Time for a Pause

 

Liam's final game last weekend before his team went into quarantine

Hockey Moms on Liam's team watching the final game for awhile

We hope to be back in a few weeks!

Final Practice for Aiden's Squirt A team

We are decorating for Christmas earlier than we ever have before!

Pumpkin and Apple pies courtesy of Luke for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Dinner

Colorado Monopoly (thanks Jane from a few summers ago)

It has been an interesting couple of weeks for us since my last post.  Starting with the picture of Liam's team in their tournament on November 15th where they finished second place.  It was a great weekend and we are thankful that we ended on such a good note.  I say "ended" because the next day, there were two kids on Liam's team who tested positive for COVID.  And then four more players after that, plus a coach, and 6+ parents.  Liam was among those positive tests for COVID and John and I were two of the parents!  

By Thursday evening, John and I started feeling a little "off" and just overall tired while Liam developed a slight runny nose.  Luke had no symptoms at all, but we opted to get all four of us tested the following day because Luke had one kid on his team who was positive as well.  By Friday, Nov. 20th, the governor of MN had also decided that all youth sports would be put on "pause" while we attempt to lower the COVID numbers in our area which continue to rise.

Fast forward to a couple days before Thanksgiving, we received the results from our COVID tests on Tuesday, Nov 24.  All four of us tested positive which meant that we were all in quarantine for the several days.  We had already been in quarantine since Friday, Nov 20th when we initially had symptoms.  We are thankfully all recovering now.  John prepared the entire Thanksgiving dinner for us.  He went down first with symptoms and felt good enough to cook by Thanksgiving.  Luke never had any symptoms and Liam, thankfully, had only minor symptoms including loss of smell, fatigue, and a runny nose.  Aiden had flu-like symptoms and a headache for 24 hours, but is doing well now.  John had some fever, loss of smell, and flu like symptoms.  My biggest issue is complete loss of taste and smell and I am still hoping to recover soon from that!  It's a very odd feeling to have.  

We will start back to school next week in full distance learning for all four boys without any sports after school.  Needless to say, the sooner the backyard ice rink is ready...the better (for the sake of all of us, that is).

Hockey in Full Swing

 

Liam's hockey team took a day trip to Duluth to play two scrimmages over the weekend

Luke's team finished third in their tournament over Halloween, but I didn't have any pictures to post earlier!

Riding the scooters in Rochester

Luke's hockey team

Enjoying some outside games after school

Liam and his buddy, Luke, getting ready for their game 

No more locker rooms in hockey right now so we dress in the parking lot.  We had a week of gorgeous summer like temps, but this has changed.  Not sure what will happen over the winter as we will no longer be able to dress outside

We had an absolutely gorgeous week of weather last week and spent lots of time outside.  It was a nice break in the very cold temps and record snowfall that we had in October.  We were more than excited to be biking again and playing with friends in the backyard.  Sadly, this week the weather has changed and snow is on the horizon.  Hockey is picking up for us as we are beginning to have games, scrimmages, and lots of practices.  We are thankful we are able to play and hope to do so as long as possible.  There are restrictions on the number of spectators and many other things, but the boys don't seem to mind and it has been a good distraction.  We are back to full distance learning for Luke and Liam and all middle/high school aged kids.  Aiden and Finn are still in hybrid learning and go to school twice per week.  The numbers of COVID cases have risen for us so we have had to make some changes per the Governor's orders.  Stay healthy and safe!

Halloween 2020

Liam's pumpkin

The front door

Carving pumpkins on a distance learning day after we finished our school work

Aiden's pumpkin with a knee hockey stick running through

Carving

"Finn Carrithers" plus hockey sticks pumpkin

Luke's PWAA team in Rochester with their new team apparel

Finn's first day of hockey as a Mite 2 Gopher!

Digging out pumpkins

Luke's team finished third in their tournament

Finn and his amazing costume!

Finn and his buddy, Silas

Luke's PWAA team with their new Team apparel

Finn sorting all his candy

Aiden and his buddy dressed up as cows

Luke's goalie pumpkin

 We had a nice Halloween despite it being quite different than normal.  For the first time in 12 years, we didn't all trick or treat together.  Luke had a hockey tournament in Rochester so he and John spent the weekend there.  Liam had a party with friends and trick or treating and he decided not to dress up this year.  Aiden went to a party across the street with several of his buddies so Finn and I walked around with a few other neighbors.  It was a chilly night with a wind warning so we moved quickly and tried to stay warm.  Finn's costume was a favorite among his friends who tried to figure out where his legs actually were in the costume.  It was a fun night for all of us!

The A Team

Minnesota has had the snowiest October since 1991 with 9 inches already.  

Finn's 1st grade Basketball team (Finn went to preschool and kindergarten with the twins on the left and right front row)

Luke and Liam's igloo

There have been plenty of hockey seasons leading up to this year that we have not had anyone on an "A" team for hockey, but this year seems to be going well in the area of hockey tryouts for us.  Aiden landed on the Squirt A team this season bringing us to a total of three "A" teams for the year with Luke on PeeWee AA and Liam on PeeWee A.  Luke said he would "give" Finn one of his A's so that Finn could say he is on the Mite 2 Gopher "A" team!  It should be a fun hockey season and we are just hopeful we are able to have an entire season.  

