We've been having too much fun for the first month to be over and done with already over here. It's now officially been a year since we arrived and I thought it would be fun to mark the anniversary by bringing the boys to formal skating lessons last week at the Huck Olson arena. We had been using ice walkers up until then and it appeared while Daniel was progressing nicely with them, Aaron was leaning a little heavy on them, thereby probably delaying his own progress. We were told upon arriving at lessons last week that ice walkers are not used at all and the boys would be expected to maintain balance on their own after they walked along the wall of the arena to get used to it. Danny took to it like a fish to water, stretching his arms out parallel with the ice to catch his balance and then just walking across the ice as if he were wearing regular boots. The instructor walked with Aaron along the arena wall a couple of times and that was about it for their first lessons. They have open ice about three days a week, so they should get plenty of exposure and hopefully both of them will be independent on skates by the end of winter so they can really enjoy next year's skating. Aaron understands as with learning to bike, it's going to take some effort, but he will have much fun and freedom once he's mastered the basic skills.
We attended the East Grand Forks hockey game last week and the Prowlers were beating them 5-0 by the end of the second period. We left then as it was late for a school night and the game seemed to be pretty much in the bag. They ended up winning by a total score of 7-0. Unfortunately their luck ran out some Saturday when Duluth-Marshall skated into Ralph Engelstad Arena. They are presently the #1 team in the state and their goalie showed it in a final score of 3-0 in their favor. We enjoyed watching it again, though, sitting behind the Prowler net and watching the players and/or puck slam into the boards right in front of us. Tomorrow night will be against Red Lake Falls, so hopefully we'll made it to that game after skate lessons.
Andrew has been doing well with his studies at Northland and continues work at Domino's. He has an interview tonight at K-Mart, though, to supplement his hours at Domino's. If that doesn't pan out, he's considering applying at the new Wal-Mart before it opens in May/June.
As for TRF weather, we unofficially set a new record last week with a high temperature in the 40s. The last time it got that hot in the winter was in about 1974. It got pretty slushy around here as most of the streets melted, though that was followed by wind and snow over the weekend, so it was back to shoveling for the mailman again...
Monday, January 30, 2006
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Prowlers Rule!!
We attended the Prowler v. Warroad Warrior hockey game last Thursday night with the Drevlows and sat at the top of the section behind the Prowler goal and enjoyed ourselves a tremendous game of hockey. There were a ton of people there compared to usual for the much expected matchup between the two giants of Northwest Minnesota high school hockey. The Prowlers scored quickly and never looked back, burying the Warriors by a score of 5-0. They scored one of their goals only 6 seconds into the third period, so they didn't have much trouble handling the puck that night.
Come Saturday this past weekend, Drew and Tyler Widerski celebrated both of their birthdays at the same time and had Aaron and Daniel over for cake and ice cream followed by an afternoon of sledding on the old Armory Hill that sits behind the National Guard Armory on the outskirts of town. It overlooks the river, which surprisingly hasn't frozen in that stretch of water yet, so Pastor Dave and I were joking about looking for the "first splash." It was safe, though, as nobody got closer than a pool's length from the river's edge. When I say Armory "Hill," I use the term "hill" somewhat loosely. It's not what a person in Seattle may consider a "hill," but nonetheless, all the kids had a great time and a few even managed to "catch some air" off a jump they had made with a depression in the hillside. All cheeks were bright pink by the time we all piled into the Weasel for the ride home. Aaron and Danny both had the time of their lives and were begging to return the next day for more sledding as they had never done that before.
Come Saturday this past weekend, Drew and Tyler Widerski celebrated both of their birthdays at the same time and had Aaron and Daniel over for cake and ice cream followed by an afternoon of sledding on the old Armory Hill that sits behind the National Guard Armory on the outskirts of town. It overlooks the river, which surprisingly hasn't frozen in that stretch of water yet, so Pastor Dave and I were joking about looking for the "first splash." It was safe, though, as nobody got closer than a pool's length from the river's edge. When I say Armory "Hill," I use the term "hill" somewhat loosely. It's not what a person in Seattle may consider a "hill," but nonetheless, all the kids had a great time and a few even managed to "catch some air" off a jump they had made with a depression in the hillside. All cheeks were bright pink by the time we all piled into the Weasel for the ride home. Aaron and Danny both had the time of their lives and were begging to return the next day for more sledding as they had never done that before.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Of Birthdays and Baseball...
