Well, the underdogs strike again!

Somehow this team manages to squiggle their way in to semi's and finals through the back door. Thanks to a better goals for/against average, we managed to place 2nd in our pool and will be playing in the semi finals in the morning at 9am. If they win that, they'll go directly to the finals at 3pm. If they lose, they play for 3rd & 4th at 3pm as well... which means the earliest ferry we're going to catch is the 7pm, and man, it's going to be a long, long drive home!

I'll try and post again tomorrow but probably not until we're home in PG sometime on Monday...

Wish us more luck! TTFN!

Hey from Victoria...

Well, as the team sits at the Matt Underwood Tournament, the boys are down two games, to Nanaimo and Victoria, and beat Cowichan this afternoon. We won't know until after the North Shore game where we've placed. We'd either be 2nd or 3rd in our pool, and that will determine where we play.

Uncle David will be bringing the kidlets down here tomorrow... and then we'll catch the ferry and head up to Nana's then home the rest of the way on Monday.

TTFN!

One more "spring cleaning" chore completed!

Got the outside windows all washed and sparkling today! There is nothing better than looking out sparkling clean windows!!! I also got all the upstairs windows inside washed and the window ledges and sills mildew free. I hate that black gunk that accumulates over the winter with all the condensation in the house. Now we'll see how long it takes for the poor birdies to get confused and smash into them... I hate when that happens! Poor babies! But then I hate the feather mess that's left on the windows too!

I caught our resident squirrel in my May Day tree today and took some great shots of the little gaffer. Dylan had some peanuts left from his trip, and the squirrel gladly came down the tree to retrieve them. I think with a little more time and patience, the squirrel would have taken them right from his hand! Oh well.. enjoy the pictures!








Doesn't he look like he's smiling and saying "Thanks for the treat?" Too much fun!

Hope he made you smile! :o) TTFN!

The boys are bringing home a silver medal!

They lost in a nail biter to Nanamio, 11-9 this afternoon. Sounds like no one was expecting our team to be as strong as they are. It's going to be a long drive home and an even longer night waiting for him to get home!

Blaine and I got the garage dunged out, washed the deck and cleaned it off. There was pollen everywhere, on everthing! The water was yellow that was coming off the deck furniture. I am so thankful that no one at my house has allergies to pollen! I couldn't imagine how awful people feel... After all that cleaning, I hosed down the driveway and sidewalk to the front door. Now I really feel like I got my spring cleaning done!

Tomorrow I hope to get the outside windows washed...I know, I said that was today's job, but we just kinda got started in the garage, and decided to finish it up. I should have a nice peaceful day tomorrow while the kids are at school and Blaine is at work... And the weather is supposed to be nicer too... it was chilly this morning, but warmed up pretty good this afternoon. Now the wind is starting a bit, and it's cooling things off.

Anyhow, hope you had a productive weekend! :o) TTFN!

The boys are doing great!

They won and tied their games today, which puts them first in their pool. If they win tomorrow's early game, they'll go on to play in the final at 4:45pm. Which means it's going to be an awfully late night getting home... keep your fingers crossed that they bring home the gold!

The PG Posse are off to a good start in Chilliwack...

YEAH! Dylan and the lacrosse team won their first game against Juan de Fuca today, 10-7. He said all went well and they are pretty confident in themselves. They play Chilliwack in the morning, and one of the three Kamloops teams in the late afternoon. As much as I am enjoying staying home, I always feel like I'm missing out when I don't travel with him and the team...

Got lots done today. I planted all the outside planters, got the corn and broccoli and the herbs into the vegetable garden, and have some flowers left over, so I'm going to pull out a couple more planters and go to it again tomorrow... my back is killing me after all that bending over... as much as I love to garden, the next day is a b*tch because I can barely walk! LOL!

I bought a new weedie wacker today too... an early Father's Day present for Blaine since he kept "forgetting" to buy one! Nice me hey? Donovan used it though and the yard looks awesome. Just wish the dandelion killer would actually kill all the damned things instead of just wilting them a bit then they spring back.

It's supposed to be cooler tomorrow, but I sure wasn't complaining with the +25 we had today... lovely weather! But I do need to wash the outside windows, so cloudy and cooler will be good for that... The girls are sleeping out in the tent trailer tonight with the dog, so I hope they're warm enough.

We have TONS and TONS of birds visiting the feeders and nesting boxes. We have a pair of pileated woodpeckers that live in the forest behind us that come out every once in awhile to check out the feeders. They're so big and beautiful! Here are a couple of pictures I took of them last year...