Finn is enjoying basketball with John this fall and learning some skills.  He still seems to think he knows everything there is to know about basketball after playing with his less than knowledgeable brothers.  According to John, he even tried to pass the ball without looking at his teammate (like the pros do) and pretty much threw the ball out of bounds.

We are all feeling as if we skipped Halloween and Thanksgiving and went straight to Christmas.  It snowed about 7 inches last week and we promptly broke out the snow pants, winter coats, gloves, hats, and boots.  I don't think any of us are ready for snow, but the boys have enjoyed playing in it.  

 

From Fall to Winter

Bonfire with lots of Luke and Liam's friends

Our first snow happened on Friday morning!  It didn't stick, thankfully, but the weather temps have taken a drastic change

Flashlight Corn Maze

Flashlight Corn Maze.  We have been to an orchard every year that I can remember since the boys were born and we always go with the Bakken's.  This year was different, but we still managed to squeeze in a trip to the corn maze.  Most of the stuff was closed this season, but I think doing the flashlight maze was memorable for the boys.

We tried to get ice cream after the maze, but it was unbearable outside and you can't eat inside at McDonald's so we ate quickly!!

 The weather in Minnesota is changing quickly.  It feels as if we went from sunny and warm fall weather to cold and windy winter weather overnight.  I must say I am not excited about winter this year considering we have been spending so much time outdoors for the last several months and it has made the COVID situation a lot more bearable.  But, the winter months are inevitable and the boys are already asking when we can put up the boards for the rink!?  Hockey tryouts start for Aiden this week so we are well on our way to a busy winter of hockey games, hopefully.  We are just hoping everyone stays healthy and we are able to play without a lot of interruptions.  

Pumpkin Picking

Tossing Pumpkins?

Aiden's perfect pumpkin

Tossing one pumpkin was too easy so let's try two

Liam's pumpkin

And Finn's 

Lots of Pumpkins to pick from

It has been awhile since my last blog as we have been busy getting into the routine of school, hockey tryouts for Luke and Liam, and the start of hockey pre tryout skating for Aiden.  We are still in school in the hybrid model so we attend in person on Monday and Wednesday while we do school from home on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.  The elementary schools our district (Aiden and Finn) are supposed to start going back to school in person everyday beginning on October 19th.  I am not 100% sure this will happen, but that is the plan.  There are no plans as of now for the middle school boys to go back full time.  

Although I think all of us would agree that we would rather do school in person than at home, there are a few benefits.  Luke and Liam don't have to wake up quite as early for school when we are working at home and I think pre teen boys can always use the extra sleep!  We also made the trip above to the pumpkin patch on a whim when everyone was finished with their school work and John was free from meetings.  It would have taken a fair amount of scheduling to find a time when we could all go otherwise. We have had some beautiful fall weather lately as well so the boys have been able to play outside during breaks from school so that has been nice as well.  

Luke and Liam are both finished with hockey tryouts and will begin their second year of PeeWee hockey very soon.  Luke's team is already practicing and Liam's team will begin next week.  Luke made the AA team which is the same team he played on last year.  He is very excited to be the primary goalie this season as a second year.  There is a special tryout just for kids wanting to go the route of the PeeWee AA team.  Liam wanted to give it a try this year because if you can make it past the first two cuts into the "extended tryout" then you automatically make the PeeWee A team (the next team below Luke's).  They generally begin with around 50-60 kids for the PeeWee AA tryout and they cut about half of those kids on the first night.  On the second night, they narrow the numbers down to 20 kids so 15 of those kids will be selected for the AA team and 5 of them will move to the A team.  

Liam's goal this year was to make the A team. He worked very hard all summer and gave up a lot of playing with friends, sleeping in late, going to the pool, etc...to work on his goal.  We were elated and beyond proud of him when he made it into the extended tryout for PeeWee AA.  He got to continue in tryouts with Luke and 19 other kids to compete for a spot on the AA team.  Just making it to that point is a huge accomplishment.  While he did not end up making the PeeWee AA team, he did make the PeeWee A team and is super excited to play this season.  He worked very hard for this and has earned his spot!

CCM World Invite in Denver

1st place champs in Denver at CCM World Invite

Finn started some fall 3v3 hockey.  Thankfully, over the summer, Aunt Jennifer sent money for a new stick for Finn's birthday.  Looks like we need one ASAP because he has grown a lot!

Champions!

Visiting the Red Rocks

Sweet Shut out win in the final game of the tournament

Visiting Red Rocks

Climbing around

Congrats Boys!

 Luke and his summer AAA team had the opportunity to compete in one final tournament.  This one wasn't planned, but the team was contacted and the coaches worked out a trip to Denver.  We played in another CCM tournament in Chicago back in July and sadly missed the semi finals due to the three way tie.  This time, we managed to make it to the semis and win the championship.  To make it to the chip, we actually beat Team Illinois which was the only team that we ever lost to this season (in the Chicago tournament).  In the chip, we played a very talented Chicago team and won 4-0.  

John and Luke had a great time in Denver and enjoyed a bit of scenery in the area as well as hanging out with Luke's team mates and families.  On the final evening in Colorado, they were able to visit with some relatives on John's side of the family who live in Colorado.  It was really fun for both John and Luke to visit with everyone in the Denver area.  

We are in our second week of school and I think we will all be happy to go back to school face to face sometime in the near future, hopefully.  We are making the most of the extra time at home and trying to focus on getting our work completed.  We hope to head back to school at least in the hybrid model (2 days at school, 3 at home) in early October.