Hockey Banquet

Hockey Season is officially OVER. Yea!, (sort of). I do miss watching them play, and socializing with the other parents. Missing the stinky hockey gear , freezing my butt off or taking 30 minutes to dress the goalie? Not so much. We were able to register for next season at the banquet. The perk in doing so is a raffle for a dues discount- lets hope we won. Two kids in ice hockey isn't exactly frugal. Even with buying all used gear, and one getting mostly hand me downs.

The banquet was nice. All of the players on our team were recognized during our head coach's speech. That was nice for the kids. The boys were happy to see their teammates again. Hopefully we'll see many of them next year as well. Brayden has been asked to attend the AA tryouts for the goalie position next month. The AA division is an "elite" highly skilled team. If he does not make the cut, he can still try out for the A or B team in August. He wants to try. Because they are ahead of schedule school wise, I fit in an extra day a week to use as goalie practice times. At our local ice rinks, goalies get free admission to "stick time" or open hockey ice time. Tomorrow he tries out for a goalie position for indoor inline hockey. So, he'll be getting some practice this spring there as well. Not to mention the practice in the basement and yard. And skate park. Geesh. He is obsessed. Rylan wants to play defense and maybe goal tend too. They will be in different divisions next season.

The kids were disappointed they didn't get trophies or plaques this year. Instead, they got T shirts and little hockey bags. Bummer. Our team manager make scrapbooks for each of the players, and they turned out SO NICE!

Brayden REALLY looks like his Grandpa in this picture.

"Dad, I am hungry. When do we eat?"

"No, I don't think you understand. I am REALLY hungry!"

"DAD! I am STARVING! I sat through an hour of coach speeches. I'll have to eat you now."

The Three Stooges

Tom Morrison Spring Tournament

We spent our weekend in Erie for a fishing trip in honor of my Dad.
The Pennsylvania Steelhead Association held its annual "Tom Morrison Spring Tournament and Banquet" yesterday. It's such an honor to have him remembered this way :) The catch and release fishing turnout was GREAT, and the weather couldn't have been better. Unfortunately, we didn't have much luck fishing (the Steelhead were spawning and weren't eating), but we still had fun.

The banquet was fun, and Rylan loved picking the wining tickets

We won a few prizes at the raffle, and Brayden was happy to pick out a net, he's been wanting a fishing net. We all got fishing hats!

First Place for the tournament was a 30 inch Steelhead caught by a friend of my Dad, Craig.

Here's a pic of the winning fish.

This is Elk Creek, where many people came to fish the tournament

The kids kept busy fishing, playing on the rocks, finding rocks and building sand mountains.

Here is a cool rock Rylan found. It is NOT drawn, its the natural rock!

This is a fossil rock I found

Jessica came to visit us at our hotel after the banquet. It was nice to spend time with her again, and we are looking forward to another visit soon! Do you lee my awesome necklace? Jess MADE it for me! I LOVE it!

I'm sorry I didn't get to visit everyone I had hoped. We tried really hard to catch some big fish, and that took up 99% of our time. We plan to come back again, and I hope to get out to see everyone.

I'd like to also give condolences to my very good friend Art and his family. Unfortunately, his best friend and brother Johnny was found passed away in his sleep the night we arrived in town.

Electrifying Day

Hmmmm. Thursday was supposed to be a fun, productive day. I did school with the kids, began packing for our weekend trip and we were having a friend over for dinner. As I was gathering pizza dough ingredients the kids were playing in the basement. They asked me to come down to turn the lights off so they could play with their glow in the dark basketball and light up hoop. Luckily, I called to them to wait a second and NOT turn the lights off themselves, and that was a smart decision. Because boy was I in for a *shock*.

Yeah. If you have something that looks like THIS hanging in your basement- listen to me and don't touch it.

I remember it hurting, seeing white and blue, and that's about it. The next think I remember was Brayden on the basement steps with my cell trying to call 911. Luckily, I was fine and didn't ned help, but I am SO glad the kids didn't touch it! Brayden was pretty freaked out for awhile, not wanting to get near me because he was afraid of getting shocked. Now he's OK with the incident and keeps talking about all the "blue sparkles".

On with the rest of our day:

We made home made pizza, salad and cake. This was my first time making home made icing, and the kids obviously liked it!

I didn't take any pictures of our dinner guest, Jim, although he took a really bad one of me and posted it to his facebook. I'll get him back someday.

Eat My Dust

Its BASEBALL season! Whoo-hoo! Its SO nice not having to take 30 min to dress the kids in hockey gear just to sit in a freezing rink for an hour and a half. Even when its windy and/or raining it's a more enjoyable climate.

Bray was excited to wear his new baseball cleats. He did great warming up, and it was nice to see familiar faces.

Ry got some practice in, too! I'm not sure if he was using his glove or his MOUTH to catch the ball ;)

Brayden's Turn

Bray's turn to be goalie! Of course he had fun, but had little work to do as Rylan only let the puck come through the center line ONCE!

Ry is in the white. He had some great shots and was GREAT at defense!