Winthrop Hockey

DeA loves having two boys on the team, it cuts the boring time in half. Friday was only Ryker, and he played well in a close loss while Rock stayed at school to not fail his classes.

Rock tried to play Saturday, but he just coughed too much to finish the game. He played well while he was out there and it seemed like the defense really missed him when he tapped out.

Ryker played well against some 18-year-old opponents. 

This was right before the coaches told Rock that he was done because harbor seals aren't allowed on the ice.

The hotel situation was much different this weekend, I made sure to get Schnoogies the most comfortable room I could find. The actually felt comfortable sitting on the couches and walking barefoot.

The room did seem a little warm, although DeA still thought it was cold. Maybe we shouldn't let her control the heater.

She's a pretty eskimo.

We walked around Winthrop looking for ice cream (no dice) and shopping. She saw this and said "that's my kind of book". The kids were appalled. 

Rock slept in the car the second game, and Ryker played well. The all black look makes him look skinny and lanky, more than he already is.

And fast, it makes him look like the speedy bullet.

Three games in two days. He crashed at 8ish Saturday night and woke up from his "nap" at 2:30am.

DeA had a rough night with sick Rock and napping Ryker, so she got a much-deserved cozy Sunday nap.

Both of them seemed all caught up on energy Sunday evening when she proved that she could still pick her baby up.

 

Christmas fun

Ryker added his own ornament to Nama's Disney tree. It represents their latest woke-filled efforts.

Flamin' Hot Cheetos are Leo's favorite.

DeA knows how to make the footie pajamas look good.

We invited Irma, Maddy, Chayo and the kids over to decorate ginger bread houses. DeA was disappointed to learn that graham crackers are about half the size that they used to be.

It was a lot of fun watching the kids get right to decorating.

Chayo and Maddy jumped in, Chayo claimed that it was her first house ever.

She took it very serious.

Julia saw my phone out and said "jeeze"

Elisa is scared to death of dogs, to they had to be wrangled in the bed of the truck. Look at those mean faces.

 

Hockey and a little concert

Last Christmas, Jens received Taylor Swift tickets. She had to sit on those for a year, and finally the weekend arrived. I had looked for hotels/AirBnBs/VRBOs for the entire year and prices were wack. I finally settled on a Travelodge an hour from the arena and though "how bad could it be?". Well, it was worse than that. We switched rooms twice because they smelled like cigarette smoke and/or the devil's lettuce. Finally we found a room that was adequate not as bad as the others.

We spent almost all Friday morning letting the ladies shop while the boys enjoyed the giant hockey emporium.

I found the perfect shoes, but they were too chicken to buy them.

Ryker was super excited for the Horton's by our hotel. We drove to one while the girls were shopped and there was a druggie tripping balls and blowing bubbles, like the kind you would blow for kids. It was hard to tell the kids that drugs are bad when that dude was having the time of his life blasted on smelling salts and fentanyl and bubbles.

Jens spent her free time making more Swifty bracelets and watching Elf. When she wasn't doing that, she was spilling hot cocoa all over the room.

We took them to the mall for more shopping and Ryker found the perfect spot for his Christmas picture that I think will now be an annual tradition.

Costco poutine is legit and worth the trip for lunch.

The kids were shocked that Costco had hockey gear. Like seriously good hockey stuff.

Picking out DeA's outfit for the concert was quite the ordeal. I thought she had found the perfect dress, but other, more important opinions scuttled that idea.

I thought it looked lovely and pretty and perfect for the concert.

Jens found the perfect sweatshirt early and was done shopping.

There were many different costume changes.

DeA and I ran to another store and came back to the kids completely checked out.

We had to wake them up to drive 40 minutes to the train station so that we could ride the train 40ish minutes to the arena. DeA was looking cute.

The kids were having a hard time waking up.

Two hats for twice the fun.

Hockey time!

The Canucks won 5-2, just as I had predicted all day long.

Jens found some shoes at the Adidas store and was very excited about them.

It was about a 30 minute wait to get on the train.

The kids were pretty worn out.

Well, but not too worn out to say no to BP at midnight thirty.

DeA really threw caution into the wind by eating a ranch dip with black pepper in it. Talk about living it up on a Friday night!

DeA finally found an acceptable sweatshirt with dazzles on it. 

She looks cute, but that dress was better...

Getting ready for the concert was serious work.

Bedazzled hair!

More mirror checking.

Cute girls off for a fun concert!

After countless hours shopping, dozens of outfit changes, and DeA was bold enough to order chili to eat on the ride to the train.

After I dropped the girls off at the train, the boys and I went to Canada Tire. They were blown away again to see hockey gear in a random store.

We really lived it up, both boys decided to go to bed around 9:30 and I waited around trying to not get sleepy before I had to go get the ladies.

1am at the train station. Not a lot of juice left in the battery.

Overall, it was a fun trip even though we didn't sleep well in the dive hotel and the concert had some quite inappropriate parts that kind of left a poor taste in the girls' experience and  the driving wore us out and the 4:45 drive home took over 6:30 because of the border and snow on the pass and we might be overly tired and Rock threw up Saturday night, but I guess you could say that it was still fun. At least I hope everyone had fun, I thoroughly enjoyed being with my family on a trip that we will likely never forget.