Canadian Thanksgiving is the second Monday in October and such a lovely tradition that we couldn’t wait to take part in. It turns out that the Canadian tradition has different beginnings from the US version and it marks the beginning of the harvest season in this part of the world.
We were lucky enough to spend our first thanksgiving in Whistler with 20 Australia friends who live in Vancouver. We stayed at the beautiful Fairmont Chateau where they go all out with pumpkin carving and a special dinner to celebrate the occasion. It really was the perfect way to enjoy this celebration, give thanks and enjoy the beginning of the magical Fall season in Canada.
Our first summer in Vancouver – super long days and magical temperatures that make you smile. Vancouver pretty much gets zero rain during summer which is such a contrast to the long rainy winter! The sun comes up at 5am and goes to bed at 10pm giving us around 16 hours of sunlight a day! No super crazy 40 degree days like we get in Australia but just lovely mid 20’s that make for the perfect summer! Here are some fun photos of Sienna and her bestie taken on a lovely summers day in August! Such fun!
We have just had the girls first Spring Break holiday and while the Canadian version of spring is a little different to ours in Australia it provided us with the opportunity to learn to ski as well as take a really fun trip to Mexico.
Today the skiing part! The girls have never been on skis and Emilio and I had attempted the odd weekend of skiing 30 plus years ago so we were all total beginners.
We have such amazing access to ski resorts from our home in Vancouver and after a bit of research we decided that our mountain would be Cypress Mountain. It is a 35-40 minute drive from our house and we can even see the mountain out our windows from home!
We booked for 4 days of morning lessons – unfortunately the Vancouver weather decided that it would return to rain during that week. It didn’t make for the best conditions to learn in however it did mean the ski slopes were a little quieter!
As to be expected the girls just got straight out there and after 4 days the instructor had them on the blue runs. Emilio was doing well and could manage to get down the green runs while I was still on the beginners slope!
We have been back again this past weekend and I am gradually getting better but just a bit too fearful of getting up too much speed and losing control! Persistence will get me there however and I will get myself down a green run this year!!! The weather was beautiful and sunny this past weekend so it was a lot busier but still fairly quite compared to some resorts!
With the ski resorts having had the best season in 10 years we hope to be able to get out there at least once more before the end of season! Here are a few snaps from day one and this weekend just past.
Scooter joined us in Canada a few weeks ago and we were so pleased to have him arrived having lived apart from him since November when we moved out of our home in Australia. Thankfully our lovely tenants that rented out home in Australia have looked after him and given him so much love.
A few days after his arrived we had all that snow and he just loved it! He seems to be very excited by all the white fluffy stuff! We have been on a few walks but it is still a little slippery and there is loads of salt on the roads which is not great for his paws! We used Jet pets to him here and they took wonderful care of him. Such a long way for a our little boy to travel but we are so pleased to have him here and have the family back together.
I took a little video of our reunion at the airport which has been so lovely to watch back. Thankfully there is no quarantine into Canada so he was off the plane and within a few hours straight into our arms!
The snow has now melted and we are off on regular walks in the forest and around our local area – here are a few photos of him in our front yard.
We headed out to watch the ice hockey last weekend. While it would be great to watch a professional game with the Canucks we decided this time around to go and watch our local University team the UBC Thunderbirds in action. Tickets are $5 each whereas pro games are well over $100 each!
We were particularly fascinated by the constant changing of players every time the puck changed ends – I had no idea that you had that many players on a team! The other fascination for me was the names on some of the jersey’s – some of these guys have long names!
Great night at the ice hockey and our team won 4-1!
