Sunday, 11th December

I slept in until 8.15am… Sam woke me up! We had planned to be in the car by this time. But the others were also behind and I quickly ate breakfast and changed straight into my ski gear. I think I slept with a smile on my face, it was such a good night.

We were in the car by quarter to and hit the road. Saya, sams girlfriend stayed behind to finish some assignments. It was another perfect morning and a warm one too.

I was wearing my thermal top and bottom, my buton mid layer and then the north face shell. For some of the day I skied with a back pack and it made me really toasty. It was 40f.

We hiked to the top early, a tough climb as the air is so thin. It was an average ski down as the runs had all been cleared out and moguls were left behind. Still, the view from the top was incredible.

We carved and shot some footage before stopping briefly for lunch around 11.45am. We ate tune sandwiches we made back at the house. We mixed in a bowl tuna, mayo, relish and a bit of lemon juice and spread it over the bread. I will have to make some in Canada!

We hiked straight to the top and had a beer sitting on the edge before skiing down and running straight to the bottom. My legs were starting to sore up.
I am so thrilled by my gear – its so nice to have gear that just works.

We skied both sides of the mountain getting some good footage before we called it a day and headed in just before 3pm.

Back at the house we finished up the pasta, showered and made the bed while packing up my bag.

We said thank you to David and left him in peace and dropped in on Sams mates home. They would have had 14 people or so over for dinner, just a mix of friends and family, all enjoying each others company and having a good time. We didn’t have the time to stay and had a quick beer. I chatted to a number of people and got a contact for Canada, Ricky and his wife who live just outside Nelson, and a few hours away from Big White.

The drive home was slow as there were deer around.

Saturday, 10th December

I woke up at 7.30am, but I was awake earlier as I was very excited about the coming day of skiing. We had grape nuts and a banana for breakfast before hitting the road at 8.30am and driving to the ski fields. It was a 20 min drive.

I bought a 2 day lift ticket for $100 and we headed up. The first run was magic – the snow was soft and we skied for some time before we made it to the bottom again. It was a good warm up for the day.

We skied most of the mountain. The highlight was hiking for 30 mins in the thin air to reach the chutes over the top of the mountain. We found some knee deep powder that was a little heavy, but still fun to get stuck in!

We ate lunch at THE BAVARIAN LODGE & RESTAURANT

Nestled at the base of stunning Kachina Peak above the European-style village of Taos Ski Valley, The Bavarian Lodge & Restaurant offers guests the comfort and charm of an authentic alpine ski alm amid the majesty of New Mexico's storied Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

The gourmet menu features refined German dishes that are hearty but never heavy, a perfect way to enjoy a midday respite or replenish your strength after an active day on the ski slopes or the hiking trails. Choose among such offerings as Sauerbraten, Wienerschnitzel, or Käsespätzle, accompanied by a selection from our fine wine list or one of our specially imported beers from the Spaten Brewery in Munich. We also feature a full bar. For those who prefer a more American meal, we offer salads, sandwiches, and burgers.

I ate a sausage and a bun with a salad that was filling. There were also some birds that were friendly!

We skied a handful of runs in the afternoon before we decided to call it a day as the conditions deteriorated quickly.

On the way home we stopped at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. It was another 200 feet plus higher than the bridge I jumped off in Arizona… and it was scary!!!

Back in the house we showered and then headed into town to pick up some food for dinner. We cooked some pasta with a tomato sauce and sausage. It was filling. After two beers I was seriously spent – both from the altitude and the skiing.

We milled about in the evening, chatting and then the others headed off to catch up with sams mate who lives down the road. I skyped mum and had a good long chat to her before retiring and headed off to bed for a much needed sleep.

Thursday, 8 December

It was a great day for taking pictures as it was almost a full moon.

Sandias in the background with moon rising

Typical house on a street off campus.

My rooms a mess! Studying for exams

They call Albuquerque in xmas time the city of lights because houses put up lanterns.

Thursday Night, 8 December

It was the last night out with lucas and we made it count. I got him a good going away present and we had a killer night with Abby riding to the house parties and generally feeling ontop of the world. Lucas also had his last game of beer pong in Albuquerque. We snacked at frontiers before making it home around 2pm.

Vince (from Rome) and I

Tuesday, 6 December

I woke up at 7.45am and headed to Lapo for breakfast. I had 3 egg whites+1 egg+ plus some tomatoes, baby spinach, capsicum and chillies. My room mate was still asleep when I returned so I was quiet getting changed, then headed off early to my public speaking class.

It was the second last class and today's speeches included how to ball room dance, how to do the hoola dance, how to be a gentleman, how to use sign language, the signs of someone having a diabetic attack and how to make rum balls equivalent using orioles. It was a fun class.

