Hockey

This February 9th-12th, Bob and a team of his buddies competed in the USA Hockey Pond Hockey Championship on Dollar Lake in Eagle River, Wisconsin. As you can see from the aerial photograph below, they have 24 rinks and were running games almost constantly through each day. This three-day tournament was a 4 on 4 round robin event and each team played three round robin games within their division. It was a HUGE event and the guys had a great time competing.


The guys didn't win their division this year, but there is always next year, right?!

Team X-Large
(Bob, Rich, Steve, Harry, Brian)

The team in action

Bob's dad came along for support and I love this picture because it shows how absolutely freezing it was. This man lived many-a-frigid winters in the Upper Pennisula of Michigan and he was even cold. Thanks Grandpa for all these photos!

As Bob prepared for his trip, he pulled out his old equipment and bought some new. The kids loved trying out the hockey gear around the house. Here's a little video I captured of Cora, our aspiring hockey star. Thanks to Sarah Palin, I hope, however, never to be called a Hockey Mom.

Hockey Hysteria

On Saturday, Bob dusted off his hockey equipment, laced up his skates, and took to the ice in the first annual Lake in the Hills Pond Hockey tournament. I'll go ahead and state the obvious, it was an outdoor hockey tournament on a local pond. Bob's team of five was his brother, Brian, and friends, Harry, Dave, and Rich. Rich flew in from NYC to join Team X-Large, while the rest of the crew live in the Chicagoland area. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take the kids on the blustery winter day to see their dad, but Reed has had fun playing with Bob's equipment at home.

Team X-Large in their old roller hockey jerseys

Reed in Bob's gear and his own helmet

Here's a link to an article in a local newpaper about the event. Bob was even quoted. I can't figure out how to download the picture of Bob playing, but if you go to the Photo tab on the link you should be able to see it if you click through the pictures. (There's only two.)

Enjoy:
http://dailyherald.com/article/20110115/news/701169920/

Thanks to Bekki for sending over the other photos!

Goalkeeper

Over the weekend, Reed got into Bob's bag of hockey equipment and wanted to try everything on. As you can see the shin guards look more like the full leg padding that goalies use. He is also sporting his very own hockey helmet. I picked it up at the thrift shop (in Greenville of all places...who's children in Greenville play hockey?!) for Reed to use as he learns to ice skate this winter.

On the Cora front, I could have sworn that she yelled out 'Mama!' clear as day as I was walking out of the room today. I'm sure this is probably a fluke but I'm accepting it because Reed's first word was 'Dada' proceeded by 'Boo-ba' for blueberry. Mama was pretty far down the list. She is also developing a little more spirit, you might say. She almost rolled over today as she was expressing her dissatisfaction for being laid down. The combination of kicking and back arching almost did it. Keep working, little girl.