Home-a-gain, home-a-gain, jiggity, jig...

Post #478 - 21 days until my blog-o-versary

(yikes, I need to post everyday and double up to keep with my end of the deal)

 - over 100 followers :)

There are 21 days left to end my 3-100-500 give-a-way - if you haven't entered click on this link to be directed to the correct post to leave a comment.

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Up and going on this Monday morning. Plane landed back in California around 10:15pm and we were home by 11:15pm. As always, it is good to be home and back in ones own bed.

It was a great weekend and very busy between the hockey games and visiting with my parents...so that is why I didn't have a chance to post any update throughout the weekend - so here is a brief summary.

Thursday 11/3 (my bday) -

Up early to get in my workout, finish packing, get an early breakfast around for the boys to eat while I shower and get ready to go. Adorned with the traditional birthday hat (see photo below), we snapped a few bday photos of me with my boys and then headed off to the airport.

Just incase the hat doesn't give it away...I am the short one in the middle :)
 Robert is my older son on the left and Matthew, my younger on, is on the right.

I wore the hat to the airport, in the airport and on the airplane (but finally took it off for the 4.75 hour flight). Upon touchdown, after the flight attendant announced all the arrival information she then proceeded to announce that it was my birthday...when Robert kindly informed her of...and all 180+ passengers sang "Happy Birthday" to me...so of course I had to put the bday hat on., which I kept on as we departed the flight in the Midway airport and wore it all the way down to the baggage claim where we met up with my parents and sister.

They were very excited to see me, Matthew and Robert, who made it down to the baggage claim a few minutes later as his whole hockey team was travelling together on our flight. Once luggage was collect, my parents/sister said good bye to Robert, who was staying with his team at another hotel as did I...then we all left for our respective hotels. My parents/sister stayed in the same hotel as Matthew & I while Robert & his hockey team stayed an hour north of us.

Once at our hotel, we all settled in. I enjoyed a nice bday dinner with my parents, sister and Matthew in the hotel. It was the first time in a long time since Dad & I celebrated our birthdays together.

Friday 11/4 - Let the hockey begin

Matthew had 2 games on Friday - 10:30 and 4:30...perfect times. His team lost the first and tied the second. Both were good games...and Matthew played very well. His grandparents and aunt had a good time watching him play. In between games, it was lunch at Noodles & Co - a favorite place with the other hockey moms I travel with (my parents/sister joined all of us) and dinner was at Sweet Tomatoes with just parent/sister and a cousin of mine who lives in Chicago. He took the train in from downtown Chi-town to watch Matthew's evening game and have dinner with us. It was nice to catch up with him.

While watching both of Matthew's games, I was missing 2 of Robert's; however I was getting texted highlights throughout. Robert's team won both of their games on Saturday - Robert scoring in both games. The first game he had the game winning goal and the second game he scored the first to get his team going.

Saturday 11/5

Early morning alarm for this day - a 4:45am breakfast call for Matthew followed by a 5:45 departure for the rink in order to be ready to play the 7am game. The games for this day were in a different rink. That is one thing to be aware of when going to the Bauer International hockey tournament in Chicago, one certainally gets a good opportunity to visit a lot of different hockey rinks. There are over 1000 hockey players from over 400 teams that decend upon the city over the weekend for this tournament.

Matthew's morning game ended up in a loss and put them in 4th in their division, thus making their last game a consolation game with a 1:30pm start time - which they won 8 to 6. Nice to end on a win...and nice that Matthew finally got a goal which was the last one of the tournament for his team and an empty netter :) He worked so hard over the weekend, he was due for a goal.

With Matthew's team done by 3pm on Saturday - done with the whole tournament as well - Matthew and I jumped in the car with my parents/sister and headed an hour north to watch Robert's 5:15pm game. While I would have rather seen Matthew's team do well and advance to the sweet 16 instead of the consolation game, it was nice to be able to take my parents up to watch one of Robert's games. His games are fast, physical...and they are just big boys (15/16 year olds vers 12/13 year olds). 

Robert's team needed a win or a tie to advance to their quarterfinals - which they did advance with a tie. While Robert and his coaches commented that this was not their best game, my parents/sister were very impressed with how Robert and his team played. We waited for Robert to come out of the locker room to tell him "good game" and for my parents to get a photo with him...then it was time to head on back to our hotel.

