Jindabyne

At last!!! Long awaited winter holiday! I have been waiting for this break for so long. Finally it's time to pack our ski jackets and beanies and head down towards Canberra, Cooma and Jindabyne.
Jacob and I started preparing a week earlier, we baked lots of gingerbread cookies to take with us to the snow. Some of them thought, didn't make it further than baking tray :-D
We left home around 8am on Thursday 26th June. 5 hours later and 450km from Sydney, we finally arrived at Jindabyne. After short discussion it was decided to stay in and order pizzas for dinner because we were all quite tired from long travel and didn't feel like going out. When dinner was finished and plates washed up, Jacob's latest favourite movie - "Kung Fu Panda" was screening in the lounge room TV and as you see everybody got comfortable and settled in to watch it together. It's a funny movie about this fat panda called Po (voice by Jack Black) who against all odds becomes a Kung Fu master, claims a title of Dragon Warrior and defeats an evil leopard Tai Lung to restore happiness to beautiful Valley of Peace. If you haven't seen it, I strongly recommend. Kids couldn't stop laughing and repeated lines from the movie for days. Jacob's favourite is the scene featured in this picture here... "You want it? Come and get it!" (he-he-hee you'll understand, once you see the movie)
First Day at the snow.
Wake up at 7am, then quick breakfast and off we went to Perisher Blue Ski Resort. That was pretty much the only place open for skiing. We've had warm weather and not much snow fall this year. Our ski trip was almost cancelled because there's just not enough snow but because we had planned this for months and it's very difficult to find dates that suit every one's work and school schedules, we decided to go ahead.

Jacob looked so cute in his one-piece ski outfit, complete with helmet and goggles but after trying for little while he decided that he didn't like skiing after all and wanted to just play with the snow. I tried to exchange his skis for toboggan but toboggans were not allowed in the general area and tobogganing run was closed because there wasn't enough snow :-( That was bit of a disappointment because I'm sure Jacob would have loved sliding down the hill with me. And so would I.

Phil & Frank were skiing this year but all the kids decided to try snowboarding. I personally prefer snowboarding to skis but I had babysitting duties so I didn't get to snowboard which is fine by me, I had fun watching other and playing with Jacob. Besides, I had Lisa, Joe and Maria to keep me company.
Stef already knew how to snowboard but boys had to learn because it was their first time. In the beginning they found it a bit hard but everything new is difficult in the beginning, they didn't give up but tried again the next day.

Day 2.
Before heading up to Perisher, we took this lovely group picture at the front of the flat where we stayed. Behind us is beautiful Lake Jindabyne. In case you don't recognise, from left: Maria, Frank, Luca, Joe, Lisa, Anthony, Stefania, Poliina, Jacob, Phil and Matthew.

Jacob and Lisa building a tiny snowman.

Phil on the ski lift - he's the one in the middle with red boots.

Lunch break. On the menu: corn chips, apples, breakfast bars and soft drinks - all brought from home by Frank and Maria - very thoughtful because food at the resort is expensive and ques are much too long.

Lisa, Joe, Jacob and I went up on the ski lift that was open only for sightseeing. We stopped half way and took this photo at the lodge overlooking the mountains - the view is breathtaking.

On the ski lift. You see how little snow there is?! :-(

What is a snow trip without an injury? Someone always gets hurt. This time it was Matthew. He hit a rock with the snowboard and fell badly on his wrist. If you look at this photo closely you see group of people gathered in the middle just below the ski lift pole, it's the medical crew who took Matt to the resorts medical centre for assessment and after X-rays were taken, we found out his wrist was fractured. Lucky it's his left hand.

Lake Jindabyne. Beautiful isn't it?!?

On our way back home.

If you look closely, you see Frank's BMW in the distance ahead - leader of the pack. The blue Commodore in front of us is Joe.
We all had walkie-talkie radio transmitters so we could have a conversation on the road. It was fun and really handy when you need to keep track of eleven people in the ski resort.

Lake George. Dry at the moment. Apparently not always but I have never seen it under water.

Snuggles.





The End.