The Hockey Rink

The work begins

The boys enjoyed helping Kevin and John

After a long day of work on the rink, we played with the i-pad

They asked Luke if he could sit there and hold that piece for them all day

Here is the Rink!  Now, we are just waiting on the temps to drop.  No hurry on winter as far as I am concerned.  The whole process actually didn't take to long with Kevin and John working on it together.

 Give Thanks

Over the weekend, we did something I never would have imagined myself doing.  I remember the first time we visited Minnesota, our real estate agent told me how people put ice rinks in their backyard during the Minnesota winters.  My first thought was, "really?  Is it that cold for that long?"  Well, five years later, I can assure you that the answer is YES and now we will be "those people."  Shortly after we moved here (before Luke and Liam were probably even walking), John and our neighbor/friend Kevin starting planning "our backyard rink."  We all agreed it was a bit early to put in a rink, but perhaps in a few years.  Fast forward a few years and the rationale that I given for the ice rink was something like this, "it will be a great way to teach the boys how to skate and have fun with the neighborhood kids."  I wasn't completely sold simply because every time we go skating we are ready to pack it up and get hot chocolate after about 5 minutes on the ice.  This is hardly enough time to justify putting on all that gear much less installing a rink in your own backyard.  On the day that John was planning to start building the ice rink, he was explaining the process to Luke and John said (very excitedly), "We are going to build an ice rink today so that you, Jack, and our neighbor friends can skate in the backyard!!"  Luke looked at John very confused and said simply, "Why?"  My thoughts exactly.  We are not big fans of hockey and we (John, myself, and the boys) barely even know how to skate!  But, I am told we will learn to skate and we will love it.  I am still not buying into the hockey craze in Minnesota that seems to require everyone's time and money, but I can see a few "pros" to building the skating rink.  The Bottom line is that we need winter activities and we need ways to burn energy and this seems to be a good one.  It gets us outside and hopefully we will learn to skate because that is important in Minnesota. 

Happy Thanksgiving!!  The boys have a long list of things they are thankful for and the list includes:  Daddy, Doggies (stuffed animals), Pillow, blanket, Friends, God and Jesus, Calvin, Foods, Toys, Games, Halloween Candy, Mommy, the I-pad, Toys, etc...  We are blessed.