I finally have a brief moment to myself here to update the blog. The boys have been dropped off at Awana Club and I've got about 45 minutes to go until choir practice.
This past week has been busy as usual with the boys. Aaron celebrated his 9th birthday last Friday with a trip to the Seven Clans Casino & Indoor Water Park (No, he didn't go to the casino...) He invited along a few of his buddies and by the time we left, there were a total of 7 boys in the weasel including Aaron, Daniel, Braeden and Brett Drevlow, Dusty, and another friend named Chad. We left in the early evening around 5 and the boys stayed in the water park area until about 8 and then played in the video arcade. The party at the water park included pizza, pop, and a cake with his name on it. They all had fun and Aaron was no exception with his usual broad grin. I played a dancing video game in the arcade named Dance Dance Revolution, otherwise known as DDRMax2, which has a lit dance pad with arrows on it in four directions and you have to match the arrows scrolling upward on the screen in front of you with your feet on the corresponding arrows of the dance pad. The game has two side by side pads so you can play against each other or separately. An 11 or 12 year old girl ended up taking the open pad next to mine as it was free to "join in" once I had started the game and I was actually able to beat her on all three songs. This old dog really can learn some new tricks. It wasn't easy, though, with 138 beat-per-minute songs like a technotronic version of The Twilight Zone song and a few other popular dance tunes.
After the water park, we dropped Dusty and Chad off and then Brett and Braeden Drevlow came over and stayed the night with Aaron in his first sleepover that didn't include Dusty. They played video games til the wee hours and it took me a good two days to get my own sleep back on schedule after that.
As for the baseball part of the above title, Aaron mentioned last night it was "Twins" day at Challenger Elementary today and he and Daniel needed to wear Minnesota Twins baseball clothing. We stopped at K-Mart last night and bought them each Twins ball caps as they don't sell any other Twins stuff in the offseason. Aaron came home today, though, to announce the Twins actually visited Challenger today! He brought home a sheet with the autographs of four of the players that visited along with the autograph of the team mascot, "T.C." He said he also shook hands with the mascot. I don't seem to recall anyone famous coming out to sign autographs when I was attending school here and here the boys have seen two different celebrity teams in less than a month. I can imagine the Minnesota Wild will show up next... :o)
Andrew started school at Northland Community & Technical College in town this past week with an eye toward an electrician's apprenticeship. He's taking a computer course amongst others and finds himself busy between that and working at Domino's. He's managed to pass some time as well in a cribbage group in town once a week too while poker is not in session. It sounds like he is enjoying himself and will probably stay in Minnesota long-term, at least until he finishes training for electrician.
The new tourist guides for TRF just got published and we noticed them last night while out shopping at K-mart. They have a picture of Jerry and Marilyn Wigness on the cover looking out over the Red River. It's a very tastefully put together publication. I think I'll ask for their autographs tonight to add to Aaron's burgeoning autograph collection... :o)
Tomorrow night should be an interesting matchup for hockey at the Ralph Engelstad Arena. We have Warroad coming to town, one of the two or three powerhouses historically in Minnesota high school hockey. I think they are a much larger school than TRF and are in a larger division, so it will pose a significant challenge to the Prowlers. TRF lost a heartbreaker in overtime last night to the Moorhead Spuds. I believe the score was 5 to 4. TRF now has a record of 10 wins and 4 losses, which places them 9th in the state in their division. Speaking of hockey, I still don't know the official tally in terms of points for that scrimmage against the Women's Olympic Team, but I was able to find out in the Grand Forks Herald that the Prowler boys did indeed outscore the Olympic Team, so both Warroad and TRF beat them. Not bad, considering there was no checking allowed.
