Who's in Banff

In January we got a phone call from Rod and Fran asking us if we wanted to join them in Banff this March for some spring skiing. We said no... but did no actually mean yes?? Yes. Between Rod (aka 007) and I, we planned our trip in secret so we could surprise Fran.

SURPRISE! Rod held Chaplin by the hand and lead him into their hotel room. It took Fran about half a second to scream and scoop Chaplin up into her arms.

What a great moment captured.


About 17 years ago i lived in Banff... i'm sure the only person who could validate this is Donna. I wondered if i would remember anything about the town, it all seemed so far in my past that it was pointless to say I knew anything about the town. BUT then something familiar happened the moment Adam and I drove into the town. Adam got pulled over by the police. He was speeding and passing in a no pass zone! And I remembered when Donna and I drove into the town, we had cars honking and breaking...all because I was driving too fast and failing to stop at any/all stop lights! I blame the city for not putting their stop lights in the middle of the road.


First night at our hotel. What a great hotel room by the way - a real fireplace!
Rod smuggled two books in his briefcase and brought them all the way from England to give Chap. What a treat.

So here is the reason we are in Banff - SKIING at Sunshine Village

Gondola Ride up the Mountain. Chaplin actually enjoyed this ride, but the moment I captured in this picture was him asking if this was going to be another ride scary Disneyland ride.

Can i ski? NO! Can Chaplin Ski? NO! Can Adam ski? YES but i didn't trust him to teach me or Chap! So we put Chaplin into Tiny Tigers for the three days we were up on the hill. Tiny Tigers is a day-care and a ski-school all wrapped into one. Chaplin LOVED being dropped off to play, and LOVED getting an hour out on the tiny tiger hill learning to ski.

Chaplin is the boy in the yellow bubble helmet.
He is riding up the 'magic carpet' and will ski down the little hill.

Down the hill towards the instructor


This is Chaplin doing "PIZZA".
Pizza is the term the ski instructor uses for snowplow. They also teach the kids to put out their arms for added balance. I thought Chap looked a little bit like a bird with wounded wings.

With Chaplin in Tiny Tigers, Rod Fran Adam and I were free to ski.
So Rod gave me a few instructions and off I went. Down a steep green hill. I know I said "Green" but it was steep to me!

The first day, i think i screamed going down the first three runs... The second day I was in too much leg pain to scream... Day three was less muscle pain, more confidence and I was ready to take on a blue hill. But i have to say - it wasn't fun it was just scary and I think i called Adam a name when he skied up to me and said "you're doing great baby."


Stop to look at the pretty view.


Stop to drink a beer



the chair lift was a bit cold, but the view made it worth the ride.

Did I fall!?


Did Adam fall? not likely. This guy was skiing black diamond runs like it was his job.

TUCK.


The skier in the family is Rod. He took black diamonds with Adam no problem. of course i have no pictures to prove it, I wasn't about to take a crazy run with them to snap photos.



I didn't get any action shots of Fran skiing, she is very graceful, she just glides down the hill effortlessly. I like her i-phone!!!

On our last day of skiing we picked Chaplin up a bit early so we could take him over to the public magic carpet ride to ski with him. I asked the lady in charge of the day-care how Chaplin's day had been... she told me "we have loved having Chaplin here with us, i would say he's probably the nicest child we've ever had in here. He's polite and very kind. There was a boy trying to grab a toy out of Chaplin's hands - so instead of pulling back - Chaplin handed the toy over and said to the nasty boy "you can have my toy and I'll get another one so we can play together"...." I know Chaplin is nice, but to hear this from a lady that looks after upward of 100 kids in a week...well i don't need to do the math to know that he's one in a billion.


Chaplin had a total of 3 hours lessons and he was so proud of himself.
He wanted to teach me what he learned. no harm there!


The last run of the day - Adam and Chaplin skiing together.


Chaplin spotted a deer on our way to the dinning room for breakfast.
Our last day in Banff - We ate breakfast in the dinning room every morning.



Chaplin took this photo of a grumpy daddy. Adam didn't want to go home?

And one last photo by Chaplin.