During the class I planned a weekend trip with two of the boys to Taos as they had a huge 30 inch dump with the storm over the weekend. I am excited!

I headed back to the dorms and did some work before having lunch at Lapo with Sam and Sara. After I headed to a team meeting for strategic management at 1pm, however the other team members were 20 mins late!

I had a quick 30 min rest as I had an interview later that night and wanted to be fresh. I woke up, had a quick sandwich from Lapo and then headed to my engineering class – which would hopefully be the final class. It was more group presentations so it was rather relaxing!

The NHL weekend - 2nd - 5th December

Me, Graham, Euan, Johan and Lucas

We hired a Hyundai for the 5 people. The drive to Denver would take 7 hours and we left just after 1pm on Friday.

We all took turns driving, I was the last to drive, which meant I couldn’t drink the soda that was being passed around. We stopped at IKEA in the hope we’d have Swedish meatballs for dinner… however we got there 5 mins after 8pm and the kitchen was closed. We saved it for the trip home.

We found the hotel, Holiday Inn, on Bannock Street easily and dumped our bags before catching the shuttle to down town.

It was starting to snow, and we found it into a bar. We went to the Tavern on Market and 17^th street and played some pool and had a few beers. We met a nice group of girls who we chatted to and found out the best places to visit over the weekend.

We finally made it home at 3am. The bars and clubs closed at 2am, which we didn’t know until we were all kicked out, and we walked in the snow that was falling heavily for a good 30 mins .

We didn’t get up until 12am the next day. We caught the shuttle into town and walked down market street checking out the shops and the cbd. We found a bar and played some beer pong before walking next door to the bowling club. It was such an impressive set up with flat screen tv’s everywhere and a proper bar. My bowling improved ten fold and I scored a 117. Good effort considering I got a 54 the first time.

We had some dinner at a Mexican themed restaurant and enjoyed the cheap beer and spirits. After dinner we saw the parade that had street performers and blow up animals. It was freezing cold but fun standing outside with everyone else.

We caught the shuttle back and changed before we all headed out for some dancing at some clubs. I had brought some silver patron tequila that went down so smoothly. It was very nice.

We had a funny night out dancing and heading from club to club. It was fun with the boys as this was my first real boys weekend.

The next morning we got out of bed around 11am and drove to the coors brewery. It is the biggest beer production site in the world and we had a free tour of the site. After we were given 3 complementary beers. I had a few of the local ones to change it up.

We made it back to the hotel after getting lost for a short while. We quickly changed and prepared ourselves for the NHL hockey game between the Denver avalanches and the Detroit red wings. It was a very exciting game and the stadium was just as impressive at the match itself.
Our team ended up losing by a goal but it was high scoring – see 5 goals.

We catch the hotel shuttle into town on the way home for some beer. We ended up back at the Tavern. It was snowing really hard and the tv said it was -3 F. There was also a mini bowling lane in the pub and we had some game of pool as well as a bowl. There were only a couple of others in the bar so it was very quiet. We walked across the street to the Lodo bar and had some more beer. There was 17 flat screen tvs that I could see sitting down on the table. It was a little excessive!

The place closed at 12am so we caught a taxi home and headed off to bed. We were all buzzing from such a good night and the NHL game that it took a while to fall asleep.

On Monday morning we eventually made it out of bed and cleaned up the room. It resembled the room of a uni games week and we spent some time cleaning.

We hit the road just before 11am and stopped of at IKEA for the Swedish meatballs. The last time I ate them were around 5am after the ecoms ball with liam, ben and avi.

Due to all the snow the roads were terrible and we had to drive very slowly. It added an extra hour to the trip and we didn’t stop for anything but a toilet break.

In the middle of nowhere. Roads covered in snow!

I had now driven on the freways of LA, and on the icy roads of Colorado; A complete driver!

We made it back to campus just before 7pm. I rushed to Lapo as I was starving and then headed back to the dorms and unpacked. Campus was freezing cold but I now had the warm gear to make it through!

Total cost of trip: NHL tickets $42, Car $60 + fuel $20 + hotel $30 total. Add in drinks and a few meals and its a very reasonable weekend for the experience!

I caught up with Hannah before heading off for an early night. I was super exhausted and fell straight asleep.

Thursday, 1st December

I woke up at 7.15am. This time I would make sure I got out of bed and didn’t sleep in. I met Lucas at 7.30am and we did an abs session for 20 mins.

I had 3 scrambled eggs and an avocado on 2 slices of bread, toasted. It was just the start I needed to get me going for the day.