The only other news at this point is the choir at Trinity is starting up with their first performance of 2006 on this coming Sunday (both services) and we'll probably not get a break until sometime in April or so. There hasn't been any news about upcoming string performances, so the cello will collect a little more dust, I figure. Hope everybody is enjoying the new year wherever you are!
This past week has been busy as usual with the boys. Aaron celebrated his 9th birthday last Friday with a trip to the Seven Clans Casino & Indoor Water Park (No, he didn't go to the casino...) He invited along a few of his buddies and by the time we left, there were a total of 7 boys in the weasel including Aaron, Daniel, Braeden and Brett Drevlow, Dusty, and another friend named Chad. We left in the early evening around 5 and the boys stayed in the water park area until about 8 and then played in the video arcade. The party at the water park included pizza, pop, and a cake with his name on it. They all had fun and Aaron was no exception with his usual broad grin. I played a dancing video game in the arcade named Dance Dance Revolution, otherwise known as DDRMax2, which has a lit dance pad with arrows on it in four directions and you have to match the arrows scrolling upward on the screen in front of you with your feet on the corresponding arrows of the dance pad. The game has two side by side pads so you can play against each other or separately. An 11 or 12 year old girl ended up taking the open pad next to mine as it was free to "join in" once I had started the game and I was actually able to beat her on all three songs. This old dog really can learn some new tricks. It wasn't easy, though, with 138 beat-per-minute songs like a technotronic version of The Twilight Zone song and a few other popular dance tunes.
After the water park, we dropped Dusty and Chad off and then Brett and Braeden Drevlow came over and stayed the night with Aaron in his first sleepover that didn't include Dusty. They played video games til the wee hours and it took me a good two days to get my own sleep back on schedule after that.
As for the baseball part of the above title, Aaron mentioned last night it was "Twins" day at Challenger Elementary today and he and Daniel needed to wear Minnesota Twins baseball clothing. We stopped at K-Mart last night and bought them each Twins ball caps as they don't sell any other Twins stuff in the offseason. Aaron came home today, though, to announce the Twins actually visited Challenger today! He brought home a sheet with the autographs of four of the players that visited along with the autograph of the team mascot, "T.C." He said he also shook hands with the mascot. I don't seem to recall anyone famous coming out to sign autographs when I was attending school here and here the boys have seen two different celebrity teams in less than a month. I can imagine the Minnesota Wild will show up next... :o)
Andrew started school at Northland Community & Technical College in town this past week with an eye toward an electrician's apprenticeship. He's taking a computer course amongst others and finds himself busy between that and working at Domino's. He's managed to pass some time as well in a cribbage group in town once a week too while poker is not in session. It sounds like he is enjoying himself and will probably stay in Minnesota long-term, at least until he finishes training for electrician.
The new tourist guides for TRF just got published and we noticed them last night while out shopping at K-mart. They have a picture of Jerry and Marilyn Wigness on the cover looking out over the Red River. It's a very tastefully put together publication. I think I'll ask for their autographs tonight to add to Aaron's burgeoning autograph collection... :o)
Tomorrow night should be an interesting matchup for hockey at the Ralph Engelstad Arena. We have Warroad coming to town, one of the two or three powerhouses historically in Minnesota high school hockey. I think they are a much larger school than TRF and are in a larger division, so it will pose a significant challenge to the Prowlers. TRF lost a heartbreaker in overtime last night to the Moorhead Spuds. I believe the score was 5 to 4. TRF now has a record of 10 wins and 4 losses, which places them 9th in the state in their division. Speaking of hockey, I still don't know the official tally in terms of points for that scrimmage against the Women's Olympic Team, but I was able to find out in the Grand Forks Herald that the Prowler boys did indeed outscore the Olympic Team, so both Warroad and TRF beat them. Not bad, considering there was no checking allowed.
