My friend Ann is a great mom, runner, PTO treasurer, organizer of the charity fun run the Turkey Trot, and so much more. Well, we hatched a plan to do some fun runs with our kids over the summer. When we realized we’d both be around over break, we decided to hatch a plan to test it out sooner. I got my old jogging stroller fixed up (5,000 miles and lots of salt water had done it in – no brakes, flat tires, rust everywhere) to be our sag wagon for hoodies, Gatorade, phones, sunglasses, loot (rewards for after the jog), etc. We also thought it would be fun to allow the younger or slower ones to hitch a ride in the “stagecoach” now and again. The hare can push the tortoise 🙂 When we did rider swaps, we did it fast – like on John Butterfield’s first overland mail stagecoach run – go go go! Only time to change out horses every 15 miles…no rest for the driver! Sometimes two kids were stacked up. It was hilarious. As we loped around the 1.5 mile trail through the park on our first lap, we collected Ben’s friend Cole and his mom, Lisa. Into our second lap we collected a barefooted Finn and his mom, Brie! It was really a crazy parade then as Cole had a notepad and a pen (to document the silliness?), and Lisa was carrying an “official dodge ball”! Afterwards we enjoyed some ice cream drumsticks and a romp in the playground while the sun held. Enjoy the shots – it was a good time!
I just noticed it’s been 6 weeks since I last posted! Since then we’ve had a very exciting conclusion to hockey season with making it through our division’s 3-game playoffs and winning the final game! Here is a link to our highlights reel created by one of our parents who works for Adobe. Ellen has a great eye and stitches these reels together right on her iPhone using an Adobe app called PremierClip.
The semi-final was just about as miracle-on-ice as a parent could wish for – tied at the end so the kids went to a 5-round shootout (best of 5 would win). Sam was #3 in the shoot-out roster. The other team scored the first shot, then we went – no dice. Then they did, no dice. Then we went – Sam scored, tying us up again! The next two rounds no one scored, so it then went to sudden death and we proceeded through the rest of the roster – all 10 kids got a shot in! The home team scored in sudden death, and one of our guys scored his FIRST season goal to tie us up again (go Hap!)!!! A few more rounds – no scores, still tied. Finally our second shooter (Adam) went up again and scored the final goal to win the game! It was just unbelievable!
Ben’s basketball team wrapped up their season, too – UNDEFEATED! They had a couple really close games where they had to come from behind and won by 1 or 2 points. Nail biters! We have been so fortunate to have coaches for both boys who were just unparalleled in their dedication, professionalism, and commitment to helping each child grow no matter where they started in skills. Thank you Coach Pike, Coach Wilson (both hockey) and Coach Tomine (basketball). We are grateful! Enjoy your off time!
So – life after hockey? We just ended Sunday. It’s taking a couple days to adjust. We’re all in a bit of withdrawal because we enjoyed the routine, the practices, the people and all the action. The kids are off school Wed-Fri this week for parent-teacher conferences so I served up breakfast outside this morning, just to mix it up a bit. The sun was magical coming through the woods. When I got back from riding, we hatched a plan to buy a card game which has taken the school by storm (Magic players, anyone?). We played at the same picnic table this evening. I got UNO for myself because I can’t stand learning tricky games. I have no patience for the learning process! Bad mommy. So UNO is for me!