Tahoe!

BEAUTIFUL LAKE TAHOE!

I arrived here Monday and although I am here for the "summer," it's still so wintery and snowy outside! The ski areas look like mid-winter conditions and the cold winds have been stinging my face! I guess I traded my flip-flops in Montreal for the scenery in Tahoe!

I'm just gonna post a million pictures of the lake because I am in awe of it's beauty and the surrounding beauty that I cannot choose which pics I like best.  So bear with the repetition, it's just too GORGEOUS not to post them all!

Huge rock faces that overlook Emerald Bay.

Emerald Bay and the wind-swept water!

lonely tree, needed a friend.

Marco!

The water was getting whipped around and the sun was making it sparkle!

Dead lonely tree...

The wind was seriously aggressive!! I put my jacket down for 10 seconds and almost lost it forever!!

Maybe a bit Too cold for the boats to be out, but we saw people paddle boarding!

The view of the lake and docks from Tahoe City!

A new country, a new lake, a new town, a new physio and a new gym!  Lot's of changes this week, but I have already set up a similar routine to the one I have been following since surgery, and my knee is continuing to improve with every day! 

AND

Happy birthday to my mom and my brother Geoffrey!!

Mont-Tremblant Olympic Parade!

The MONT-TREMBLANT Olympic Parade!!

According to the mayor's speech, Mont-Tremblant had the most Olympians from any other region!  I'm not sure if that is in Quebec, or in Canada, but still, it's cool!  The seven of us gathered yesterday for the sweet parade that Mont-Tremblant put on for us.  But before it could start, we had to pose and re-create our poster! ha.

Jasey-Jay Anderson brought his OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL! I was enthralled!

Our firetruck and our mascot! toofoo?? whats his name??

The superstars in the front of the firetruck... (Erik Guay and Jasey-Jay Anderson)

And the rest of us in the back! (Jeff Frisch, Julien Cousineau, Caroline Calve, Brigitte Acton and moi)

Erik and the parade..... it became more popular as we went further...

Jasey-Jay waving at all his adoring fans....

ME! soaking in the rays.

And Brigitte and I "reflecting" on parading...

And my long lost friend toofooooooo.   is he a vegetarian?

Aint no big thang.  just a gold medal...

Two of my most influential coaches: Conrad Guay and Francis Brunet.

Francis coached me for 8 years along with a group of others including Stefan Guay and Brigitte Acton who are both members of the national team now! He deserves a gold medal for putting up with us from 8years old until 15 years old! we must have been hard to control! CRAZY hahha.

And my parents came and cheered us on!

On our FIRETRUCK!

Once we arrived at the base of Tremblant, we were presented to the crowd and each given a sweet trophy!

I can't believe how many people showed up! And how little snow is left on the mountain!!!

And then, to cap it all off, I posed with THE GLOBE, and Erik.  tres impressive.

Thanks to Mont-Tremblant, Jacko Graton and everyone else who helped in putting on a great event!  I feel proud to be part of such a cool community with such amazing athletes!  Erik and Jasey have really left an inspirational mark on the whole community and it was cool to see so many people show up to congratulate them and the rest of us Olympians. I have no doubts that our "tremblant" team will continue to thrive!!

Ski Friends = Friends Forever!

I headed to Calgary this week, along with 7 of my injured teammates, for our "injury checkup" with Kent, Dr. Litchfield and Dr. Irving.  It was an opportunity for us to work with Kent for a few days and show them our progression since surgery!  Larisa and I set ourselves up in the good old "Four Points Hotel" (we practically live there....) across from Canada Olympic Park, and I felt as though time stopped and I had never even left....  I have stayed at that hotel on and off for the past 6? years since I've been on the team for testing, summer camps, pre-Nakiska camps, post-Nakiska camps.... you name it and we have stayed there... so in some ways I felt "at home."  

The best part of "being home" was seeing my extended family of amazing SKI friends.  I missed the end of Em's retirement season, so I was happy to finally catch up with her and give her a real hug of congratulations for her amazing career!  She has been a great role-model and a great friend.  The thing that I have always loved about her is that she never treated us "younger ones" (sadly I am an older one now...) differently than the veterans... She could laugh at our immature jokes and even make some of her own!  She will be missed!! It's crazy that our team is evolving and I am now in somewhat of a position of being a veteran; she has left behind big shoes to fill....