Sunday 11/6 - time to start packing up

Because we never are sure how these hockey tournament weekends are going to end up, we always plan for the best outcome - making it to the championship. Which means, we find out what time the championship game ends and plan our flight out around that time. In short, we had all day to kill as our plane didn't depart until 7:30pm. But that is ok, we have found ways to "waste" time until we have to be at the airport.

Yes, I know that Chi-town has a lot of great museams and great places to visit...but by Sunday we are typically fried and, if we have no games planned, then the focus becomes homework and completing everything before getting on the plane. So that is what we did Sunday. Matthew slept in, had a late breakfast and finished up his last few assignments so he could turn them in when he got back to school. I got up and hit the workout room while receiving texted from a fellow hockeymom from Robert's team, so I could keep up with the 8am quarterfinal game. Sounded like a good one that went into OT...unfortunately they lost 3-2 with 1:32 left in OT. Bummer, but they had a great tournament.

After saying goodbye to my parents & sister around 12:30pm - they headed to visit a friend before heading to the airport - we left the hotel [too] to have lunch and walk around a few shopping malls before we headed to the airport. We met up with Robert's team in the airport food court a little after 4pm.

Matthew got one more Chicago hot dog and a Ben & Jerry's ice cream for dinner...and, with a Ben & Jerry's "addicted to chocolate" milk shake in hand, Robert spotted us and came over. It was like a little reunion - after not being together for 3 days. Although I think the brothers missed eachother - for they packed up their stuff and headed down to the gate together leaving me behind with some of the other parents and Robert's team. Oh, well, it does a mother's heart proud to see her children get a long (even though in her heart she know that it is temporary, for as soon as they get home that loving, brotherly fighting will start all over again :) ).

...and now back to reality

It was a great weekend. Always nice when you can combine a hockey weekend with a family visit - even if it is short. It was good to catch up with my parents and my sister and they all enjoyed spending time with Matthew and seeing Robert, even brief as it was. They loved watching the boys play hockey, too.

Today it will be back to work and back to school. However, I will need to get the hockey bags and suitcase unpacked and the laundry started before I leave for anywhere.

Gotta go, thank you for all the birthday wishes over the weekend - it means a lot. Until next time, remember...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch Often!

Lisa

Back home

Hello all, we are back home. Pulled into the driveway around 11pm last night...the boys unpacked their hockey bags and put their "stinkies" into the washer before heading off to bed and I got the rest of the luggage unpacked ready for a large laundry day after I get back home from work. We had a wonderful time in St. Louis...

Our flight was suppose to have left California Thursday at 10:55am, however due to some weather around Colorado and Utah our plane didn't arrive into California until after 11 so we didn't take off until 11:45am...which made us all nervous about our connecting flight (they assured us, since there were several others going to St. Louis that they would hold the flight for us when we arrive in Denver...but how many would trust that bit of information?) So, while we waited to board, the boys found the nearest power station to "waste sometime". :)

Matthew (left) and Robert (right) playing some sort of game while waiting for the plane to board. Both boys have on their "travel attire" which includes: dress pants, dress shoes and the Jr. Shark polo shirt.

We did get into Denver 45 minutes later than scheduled - actually we landed when the connecting flight was scheduled to take off - but they did hold the plane for us and any other passenger who was on our flight going to St. Louis. So, once we all found seats (had to sit separately, but just grateful that they held the flight), we wiped our brow and settled in the for 60 minute flight into St. Louis. Once we landed, we headed over to the baggage claim to collect all of our things and then waiting for Robert's (older son) hockey team to arrive. I needed to accomplish my Team Manager requirements (make sure that all the players were accounted for - several were flying on different plans - and make sure that the chaperones received the team vans we had made reservations for) before handing Robert over to the coach and then heading out with Matthew and DH. By the time we got the team vans, all of the players had made it to the car rental place and were ready to load up and find food. DH and Matthew, who had gotten our car, were impatientally waiting for me to finish up so that we could head out, get Matthew some food, and meet up with his team.

