience was a first for all us girls. The last time I'd been to the movies was 18 months ago when Katy started Kindy a day earlier than the rest of the school, so Ella and I went to see Paper Planes. We arrived in the designated cinema to find massive reclining chairs. The girls thought they were fantastic spending several minutes putting the chairs through their paces and testing out every conceivable angle. I sat there contemplating at just how wide they were....perhaps I should have only bought 1 ticket for the girls as they both could have sat in one chair together and still had space to swing a cat!!

Eventually the BFG came on. During Katy the film kept pointing out to me the different variations to the book (which showed how much she was listening to the audio book!) Both girls agreed (along with the reaction of the rest of the cinema) that the funniest part was the Queen and her corgis drinking the BFG's frobscottle resulting in lots of whizzpoppers...a sign of happiness according to the BFG!!

Post movie the girls enjoyed their favourite lunch - sushi! Then it was a few jobs before returning to pick up the car.

It's Days Like This...

that the mountains are so spectacular! We were in heaven as Sunday dawned with clear blue skies. Getting out the door took much longer as we needed to pack our bags and clean up. While the Dads did the car-luggage-sled run, we minded the kids who had taken to tobogganing down the very steep slope outside of the lodge just in their ski gear!

The Walter clan were now on their third day of skiing and the accumulation of tiredness was beginning to show. So we departed in a slightly fragmented group with the plan to ski Blue Calf until everyone had caught up. Again I was tagging along behind Mira and Katy - actually I was a very long way behind especially down the run as they just took off and didn't seem at all concerned about how fast they were going. I on the otherhand was very cautious!

As the group came back together we toured across to Blue Cow once again. Unfortunately Ella lost her pole on the Freedom chair so she and Andy had to go and retrieve that. Meanwhile we made spent our time waiting for them on the Early Starter.

Then it was on to new pastures - down to the Terminal quad which took us for a quick ski down Pleasant Valley. However this time at the top we veered right venturing down my favourite run Copperhead Road. It was a little churred up and bumpy in places so not as smooth as I remembered it but still very nice. Across to Interceptor chair was slightly challenging for the little ones without poles but we got there eventually. A long ride on this quad chair which took us back to the ridge above Pleasant Valley. It was an easy ski down before catching Brumby T-bar up for lunch stop at Blue Cow.

Post lunch the group split up slightly. Ella and Andy went off to do a couple more of the challenging runs while everyone else was content on the Early Starter before meeting back at Freedom Chair for our final ski down Bloody Mary and Norwegian Trail and on to the car. We throughly enjoyed our weekend skiing especially sharing it with friends. From what I've heard there may be many more memorable moments to come now they are in the process of becoming members!!

Skiing into the School Holidays

The end of term bell rang and we were off! Our destination - Guthega for a sneaky last minute skiing weekend. Our main objective apart from remembering how to ski was to show Doorack lodge to Al, Rob and family who were thinking of becoming members. Luckily for us the lodge wasn't at all full probably as the snow hadn't yet arrived and even luckier was the dusting of snow that the mountains received in the week leading up to our stay!

Our drive up on Friday afternoon was uneventful with the added bonus of not needing to use chains on the last 20km section to the lodge. It was a slick process of unpacking, cooking dinner and putting the girls to bed before we could relax in front of the fire with wine and cheese.

Saturday morning we were greeted to the news that the traverse which links Guthega to Blue Cow was open as were most of the lifts. With everyone dressed, pockets full of various snacks we headed outside to climb the steep pinch behind the lodge which leads to the Norwegian trail. From there it was skis on to glide down to tackle the first challenge of the day, the Blue Calf T-bar.

Superb riding by everyone meant it was a first time success in getting to the top! We opted for the Freedom chair which had conveniently just opened rather than another long t-bar and before we knew it we were traversing across to Blue Cow.



A group conference decided that we would ski the Early Starter and after the initial run, Ella and Max were skiing together and catching the chairlift by themselves as were Katy and Mira! It was really wonderful to see their independence blossom while giving them a little bit of freedom. Al was with Alma, Rob and Andy were behind Max and Ella, while I tried to keep in touch with the two little girls.

Soon it was time to rest and refuel. Digging into snacks accompanied by hot chocolates and coffee all round did the trick and also allowed us to plan the next part of our adventure.

Our pre lunch jaunt saw us ski over to Pleasant Valley, a long green run which was enjoyed by all. The only bummer about this run is the flatness and a small hill near the end. Katy, Mira, and Alma never really had enough speed (or poles) to get over these so would need a little help. Meanwhile Ella sought out as many bumps as possible to get some air. The rest of us were just happy to get down. 

Catching the Brumby T-bar saw our first mid t-bar fall from Katy who was riding with Mira so as the last adult, I joined her and we skied back to the bottom to have another go. Must say catching a t-bar with someone so small is challenging with the bar located around their bum and your knees. Thankfully Andy appeared and offered to go with her. We managed to get up and headed straight in for lunch at Blue Cow.

Despite hot food and another rest, energy levels were beginning to wane. With the weather looking a little ominous, we thought heading over to Guthega would be sensible. Along Guthega Way we traversed finding ourselves at the Freedom Chair. We caught this to the top of Guthega Peak then zoomed down Bloody Mary onto the Norwegian Trail which finished outside the back of the lodge. Here the group divided  with only Andy, Al and Ella continuing on for more skiing opting to do a few of the harder runs.

Don't think that Rob and I were putting our feet up in the lodge - no the kids had other plans. So as the clouds scattered, under beautiful blue skies, we took the toboggans out for a spin! Not sure where all the energy came from to trudge continuously back up the hill but the kids were pumped riding these!!

The inaugural Walter Family toboggan championships were held on the lower slopes of the road. The first race saw a false start from Alma resulting in it being cancelled. Max decided to prevent this happening again by constructing a snow bump as the starting line. Rob and Katy assisted Mira and Alma on the line. The gun went - Max had a flying start thanks to positioning himself to the left of the snow bank he'd made; Mira received a good push from Rob and Alma had the slowest start as Katy didn't quiet have enough strength to get her over the snow bank. Thankfully Rob came to the rescue with a massive push sending Alma speeding down the hill in hot pursuit of the others! Not too sure who won or where the actual finish line was but fun was had by all!

With only 3 toboggans between 4 children, attention was diverted to doing other things like Katy making a snowman with Alma joining for the final decorating. Then it was climbing the embankment - Katy and Alma went off exploring for a while and Max, Mira had a snowball fight with Rob and I. All good fun!

As we were thinking it was time to make tracks back to the lodge, Ella appeared. She'd skied enough and came to have some snow play. Meanwhile Andy and Al took advantage of the lovely conditions and by all accounts were carving up the slopes now they had no beginners holding them up!!