The Opening Ceremonies in NAKISKA!

OPENING CEREMONIES.... Nakiska Style

SINCE we are training in Nakiska, we were unable to attend the Opening Ceremonies.  So we decided to have a patriotic Canadian evening anyway!!!

Here it is!

Working the props and the outfits!!!

Happy tech team.  We only go to Whistler on the 20th, so we have a couple more days to train and get our Olympic spirit going along with our "extreme candadian-ness...."

oh canada! Smile with your eyes.

We got slightly carried away with the props and the Canadian tape, eh?

ok ok one more pic..... Brigitte's sweet bling bling ski boot necklace!!

We danced and jumped our way to meet up with the rest of the team to watch the opening ceremonies!!!

dah dah dahhhhhhh

Hey look its Patty Biggs! He is getting ready to chop some wood.

Brad making the most of our snaZzy gear.

Anyway, it's exciting that the Olympics are actually starting, and I felt like a proud Canadian as I watched the opening ceremonies.  At the same time I am truly saddened by the death of the Georgian Luger Norad Kumaritashvili.   My condolences go out to his teammates, friends and family.

Hopefully that will be the last sad news of the Olympics.

We hit the slopes again tomorrow and it will be my first day back in gates since tearing my knee!! wish me luck!

Feels good to be back where I belong!

My time in Calgary is OVER!! Although it was fun and I got a TON accomplished in terms of rehabbing my genou, I am happy to have packed up my bags and to have headed to the MOUNTAINS!  Where I belong!

This bike represents my life right now.  Lots of biking and lots of snow! haha.

I think that I was getting accustomed to city life!! Sushi with the lovely ladies, Chemmy and Brigitte!

Me and my green tea. so zen.

LAUGHING! I love laughing with these people! tres entertaining!

But when our "Olympic Roll" arrived, I didn't want to be eating the Olympics, I wanted to be skiing there!!.... So....

We went skiing!  Back in Good old Nakiska with the girls!

We are SO EXTREME!  What a rebel...

Spying on the boys..... hahaha.

Watching the boys RIP it down the ICY slope.

@bradcspence ripping!! (that is his twitter name... we are twitter friends...)(and normal friends)

wa wa we wa!  Even our lunches are Olympic.

Anyway, it was awesome to get back with the team today and feel the wind on my face.  We only free-skied but it felt great!  I'm taking things day by day to see how my knee reacts, but so far so good.  8 more days in Nakiska then it's for real Olympic time!!!  Since we are missing opening ceremonies, we are going to have some sort of tv-watching-opening-ceremonies-party.  should be a good time.....

Stay tuned!

BACK ON SNOW...

SKIING!!
I finally got on snow this week after a long month of physiotherapy, biking, gymming and long days of hard work. Every minute of it has been worth it since it all means I can ski and RACE! yay!
It was so much fun to get back on snow, but I know it's a whole other story to ski in gates.... next week.
Can't wait to get back with the team and get into the OLYMPIC VIBE!!!

And a little video of one of my first runs back!

Weekend of Fresh Air!

Weekend Getaway!  Got out of the city for some fresh air this weekend! Blue bird skies, sun and snow made me miss skiing more than anything!! But I was happy just to be able to take advantage of the beautiful outdoors.

Of course, with being surrounded by such awesome landscapes all around, especially Above Donner Lake,we had to have a photo sessioN!! My newly cut hair!

Marco and I!! Prepping for a pose session. haha.

Other than posing, I also snuggled up by the fire and enjoyed some much needed down time!!

BUT I Kept myself inspired with the movie HOT DOG!

If I couldn't ski at Squaw, at least I got to watch people RIPPING the Chinese Downhill at Squaw!!! haha! Inspirational.

I love it here.

 Everywhere we went I wanted to snap pictures endlessly and try to remember the snow, the blue skies, and the sunshine that I have been missing off the ski hill.

posers?

Truckee River.  Where I do my world famous EXTREME TUBING in the summer.  I was tempted to break out the tube and have a little adventure COMBINED with an icing session for my knee!! But I figured that my Game Ready was doing a good enough icing job without having to go in the river...

more poses, with a sweet TREE!

More of the Sweet TREE!!

Anyway, got back into the routine at the gym this morning with one goal in mind: Be ready to RIP at the Olympics!!!! WHAT WHAT!

Inspirational mittens....

Going to the Olympics!

Joining in on the Olympic Fever!

For the last 3 weeks since tearing my ACL, I have been rehabbing like a crazy woman and getting physiotherapy (THANKS KENT) every single day. I have been working my bum off to try to race because on January 5th when I arrived in London to see Dr. Litchfield (who examined my MRI) I was told the BEST NEWS of the new year so far : that there was still a possibility for me to race with a brace.  The reason why I am able to race but Larisa and Kelly are not, is because I have what they call an "isolated Anterior Cruciate Ligament tear" whereas the girls had multiple ligament tears.  

So after three weeks and lots of progress, strength and positivity; my team, the medical staff, and I have decided that I can compete at the Olympics after all!  But I have to say, I wouldn't have been so lucky if it wasn't for all the amazing support from Kent, Matt, Chris, Mom, Dad, Gary, Nora, Max the dog, the guys (johnny, robbie, jan), Kelly, Squires for the random drop-in chats, and everyone here who has been helping me out in every way.  And facebook friends sending their love and encouragement, along with fellow bloggers and tweeters!!!!!  Thank god for technology and communication!!!

