Pierre Tournament

The boards came up to our players' chests (on the rights) and as you can see they're up to the opposing team's waist. I think there's something lacking in the Brookings water!!

Ryan giving a teammate some love after scoring a goal

Alex (#4) getting after the puck

Alex on defense



Al 'angling' an opponent
(my understanding of angling is that it's this age groups version of checking, but you don't actually hit the player against the boards)

...and he's successful in getting the puck away from this Pierre Capital

Alex

the temp inside the arena

(ok, I think it was actually the temp outside, but we didn't have any heat in the rink so I'm thinking we were fairly close to this number)

A salute to Tyler Wilcox, a former Pierre player diagnosed with osteosarcoma in 2002. He passed away in 2005 and this weekend's annual tournament is organized by his family to honor his memory.

Squirt C team (Ry's team)

Squirt B team (Al's team)

This weekend we traveled to Pierre for tournaments for both boys (seven games in all). Their respective teams came away with the trophies and each one is undefeated. Alex and Ryan played really well and as you can imagine they're pretty tired (and so are we!). When we got up this morning I couldn't remember which child was playing the early game or what teams they had already played/were going to play today. Alex seems to thrive at defense and Ryan at offense. Since they are polar opposites with everything else, I guess this shouldn't come as a surprise. :) One of the main things we noticed this weekend was how little our Brookings teams are...the Pierre coach even commented on our size. After we beat them he commented on how fast they are. I guess you've got to make up for that somehow.

The boys will finish up their school on Friday at noon and we are leaving for Havre on the 22nd. I need to finish my Christmas shopping and was even thinking today that it would be nice if I had a personal shopper to do that for me. That way I could just give a thumbs up or down and not have to fight the crowds...haha.

You should see the other guy...

Alex and another kid hit heads during gym class today and you should see the other guy! Well, not really...I guess Al looks the worst of the two. Both are fine but Alex will probably come away with a couple of black eyes after the blood disperses.

Happy Halloween!

Murder at the Deadwood Saloon

Minnie Money...East Coast debutante

Kevin's character was a cheatin' poker player

A clone trooper and hunter

I wonder who would win this battle?

Happy Halloween to you all! All 4 of us got dressed up for the occasion, although not on the same day. Last night Kevin and I attended a murder mystery party, something our friends host every year. It was 'Murder at the Deadwood Saloon' and you can see all of the shady characters in attendance. Tonight the boys got dressed up and went trick-or-treating, however I will say I do believe this may be our last year...we only went to 4 houses!! I would imagine soon they'll want to be attending Halloween dances instead.

Could it be...H1N1?

Yes, you read that correctly...we believe H1N1 has struck the Miley household. There are so many widespread cases here that they aren't even testing anymore. Most of those tested thus far have been positive for Influenza A. After confirming it's the 'A' strain it goes on to be tested for H1N1 and the majority of those have come back as H1N1...hence the assumption that we have it too. It hit Ryan last weekend and Alex last night. I didn't dare tell Ry he had it or he would've completely freaked out. The good news is that it isn't too bad (from a parent/healthcare perspective...now ask me how I feel about that statement after I have it..haha). It lasts about 3 days and brings a high temp, headache, nasty cough, fatigue, etc. Our neck of the woods also has a shortage of Tamiflu so unless you're in a high risk category you'll just have to tough it out. Alex has asthma but until he was positive for symptoms he didn't get the med (and that in itself is another story. Let's just say that for $100 it had better work!). At least we're getting this out of the way prior to the holiday season. Kevin made the comment last weekend that if we're going to get this let's just get it over with...lol. I did get my H1N1 vaccine yesterday due to the population of patients I work with, but it isn't available to the general public in our area yet.

So...we stocked up on Gatorade and Children's Tylenol/Advil, dusted off the nebulizer and made a nice bleach/water solution and wiped down EVERYTHING. With any luck we should be good to go by Monday. I think that's true for the general public as well. As long as you can stay well hydrated and aren't short of breath you should be good at home. Besides, when you go to the clinic it's just filled with a bunch of sick people and who knows what else you could pick up. :)

Winter is here

Alex's 'crest'...he calls it a shield

Whatever he wants to call it I say it's impressive! An arrow and fishing rod adorn the upper portion and that's a fish on the bottom.

