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.

Thanksgiving Recovery and Getting a Tree

 We loaded up late Saturday morning to go pick out a tree. Ryker took the opportunity to commune with nature and to honor his Grandpa Leo.It was cold, foggy, icy, and snowy, but DeA always looks pretty.The going was pretty smooth until we hit the cloud layer, then the snow turned to thick ice and the road was not great. The kids pointed at a cluster of trees at about the time I was looking to turn around. Right as I parked, a Jeep came down the hill and we had to figure out how to let them by. They offered to pull to the edge if I would drive past them on the hillside. They promised to pull me out if I got stuck, so I started sneaking past them when I slid into the ditch. I just kept the gas on and the wheels pointed to the road when finally I shot out, straight toward the steep edge. After wiping my brow and checking my drawers, I noticed that the Jeep was already halfway down the hill and I don't think would have pulled me out if I hadn't escaped the ditch. I was able to carefully turn around at a switchback and crawled back down to DeA and the kids who I don't think had any idea of my little adventure. They were busy climbing the steep hill to the cluster of trees.

It was a little hard getting to the tree on the steep hill, but I let the teenager handle the power saw like a responsible adult.It was a snowy wonderland.

The kids didn't accept the help of the saw, they wanted to do things the right way, and that way is with the axe. 

It was hard and awkward, they had to swing left-handed.

The others were ready to use the saw, but Rock persisted and saved Christmas for all of us.

DeA was ever the pretty supervisor.

Leo tried to help by gnawing off the twigs and branches of the bushes.

So, um, the tree turned out to be pretty big, probably too big.

We crept out of the icy area and into an opening to continue the traditions with the eating of MREs. 

Rock took the opportunity to pose for pictures.

Why?

The kids love the goodies in the packets more than the actual meal, and Jens was a little bummed that the candy wasn't better.

DeA lasted about two minutes outside before sitting in the warm truck.

Mmm, chili macaroni, just like Uncle Sam used to make.

The England Family Christmas tree.

On the way down the hill, the kids started talking about Christmas when they get older and have their own families and DeA pretty much lost it when she realized that we only have one more Christmas before Rock leaves and things will never be the same again.

Yeah, the tree was way too big and kept tipping over and spread throughout the entry of the house but no one would let me chop off four or five feet. Instead, we weighed it down with two 35lb plates.

The Christmas girl claimed to be too tired to help put the lights up.

Beautiful DeA did most of the work, with a little help from me.

After a brief re-charge, Jens jumped in to help.

Things got a little iffy toward the top of the tree

We lopped off the top to make things look prettier and to make our lives easier.

Very cozy.

Jens wanted s'mores but couldn't find an adequate stick, so she used the fireplace shovel.

If it works, it works.