So Saturday off we went with our 5 litres of water, 6 power bars, 2 powergels, 4 ham sangwiches, 2 nectarines, bag of candied peanuts, goldfish and cookies. We weren’t going hungry that was for sure!

The hike starts at the parking lot of Chateau Lake Louise and winds itself around the back side of Mt. Fairview between saddleback mountain and fairview mountain.   It takes about 45minutes to an hour before the real hike occurs.  At this point you go up 600 m in 800m… or something like that…  Was steep but not dangerous just upwards.   We got to the top in 2 hours and had a great view of the glacier and lake below.  Here’s a couple of photos.
This is where we’re headed

The Glacier

Jeff At The Top

Lindsay at the top

Both of us at the top

Lindsay on the way down

After the hike and some food (of course) we headed back down.  Then did a little detour to the Mt. Fairview lookout which gives a nice view of the lake and hotel.  We then walked along the side of the lake and stopped to take a few pictures.  This was my favorite photo…  I took it and turned some of it into Black and White.  The blue from the lake has been totally untouched… I might change that later but I thought it looks pretty cool as is.

Before

After

Now it’s Monday and our legs are still burning… Who knew that our house had THIS MANY stairs! All in all a great hike and a fun day!

In other news, life is slowly returning to normal. Funding proposal at work got submitted on time (with an hour to spare even!). Now I’m just playing catch up from all the work that got tossed by the weigh-side for the last two weeks (at work and at home). How convenient that a) our dishwasher decided to break b) inlaws are coming for the weekend and I can’t really see the spare bed because of the laundry. I guess they should just be lucky that we haven’t had to resort to piling dishes up in their room yet. Yet….. c) I don’t give a crap about all the stuff I have to do. I’m taking Friday afternoon off to go golfing!!!

Jeff and I got a golf gift certificate to a really nice course in Kananaskis for our wedding and plan to use it this summer now that we have all this spare time not spent playing ultimate. We are booked for August 14th so we have till then to get decent (by we, I mean me). We got out golfing last weekend at Highland Park (really cheap – $12 but you get what you pay for…greens? I’ve played on smoother ultimate fields) and my ball was drawn to every fairway but the one I should be using. We’re off to Cochrane this week to give it another shot, literally. Might as well get out and enjoy the spring rates!

Got off to a bit of shaky start. Showed up late-ish since the second period was wrapping up on the Canuck’s game…(plus ulti always starts late so surely all sports must do the same…apparently not the case)–YEAH CANUCKS. Got home just in time to see them win in OT and sweep the Blues in 4!!! Got to the game, threw on my shin pads, socks and cleats and kicked the ball around for a minute or so. Felt pretty good, until I got on the field. I must have had at least 3 kicks where I completely missed the ball….how embarrassing. Swung my leg and zero contact with nothing but air!

Second half was much better. I managed to play almost every position on the field but keeper. With 5 minutes left (scoreless so far), I was playing left forward, got around the D and passed for an assist!!!! Luckily the person that I passed to was more competent with the ball and her legs than myself and kicked it perfectly in. Was pretty stoked and am excited for the next game. Maybe I’ll show up a bit earlier and do a better job of warming up.

Having some issues with soccer, coming from ultimate. Find there’s a lot of standing around so I chase the ball and catch myself out of position. Just doesn’t make sense to me to stand around waiting. I guess me swarming the ball along with everyone else is not very helpful but at least I was getting some exercise!

Really fun, active weekend for Jeff and I. Saturday we woke up early (ok, early by my standards) and hit the open highway to spend some time in the gorgeous rocky mountains. We went to Banff for a day of hiking. It is the first time Jeff and I have been hiking since living in Calgary and I can’t believe it took us so long as we had a fantastic day. Wandered through town and then hiked the Bow Valley/Hoodoo trail.

The trail was not too exerting with only a 60m elevation gain over 5km but just enough of a gain to get a nice view of the mountains. We took our camera but didn’t get any amazing shots as there was some cloud cover. Started to clear as we were arriving back to the car but the wind was also starting to pick up so our timing was great.

Normally (as least what I remember from all the hiking I did with my family growing up) the end of the trail, at the highest point, is the most spectacular. This was not the case with this hike. The Information Centre in Banff said to do this trail “Hoodoo Trail” to see the hoodoos at the end. Wow. Deceptive. They were NOT worth the hike (luckily the views along the way were). The hoodoos (all 2 of them) were way off in the distance and not much to look at. Thumbs up for the nice hike, thumbs down for the hoodoos.

