Earrings

Alison has always been interested in fashion and anxiously awaited the time when she would be allowed to have her ears pierced.

The time has arrived! She has been fastidiously caring for her new pierced ears and is counting down the days until she can change out of the piercing studs and into some exciting, fashionable jewelry.

Before and after photos:

March Races, Part 4

Four weekends in March, four races.

The last weekend in March was devoted to the K1 Finals at Panorama. The one nice thing about Panorama is that we can get on-hill accommodations, which means it is a very social event. Most of the families on the team were staying within shouting distance and we got to spend a lot of fun time together.

The races were confirmation for Sarah that her hard work was worth the effort. She had her best ever GS finish - 14th, and was back in form for slalom - 7th and even the kinder kombi - 12th. That's 3 first page finishes! Woo hoo!

The Sunday evening banquet featured an awards ceremony where "Canadian Cowboy" John Kucera (World Cup Downhill Champ!) handed out ribbons and former World Cup downhill champion Cary Mullen gave an inspiring presentation aimed at the young athletes.

March Races, Part 3

The third weekend of March was taken up by the annual Doug Meyers Memorial Cup at Lake Louise. Doug was a racer and ski coach that grew up skiing at Louise. He died of cancer at the age of 31 in 2004, and together with his parents and sister, the Lake Louise Ski Club hosts a race in his memory.

It takes a lot of volunteers to pull off a ski race, before, during and afterwards. Both Bob and I were involved during the race, which meant I didn't take video - but I did manage to get my camera out!

Sarah was a forerunner for the race - she went down ahead of the racers to give the race officials an idea of what the course was like for a racer. I'm not sure what kind of preparations she and her friend Alex are making in the picture...



Alison was the first kid to go on the Gun Barrel course (part of Men's Downhill. Yes, that is where they have the World Cup races), so she wore bib 150. The littler kids had their own race on Easy Street, so the big kids started at 150! Why not?

The event finishes with a parade. Each racer is given a yellow Doug Meyers t-shirt (Doug's favourite colour) and then the children snake down the mountain. It looks stunning from the base of the mountain!

March Races, Part 2

Nana and Papa also had the pleasure of watching Alison race at the Caribou Cup. This time, we got to go to Mount Norquay, in Banff. So, no giant mall (whatever), but instead, BANFF! Nana and Papa were suitably impressed.

Alison did not have great results at the Caribou Cup, but enjoyed herself nonetheless, because ski racing is lots of fun.

I have a video of this too, but this one won't load for me. Maybe Nana and Papa could send me a picture or two from the weekend that I could post?

March Races, Part 1

Our March calendar was completely full. I've been running purely on adrenaline since.... November?

Anyway, a recap:

First weekend, Sarah raced at Rabbit Hill, a river valley hill outside Edmonton. The big thrill at that race (besides being all slalom events, which is Sarah's favourite) is that we get to go out for dinner at the West Edmonton Mall. And, of course, we had the pleasure of hosting Nana and Papa for the big event! They even got to stay in the Edmonton Airport Super 8 Hotel next door to Sarah, Rustle and I. Now isn't that just living it up?

If it will post, the video of the Rabbit Hill runs: