Let's go Red Wings!

Another game for D, we went to the Oilers game a couple weeks back... Wings won.  As usual, Dylan was laser focused for every second of the game -- I hate to say it, but I have almost fully transitioned over as a Red Wings fan:

-  90% Red Wings
-  10% Sabres

What took the longest for the transition was the perception of fan base... there was this lingering thought that the fan base from Buffalo could not be matched.  Having now spent roughly half my life in Detroit, can say that the energy is equal if not more than that of Buffalo... they call this place Hockeytown for a reason.  If you think about it, location wise it's the same -- Canada is right across the street and winter is a part of life (you make the best of it, or find yourself sitting inside watching the snow).

More from Disney

 

Photographer request on this one was to make a spooky face.  Clearly only one person here followed directions...

I've been slacking a bit on the blog, am going to set goal of minimum 6 posts per month going forward -- effective April 2015.  To my defense, our real camera has been out of operation for the past few months -- thus my rotation plan of pics from camera to computer went idle.  So I'll be fully reliant on utilization of camera phone until new camera is purchased -- in interim I need to scheme up an effective pic transition plan from phone to blog, I'm not open to suggestions.

Hollywood Studios

I liked this park the best, easy to navigate, seemed to be the most current with lots of shows to boot.  The weather on this day went from mid 70s, to windy, to rain, to cold.  It was the turning point from warm weather to cold on our trip,  Fortunately the rain was brief and even on the cold days the sun was out in full force.  We ended up spending a little over a half day at Hollywood and then went to Downtown Disney at night for dinner (and to visit the famous Lego store of course).

Disney Trip

We took our first trip to Disney last week, weather was nice -- couple pool days, couple winter jacket days and barely any rain.  The kids had a great time, we pretty much hit up every ride.  One night Madison insisted we go on Space Mountain, at midnight!  It was about 12:30 by the time we got on, she loved it -- from that point on I pretty much carried her from Magic Kingdom all the way to our hotel, we made it back at 1:30am!

Superbowl Sunday - Seahawks TD at Half

We were snowed in for the Superbowl, so we decided to have a family party.  Actually the snow wasn't a factor in that decision, Dylan had been planning a Seahawks party for the past two weeks.  He watched every second of the game and definitely enjoyed the play call at the end of the 2nd quarter, when the Seahawks decided to go for a TD instead of playing it conservatively with an easy FG -- see for yourself, I think he was slightly excited by the outcome of this play.

... I didn't tape the ending, but what I can tell you is, he shared an equal and opposite set of emotions after the ball was intercepted in the end zone to end the game.

Snow Way!

Tons of snow fell last weekend, over a foot!  I believe it ranked 4th in metro Detroit for the most snowfall in 24 hour period.  The result was equal to two snow days, which the kids thoroughly enjoyed.

The Arena

Aerial view (from the cheap seats)

The rink is complete!  I made a family commitment to build a rink in the backyard, and with some help from a seasoned rink builder (from work) was able to open it up for business.  The guy that helped me has been doing this for 10 years, he provided me with a Home Depot Bill of Material (down to the part number) as well as instructions for assembly and maintenance -- I call him my "Rink Mentor".  The rink has been functional since last Tuesday and we've been on it everyday since.

Dylan probably got an additional 5 hours of ice time this week, clearly made a difference during his organized practice/scrimmage.  His team won 5-0, Dylan had all five goals -- and stopped a kid from scoring on his team's net by diving stick-first and stopping a breakaway.  I was slightly embarrassed, the game was 5 on 5 and he put on a Gretzky like clinic -- had the "pass" talk with him afterward, nonetheless, his skills have improved considerably.

Madison has been playing every night as well, much improved.  I noticed that she is much more comfortable on skates and is not as cautious as she had been in the past.  We've probably been outside more this winter than all of last year combined, looking forward to a new tradition.

Frankenmuth

Some pics over from Christmas break.  Took a trip up to Frankenmuth, site seeing, kids rolled pretzels and I enjoyed some local brews as well.  Never been up that way before, nice little town.

Breakfast with Santa

I think this is the 3rd year we've done breakfast with Santa at same restaurant.  We'll see if all gift requests are granted, the kids were pretty quiet for the most part -- they each made a couple of reasonable requests that may show up under the tree.

The boys

Dylan and Steele are a perfect match.  Both are non-stop, bumps/bruises and spend roughly 4 hours a day running around the house in boxer briefs.

The girls

Maddie and Sienna meshed well together, played the whole time -- only a little bit of mischief.  It was tough to separate these two, especially when we had to leave.

Trip to Phoenix

All of the cousins got together for Thanksgiving in Phoenix.  These were taken on the last day, the kids had a great time with each other!