March 20 - Steve & Taryn Big Day

Somehow I didn't get any really good photos of the two of them together! Luckily the photographer did! We all had a wonderful time at their Deer Lodge wedding in Lake Louise. About 30 of the 120 were old farts like us and the rest the beautiful young bucks and does, all done out in their finery. A great occasion. Very romantic as the wedding party took off on a sleigh ridge around Lake Louise, bathed in sunlight and warm for the day! Who cares about a day's skiing.
Taryn's dad George put together a great AV of the two of them, their lives, their travels.
On return from their month honeymooning in Tokyo, Phillipines and Beijing, we all had dinner at a great little tapas restaurant. This May long weekend we will stay in town to attend their whole lamb roast at the Kananaskis cabin.

May 2010 Reconstruction continues..

After 6 months, ready for new nipple - or so I thought. Instead April 26th I had another 1.5 hours of surgery with micro plastic surgeon Dr. Wim DeHaas assisted by orthopedic surgeon! He removed hard fatty tissue from side of new breast. Used same incision so hardly notice it at all, except lump is gone. Biopsied, it was simply fatty tissue. He cleaned up port removal incision and lump on upper chest (easy) then moved right nipple up 2cm (not so easy.) It was an interesting surgery, he cut around nipple and removed a disk of skin, then sewed circle back smaller. Like two concentric circles, hard to describe. Very uninvasive but painful for about two days. All stitches dissolved within 3 weeks.
Now we wait 3 months for left breast to stabilize then he will decorate right breast with new nipple, exactly matched to left one. What a perfectionist!

Jan/Feb: Skiing in Yellowstone

About 30 of us from our XC ski club drove through Montana to Wyoming and spent about 10 days skiing in Yellowstone. It is magic in winter, especially with weather like we had. The middle day we woke to huge snowflakes and a pile of new snow, XC skiers dream. the view from our deck (right) was gorgeous, especially for sunrise (yes I saw it!) and sunset. No bison came by to sit in our photos this time, but we saw lots in the area. Not as many as before as they culled 1600 recently to keep the threat of brucelosis down. We even saw a bobcat by the river on our return from the spectacular one day trip to the canyon (see me skiing the ridge, centre.) Not having skied for 5 years, Ted did well skiing 7 days in a row. I skied 6 in a row, one day 9 miles over 5 hours, so we were pretty pleased with ourselves. I returned and put my skis away, a wise move as it's been +10 or more some days in late Feb/early March. While Europe freezes, we have a winter with temps 4 degrees above average.
(Below: Bobcat, bison and gyser erupting.)

January and skiing again

I began the year with a wonderful ski weekend at Baker Creek Chalets, Lake Louise. I skied a couple of hours each day and Friday Jan 8 celebrated three years since my mastectomy. After skiing, we put on the fire at our cosy chalet (Dorothy, Barb & Johan and I), opened a bottle of champagne, burned my fake boobs, and celebrated my return to good health again. Yippee!
Last weekend I went with the Norseman Ski Club again for 3 days to Field and the lovely old Kicking Horse Inn. It's run by Sean and Jennifer who ran the Truffle Pigs restaurant in Field for years., They have now taken over the hotel and dining room. It is just wonderful out there in the heart of the Rockies. The temp was -5 both weekends with good and new snow - perfect for XC skiing and socializing. (Photo Ginny, me and Marlene below President Mountain, at Emerald Lake.)

Sad start to 2010

After a lovely Christmas holiday - first Xmas Day with son David's family then Dec 27 with daughter's Anne' s family - Ted's mum Mary passed away Dec 29, just short of her 90th birthday next May. Last July she had enjoyed the wedding of her grandson Neil to Jo. (Photo, Mary (left) with little sister - only 86 - Vera at the wedding.) She lived a full life and was granted a short period of ill-health before her death, so we are celebrating a life well lived. She visited Canada in September 2008, revisiting many of her favourite places in the Rockies. Ted returned to UK for the funeral Jan 22.

Dec 28 A lovely Christmas - again

It was good to feel up to inviting friends for Christmas dinner again. Mary & Mark with their Oz pal Andrew (Ursula's son), and Raul & Elvira joined us. I cooked up duck breasts, Mary did a magnificent Pavlova, and Raul a great cheese board so it was easy for us. I counted 50 glasses as Ted washed them next morning so I guess we had some good wines too. After dinner we all (yes, even Raul) had a rousing game of Mexican Train. Boxing Day we invited our new neighbours and kids (Ella5 and Jayden 10 for drinks) and have sealed a new friendship there. They love to come visit the parrot. We hope to see Julie and Dan, the family that just moved out, over the holidays too.

Christmas Eve was a return to the Rodas-Reyes family, this time at son Sean and Krista's invitation for a sumptuous feast and many wines. At about midnight I pulled the plug and we came home, but the hispanic party continued on to the wee hours. It was great to spend the time with 3-year-old Maya, who certainly "got" Santa this year.
Left: Sheila, Melissa, Elvira, Krista. Right: Sean, Raul, Ted, Patrick.
We love being part of the extended family to so many wonderful families and are blessed with the new generation coming along too.
On Christmas Day, Justin & Michelle paid us a brief visit before going to dinner with Michelle's family so we had a visit with Cohen on his first Christmas.

Dec 2-17 Aaaah the tropical breezes

We had a great trip to Hawaii, returning for the umteenth time to Kona on the Big Island. We didn't cover much ground this time, just hung out on our lanai, took a boat trip out to skin dive with 100-150 dolphins. We enjoyed shopping at the farmers market for local produce, all the local fish and seafood with a Japanese twist. Nearly every day we donned masks and snorkels and went skin diving with the fish, turtles and dolphins in the many good bays south of Kona. We had one day of rain, but it was still 75 so not too difficult to take. It was sad to return to winter but good to be back for the holidays.