I headed back to the dorm and showered and got dressed. I didn’t have any clean underwear or jeans, or t-shirts for that matter. It was rather windy outside (there is a storm coming). I flossed, brushed and mouth washed and headed off the my public speaking class. We were continuing the presentations for demonstrative. Some the my peers taught me how to tie two simple knots with a tie, how to make a flower bouquet, about the violin and who performed some great classical music, how to make a gaffa tape wallet, how to change a flat tire and how to protect your self using the fundamentals of jujitsu. I had another lesson to look forward to for more topics. I convinced Angela (professor) to let me go on the last day of class as I want to try and pull something pretty special off.

After class I rode back and stole some washing detergent from Hannah and put all my clothes in the washing machines. Finally I cleaned up my room!

I headed off to lunch and ate with one of the male cheerleaders, Adrian. I had met a number of them by being an avid fan form the sidelines during the football matches and basketball games, added with red cordial.

At 12.30 I headed to my last strategic management plan. We finished off the course then did an exam overview. It was no where near as stressful as the exams back home. This exam would only be worth 20%.

After class I battled to ride home into the wind… It was stronger than any seabreeze back home in perth. I checked my mail to find that my skiing jacket had arrived! I was very excited! It fitted perfectly and looked great. I couldn’t wait to take it out in the snow.

I had to move on straight to the engineering class. I had a meeting before class to discuss the presentation that would be worth 20% for the unit.

The first two groups were good, and very well prepared!

Our presentation went better than expected. I used the lectern to read my speech and added in a few extra notes. It was a great feeling finishing the course! One down, 4 left.

I spent the afternoon getting ready for the trip, I went to the gym, and went to my change management class at 7pm. The class lasted 15 mins and we did an evaluation of the teacher.

There was a seriously strong wind blowing, so hard that I struggled to ride back to the dorm, even though I was pedalling hard.

Back at the dorms I caught up with Hannah, organized an interview time for the red bull job and then headed off to bed.

Wednesday, 30th November

I woke up early, and instead of going the gym I headed to breakfast. Yuan had a nice surprise for me; a bag of avocados. I saved them for later in the week and had an omelette.

I went back to the dorm and started working on the list of projects I had. I completed the strategic mgmt. group assignment, finished the engineering part and speech due on Thursday, completed my part for the HR management presentation later that evening and piled up my clothes of dirty washing – my room had never been worse.

I was actually really efficient. I definitely work best under stress and felt great the hole day.

I went to the gym with Lucas at 5pm and did chest and triceps. After I raced to class and did my presentation on offshoring with the group. We had a great prezi presentation but we didn’t practice it before hand, so it was slightly shaky.

After the speech I snuck out and went to the basket ball. I arrive a few minutes into the second half. We were dominating and it was a good game for the lobos.

Lucas, the English lads, Vincent and abby were all there. We got some photos as it was our last basketball match here in the pitt.

I rode back to campus and met Lucas at Lapo. Katie and Maria also joined us. I had a salad and yoghurt and fruit before heading over to say hi to Hannah. I was pretty tired so I went back to my dorm and was in bed at 11pm.

My roomie was still out and came back around 12pm and woke me up. The heating in the dorms was turned right up so it was rather hot sleeping.

Monday, Tuesday, 28th and 29th November

I spent Monday getting my feet back on the ground. I went to the gym and did abs at 7.30am. Later that afternoon I did legs and shoulders at the gym.

I prepared for the engineering test that was on Tuesday at 3.30pm.

In the morning I had my public speaking impromptu speech. My topic was ‘my favourite place’. It was very straightforward and I spoke about coronation beach and windsurfing there. I had them hooked and ended up scoring a 20/20 for the speech.

I nailed my engineering test, again. I am looking forward to getting the score back!

I worked on my back and biceps on Tuesday night, and I was very sore after. We had a floor meeting in the dorms and I saw faces I didn’t know or hadn’t really seen around. It was very different to the colleges at UWA.

Sunday, 27th November

I woke 2 mins before my alarm was set to go off at 6.25am. I rose and took the sheets of the sofa couch and tucked away the mattress. I headed up to the kitchen and had a kick bowl of special k before putting the bag in van under grandpa’s directions of course.

I woke Hannah up 6 mins before grandpa has said we’d be leaving, at 6.54am. I told Hannah grandpa was in the car waiting and she jumped up straight away. Normally she would roll over and go back to sleep.

I sad my good byes and thank you’s to Lars and Jenny who had gotten up to see us off. We ended up leaving around 7.10am.

I drove away wondering if I’d every see the family again. I looked forward to keeping in touch though.