Here are some pictures from the day:

View of the Banff Springs from the parking lot

Thanks to Larry and Brenda’s great meal planning and Jeff’s good BBQing we ate like kings. Lots of fun had with Kevin, Tamara and the two little ones. I think I watched Finding Nemo with Sage 3 times, but luckily she was into that right instead of Barney (which she watched the entire way from Princeton apparently ). Here are a few pics from the week: http://picasaweb.google.com/jeff.sill/SunPeaks#

My team made the podium, but didn’t come first. I found this strange as 3/5 of my teammates came first overall in one of the sports and one of the guys on my team finished as the top male overall. I guess with these sort of stats we must have shone at times and not so much at others. I really think pool was our downfall. I blame the lack of beer at this point. Who seriously plays pool sober? Afterwards a few of us headed back to our place for some fresh fruit maragarits and guitar hero.

On Saturday morning we had our second annual Garage Hack party. We started this tradition last year after we took up hacky sack after our fall league ultimate games. In the winter we missed it, so we had a hack party in our garage. Last year Jeff made omlets for everyone but this year we had waffles. Great work on breakfast Jeff thanks to the fun crew with the hack skillz:

The whole crew hacking

Nice focus Terri!

Weekend summary: guitar hero, Shank’s, hacky sack, disc golf, coffee, margaritas, squash, Superbowl party, Rock Band, ultimate. All the makings of a great (but a tad tiring) weekend!

It starts at 10am on Saturday, Feb. 21 at the Parkland disc golf course (Park 96). You can get all the details and pre-register on the Alberta Disc Golf website. If you are a woman disc golfer in Calgary I recommend you come out. WOMEN PLAY FOR FREE! Also, I’m looking to defend my title and it’d be great to have some competition. It would be awkward engraving my name on a trophy if I played against myself and won. It also gives you a chance to play the private Calgary course if you haven’t already. Proceeds go to a great cause and they have some fantastic prizes.

Hope to see you there!

The first film was done by Ryan Leetch (aka my boyfriend), and he was as amazing as always. He’s a trials mountain biker. You can check out his stuff here:

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The film featured 2 riders along with Ryan, and they were also quite good.

The next film was an animation on orgami. I’m not usually one for the short animations as they tend to be really off the wall and too strange for me. This is the first short animation I really enjoyed.

Film 3 was on base jumping. What crazy f’ers. Seriously who does that? It followed the life story of 3 base jumpers and their journey to the Heavenly Pit in China. I felt nauseate just watching them. It was a good flick but I think I enjoyed the base jumping movie about Karina Hollekim “20 seconds of joy” last year a bit more. Maybe it was because that was my first real introduction to it so it was novel.

There were some cool movies in the middle of the program (rock climbing, avalanche safety) but the best film was the last one. Twist ending….the travelers did not accomplish what they set out to do and it was still entertaining. Two brits attempting to climb Patagonia and they failed and spent 4 days in a snow cave. They were characters and full of personality making it a great flick.

Maybe one of these years I will make it out to Banff to see the full program. If it comes to a city near you, I highly recommend going.

Willow had a play date with her BFF Bob today so she’s been sleeping all night. I went over to Jill’s place to work on a complicated budget for work and our cats played. Now she is exhausted and hasn’t moved (or been remotely awake) since we got home. Spending so much time on work budgets lately has somehow given me the desire to start my own personal budget. Jeff brought up the idea and Jill gave us a sweet template. It will be pretty cool to see where all our money is going.

Played a bit of squash and watched some TV. We’ve been slacking on the blog lately but it’s hard to get anything done with the tv, guitar hero, and “How I met your mother”. Big shout out to my stepmom Susan who has not been slacking on her blog! Nice work Susan. Keep the great stories coming!

In other news, I’m reading “Memoirs of a Geisha”. So far (about 1/2 way through), it is excellent. I’m probably biased however since I just went to Japan and can relate much more to the culture and history of Japan. Some of the places they mention I’ve actually been too, which is cool. And yes, we plan to post our pictures from the trip sometime in the near future (on our picasa site), but see above about being lazy and procrastinating. Speaking of my book…I should probably go read it. ‘NIght.

Editor’s note: We really didn’t send Christmas cards in 2005….but you get the point.

Yes, we have a Christmas Theme and used the word “Christmas” seven times in the last three sentences. If you don’t like it, move along. Anyway, onto the year …

Editors note: Comments from Lindsay in Red and Jeff in Green.

January

We were flying back from Hawaii (from our honeymoon) on January 1st. Oh Hawaii…What a great way to ring in the New Year!

We went to Sun Peaks for our good Friend Dylan’s 30th birthday (what an old man). It was great times with phenomenal snowboarding at Sun Peaks per usual.

February

The highlight from February was one of the highlights of the entire year: I discovered and solved my migraine mystery. Turns out the thing that was causing my migraines all along was water (or a lack thereof). Not chinooks, hormones, or exercise. Who knew? (I did) If you are reading this and suffer from migraines try drinking a ton of water. I mean drink so much water every day that you pee constantly and feel like barfing from having drank so much liquid. (No seriously, I harped on this for a while)

My migraines caused me extreme pain and suffering for years. I was on every medication under the sun (vioxx, anti-depressants, anti-seizure medication, vitamin B, others…) to prevent my migraines. The medications caused terrible side effects from dizziness, to nausea to numbness in the extremities. Not to mention the potential long-term damage I may have done by taking so much Imitrex and Maxalt to take the migraines away upon onset. They are wonder drugs but not so wonderful.

