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!!

More running

This time Ella and Fuji joined us for our 20min loop. It was a rather chilly June morning when we left at 8.30am I think the temperature hadn't yet made it above zero! It was fun though and Katy has her eyes firmly set on running a parkrun in the school holidays when we have a free Saturday morning that hopefully isn't wet.

 

More running

This time Ella and Fuji joined us for our 20min loop. It was a rather chilly June morning when we left at 8.30am I think the temperature hadn't yet made it above zero! It was fun though and Katy has her eyes firmly set on running a parkrun in the school holidays when we have a free Saturday morning that hopefully isn't wet.

 

Halfway through 2016

Can you believe that we have just finished term 2...halfway through the year. I'm thinking Christmas will be here before we know it! Anyway Katy finished term 2 off nicely with a merit certificate for her consistent effort in writing. Great work Katy!

WE really do love reading her writing especially the random notes and stories we find around the house...like this one..

All about Elae the dog.
My picher is of a dog. The dog is called Elae. Its fun to lock after. She lovs to play ball and frisby. She is oly 5 weeks old. I got her from a pond. She is a bit shi. She needs a work evry day. She gets fed brekrist and dinna. Her birthday is on the six of aprel. She orwes gets 2 new tenis ball on her birthday. She has tow big flafly es. She all so havs one perpel cola and two big es and a cuet loking face. The End.



In case you can't figure out the words...

My pitcher (picture) is of a dog. The dog is called Elae. Its fun to lock (look) after. She lovs (loves) to play ball and frisby. She is oly (only) 5 weeks old. I got her from a pond (pound). She is a bit shi (shy). She needs a work (walk) evry (every) day. She gets fed brekrist (breakfast) and dinna (dinner). Her birthday is on the six of aprel (april). She orwes (always) gets 2 new tenis (tennis) ball on her birthday. She has tow (two) big flafly (fluffy) es (ears). She all so (also) havs one perpel (purple) cola (collar) and two big es (eyes) and a cuet (cute) loking (looking) face. The End.

And more of her work...here is Katy's last talk time for Term 2. The topic was to draw a birds eye view of your garden!