Hockey Finals

Adam re-taping his stick before the big game

On Sunday afternoon we played in the playoff finals against the Penguins. We had beaten them twice in the regular season, but both games were tough with one going to a shootout.

Adam is 2nd in the league in scoring and the kid he's facing off against, Logan, is the leading scorer.

We got an early goal to put us up 1-0

But Logan scored twice to put the Penguins up 2-1 going into the 3rd and final period

The game was coming down to the wire with both teams just missing opportunities. There were several shots off the posts and Adam made some great moves to get off a shot destined for the top corner of the net, but the shot deflected off the handle of the goalie's stick.

There are 7 skaters on each team, with 4 playing at a time. We have 3 really good skaters and, during the regular season, we tried to make sure that 2 of them were always playing while working in the other kids. We ran quick shifts and everyone played plenty. In the playoffs, we decided that all 3 of our best skaters would stay out as long as they could. As this game wore on we could tell that our guys were exhausted - not only from this game, but from the tough game the previous night. But, we didn't want to pull them since we were down a goal. 

In the end, we lost 2-1. I was so proud of the kids for giving it their all. It's hard to beat an evenly matched team 3 straight times. I definitely had second thoughts about playing our top kids so much that they didn't have their usual energy at the end of the game to get over the hump and I felt bad that some of the kids didn't get to play as much as they were used to.

Hockey Semifinals

On Saturday night Adam's team played in the playoff semifinals

It was a great game. Back and forth. Both teams played terrific.

In the end, we won 5-4 and everyone swarmed, Evan, our goalie. Adam scored 4 goals - the last one with just a couple minutes left. He was tired and sore from the fun run earlier in the day, but the little sucker is a gamer.

Derek with his friend Ryan

Fun Run

On Saturday morning we walked up to the middle school where the high school cross country team was hosting a fund raising run

The main run was a 5K, but Adam only wanted to do the 1 mile fun run

Adam went out fast and tried to hold off this kid, but the kid passed him on the last lap

It was supposed to be a fun run, but Adam gave it his all and was exhausted

Winter Hockey Team Pictures

The winter hockey season is drawing to a close with playoffs this weekend. We won the regular season with a 9-1 record. Adam is second in the league in scoring. It's been a really fun season. The kids get along well and many of them said this has been their favorite team.

(L-R) Coach Mike, Taylor, Jonny, Evan H, Mason, Coach David, Colin, Christofer, Evan J, Adam

No More Taxi Service

We have been taking Derek to and from school since he broke his ankle in October. This week Derek started walking on his own. He used to ride his bike before he broke his ankle, but says he would rather just walk now.

He's not real thrilled about the change. You would think he would be overjoyed about having "the opportunity" to walk again.

Derek's Quad Copter

Derek's usual after school routine is to eat a bunch of stuff,  get into his pajamas, and settle into command central in his bedroom with his fuzzy blanket 

Derek's latest gadget is a remote control quad copter. It seems like he's constantly got something on order from Amazon.