Hockey and Hockey and Early Birthday

DeAndra says that she loves teenagers, but I'm not sure she loves the videos that the kids take of her:

The Winthrop Tourney is one of our favorites. The outdoor rink is cool, it's not three hours away from home, and we usually play well. I had to miss the Friday morning game because of work, but he played well and they won big.

The big problem at the rink is you can't take good pictures through the glass. Trust me, he's out there somewhere.

There he is!

Everything in the Methow closes by 9pm, which makes dinner after an 8pm puck drop a little difficult. After trying three other options, we ended up in Pardner's, a gas station/convenience store owned by some old friends from church. The clerk was very helpful and friendly, and recommended putting nacho cheese sauce on the six-hour-old spicy chicken sandwich that she sold me for half off. It slapped more than it should have, so much that I had a second. 

The hotel room was in the basement, but it was surprisingly cozy and nice.

They had a cute lodge where DeA worked on her homework while I read.

The Saturday game was against a really good Canadian team. We gave up a goal early, and then played even from then on

Ryker scrapped and bodied up a few times, it was fun to watch. We ended up losing 1-0, and the Canadians went on to win Sunday 5-0, so this was the defacto championship game (like the NFC Championship this year).

One of the moms took professional pictures of the game and here are some with Ryker.

We hit Three Finger Jack's for some burgers and Korean pork wraps.

We hustled home to build a birthday cake for Rock before heading to La Brisa for dinner

Salvador is a new friend from church that cooks at La Brisa. He came out to say hello and get pics with the birthday boy and Javi.

Sofia was happy to eat all the beans in the restaurant.

We went home for cake and ice cream and another beautiful round of Happy Birthday for Rock.

Sickness and Basketball

About the time I realized that our kids didn't get really sick in the fall, Ryker busted out a 101+ fever and missed the championship rounds of his tournament. He was pretty, pretty sick.

DeA was also not 100% while recovering from her surgery, the sister missionaries made sure to make her feel loved.

Basketball is going well for the Jens. She's learning how to balance her sweet nature with her mom's desire that she bully the smaller, weaker opponents.

She plays parts of two games each night, and it can wear a Funzee out.

Wears her right out.

A few weeks ago, Leo Boy was wearing a fly Capybara hat. I told him that I had seen capybaras (or carpinchos) in person. He didn't seem to care and walked away. A short time later, he came up to me and meekly asked if I could take him to see the capybaras. I told him that I would love to, but that they were in Argentina so it would be kind of hard. He said okay and went back to Rissa. A few days later, Rissa said that out of the blue he said how excited he was to go to Argentina with me to see the capybaras, so that I had better figure something else out. I had hoped that his capybara phase would pass, since the petting zoo in Tacoma that has some only lets you see them if you are over 10, but then he showed up with yet another slick set of capybara threads. 

Ryker had pick-up game against Spokane. It was chippy, physical, and he got launched on an illegal cross-check, but he said that he had fun.

Ella starts the home MTC this week before leaving for southern Argentina for her mission. Jeffrey and Aleasha celebrated with homemade empenadas and alfajores and tortas fritas. This was my attempt at making an empenada for the first time in 20 years.

 

DeA's Surgery

DeA is finally having surgery to help her not be anemic anymore. They gave her this attractive gown for the occasion.

The gown connected to a heater, she was a very big fan of that.

It made her gown super poofy.

They gave her a fancy lunch lady hairnet.

Surgery went well, and eventually they let me back to see her. She looked like an angel and definitely not like Lazarus after he first walked out of the tomb.

Her color and energy returned shortly, a shot of medicine and some Oxy definitely helped.

We got her home and she was able to rest well on the comfy couch.

We had the YM up for a bonfire with the goal of keeping me close to her. It kind of worked, but kind of didn't work.

Also, having 11 and 12-year-old boys at a bonfire is still a silly idea. There were lots of launched flaming marshmallows and kids trying to jump "through" the fire.

Resting is precious.

We have taken a few short walks to the landing and back or to Rissa's and back. She's tolerated those well.

Funshine came with us once. We tolerated her well.

The weekend was full of Ryker's hockey tournament that we had to volunteer to help. She did the ipas scoresheet while I ran the clock.

We knew that a day of hockey would wear her out, so she booked a room at Red Lion (it was the only one that would rent a room by the hour. Very classy). The naptime really helped her survive the afternoon game.

 

Post-Christmas Mop Up

DeA loves Christmas, but she loves putting away Christmas just as much.

We had a little mix-up with bread for the sacrament, so I baked some Saturday night. It was mid but it was fresh and warm. I cut it into thick slices because it was fast Sunday, but the priests tore them into tiny shreds like we had 500 people in attendance.

One of the sister missionaries is from El Salvador and volunteered to make papusas for the youth.

It was a lot of work, but I really think that the kids had a lot of fun.

Ryker made a sponge holder for Nama that Nama claimed to love but we are pretty sure that Nama didn't actually look at the holder.

DeA was feeling like she was about to get sick, so we built her a cocoon and made her nap.

I ordered the wrong drink at Taco Bell and ended up with something Jensley would have liked.

 

Post Christmas Mess

It is exhausting being Mrs Claus

Ryker had two games the Saturday after Christmas. He played very well and netted a goal in the second game.

Did I mention that it is exhausting being Mrs Claus

Rock had a little too much fun with his Wenatchee peeps.

Very exhausting.

Schnoogies still has the pretty curly hair.

Rock made nachos.

He also had some of his Wenatchee friends over for a sweet 4-wheeler and bonfire party.