Our Trip to Duluth

The ice along the shores of Lake Superior in Duluth

The town of Duluth is very cute.  We stayed int he downtown area so had several fun amenities within walking distance.

Getting ready to do the saran wrap ball

Unwrapping the ball.  There are various prizes inside the ball of saran wrap and the boys took turns unwrapping it until their turn was up.

Squirt B1 Gold in Duluth

Squirt B1 Gold

University of MN Duluth playing St Cloud at the Amsoil Arena in Duluth

Enjoying the college hockey game with the team!

B1 Gold getting ready to play

Announcing the names of players

We had a very busy weekend packed full of hockey and too many other activities to count with Luke and Liam Squirt hockey team.  The team had a wonderful time and the parents enjoyed the time as well.  We have a great team of parents and kids and have been fortunate that everyone meshes well together.  The siblings hung out all weekend together as well so there was never a dull moment.  The boys spent their free time swimming in the hotel pool, playing knee hockey, video games, and other team building games.

We won our first three games and our team advanced to the championship game, but unfortunately we lost and came in second place.  The first place team was from Thunder Bay in Ontario, Canada and definitely knew a thing or two about hockey.  Our team didn't play well in the final game as the boys looked tired and much slower than normal.  Too many fun events prior to the game, I guess!  Nonetheless, they played hard all weekend and learned a lot.

Go Squirt B1 GOLD!!!

Squirtacular Tournament

Taking some pictures at the tournament

Liam is #17

Trading pins with some of the other teams at the tournament.  This was new to the boys, but they loved it.  The boy on the left came to this tournament from Arizona.  Liam is on right in red hat.

That's Luke on the bottom right trading pins in between games

Luke in net at one of our 7:00 AM games!

Finn got in one some pin trading action 

Luke doing some dry land training

Finn and our neighbor Kathleen on a warmer than average day right before we got nearly a foot of snow!!

Luke and Liam were in a hockey tournament with their Squirt B1 Gold team over the weekend.  It was a big tournament with around 60 high level squirt A and B teams.  There were teams from Arizona, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Chicago along with some local metro areas.  Squirt hockey teams are made up of kids between the ages of 9 and 11, mostly 4th and 5th graders.  This Squirtacular tournament is known to be a very competitive tournament and it definitely did not disappoint.

Luke and Liam's team managed to win their pool of games with 4 teams and into the quarterfinals which says a lot.  Out of around 32 B1 teams, they managed to make it as one of the final eight teams and then finished about 5th of the 8 teams.  Not bad...In our quarterfinal game that we lost, we played one of the teams that ended up in the championship so it was a tough game where we sadly lost by one goal at the very end.  Overall, the boys worked hard and we have some things to work on and improve upon, but it was a fun weekend.

On to our final tournament of the year in Duluth, MN.  Go Gold!!

Double Digits

Luke and Liam turned 10 on January 11th.  Double Digits!

Just a few minutes after they were born 10 years ago

The first time I held them both after they were born

Popsicles at the beach

Finn and his buddy, Landon, playing while we were having the big birthday party

Finn went to open gym with his buddy, Landon

We skated on the outdoor rink at the birthday party

S'mores!

Hockey games with friends

Sledding

Hot Chocolate with lots of whip cream, marshmallows, and peppermints

Happy 10th Birthday Luke!  The jerseys were designed to look like their actual hockey jerseys this year

Liam's cake with his hockey number 

Aiden's cake on his North Stars jersey

Knee hockey

Watching knee hockey with buddies

Group Birthday picture!!!  

So silly...

Singing to the boys

TEN.  DOUBLE DIGITS.  Its hard to believe, but Luke and Liam turned 10 last week!  Since they had to go to school and hockey practice on their birthday, we celebrated over several days.  We had a quick dinner on their birthday at a local taco place we all love before we headed over to hockey practice.  Over the weekend, we went to a new restaurant near the Lakes that was really fun and and had great food with about 50 different types of milkshakes and malts to pick from so the boys were sold.

On Martin Luther King holiday, we had a winter birthday party to celebrate Aiden's birthday on Jan. 2 and Luke and Liam's birthday on January 11th.  After much discussion, we opted to do a party very similar to last year.  We went sledding, ice skating, and roasted marshmallows and warmed up with hot chocolate  Despite the brutally cold temperatures, the boys seemed to have a blast.  None of them complained about the cold weather even though John and I slept in sweatpants after the party since we were still trying to warm up.  I am not kidding....It was so cold, in fact, that the marshmallows were starting to freeze before we could get them on the sticks to roast!   Yikes.

Thankfully, a good friend of mine offered to watch Finn so he had a super fun day on his own doing gymnastics and playing at a friend's house.  He really didn't miss anything and the cold weather would have been rough for him since he takes his gloves and hat off every couple of minutes.

It was a great week celebrating Luke, Liam, and cousin Calvin's birthdays and their big milestone of 10 years!  Now....no birthdays for us until July.

Christmas 2017

Our annual Skate with Santa with the hockey association

Aiden turned EIGHT years old on January 2

Luke and Liam played in a kids vs dads hockey game with their team.  The boys claim they won and I think the dad were just happy that they walked away with no major injuries.  

Sweet gifts from a neighbor friend

Finn got a WILD hat and a WILD jersey/sweatshirt that he loves

Kids vs. Parents game

We had a wonderful Christmas.  So wonderful, in fact, that I haven't posted in a few weeks and I need to sort through our pictures in order to have a decent post.  Nonetheless, it was a fun time with family and friends.  The average temperature in Minnesota over Christmas break was well below zero.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and we wish you a very happy 2018!