Happy Holidays Girls and Boys,
I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season. I know I sure did, full of family, friends and food! Oh and snow! Christmas day was nearly perfect, as it started to snow just as we were sitting down to Christmas brunch. This allowed for a sick couple of hours on the hill with fresh snow! Thats right, the Maas family had Christmas at Nana's in Banff again this year, how can a girl get so lucky? And I had a Christmas sister, her name is Josiane. Jo and I go to school together at TRU and decided on our 6 week break to move in with Nana, get jobs and enjoy the mountains as much as possible!
Christmas and New Years were good but 2012 so has been bitter sweet for the Stafford family. My uncle Barrie was diagnosed with multiple myeloma this past summer in July and subsequently went through tests and treatments in the following months concluding with a bone marrow transplant in early December. The bone marrow transplant is so far successful and Barrie surpassed a lot of people's expectations when he was released from the hospital shortly after 2012 started. He can now spend days and nights at home with no daily visits to the hospital for monitoring and tests. It's up to him now to regain his strength and enjoy life to the fullest. Barrie's body's response to multiple myeloma has been amazing and his determination to beat the disease is inspiring. Barrie is the sweet part.
On the morning of January 9th, my Uncle Alan was in a car accident. The call I got from my mom was the call that everybody dreads getting: serious accident, do not know any details, tell Nana, drive to Edmonton. The accident was serious but our family is extremely grateful and feel blessed that Alan did not sustain life threatening injuries. However, the spinal cord was compromised and he has sensation but no movement in his lower body. At this moment in time we do not know what the future has in store or if Al will walk again. He is determined to. The past few days were spent in Edmonton with the family and visiting Alan as much as possible. Life is forever changed for us. It was rough seeing him in the hospital, under the influence of drugs and banged up, this is not how I know my uncle who just two weeks before was playing hockey and snowboarding here in Banff. Its good to see his sense of humour has not been affected. Alan is the bitter part.
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| Uncle Al's car after. |
In response to my two uncle's battles the Stafford family has shown just how strong we are yet again. We are there in the good times and the bad times with each other. Upon returning to Banff from Edmonton I hit the tattoo shop and got some new ink. It is in full view as a reminder and a tribute to my family's strength and laughter.
Okay now for the school update! The last update was way back in September at the end of kayak 3. What are the highlights. With my new flatwater instructor certificate that I received from kayak 3, I assisted with two sections of kayak 1, the intro course to white water for the first years. It was an awesome experience. I was definitely nervous at first, as I still didn't have my roll and every run down the river prior to kayak 1 had been ALL about my personal survival down the river. Now as an assistant, I had to be concerned with the survival of others. Assisting on kayak 1 made me fall in love with white water boating even more and made me want to continue to dedicate time to the activity. This led to me signing up for the white water kayak expedition. This will be similar to the sea kayak expedition I did last year, but it will be car camping and rivers! My goal is to be by the time I am finished at TRU comfortable and self-sufficient on class III waters.
After assisting on kayak 1, two of the Icelandic gentlemen in the program, Gaddi and Iggy, and I headed out to the west coast to explore all it has to offer. We got in a few days of sea kayaking, watched a surf comp, enjoyed the legion and consumed some delicious fish tacos.
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| Iggy and I outside the parrot rescue centre. Probably one of the top three highlights. Photo courtesy of Iggy. |
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| Iggy's first experience with an Ochre Seastar on the Pacific Coast. Photo courtesy of Gaddi. |
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| Gaddi and I on the trail that crosses Vargas Island. It was muddy, full of trees and required rubber boots. The Icelanders were cursing me more than once for making them do it. Photo courtesy of Iggy. |
After the nice trip to Tofino, it was back to Kamloops so that I could do my flatwater canoe instructor. My thoughts on this experience was: if it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger.
After canoeing it was back to the classroom! Let the games begin. Due to my courses at the University of Calgary I was exempt from accounting so my two courses for the semester were The Business of Adventure and Marketing and Customer service. It turns out these courses are taught my two of my favourite teachers in the department, Ross and Dave respectively. Because I am intrigued by business and management the courses were very entertaining for me and I enjoyed them immensely. As part of the courses, each student had to create a business and draw up a marketing and business plan (including financials) for the business. The first ten days of December were rough as they were the ten days till the submission deadline for both plans. But at the end of ten days, where I sat on my butt, in front of the computer for eighteen hours a day, I felt super pumped and stoked on the results of the plans. Perhaps one day you will visit the Central Coast of BC and joing me at Bella Pacific Sea Kayak Adventures. Thank you Dave and Ross for amazing courses.
However, just because class was back in didn't mean the fun ended. No, adventure students do not know how to NOT have fun. Trying to create a tradition, nine of use headed to Banff at the beginning of November for the BMFF. This year I was fortunate enough to volunteer some of my time at the festival and I would highly recommend volunteering at the BMFF. Then there were a few cold days of paddling, and lots of kickboxing and yoga!
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| Jessie and I enjoying the unmanned booths at BMFF. |
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The 2011 BMFF gang! Lets just say fun was had by all!
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| The best Aunt Bea has ever looked, five kayaks, five people and gear! And props to Jess's green beast! |
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| Thats right, we are tough, we survived a swim a piece! |
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| Snow...pft...no big deal! |
On December 3, Josiane, Chris and I packed Aunt Bea up and headed east to the Rockies. As mentioned before Jo and I decided to keep Nana company for a few weeks, Chris just wanted a ride! Living in Banff has been fantastic but then again I knew it would be! Early season conditions made x-country skiing and snowboarding a pick and choose process but it was still awesome to be able to do both activities so easily! I got a job at Monod's Sports. It is a gear and apparel store on Banff Ave. If I have to work retail I will work there! The management and all the other staff are fantastic and a lot a lot of fun! I am glad I still have two more weeks of work. I think Nana appreciated having us here, it took a little while for her to get comfortable having people live in the house with her but it has worked out well! It is also nice to be close to Calgary. Yesterday was my first trip to the city but its so accessible to get there which I am stoked on for the next couple of weeks, as it gives me the opportunity to catch up with Calgary friends. I was even fortunate enough to have Jackie and Colin come pick me up for some ice climbing! Also, Janice made it home for Christmas and was kind enough to make the drive out to Banff two times to snowboard and keep with tradition in celebrating New Years in Banff!
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| Jo and I on our first x-country ski of the season! |
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| Cautioning the HUGE hill below, haha, my favourite! |
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| The little elves handing out presents. |
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| Brotherly and sisterly love. |
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| Heading out for Christmas day ride. |
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| Bear Spirit! |
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| Jackie and Colin. |
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| Nice and spread out. |
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| Happy New Year! |
So now what, well I have two more weeks in Banff before heading to Kamloops to start my final semester of the Adventure Management Diploma. Scary and exciting. I am lucky as I only have one classroom course this semester so lots of time for adventure and getting prepared for life outside of the program. This semester will be full of paddling both white water and ocean. It is going to be fantastic! I will try and update more frequently in the future!
Ta-ta for now,
K