The only other news at this point is the choir at Trinity is starting up with their first performance of 2006 on this coming Sunday (both services) and we'll probably not get a break until sometime in April or so. There hasn't been any news about upcoming string performances, so the cello will collect a little more dust, I figure. Hope everybody is enjoying the new year wherever you are!
Saturday, January 07, 2006
TEAM USA 2006 WOMEN'S OLYMPIC HOCKEY VISIT
Per the title of today's post, the 2006 Team USA Women's Olympic hockey team came to visit Thief River Falls last night. They were in town to scrimmage with the Prowler boys of Lincoln High at Ralph Engelstad Arena. They boys and I headed out earlier in the afternoon to the outdoor community skating rink at the corner of 10th and Labree Avenue to break in our new hockey skates. I lifted Danny over the boards onto the ice and he held on to the boards for dear life once inside. Quite an alien experience for him to say the least. I walked him around the rink with my regular boots on so I could better keep both of us upright. He did great, but called it quits a short time later as he was having a bit of difficulty standing up. I skated around the rink for the first time in over two decades (I never knew they made Cougar hockey skates, but they work great). I managed to finish about a half hour of skating without falling once.
We headed to the rink at 6:45 p.m. with the boys' friend, Tyler Widerski, and took in the scrimmage with Team USA. We got nice seats down at the Team USA goal right up at the plexi-glass, so we had pucks hitting only inches from in front of us and players slamming into the boards, so we really felt a part of the night's action. Joe Drevlow showed up a short time later with Brielle, Braeden, Brock, Brett, Brianna, Brigham, and I think one other girl to make a full house. At the break, Joe went to the concession stand and came back with a large cardboard box loaded with boxes of popcorn and pop for all of us. We all had a great time watching the action and I think the score was pretty close, though they didn't officially keep score on the scoreboard. It looked like the Prowlers enjoyed talking to the Team USA members at slow points in the game. Team USA is made up of about 10 Ivy League players coming from Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, and Brown with the majority of the remaining teammates from the U of Minnesota, one from U of Wisconsin, and one from the U of New Hampshire. There's one from Seattle and I think she attends the U of Minnesota.
The team visited Challenger Elementary yesterday afternoon before the scrimmage and signed a couple of autographs on Aaron's Prowler Pride t-shirt that all third graders get. After the scrimmage, Joe and his kids and Aaron and I headed down to the basement of the arena where the locker rooms are and waited outside the Team USA locker room with just a handful of other kids and parents and waited for players to come out and quite a few signed the kids' t-shirts, arms, programs, etc. with Sharpies and I got Aaron's picture with a few of them as well (posted above). Little did I know that moving to Thief River would afford the boys an opportunity to meet Olympic athletes. Aaron was positively beaming from ear to ear. I also got some good video footage of the team. They are scheduled to play in Torino, Italy next month, so it was nice of them to take the time to come all the way up here and visit with the kids.
Today, we decided to further break in the skates. We headed over to Huck Olson Memorial Arena for open public skating. Aaron put his skates on this time and both he and Daniel had the assistance of some walkers specifically designed for skating. Aaron said he wanted to "learn the hard way," i.e. fall down without any help, but I encouraged him to try the walker at first. He quickly found how valuable it could be. I think he made it about 20 minutes out there and fell a few times, but never hurt himself. Danny also fell a few times, but amazingly was able to pull himself up with the ice walker with no assistance and go on his way again. After open skating was closed about an hour later, Danny said, "Can we go to that outside rink again? I like skating, Dad. It's fun!" So, off we went to the rink at 10th and Labree. This time around, though, Danny walked from the car to the rink on his own with his skates on, climbed over the boards, again on his own, and proceded to walk around the rink, all on his own. He did kind of a babystep walk, but was amazingly steady and fell fewer times than when he used the walker at the Huck. He cried a few times and said he didn't want to skate again, but later tonight was asking me if we could "skate every day from now on." We ended today's activities with a trip to the Galaxy Twin to see the movie "Cheaper by the Dozen 2" and are having a relaxing evening at home now watching Ernest Goes to Camp. I think we spent a good three hours on skates this afternoon and we'll probably go skating again tomorrow at the Ralph, so we'll be able to say we skated on the same ice as Team USA. Talk about a fun weekend!
