Wednesday 8th October - Wednesday 31st December 2014

We finally arrived in Banff and everything looked so great and pretty lit up! We finally got dropped off at our new home and Noel and Nancy met up with us and let us in.

So happy we have finally arrived.

We grabbed some food out as it was super late and I wasn't about to go to the supermarket, thats for sure!

It has been pretty full on since we have arrived and settled into life here. Work is going well, there was so much to learn during training, but all went well and passed everything ok. Stu is all busy with work at the warehouse which is all going well too. He has just been nominated for employee of the month for December, so he gets to go to a dinner and gets a trail sign. I am jealous!!

The season started a week late due to the lack of snow we have, and we are still waiting for some big dumps of snow. The riding has been awesome and have had some great days. We have our little crew of people that we go riding with on a weekly basis.

We have visited Lake Louise and I have been to Kicking Horse ski resorts, both pretty awesome. I just want to go further afield now and go to other resorts!

We have made so many friends here, I don't have many nights where I'm home or by ourselves! Its very different to what life was like in Australia thats for sure! There is always something going on in town somewhere!!

Before the snow fell we hiked up Tunnel mountain with a big group of us, its a pretty hard walk but the view over Banff on one side and over the Bow river and the golf course is amazing! I went up one morning to try and see sunrise. Half way up, I swear I heard a 'growl', I managed to convience myself it sounded like and elf growl rather than a cougar growl! Unfournately we didn't see sunrise as the weather was extremely casted over.

We took a trip to Lake Louise, the actual lake not ski hill, in order for us to get lots of free trips. It was the start of a three day snow storm which is apparently not normal here! We couldn't see the lake which was rather annoying considering two of our friends went the day before and it was a clear day!

Apparently a guest at the hotel, last year, at work asked how is the water so blue, and the guy behind the check in desk said they empty the lake every night and paint the bottom blue. Apparently the guest actually waited all night to see this happen, which clearly doesn't! The poor guy got fired! We all reckon he should have gotten promoted!!

Considering we were 'state' side that we would actually celebrate Halloween for the first time. I was feeling pretty under the weather so didn't stay out too late, but we dressed up and made an effort for the party at one of the houses.

Work has been pretty steady not too busy and we are all getting into the swing of things. We have been riding as much as we can. The snow has been pretty good, but I've heard it was pretty insane last year! I can't wait!

I celebrated my 27th birthday in full force! We went for taco night and margaritas before hitting our local bar Mel's! Everyone brought me way too many shots! It has to possibly one of the biggest birthdays, and all the gondola crew showed up which was so good!

We attempted our try at curling...man it is harder than it looks thats for sure! We had to wear a 'special' shoe so we can skate across the ice. The girls won the first girl with the final rock being the winner! Us girls screamed so loudly the whole hall thought we won the olympics!!

We had a gondys Vs. lifities ice hockey match, firstly they had a warehouse guy. So techniquely they lost! But it was a very competitive game, I got slammed in the face by one guy, adding further bruises to my poor legs!

We headed up to Sulphur mountain on the Banff gondola and had a little walk up to the peak. It was a pretty chilly day, but we got a great view across all the mountains the over shadow Banff.

We went to Lake Louise on Christmas eve as it was the nearest mountain that had the most snow fall. Its was a great powder day!! We had such a good day riding through the trees and in the back bowls. My legs were burning after a full day of riding!!!

We had our Christmas dinner on Christmas eve too as we were all buy on Christmas day. We had so many people over, I think we about 18 people over in the end. It was a really good day and we both enjoyed it. Something different once again!

On Christmas day we both worked, it wasn't that bad it was great seeing everyone come up in their hats and we got loads of chocolate to for the guests! We opened our presents when we got home from work and just chilled out watching some TV.

New years was pretty awesome, we went to a friends house for a party before going to the main strip to watch the fireworks which was great. Stu lost his shoes, which he finally worked out his supervisor had taken them instead as he was so drunk he thought they were his!!