On the road the sun was a real pain as it shone right into our eyes as we headed back to Albuquerque (the long way). The car thermometer said it was 8 def F outside… (that’s -13 deg c!!!).

It was going to be another beautiful day and I was saw to be spending half of it in the car.

We drove past this lake with a great cliff as the backdrop. There was low cloud cover and steam rising off the water. It was such a pretty sight.

The lake we drove by on the way in was now starting to freeze over.

Finally we made it back to the dorms. It was nice to be back, as this was my home and the room was clean and I had clean sheets. I had a group meeting at 5 and headed off to discus the content.

We spent a good 2 and a half hours working and finishing off the proposal and presentation slides.

I ate dinner at 7.30 and then caught up with Hannah in my dorm. I had an early night and slept really well.

Saturday, 26th November

I woke up around 8am to find the rest of the family already up (minus the girls). Lars was cooking pancakes and it was a glorious Saturday morning. After breakfast Micah, Lars and I played Pass Intercept. You need an NFL ball and 3 or 4 people. It was a fun game and we must have played for over an hour or so.

Back inside the college football was on tv. The girls made their favourite macaroni cheese for lunch and I put on lots of pepper to take me back to the days when dad would let me steal some of his on the couch late at night.

We measured up the space for the Christmas tree and all 8 of us headed off in the suburban to the tree farm. It was such a great afternoon.

At the tree farm they had a lovely set up. They had two clysdale horses and we fed them. They were beautiful horses. They had hot apple cider and a fire to roast marsh mellows. We jumped on the back of the tractor and was taken out into the plantation to choose a tree. The boys wanted a big one – at 10/11 foot tree. We searched through the rows of trees looking for a perfect Christmas tree. Not sure if they were being nice but I stumbled upon a good looking tree and they all agreed on it. We sawed it down and dragged it 50 meters to the road and waited for the tractor. I was asked to sing the Australian national anthem as they didn’t know it while we waited for the tractor.

Back at the barn they shook the tree with an oscillating base and drilled a hole for the stand. They slivered on a plastic mesh to pull the branches in and we tired it on the car roof. The owners were very friendly and had a great sense of humor.

Back at the home we brought the tree inside and put it up on the base – only to find it was crooked. Lars sawed of 20 cm and we drilled a new hole. This time the tree sat well and we vacuumed up the mess.

Lars made the Stangebyes chocolate sauce and we enjoyed it on ice cream, fruit and just eating it straight. It was a secret recipe and unfortunately I couldn’t catch him making it. It was a real treat.

Noah led the way in decorating the tree with ribbon and decorations. Each year they kept the ski passes and when they were replayed with the new ones, the old passes were hooked onto the tree. It was a nice touch at there is a photo of you on the card, so it made the tree personal.

We ate Grandmas famous noodle and turkey soup for dinner. She hand made the noodles.
After dinner I quickly packed and we all gather around the tv to watch the second part of Father of the Bride. This was one eventful movie with lots of surprises and laughs.

After catching the last quarter of the college football game, (Stanford won) I headed off to bed and fell asleep rather quickly. It was a big day and my last here in the house. I would be sad to leave. It was such a fun and exciting family to be apart of for a week and being away from my home for so long made me really appreciate the small things that I’ve been missing that a family brings. For example banter with the brothers, grandmas cooking, and all hanging around to watch movies at night.

I had great memories of the week in Montrose.

Friday, 25th November

I woke up and jumped in the shower. I checked the snow report and read Telluride had an inch of snow overnight, and that it was still snowing. I had a big bowl of the mixed cereals for breakfast that included cheerios, some random one, and some one that looked like cookies (seriously). I added a banana and some strawberries that I didn’t use on the pavlova. I quickly made some wraps with turkey and salad and jumped in the car for the trip up to Telluride.

Hannah wanted to hang out with mum for the day so it was just Lars, Noah, Mica and Sandra. We made it up the mountain and I saw the fresh snow that had been dumped over night. We drove past Ralph Laurens Ranch…. His fence was made from pine trees and this went of for around 5 minutes. The cost of the fence alone would have been significant, let along the huge ranch!

We couldn’t see the mountain tops as it was still snowing. We parked close to the lift and walked up. Lars and Noah picked up their ski pass and we were on the lift by 9.15am which I thought was a great effort.

Skiing the first few runs I was very stiff. The snow was fresh and light and it was the best few runs I had of the day. As I slowly warmed up I went over the jumps and got some air. So too did the others.

It was fun skiing with the family and they were all good skiers and snowboarders. I had taken a page out of bill brooks book and was too direct in my skiing so I had to slow down to accommodate everyone. It was a great rush using the edges to carve and I wasn’t even on carving ski’s. The first set I would hire in Canada would be a set of carving skis.