We headed to the rink at 6:45 p.m. with the boys' friend, Tyler Widerski, and took in the scrimmage with Team USA. We got nice seats down at the Team USA goal right up at the plexi-glass, so we had pucks hitting only inches from in front of us and players slamming into the boards, so we really felt a part of the night's action. Joe Drevlow showed up a short time later with Brielle, Braeden, Brock, Brett, Brianna, Brigham, and I think one other girl to make a full house. At the break, Joe went to the concession stand and came back with a large cardboard box loaded with boxes of popcorn and pop for all of us. We all had a great time watching the action and I think the score was pretty close, though they didn't officially keep score on the scoreboard. It looked like the Prowlers enjoyed talking to the Team USA members at slow points in the game. Team USA is made up of about 10 Ivy League players coming from Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, and Brown with the majority of the remaining teammates from the U of Minnesota, one from U of Wisconsin, and one from the U of New Hampshire. There's one from Seattle and I think she attends the U of Minnesota.
The team visited Challenger Elementary yesterday afternoon before the scrimmage and signed a couple of autographs on Aaron's Prowler Pride t-shirt that all third graders get. After the scrimmage, Joe and his kids and Aaron and I headed down to the basement of the arena where the locker rooms are and waited outside the Team USA locker room with just a handful of other kids and parents and waited for players to come out and quite a few signed the kids' t-shirts, arms, programs, etc. with Sharpies and I got Aaron's picture with a few of them as well (posted above). Little did I know that moving to Thief River would afford the boys an opportunity to meet Olympic athletes. Aaron was positively beaming from ear to ear. I also got some good video footage of the team. They are scheduled to play in Torino, Italy next month, so it was nice of them to take the time to come all the way up here and visit with the kids.
Today, we decided to further break in the skates. We headed over to Huck Olson Memorial Arena for open public skating. Aaron put his skates on this time and both he and Daniel had the assistance of some walkers specifically designed for skating. Aaron said he wanted to "learn the hard way," i.e. fall down without any help, but I encouraged him to try the walker at first. He quickly found how valuable it could be. I think he made it about 20 minutes out there and fell a few times, but never hurt himself. Danny also fell a few times, but amazingly was able to pull himself up with the ice walker with no assistance and go on his way again. After open skating was closed about an hour later, Danny said, "Can we go to that outside rink again? I like skating, Dad. It's fun!" So, off we went to the rink at 10th and Labree. This time around, though, Danny walked from the car to the rink on his own with his skates on, climbed over the boards, again on his own, and proceded to walk around the rink, all on his own. He did kind of a babystep walk, but was amazingly steady and fell fewer times than when he used the walker at the Huck. He cried a few times and said he didn't want to skate again, but later tonight was asking me if we could "skate every day from now on." We ended today's activities with a trip to the Galaxy Twin to see the movie "Cheaper by the Dozen 2" and are having a relaxing evening at home now watching Ernest Goes to Camp. I think we spent a good three hours on skates this afternoon and we'll probably go skating again tomorrow at the Ralph, so we'll be able to say we skated on the same ice as Team USA. Talk about a fun weekend!
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Monday, January 02, 2006
Happy New Year 2006
Christmas has come and gone and with 2006 here, we find ourselves halfway through the school year and nearing our one year anniversary of moving here last January. Our Christmas was very enjoyable as expected. We spent the day as planned with Jerry and Marilyn Wigness, their kids, Doug & Kim Williams, and Steve Wigness along with Steve's boys, Drew (17), Sam (14), and Dylan (12). The boys spent time in their hot tub, which overlooks the river. It looks kind of funny out there as you stand out on the deck with the hot tub and about 20 yards away is a guy sitting on an upside down 5-gallon bucket ice fishing on the river. There's about two dozen ice houses on the river at this point, though it remains to be seen how successful they are at fishing this year. We had a lot to eat thanks to Marilyn including the obligatory meatballs and lefse and the boys received a lot of gifts there including blankets, uno card sets, drawing materials, etc. Andrew couldn't believe how stuffed he was and that the food just kept coming. We also played pool in the basement and had a rousing electronic game of "Catch Phrase" that lasted about two hours or so with Doug and Kim's three daughters and a couple of Steve's boys along with Marilyn and Jerry. Marilyn was the highlight of the evening, mixing up the timer button with the other button to advance trivia topics. We were all about to fall backwards in our chairs from laughing so hard when she kept pressing the wrong button.
