Are You Smarter than a Snowboarder?

Alison and her ski buddy Janice made up this little game at one of Sarah's races. Clearly, they were witnessing the finest of snowboarding brains on this day!

Are you smarter than a snowboarder?

1. Where do you wear your helmet?
a. On your back
b. On your bottom
c. On your feet
d. On your head

Answer: On your back. Snowboarders were wearing their helmets strapped around their necks, but dangling down their backs.

2. Where do you stand when you are snowboarding?
a. On your hands
b. On your bottom
c. On your feet
d. On a bench

Answer: On your feet. This may seem obvious, but snowboarders were heard shouting this advice to each other from the chair lift to the hill.

3. What do you do when you are on a chair lift?
a. Throw snowballs at your friends
b. Talk to your friends
c. Sit
d. Scream

Answer: Throw snowballs at your friends. They scooped up the snow from their snowboards and threw it at their friends on the chair ahead.

4. How do you act when you are snowboarding?
a. Like a monkey
b. Out of control
c. In control
d. Like a giraffe in the summer

Answer: Out of control. Snowboarders crash into people who are just standing there.

Ski Season Finale

We celebrated our final ski weekend of the season with a big party at the Chateau Lake Louise and a fun race and fun day on Sunday.

Here's Alison being silly....

Sarah and her fabulous coach, Walter....


Alison had a fun race against a teammate named Jamie...




And a huge event: Sarah vs. her Dad!



Mom learned just how fragile her old self really is when she caught some surprise air and jammed her shoulder. It was not the most dramatic event of the day, however. Sarah, who was going for the big air, got WAYYYYY bigger air than she'd anticipated. She had a big crash, but managed to ski back to the front of the mountain because she is an amazing young athlete. A little scary at the time, but just less than a week later, she's okay and it's the old mom who is feeling the pain still.

Spring Break Part Two

We had a great trip to South Carolina for spring break.

We got to see Gramma and Grampa...


We got to play in the waves....



We got to play in the sand...



We even saw some cool animals that we'd never see at home.





Sure, the weather wasn't always the best, but we made the most of it. It's always fun to get away for spring break.

Spring Break 2008 - Part One

We just got back from a fun and relaxing vacation. We've got lots to share, but let's start with a couple of shots from our side trip to North Carolina to visit with Lisa and Matthew and the delightful Linden and Jemma.

How could anyone be crabby when you get together with friends?

Skating Carnival 2008

The Brentwood Skating Carnival program tonight included solos by both of Rustle's Girls this year. I'm choked with pride. I will have to let the videos speak for themselves...

Super Sarah

Sarah's competition schedule is rather hectic, but this one race is worth highlighting. The Lake Louise group competed as a team in an all-mountain event at WestCastle Mountain, near Pincher Creek. It was a very fun event, or so she and her dad reported, as the team raced in GS and slalom events, but also in moguls, skating, trees, terrain and a jump. Dad was a volunteer at the jump event, verifying the distance each kid jumped.

Was he impressed, then, when his one and only Sarah went big for this event. She jumped a whopping 8.5 m! It was enough to give her first place amongst all the girls at the event, and probably 5th overall.

The proud moments (and the misnamed certificate, too).

Alison at the Summit

Alison rode the platter to the Summit of Whitehorn Mountain (if you click on that link, it's at the peak where the red arrow points to "The Ultimate Steeps") and made some absolutely gorgeous turns down Whitehorn One today during her training session. Mom was there with her trusty cell phone to capture some grainy memories of Alison's first ever trip to the peak of Louise.

Time for an update

And when I say, "Time for an update," I mean I actually have some time to update. We've been busy, but there isn't a lot of photographic evidence of our hectic lives. Not that anyone is interested in a photographic description of driving to the arena, or to school, or to the ski hill....

So, here's a few shots of girls skating...




at the ski hill....



and in the car, just for good measure!

The Mauros come to Town

We had a fabulous weekend with the cousins who popped into Calgary for a quick weekend visit. We went swimming and skiing and tore up the basement playing like mad.

Jack and Lucas even got to take a gondola ride up Whitehorn Mountain and skied all the way down! Jack was an excellent student for Instructor Uncle Bob and Lucas was making lots of fine turns all afternoon. Little Sammy got to try things out in the Learning Area too.

Here's a couple of photos of the group at the top of the hill where the gondola lets off. Woo Hoo!

The cat has Alison's hat

We met the Vancouver Olympic mascots at C.O.P.Wednesday,February 13. There were three of them. One took my hat. He also gave me lots of hugs. Another tried to eat Mommy's head! The last one was very nice. I think I gave him the most hugs. Y A Y!


by guest blogger, Alison


(It was a 20th Anniversary celebration of the Calgary Olympics. Elizabeth Manley, Eddie the Eagle, Brian Orser, and a member of the Jamaican bobsled team were there! Very neat. But we wouldn't have been there if Sarah didn't have training there every Wednesday!)