As lunch approached I had to stop and rearrange my socks. A killer blister was forming on my right shin. I was wearing size 46 and 2/3 so I think a 46 would be a good fit for me. Next time I will wear a little bit more padding on the shins so it doesn’t hurt.

For lunch we ate peanut butter and jellow sandwiches and then hit the slopes again. Sandra caught up with her friends so it was the just 4 boys skiing.

We had some great runs, all of which I captured on my GoPro.

The sun came out and it stopped snowing.

The afternoon turned out to be a beautiful day for skiing and we skied until the last lift at 4pm. There was something magical about being the only ones left on the mountain.

My skiing had improved over the two skis and I was looking forward to showing Dad and brother. I was even skiing backwards for fun.

We stopped off at the telluride coffee shop and all had a nice hot chocolate with cream. It was amazing how much the hot liquid warmed up the inside.

We changed at the car and headed back home. Lars was more confident driving at night than Hannah was so we made good time. Even if there were a few scary corners. The suburban is big car but it was a little frightening!

The skies had cleared up so we could see the mountain tops as we drove back to the house. I was in a truly spectacular place in the world. I couldn’t have been luckier.

We came close to a row of deer that had no fear crossing the road. 5 seconds later and we would have knocked over one or two.

Back at home Carol had cooked dinner. We all sat up around the table and talked over dinner. It was a nice meal of turkey enchiladas and a few of the left over sides. We had grandmas apple pie with ice cream. It was very nice. She had used apples from her trees back in Roswell.

After dinner all the boys jumped in the hot tub to release the aches and pains from the day of skiing. I wasn’t as sore as the first day but I did feel my knees. The hot tub was great and it was nice looking up at the stars. There was no moon so it was a clear night and the stars were shining through.

In the mean time Hannah and Sandra dropped back Crocodile Dundee and rented Father of the Bridge. It was a Stangebye favourite and it didn’t disappoint. There were some very funny scenes.

After the movie we all headed off to bed. I read my book for a while before I feel asleep.

Thursday, 24th November

I had a nice sleep in. I tried to stay in bed for as long as possible. I ended up rising around 8.30am. Carol and Gerald were already up and cooking for the thanksgiving meal later that day.

I rallied the boys and we made rum balls. The biscuits were as similar to granitas as I could find and they tasted pretty good. I started making the pavlova for the dessert. I used 5 egg whites and added some sugar, corn starch and a pinch on salt. It was the right amount and I set it in the tray and put it in the oven. An hour later I opened the door and used mums tips to keep the inside chewy. It didn’t raise as much as I thought it would but there was a fair amount for a base.

Mica and I threw the full sized NFL ball. I was getting rather good at it and he was the receiver and I was the quarter back.

Inside there were a number of games on the TV. I didn’t watch them as I was helping in the kitchen and doing odd jobs.

In the afternoon the turkey was finally ready. Lars pulled it out of the roaster and started carving. Carol pulled out all of her dishes from the oven and we feasted on an amazing spread of turkey, roasted sweet potatoes in a sugar sauce with marshmallows (I know right!), the jello sauce, cranberry sauce, stuffing, a broccoli and corn mix and other small assortments to compliment the meal. The gravy was super thick and full of flavor from the turkey.

I had a full plate and enjoyed every flavour that it brought to my platelets. It was a good meal and the Jacobs creek white chardonnay wine I bought went down well too.

During the feast we all took turns to say what we were thankful for. Family and friends and good health were all mentioned. I said I was thankful for everyone having opportunities to do whatever they dreamed of in life.

After the fest, which finished around 5pm, it was a slightly awkward time because we couldn’t really siesta. We cleaned up the plates and I was so full I had a quick lie down.

Once we were ready I started to prepare the pavlova. Hannah whipped up some fresh cream and I cut the strawberries. The berries which I had allowed to defrost were sweet. In fact the strawberries were some of the sweetest I’d every tasted.

The pavlova went down really well with everyone. It was finished but 7pm.
It looked good to, and I was happy with the base being hard on the outside but soft and chewy on the inside.

Later that night we ended up watching family videos from the 98’-2000 when Hannah’s siblings were young. It was fun and looking back I now wish we had some footage as well as the great pictures dad had taken.

The home videos were finally over and I snuck off to bed. It was a long day and I had to spend some time preparing the camera’s for the following day of skiing.

I finally made it into bed, but not before I skyped Harry. He was off to leavers the following day and I wanted to catch him before he left.

I fell asleep quickly and was excited for the following day. I had the alarm set for 7am as we’d planned to be in the car at 7.30, in an attempt to catch the first lift up.