Hockey and a Lewis and Clark Expedition Memorial

Warming up before the game

Alex and Carter at the monument

Ta-da!

We went to Sioux City yesterday for hockey and found some history as well. As soon as we pulled into town, Alex started telling us about some member of the Lewis and Clark expedition that died there (or something like that...I'm not into history so I kind of tuned it out) and that there's a memorial/monument to honor him. He just HAD to see it, so after lunch he and Kevin found it and he took these pictures (our friends' son Carter rode with us to Sioux City so that is who you see in the pic with Al). That was the highlight of his day! As for the hockey, Ryan's team lost both games and I'm afraid our Showcase Tournament in the Cities will more than likely be painful. We're trying to view it as more ice time, but keeping up with the competition is a nice thing too.

On Friday night the boys had a sleepover birthday party to attend so Kevin and I were kidless. We didn't really know how to act, but somehow managed to find our way downtown with some friends for the night. It was nice not having to worry about a sitter or wondering if the boys were behaving for him. :)

A whole lot of nothing

Not much to report these past couple of weeks. It's been nice not having hockey to get to after school. On Saturday the weather was gorgeous so the four of us played a little tennis. I teamed up with Al and we beat up on Kevin and Ryan (well not really but it sounds good). Then that evening we went over to a friends house and had pizza and played a little baseball. It's sad that I was winded from running to bases that are about 15 feet apart. Plus with my advancing age and all I somehow hurt my knee so we had to call it a game. Still a little sore today but am thinking I'll make a full recovery. ;) Today it rained so we had to stay inside. Hopefully this is the beginning of our spring. We're looking forward to the pit thawing (aka Lyle's Lake) so that we can do a little fishing. Alex has already asked about that and is ready to roll. These next few weekends hold a couple of hockey tournaments in the Cities and of course Alex's 10th birthday. He's excited and I do believe he's settled on having his party at the bowling alley. That should be easy enough and I don't even have to clean up afterwards! Hope you have all have a great week.

Ryan's pride and joy

Apparently Ryan feels that if hockey players smile it means they're not tough :)

On Friday I received a phone call from some friends of ours asking if Ryan would like a new hockey stick. Their son plays hockey for the SDSU Jacks and broke his stick during his last game of the season. The break was high enough that it could be cut off and a child could use it. LJ happens to be one of Ryan's favorite players (he was on the ice for the boys' very first practice 5 seasons ago and we've followed him through his hockey career) so of course he wanted it. Plus, LJ is left-handed like Ry so he thinks that's especially cool as well. LJ had only used the stick for a week of practices and about 15 minutes of a game. Ry was so excited I thought he was going to sleep with it. So thanks, Lyle, for thinking of Ryan...you certainly made his day!

Tomorrow Kevin and I will celebrate our 13th anniversary. The boys are going to hang out with Tim's mom and dad (thanks Mike and Marcia!) for a bit so that we can go out to eat. Other than that we don't have any big plans. If time allows this summer we may try to get away for a long weekend to the Cities or Duluth. We had planned on doing that last summer but just ran out of time.

This weekend we didn't have anything scheduled (it was so nice!) so we spent all day Saturday at home just lounging around. Today I took the boys out to the ice arena and we watched the Girls Varsity State Tourney. The championship game was a thriller but Brookings came out on top 5-4...congrats Rangers!

2009 Brookings Squirt C Champs!

(and yes, Ryan is really that much bigger than Alex)

I think these pictures are fairly self explanatory. As you can see it was smiles all around. The game was close the first period, but the players were able pull away the second period so it wasn't quite so white-knuckled for the parents. :)

Yesterday's pics

2nd intermission

This isn't the best quality picture but it's all I could get. We were sitting up in the gallery and I happened to look down and this is what I saw. These four players were supposed to be watching the game, however they decided to sync their Nintendo DSs and play Mario Kart instead.

The coaches dads re-living their glory days by helping with the clock and announcing.