Happy Valentine's Day...

Day 12, Feb 14th

A mixed day for all 'The Gang' today, a lively day for some, a lazy day for others.

We woke to a reasonably overcast morning, lightly snowing and hard to assess what it would be like as the day progressed and what it would be like at the top of the mountain.

Diane, whilst certainly bruised and sore, appears to have suffered no breaks or injuries which will keep her from continuing the rest of the trip. She had me up at 3am tip toeing around the unit like a church mouse getting ice for her leg. With a foot of snow on the balcony, I guess I could have found an easier method...lol

The first real movement came around 9:30am when Clive and Karmen decided to bite the bullet and head out. Karmen still had a day left on her lift ticket, so it was a bit of a no-brainer for her. Clive took Brenda's lift ticket which also had a day to run and they headed off, lonely figures as they walked the 30 metres up the road to click in and ski down to the gondola...

I made the decision to stay in as Diane needed a bit of a hand so that swayed my thinking. I could bullshit a bit here and say because it was Valentine's Day I wanted to make sure she was comfortable etc, but most of my family and friends reading this blog would see thru that immediately...lol. The honest truth is, if it was a bluebird day I would have been out there, but given the uncertain conditions I decided to play the devoted husband. She did get breakfast in bed and frequent cups of tea during the morning.

Casey stayed in bed the whole morning and caught up on some sleep. She hasn't been real well with the sniffles and I guess she is missing somebody's company.... I think she is just about ready to go home although she has some big plans to teach Tarrant to ski and make a trip somewhere, sometime in the future.

About lunchtime, Brenda headed out with the 4 kids......and Darren!!!!!!!!!

They headed up to the VCM (Village Centre Mall) and Darren rented some boots and skis for the afternoon. Clive and Karmen met up with them and took Tayla and Jack for the afternoon whilst the Franks family went skiing together for the first time ever, doing laps off the gondola. From all reports Kody is doing well on the skis and Brenda is confident we get him up the mountain and down the easier runs tomorrow.

The afternoon in the unit was very quiet and comfortable. I played some poker online and won enough to cover my lift ticket for tomorrow and then some...shhh don't tell the wife...lol

A roast lamb dinner was prepared and consumed by all and it was an early night in preparation for our final day on snow tomorrow. I intend to take the camera out tomorrow, but it looks like the weather may be questionable again so I'm stuck a bit on what to do.

Looking forward to a big final day tomorrow before Diane, Casey and I fly to LA and farewell Casey back to Sydney before we head off for the rail leg of the adventure. The rest of 'The Gang' make their way to Vegas and Disneyland. The internet access has been sensational at the unit, they have their own private wireless network and uploads and downloads are at great speed. I suspect the rail leg will be much different, especially on the 2 and 3 day legs at the start and finish. I will keep the blog updated daily and the train trip should give me a heap of chances to get some great shots from the train, but I may be restricted to uploading and publishing the blog every couple of days.

Enjoy...