Yes...both our boys were playing in the same tournament and we all were actually staying in the same hotel. So, even though Robert travelled on the plane with us, we handed him over to the team as soon as we got things organized so that he would be able to get the "team experience" as much as possible with us staying at the same place. Definitely a nice was to "cut the umbilical cord" slowly :)

Friday - both boys had 2 games each: both around 9:30am & 9:45am and then again in the afternoon at 3pm & 3:30pm...and both at the same arena (definitely the perfect situation!).  Both boys lost their first games - Matthew's team only lost 0-4, which we were very happy with...not the loss, obviously - but the way they had played; for they worked as a team. Robert's team's loss, we weren't so happy with because they have enough talent on the team to have won the game, but they just didn't play well. After the morning games were over - DH, Matthew and I headed back to the hotel so that he could eat and rest up before the afternoon game.

At the 3-3:30pm games, the boys had a cheering section. As mentioned in several posts last week I was expecting my mother's side of the family and my grandmother to be in St. Louis during the same weekend and attend the Friday afternoon games. Well they did and it was fun!

In the stands at Matthew's game (front to back): me, my mother, my grandmother who was reaching back and can't be seen very well, my uncle (my mother's brother), my other uncle (my mother's other brother) and DH.

In the stands of Matthew's game (front to back): my father, me, my mother, my grandmother (fyi...she is 92), my uncle and my DH. Other uncle was taking the picture.

Matthew's game started at 3pm, so we started out watching his game until Robert started (around 3:30pm).  This was one very exciting game! Matthew's team is the one I have been writing about, regarding the disgruntled parents due to the team's continue losses and its schedule to travel once a month all over the US. This is the team which wasn't "expected" to win many games throughout the year, but they were "expected" to develop throughout the year. Well, if my foreshadowing isn't working, then I will come out and tell you that Matthew's team won their first game on Friday afternoon with a score of 5-4...and Matthew scored the 2nd goal of the game. And it was witness by his 92 year old great-grandmother and all his family who sat in the stands during that game. It was wonderful to watch that time to come together and really, really play hockey!

Once Matthew's game was over, we all moved over to the other rink to watch the last half of Robert's game. They were winning their game too, but it was one of those blow out games where you win "a lot" to zero...and no one on your team is playing good hockey for they are all focused on scoring and increasing the amount of points they have. So, while we were somewhat happy they won, too, we knew in our hearts that it just wasn't a good game. But, with my family there - they were excited to watch Robert and his team play and were excited to be present for their win, too.

While we were waiting for Robert to come out of the locker room, we had some photo oportunities:

Matthew with his great-grandmother (on the left) and his grandmother (on the right)

Matthew posing with his great-uncles, his great-grandmother and his grandma

And when Robert finally came out of the locker room all dressed, we had more opportunities for family photos:

4 generations

We were able to get a photo of 4 generations (front to back): Robert, great-grandma (my grandmother), grandma (my mother), Matthew and me. How cool is that? To get a 4 generation photo taken at a hockey tournament !!!

We left the rink with both boys and headed out to dinner and a little "family reunion" so that the boys would have an opportunity to visit with all the greats and grands. After dinner we got in one more family photo of all of us at Joe's Crab Shack:

Family Reunion

It was so wonderful to see my parents and uncles...but amazing to see my grandmother!

Saturday and Sunday were filled with more hockey games for both boys. Matthew team continued to win - YAHOO! Their Saturday morning game they won 2-1 which qualified them for the 3rd place consolation game...how exciting is that? Well, not as exciting as the consolation game because they won that game 6-3 and Matthew scored a hat trick (3 goals in one game). The boys played so well the whole weekend winning 3 of their 4 games. It wasn't so much that they won their games - it was that they passed well, they skated hard and consistantly worked in every game...they did so well in fact, they got the thumbs up from their coach :)

Good Job Boys! Coach Derek Eisler giving Matthew and his line mates the "thumbs up".

Robert's team didn't do well...they lost their Saturday evening game to another team that they should have beat, which placed them also into 3rd place. Their 3rd place consolation game was Sunday @ 11am...which they won easily in another lopsided blow out. As excited we were for Matthew's team...we were definitely bummed for Robert's team. Hockey tournaments can definitely be compared to riding roller coasters :)

Well, back home now and back to reality and routine. Up and going this morning so that I can get the boys around for school and me off to work...and the hockey gear washed for practices tonight. I was able to get some stitching in over the weekend - I have been stitching the house some more, almost done with it. I will do a status post on that later in the week. In the meantime, it is time to catch up on some blog reading and facebook reading and emailing.

Take a deep breathe and remeber to:

Live, Love, Laugh

and Cross some X's.

Lisa