Day 4 Sleeping away the daylight hours

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Geo: 50.1137, -122.95

The sun has not revealed itself yet. Each day is filled with the white light of snow reflection, but you don't actually get to see the sun. It snowed generously overnight again and the first messages came through at 8 am from Mindy declaring it a snow day - but it fell on deaf ears here because Anth didn't emerge until 10 and Mac stumbled out of his bear cave close to 1 o'clock in the afternoon!

Given that the sun sets at 4 does make for a very short day.....for he who shall remain nameless.

So while Papa bear slept away the winter I tried out some of the household appliances. Got to use the washing machine, the clothes dryer, the hair dryer and the coffee machine...all with varying degrees of success. Big FAIL on the dripilator coffee machine...after 4 hours of brewing I just had hot water! Seems as if there was a "black hole" where the water was supposed to go. Who would have thought.

As for the vacuum cleaner...WOW....need industrial ear muffs while operating. Lucky I left that one till "everyone" was awake.

Mac was on hand to capture the fun of Frosty part two and after some dedicated rolling effort our snowman took shape. Pulled out the felt Santa jacket, sacrificed my scarf, gathered up some pebbles and took down some of the icicles from the eaves....put them all together and had the ugliest, scariest Frosty I have ever seen in my life. But he's ours and we love him anyway. And can I just say that snow is NOT light. As soon as that ball starts to take on some size it is like a boulder to lift! Had fun. And can you believe it - you can buy a "Snowman Kit' with the decoration bits. Sure I'd have one or two if I lived here.

A later start but Anthony and Ian did kit up to take the boards out again. Light snow for most of the day. No wind again. Lots of people on the mountain but little wait time at the chair at the base of Blackcomb. Runs, turns, jumps, falls, powder, powder, powder and more powder seems to sum up the day. All wrapped up with the end of day hot tub. Not a bad three days.

A great opportunity for us to revisit Blackcomb and The Aspens today - where Mindy and Ian live and where Mindy works. To get there we have to cross Blackcomb Way and walk down the hill....literally 5 minutes from us.

Such a different look from summer. And because we were arriving just after 3 the skiers and boarders were streaming down the mountain at the end of their day. This just intensified Mac's determination to get on the skis. He is champing at the bit and can't wait!

Took the best photo today of The Aspens and certainly captures the "why" of Mindy and Ian's love of this place. The playground is literally at their back gate.

At the moment though, seems like we are having all the fun. Work for Mindy was from 7 am till 10 pm today. We called in to her store. Thought we might get to have a chat. Um, not likely. The store was a sea of people. Forms to fill in, boots and boards to fit, gear to purchase...it was non stop. Sat outside and watched the action for 30 minutes then threw a kiss and headed down to get a coffee to get over the exhaustion of just watching!

Love Portobello. So many nooks and crannies. So many windows to watch the world go by...and we were sipping our hot drinks and munching on the custard filled fruit Danish when right on queue the Christmas lights of the lower village snapped on. Too beautiful.

The nighttime excitement was the Winter Fire and Ice Show back in Whistler (a 5 minute walk the other way from our place). Tonight was the first one and it continues each Sunday night through to March. There are six skiers/boarders who perform jumping stunts through a ring of fire with a fireworks finale. It is of course outdoors. So you get to stand in the snow with the temperature at around minus 5. We took up a vantage point high on the mountain (let's not get too excited....about 50 metres up) under the gondola and could see all of the action and the tricks from the side view.

Just below us were a series of ledges cut into the snow- an expanse about 100 metres wide with a drop of 20 metres. It was a seething mass of kids embroiled in the biggest snowball fight. They were digging trenches, making snow seats and beds, running, jumping, flipping and somersaulting, sliding and tumbling. An absolute hoot that was the epitome of pure joy! Made for an entertaining evening.

Loved watching the acrobatic highlights. A bit far away to truly appreciate the fire dancers. And as chance would have it, we were right under the fireworks. And to be honest, we were glad when the last burst of green filled the sky because it was FREEZING. We hightailed it home and cranked up the heat to ward off the chill.

Ian and Anthony joined us for a delicious brew of pork in Thai curry and of course had a little take away ...no sauce included ....care package for Mindy.

Not much news from Banff. Just the reassurance that he is "coming" and to keep the snow falling!

And just BTW have to say that Frosty looks a little worse for wear at the end of the evening. His teeth and eyes have fallen out, his buttons have slid down his tummy and his icicle crown has melted. Think Mindy Moo can empathise - she knows exactly how he feels at the end ofher 13 hour shift.

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