I've got stories....

And memories....

Here are some of the highlights and not so highlights in somewhat chronological order...

-Al and I were fairly tight as brothers growing up. It helped looking a lot alike and having matching bowl cuts from our Dad. This started to become a problem when people thought we were twins (Al is two years older)

-Lots of fun times on the farm growing up

-sliding in the straw mow (watch your head on the beam!)

-wrestling in the barnyard (pretty sure Al actually tried to drown me in cow poo - we had to wash in the

rain spout of the barn before getting in the pool)

-Al pinning me to the wall of the barn with a pitchfork (a tine on each side of my neck)

Unbelievable family adventures...

- who in their right mind would load up two 18ft aluminum canoes with 2 adults and 4 young kids and go paddling remote rivers and white water for a week at a time?!?

-family ski trips to Mt. Tremblant

We didn't always get along so well (say from about age 10 - 22ish)

Then things got weird for a while...

until Al moved to Whistler in the early 90's (then they got really weird)

But something funny happened....

Al became my best friend.

We have golfed together ( I used to be able to beat him)

We have biked together (2 of the best rides being last summer in honour of D'Arcy)

And we have skied together..... a lot.

We have spent a lifetime standing in lines and sitting on chairlifts and skinning (or shuffling ) uphill.

We have been first chair on opening day....more than once.

We have been well outside our comfort zone together...

(Bubba, Al and I night toured out to Russet cabin, hunkered down in sleeping bags for two hours while mice ran over us then got up and toured to the top of the north face of Fitzsimmons glacier. The approach is a little sketchy side hill then within three steps you're standing on a 55+degree slope looking down 2500 vertical feet. Al and I watched Bubba scamper down it on his tele's and I remember thinking..."I have to make this first turn because Al is watching and we can't go back!)

Watching Al fall in love with a rock star, get married and raise an incredible human being has been amazing. It has been an even more incredible feat while battling a disease that has changed him.

The love he has for Heather and Colt and the love he has for life has not changed though.

He is still Al Paul

He is still my brother

He is still my best friend

And he is still most excellent...see video below....

(some context - this was this past February. Al, myself, Bubba, Geoff Paul, and his son Andrew went heliskiing with Whistler heliskiing and had the joy of being guided by our great friend Erin. This is Al getting to lead on our 11th run (we did two more after this) At this point, Al is still on chemo and has only been skiing a couple of days a week for only a few hours at a time. As you can tell ... he is most excellent.

I love you man