Now I just drink lots of water everyday (more if I’m exercising) and I’ve had very few migraines. Of the ones I’ve had since February, I can attribute about 90% of them to dehydration.

Anyways, sorry to hi-jack this Christmas post…but this was definitely a highlight when reviewing 2008. I guess my wishbone wish came true!

Also to note was a nice visit from Larry and Brenda in February and my publication in Nature magazine.

March

I started a company! President Jeff just had such a great ring to it that it seemed like a good idea.

He was nice enough to make his loving wife the Vice President.

In March we also attended one of the funnest parties ever: Robert’s 50th. Hard to believe anyone we play ultimate with is even close to 50…maybe in age but not in spirit. I sure hope I’m still running around (or even walking around) when I’m 50 after playing the equivalent of “tackle football without equipment” (as our chiropractor calls it) for so long.

We also welcomed a new family member, our nephew Conrad, on March 11th.

April

as a side note here. Blog’s are awesome. Seriously. The year in review is so easy to do because you can just Michael J. Fox back into time and “remember” what we did. You would think I’d remember but you’d be wrong.

Some people who read this blog may be bored from the repetition. However, those who don’t care to waste their time on our babble can just read this and treat it like the Cole’s Notes of our life recently.

May

Major highlight #2 for Lindsay: Addition to our family. After a lovely visit to see Jeff’s brother and my parents in BC,

May saw our Cat-Dog Willow enter our life. She’s was so little and cute and won my heart over. For the record (ie: Wriggs) I still don’t like cats. I like Cat-Dog’s. We call Willow our Cat-Dog because she really like to be entertained, played with and has a full routine in the morning. Cat-Dog’s are awesome

We ended May with a trip down to Bozeman, MT to have a weekend-long shower. Where we learned the game psychiatrist! So fun!

June

Brief trip to Victoria for work, but other than that, June was really uneventful, except for our Garage Sale and the Toppers Heroes for Hospice Race!

July

We made it through our first entire year of marriage this month. So far so good. That sure flew by. Seems like just yesterday I was cleaning up from the wedding…er…so maybe I was. Still working out what to do with the dress….

Another significant event in July was Regionals.

August

After all the hard work to get to Nationals, we had a disappointing finish, but I guess if you can’t be top 8, you might as well win the Ninals!

I went on a trip to Toronto and had a wonderful visit with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and my mom (who came with me). Luckily all of my extended family (with the exception of my uncle in Australia) lives in Ontario so it’s like one-stop-shopping. I also visited almost every casino in Ontario…(when in Rome).

Went to Golden with some folks for a little disc golf at Infinity’s Sports Ranch.

Also had a second medical breakthrough – discovered I needed orthodics. Solved my ankle problems, back problems and sore foot problem. Guess it makes sense, the backbone is connected to the leg bone.

September

Great times had in September. Quick weekend trip to Fernie (thanks Terri!) for some mountain biking and relaxation. In case you haven’t heard, we also went to Japan. Amazing country, friendly people and a wonderful trip! Japan is seriously cool. Such a unique place and definitely recommended and high on list of places we’d like to visit (again). Highlights include Bullet Trains, Raw Chicken and Beautiful Gardens.

October

I started working part-time at my ‘real-job’ and part-time as President Jeff. We decided that it would be a smart move because I could get a lot more done and hopefully grow the company a bit. The one question I get lots is how’s the company doing. It’s doing fine and I love all the concern people have, however, this is also one of the reasons that I never told people about my sites for quite some time. You see to get indexed in the search engines takes time (makes sense that you just can’t throw something up and be highly ranked in google). So things I’m doing now is really for the future and so it can be slow going while things are growing.

The end of October also brought Halloween, one of our favorite celebrations of the year. This year Lindsay planned a 30 days till I’m 30 party. Man was it fun. Some of the highlights include meeting our neighbours in sock feet, Egg-up, 12 (or was it more?) people shot-gunning beer (including my Pa) and Anasol.

We went to Victoria for Pumpkin Pull. It was the first time I had been back in about 5 years. So much on the UVic Campus had changed but not much around the city felt different. It still really felt like home and was hard to leave.

November

Jeff turns 30! (I’m an old man now)

Oh and squash club is back in full force which is super fun!

December

We’ve been too busy writing this post to have anything exciting happen in December. Luckily we are snowed in right now and have time for blogging.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND ALL THE BEST IN THE NEW YEAR,

LOVE JEFF AND LINDSAY (AND WILLOW)