As for our post-Christmas activities, we invited Joe Drevlow out to the recent hockey game between the Prowlers and Forest Park Rangers and he brought his "six eldest" kids with him, so it was quite the party. I'll post a pic here of most of them with Aaron (Danny was shy that night). The Prowlers won 5 to 3. We are expecting an interesting hockey event, though, on Wednesday or Thursday here in town. I opened the paper right after mom and dad called for New Year's to find that the USA Women's Hockey Team (for the 2006 Olympics) will be in town for a scrimmage game against the Prowler BOYS!! Talk about a once in a long time opportunity. The boys are looking forward to seeing that. I wonder if the Prowlers have a chance... :o)
School will be resuming as of tomorrow morning, so we took the opportunity Saturday night to bring Dusty and Kasey out with us to the water park at Seven Clans Casino. Dusty spent the night afterward. I could tell the boys really needed the opportunity to blow off some steam before classes resume. Aaron is also asking me daily now to take him there for his 9th birthday on January 13th.
Andrew is still working on gaining his "snow feet." He's fallen a few times already delivering for Domino's and finally broke down last week and got special oversoles for his shoes that grip the ice. He also has a heckuva time getting in and out of the back parking area in the back alley. I've had to push him either in or out about three times now. He hasn't gotten the hang of rocking a stickshift yet and has a habit of creating ice under his frontwheel drive Honda. The good news is we should only have another 3 1/2 months or so to go and the temperature has been kind lately. It's been hovering consistently around the high 20s and low 30s for a few weeks and we haven't had any subzero temps for some time (knock on frozen wood).
That's about all there is to report at this point. Hopefully all is well with everyone and all of you have a great New Year's.
As for our post-Christmas activities, we invited Joe Drevlow out to the recent hockey game between the Prowlers and Forest Park Rangers and he brought his "six eldest" kids with him, so it was quite the party. I'll post a pic here of most of them with Aaron (Danny was shy that night). The Prowlers won 5 to 3. We are expecting an interesting hockey event, though, on Wednesday or Thursday here in town. I opened the paper right after mom and dad called for New Year's to find that the USA Women's Hockey Team (for the 2006 Olympics) will be in town for a scrimmage game against the Prowler BOYS!! Talk about a once in a long time opportunity. The boys are looking forward to seeing that. I wonder if the Prowlers have a chance... :o)
School will be resuming as of tomorrow morning, so we took the opportunity Saturday night to bring Dusty and Kasey out with us to the water park at Seven Clans Casino. Dusty spent the night afterward. I could tell the boys really needed the opportunity to blow off some steam before classes resume. Aaron is also asking me daily now to take him there for his 9th birthday on January 13th.
Andrew is still working on gaining his "snow feet." He's fallen a few times already delivering for Domino's and finally broke down last week and got special oversoles for his shoes that grip the ice. He also has a heckuva time getting in and out of the back parking area in the back alley. I've had to push him either in or out about three times now. He hasn't gotten the hang of rocking a stickshift yet and has a habit of creating ice under his frontwheel drive Honda. The good news is we should only have another 3 1/2 months or so to go and the temperature has been kind lately. It's been hovering consistently around the high 20s and low 30s for a few weeks and we haven't had any subzero temps for some time (knock on frozen wood).
That's about all there is to report at this point. Hopefully all is well with everyone and all of you have a great New Year's.
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