We have a huge team heading to the Olympics! Unfortunately there is also a HUGE gap in our team where the rest of the injured racers: Larisa, Kelly, Johnny, Bourque and JP have been left out due to more extensive injuries than my own.  It totally sucks that they are missing these games, but it also gives a bunch of others an opportunity that otherwise may have been missed.  So with negatives, there are also positives, but I know that those 5 (myself included) still have our sights set on gold in 2014. Injuries are part of the sport, and although I had never envisioned myself racing without an ACL, since having been given the opportunity to do so, I couldn't imagine it otherwise.  I just hope that the next time around I have all my ligaments attached.... 

Anyway, things are going awesomely and I hope to bring this energy to the Olympics and compete just as hard, or harder than I would have without an injury!!

I love blogging because it gives me time to think out my sentences, attempt to have good grammar, and plan what I am trying to say in a somewhat intelligent way.... UNLIKE this morning at 6am on Canada AM, I had a live interview and I was probably more nervous than I am in races.  I showed up around 5:50am and was escorted to a big empty room with a camera, a camera guy and a big light shining in my face!! He set me up with an earpiece and a mic, and was like "you're on in 5..." 

AAHHHHHHHH crazy!!!

It was such a rush and it was a crazy feeling when the camera guy told me later that there were around 5 million viewers tuning in.  I'm honored that my story is worthy of Canada AM and I now know that I should avoid saying "like" so much.

All in all, it was a sweet experience and it lit a little bit of an olympic flame inside of me!  Meaning, it got me pumped about the Olympics and gave me a bit of Olympic Fever!!  I'm so excited to race!!! And SKI!  After the Olympics I will be on the 6 month recovery program, so I'm gonna take advantage of all the skiing I can get before surgery!!

Alas, Canada AM was a huge thrill, but I got right back into the gym and to my everyday routine of strength, agility, jumping, weight-lifting, biking, physio and icing routine!  And of course more time to hang with my physio-friend Johnny K.

And I got back to my mission of befriending Max.  I threw that ball for him!! And I think he liked it??

It's been a great week and I am so happy that my dream to compete for Canada in Canada is still alive.  I'm doing everything I possibly can to make this work, and I'm heading to the games with the "belief" in myself and in my teammates to kick some booty in Whistler!

Birthday weekend and missing SHONA!

INTRO to blog:

Shona is one of my best friends and I miss her!  So I decided to dedicate my birthday blog to her! Especially since she scored her first world cup Giant Slalom points this weekend!!  She came 23rd and my birthday was the 23rd, so it all made sense.

Anyway.  Shona has epic "motorboat" faces.... you basically blow really hard out of your mouth so that your lips flap...

We've all done it (see below) but she manages to do it better.

And I added a normal pretty picture of her to justify the hilarity of this post.  ALL inspired by Kelly Mcbrooms latest blog video about shona.

CAN YOU FIND SHONA's MOTORBOAT in EVERY PICTURE????

GOOD LUCK.

IT IS A HARD TASK... but I believe.

So anyway, I've been doing lots of THIS. Game Readying up my knee at least 6 times a day...

And lots of this in the gym, getting my quads and glutes JACKED!  I get to physio/the gym at 9am and usually leave around 3pm.  Full days of epicness.

The gym and physio and icing have been taking up so much of my time, that I decided it would be a good idea have a 24th Birthday Party!!!

My mom came to town and we went out for a YUMMY Italian meal with Nora and Kelly!!

I think we were close to Cortina!!! ( where the ladies world cups were this weekend....)

Italy is SO beautiful this time of year!! SO glad we decided to stop by....

Let's just do some fishing.....imaginary fishing... :(

KELLY REACHING FOR THE MOON..... because at least she will land among the stars??? is that the quote?? Or at least she will be hanging with shona.

All in all, it was a sweet birthday weekend!! My mom and my pretty new necklace and a couple new books made it the closest to "home" birthday I've had since 15!

My mom and I explored tons of great restaurants and ate some DELICIOUS food!!

We went to a cool Indian restaurant called "Mango Shiva" where they gave my mom a tour of the Kitchen and showed her the clay ovens where they make the yummy Naan bread....

And we ate some delicious breakfast's and lunche's at the Avenue Diner!! Pancakes, subs, salads, soups.... mmmm. It was a food weekend to remember.

Anyway it was a really fun birthday, and now I'm back to the daily physio and gym routine!  I kinda missed it!! kind of....

HOpe that you found Shona in each pic and that it was as entertaining for you as it was for me!!

haha.

yay shona.

FIERY olympic TORCH EPICNESS!

The torch came to town!

Last night, Kelly McB and I headed to the GARLIC CLOVE and ate about 2 bulbs of garlic each.... celebrated Sherry's birthday!... Headed home and watched the DRAMA of the BACHELOR!! And then this morning when we woke up the Olympic torch was right outside the door!!!

They lit the torch right in our driveway pretty much! IT was sweet!!

Here comes the Olympic torch!! All the way from everywhere....

THE LIGHTING!

FIERY!!!!

Yeah Chuck!! That dude's name was Chuck, he is American, and he told us he is a swimmer.... hmm. cool?

THE PARADE!! A dance party of trucks and music passed us by and gave us a bit of Olympic Fever..

I was THAT excited!!

We were so excited that we had to hop on the neighbors reindeer and GIDDY UP!

And we posed with "Chuck" the "American"

But decided that since it's Gary's birthday, he would look cooler as the torch bearer!! haha! Yay for early morning photoshop hilarity!

GOOD TIMES! At 8am!

It was cool to see the flame and get caught up in the hype of the Olympics! After that I headed to Physio and worked out and LAUGHED a ton with Matt the Hilarious Ski Guru and company.... and left there around 2pm!! Long days of rehab but pretty entertaining nonetheless!

A la Prochaine!