Ryan braved the cold and did a little shooting this afternoon.

The boys had some friends over on Friday. They all got together and made a pile of leaves and then jumped in them.

I do believe winter has arrived. It snowed on Thursday evening and then again Saturday night with a small amount of accumulation. It was warm enough today (all 37 degrees) to melt it so there wasn't any shoveling to be done but I'm sure that's in the very near future. The boys had a long weekend due to Native American Day (Columbus Day to the rest of the US) so on Friday they had some friends over and today we did our homework early so we could enjoy the day. As you can see Ryan braved the cold and did a little practice shooting with his bow and arrows. We borrowed some arrows that have sharp tips so they penetrate the target much better...you can see how pleased he is with the result. Alex had to make a shield for art class and I think he did a wonderful job! He came up with that all by himself and I think it suits him perfectly.

We've started the furnace and pulled out the flannel sheets. Seems like I just put those away. Hope everyone is staying warm and have a great week!

Bones and arrows

They finally hit the target!

Retrieving arrows

Alex shooting, Ryan scouting

Ready, aim...

Our new target

It's been so long since I've posted I forgot that I have to upload my pics in reverse order. Today the boys and I went to Walmart and bought a target for them to shoot at with their bows and arrows (for some reason Ryan can't say 'bows and arrows' and calls them 'bones and arrows'). Well, it was the best $25 we've spent in a long time as the boys spent well over 3 hours shooting at it. They're even planning on heading out there tomorrow morning at 9am. The target we got has thick skin so alot of the arrows would hit it and bounce right off but a handful of them did pierce it. :)

First day of school, 8/19/09

new school....Camelot Intermediate

This is what a couple of hockey games will do to ya!

As you can see the boys started school a couple of weeks ago. They are both in the new Intermediate school and switch classes for 3 or 4 subjects. I guess the idea with that is to try to get them ready for middle school. So far it's going well and we haven't met any resistance from them as far as getting up and heading out. This new school most certainly meets any post Columbine safety requirements...the side doors automatically lock at 8:05 and you must enter through the office after that. All of the main classrooms are located on one side of the school (over 400 4th and 5th graders) and if it ever needs to be locked down there's a bullet-proof glass partition that will separate that portion of the school from everything else. Ryan explained all of that to me tonight when we went to his 'back to school' classroom meeting.

We're also keeping busy with soccer and, believe it or not, hockey. The boys have the opportunity to attend 4 on 4 twice a week and so far we've been there 6 or so times. Yesterday they played a double-header with a team from SF and won both games. You can see what it did to Ryan...he was tuckered out!

Hope you all have a great week!

Camp Foley 2009

I don't know if you can tell but this is a Bald Eagle. I believe there's a nest near Camp.

Alex decided to give fencing a try this summer

Ryan earned a 'Robin Hood' award for highest score of all campers for 3 consecutive days

This particular day was too windy for the Mangos so they brought out a bigger sailboat and the kids went for a ride instead.

At the Marina with the Mangos. Ryan is the kid on the far right.

On guard!

a little kayaking during free time.

'Mom...he's a mini gangsta!'

Alex and another camper sailing a Mango. The kids start on these and then move up in size when they're ready. He was really good at this and was whipping around the lake like a pro.

Alex (left) canoeing on the first day. I like how the counselor is just enjoying the ride. :)

Ryan gave wake boarding a try...

....and he's off

almost out of the water...

oh no!! lean back, lean back!

Face plant! Nice try, though.

Once again we had a fun time at CF. The weather was beautiful for 3 of the days we were there and I didn't have any major injuries or illnesses. Alex and Ryan tried a couple of new things this summer and for the most part really enjoyed them (Ryan wasn't too fond of the wake boarding after this little splash). Who knows, we may find ourselves there for 2 weeks next year. :)

more Lake Superior pics

This particular day on the lake it was hard to see the difference between the sky and water. You can see a boat to the left of the boys to help differ between the two.

Alex thinks he's an eagle :)

on the shore of Lake Superior