My family was here to celebrate x-mas and New Years with us. We even went to the forest and cut down a x-mas tree for the American Cave. (It's called that b/c two windows open into a parking garage but it is nicer then we had expected) We skied a ton and ate lots of great food. Loads of Cheese!! It was a great time! My mom and Katie and I checked out all the shopping and skied too! Katie was an amazing skier for it being one of her first few times!! We all "apres skied" with a drink at the base area and took in the sights. My Dad perfected his powder skiing and the boys skied across all 3 valleys with Mark on the last day and had amazing powder turns! We all went to a huge New Years bash out on the piste/snow with fireworks and all! They even tried Mark's crepes!! (It's a skill he is still perfecting!)
The Frenchies have been taking good care of us and showing us around. Mark's french is coming a long well because he speaks it all day while I speak to Charley most of the day. I want him to practice with me when he comes home but he just wants to "speak normal" after the long day. I like go up to the top shack and hang out with the patrollers to practice my french. Last time I was there one of the frenchmen, Cyrille, was my french to french translator.....he translated my poor 3rd grade french to actual french for the other patrollers to understand!
Mark has been busy at work "testing all of the slopes", making sure the poles on the sides are lined up and straight and doing rescues too. He called his first helicopter last week for a serious head injury. He has also been introducing the patrol to new music! He's been speaking french on the radio too!! I have yet to babysit again since the first experience....I'm still recovering and the skiing is getting better......
We've found a great bar with cheap beer that lets us bring Chubbly Hambone (we've renamed Charley) with us to the bar. I think they are more excited to see Chubbly then us! The bar is full of British workers which is nice for us to come and speak english to. We've instilled weekly family dinners with everyone there. I've found ski partners too for when Mark actually has to work.
So Chubbly/Charley is having a great time. The name stems from the many times I've returned from a walk or a ski with her and a very nice frenchman gives her his leftover ham sandwich. This happens often!! Charley gets to ride around in the gondolas with me to the ski du fond (x-country skiing) pistes.
We've been skiing a ton and even went ice climbing with a few of the patrollers (check out the photos!). One of the patrollers took me on a long ski tour in the national park on his day off. This past weekend we went with two other couples to a back country refuge. Think hotel that you have to ski 3 hours to. Nothing like the huts in Colorado. There was a chef and a sauna and plenty of wine!! We couldn't bring Charley to this hut unfortunately so a friend stayed at our place and hung out with her, but we did find Tommy the St. Bernard when we arrived at the hut. It couldn't have been more fitting...a huge St. Bernard in the Alps....I don't think he would be up to wearing the barrel around his neck and tromping through the snow....he really like to sleep more then anything! We had a great time! The weather was very foggy on the day we left so we were unable to ski anything steep before we left for the tour out.
We're heading to a friends for raclette dinner, which is this great combination of cheese and potatoes and ham and cornchons (small wonderful pickles). These are the staples of Savoie (the region we are in) meals and we're not complaining!
We'll be in touch and posting more....we promise!
Here's a link to more photos!
http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/France120902#
**FINALLY WE HAVE INTERNET FROM HERE ON OUT!!**YAY!!