Here we are: Larisa, me, Shona, Kelly and Em!  Not sure what our posing goal was.

ANd I'm not sure what is going on here!!?!

Sad faces

MOTORBOATS

Circle of friends!!! The coolest thing about "ski friends" is that no matter how long it's been since we have seen each other, we always manage to jump right back into laughing hysterically and acting as though we have been together all year.

It was a really fun night with really fun girls, unfortunately THIS greeted us once we parted ways... Calgary is ridiculous.

Good times.

It was a quick 2 day trip but lots of highlights including the positive feedback I got about my genou and fun times with the girls.

TODAY we have the Tremblant Olympic Parade!! There are 7 of us and we are getting on top of a firetruck and ripping around the village! YEEhaw!  Look out!

Before's and After's summer weather

The ice yesterday! (BEFORE)...

And the lack of ice TODAY!!! (AFTER)  Talk about aggressive melting.  The light blue is open water, the dark bluish-black is the remaining ice.

Another ridiculously beautiful "summer" spring day in Mont-Tremblant. aaahhhhh. 

Here's the MOOSEWOOD tree thingy my mom put out a week ago.... (BEFORE!)

And now, it has blossomed into beauty. (AFTER!!)

The birds are chirping, the people are tanning, and the flowers are blooming! 

I have become spoiled with amazing weather this weekend. So spoiled in fact that the second a cloud DARED block my sun, I frustratingly took a picture of it while cursing and willing it to leave. 

Not only was there amazing weather this weekend, but the Mont-Tremblant Ski Club hosted it's annual BBQ!! Being that it's my home club and barbecues are hard to resist, I headed over and joined in on the fun.

This is my BBQ look.

this is what I ate.... I LOVE TIMMY's!! I actually only had 3, but Jeff and I were trying to figure out how many were in that box before it got emptied.... 500?  

But seriously, you can never go wrong when it comes to timbits... AND the other day I rollled up my rim and won a free doughnut! SCORE. Maybe this week I'll get the car?

Where's Anna??  Or Jeff? Or my parents?? Sweet Club pic with le village in the background.

Merci Club de Ski Mont Tremblant!!

Rehab partner / timmy's drive through-er / club mont-tremblant-er / teammate / patio surfer.  

HUGEST DOG EVER.  Stef's dog Zeus!!  A bunch of us met up later on the patio, me, jeff, erik, karen, logann, cousi, cath, vince and stef and stef's dog ZEUS.  Fun times and I finally got a bit of a tan!!

Happy Easter everybody!  I'm heading to Calgary next week to check in with Kent "magic hands" Kobelka and my super surgeon Dr. Litchfield! I'm excited to show them my new knee and catch up with the rehab team!!(johnny, larisa, jp, cousi, bourque, stef, kelly...etc sadly) 

SUMMER HAS ARRIVED, and so I danced.

Summer has arrived!  I enjoyed my morning coffee out here this morning in a t-shirt and sweats!  Amazing.

The ice looks so cool right now, like it's getting ready to crack up into a million pieces.... yes, a million

Tremblant is somehow holding onto a little bit of spring snow...

I exposed my pale legs and new scars to their first rays of sunshine and fresh air of the season!

Birches make me happy....why don't they have these in Cali??

Other than enjoying the rays of sunshine and fresh air, I have continued to cook up some yummy meals. The truth is, I have been eating some yummy meals that my mom has cooked up and thinking to myself that maybe one day I will recreate her masterpieces!  The one night I actually cooked for myself I took a can of tomato soup and added spinach, mushrooms and basil, and then acted like it was the greatest concoction EVER.  simply delish.

I also got to catch up with a bunch of lovely ladies! Kristen, Julie and Anna P!!  Ski friends= friends forever= dance parties for life.

AND Jeff and I have graduated to the NO CRUTCH zone!!  And so we danced.

I need a tan.  

And so we danced.

Not to be an amazing small-talker or anything, but the weather here is AMAZING!  All I remember from last summer is rain, and suddenly this spring has become summer.  The temps are in the 25 zone and t-shirts and shorts are all over the place.  I cant wait to soak in some rays and hopefully defeat the paleness that I have accomplished over the last month post-op.  The knee is going really well and life is good.