So Thankful

Liam is doing a skating camp with two coaches who train the WILD players.  He is doing it with his buddies, Adam (left) and Aiden (right)

Aiden and his buddy, Callen, after their 3rd place win

Nice work Aiden!

Liam and Luke at Liam's AAA tournament with a 3rd place win!

Happy Birthday party supplies

Luke on the ice

Fun day at the manmade beach with friends

Liam's 3rd place win

All of us!

Way to go Boys!  This is Liam's team with 3rd place.

Liam's 2008 AAA Euro Blue hockey team

BIG NEWS!!!  Aiden learned to ride a bike.  After much apprehension and then no desire to try, he finally did it!

Mom's birthday at the pool!

A few mom friends joined me to celebrate

Our last few weeks have been busy and fun and I am so thankful we have had a great summer.  We have so much to be thankful for in the friends that we have and the opportunities the boys have to do fun things.  They are living the life this summer, that's for sure!

I celebrated yet another birthday last week and enjoyed a full day of no other activities and spent the day with friends at the pool.  Granted, we had 15 kids in tow, but they all played well and we had a great day in the sun.  We managed to have my favorite weather with heat and humidity which doesn't happen often in Minnesota.  I am sure if I still lived in Arkansas, I would not enjoy the heat and humidity nearly so much.

We have had three hockey tournaments since my last post and this has managed to keep me quite busy on the weekends.  Tournament #1 was for Liam's AAA summer hockey team.  Luke was able to sub as a skater (not goalie) for the team and loved getting the opportunity to skate at a high level.  He has lost some speed after being a goalie for a year, but he still managed to score three goals and played awesome defense.  Liam also had some very good games and scored three or more goals over the weekend.  He is still super fast and can beat just about anyone down the ice.  Liam's team came in 3rd place for their tournament and played so well as a team.

Tournaments #2 and #3 were the following weekend after Liam's.  Aiden was asked to sub for a team because a few players were either out of town, sick, or had other commitments.  He played with a couple buddies and also did well.  His team came in third place.  And finally, Luke's team didn't have a stellar weekend in tournament #3.  From the start, the team didn't play their best.  We are chalking it up to 10 year old hockey!  Sometimes they come out and play well and other times they don't, but we learned from the games and hope to do better next time around.

Lastly, Aiden finally learned to ride a bike!!  This has been an ongoing process (and dilemma) for us. Aiden simply didn't have any interest in learning to ride.  We finally convinced him to give it another try and he was riding within 10 minutes and now he loves it.  Next on the list is a new bike for Liam so Aiden can use Liam's bike!

I read this statistic in a hockey magazine and thought it was interesting especially since every weekend in August we have a hockey tournament for at least one of the boys (if not more than one).  I am not suggesting we will have college or even high school hockey players, but hockey is definitely a big sport in Minnesota.

This past year alone, the State of Hockey produced:

• 18,839 8U players (a new state and national record)
• 419 NCAA Division I and Division III men’s players
• 486 NCAA Division I and Division III women’s players
• 57 NHL players
• 9 U.S. Olympians (including 7 gold-medal winners on the women’s team)