As for other birds at our feeders, we have: house sparrows, evening grosbeaks, pine siskins, purple finches, common redpoles, red winged blackbirds, junco's, chickadees, robins, stellar jays, red-breasted nuthatches, northern flickers, downey woodpeckers, swallows, and three kinds of hummingbirds to name some of them. We love watching to see who's doing what and when.

Hope you're all having a great start to your weekend! TTFN! :o)

Much better day today!

We got a ton of stuff done around the acreage today... raked a ton of leaves, burnt them with all the branches and twigs that had accumulated over the winter, picked up the bits and pieces lying around the yard, tidied up the toys and sports equipment, did the mowing around the trees and shrubs, and Blaine got the stereo into Donovan's car... all in all, I'd say we had a fantastic day! :o) Papa's tired, he's in bed already! LOL!

Dylan got in an hour and a half at the outdoor box with the penalty kill boys from his lacrosse team. While he did that, Pa and I hit Costco and Superstore and then watched the boys for a bit before coming home for a BBQ.

Dakota had her friend Lindsay over for a sleepover last night, and considering it was her first sleepover, she did awesome. She fell asleep while Dakota was reading her a story... too cute! She's only 7 to Dakota's 9, but they're such good buddies!

We're hoping that the weather holds out for one more day, so we can get a bit more outside stuff done. I really want to put my annuals into my containers, but I think I'll hold off for one more weekend, in case it frosts.

Hope you're all having a fantastic long weekend! Cheers!

Rain, rain go away!!!

I guess we shouldn't expect more for the May long weekend, but they weren't predicting a torrential downpour either! In between thunderstorms today, the girls and I got the vegetable garden seeds sown, and we made a quick trip to the greenhouse in between down pours. I bought some new potting soil to top up all my outside planters. Blaine went to the composting station this morning and brought home a few bags of compost to add to the garden before we seeded. I have some pre-potted herbs and vegetables to go into the garden, but they need to acclimatize a bit first. We got broccoli and corn to go in, and for herb pots we got parsley, sweet basil, chives, sage and cilantro... mmmm, mmmm!

We bought a couple of dandelion bars to run over the lovely patches of yellow flowers that are taking over the lawn... the joys of acreage living! No golf course greens around here... UGH! Too bad there just wasn't enough time to get out there between showers. The worst is keeping the dog off the front lawn for a day or two.

My dad is coming up tomorrow, and we're hoping the weather is better, because he's going to bring his chainsaw so we can do a bit of clearing in the back '40 and clean up the yard a bit... How come the weather never cooperates???

I worked a bit on some thank you cards for the people who contributed to Dylan's fundraising campaign to get him to Prince Albert for the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships. Here's what they look like so far... what do you think?

Well here's to hoping tomorrow has a bit more sunshine so we can get something finally done out there! :o)

Well, what an exciting day at our house! Dylan received an invitational letter for him to attend the current WHL Champions, Medicine Hat Tigers, rookie camp in August!!! He grinned from ear to ear when I tracked him down at school today at lunch to give him the awesome news!

Since the Bantam Draft didn't quite go how we were hoping, this is an awesome consolation... he gets to attend "unrestricted" and probably has a better chance at going somewhere than the kids who were drafted so late in the rounds.

So now we have a new team to cheer for in the 2007 Memorial Cup... GO TIGERS GO!

Sun shiny day...

Well, we made it home before Survivor started yesterday. The boys were 8th going into the final game, and managed to cream Kelowna 14-3, to end up placing 7th overall out of twelve. So not too bad for their first tournament of the year!

The kids are at school, Blaine is at work, and I am in jammies puttering around the house. I plan on trying to get some stuff done in my garden today. And maybe going for a bike ride, but a walk at least down to get the mail.

Happy be-lated Mother's Day to all you out there!

A tie and a win in today's games!

Well, the boys are improving as we move through the tournament. Willy got 1 goal and one assist in this mornings game and was named Team MVP for that game. This afternoon, we beat Mission 12-6 and Willy scored 1 goal and got two assists. Not too bad of a day.

Gretchen and I went scrapbooking shopping at the local store, but it's not the best store and we had better luck at Michaels finding cool product than at the LSS...

We have NO IDEA where we've placed in the 12 team tournament, and only the top four teams advance to the semi's, so hopefully we're in the mix! We'll see... I'll update tomorrow!

TTFN!

Hello from Kamloops!

Well, we won our game in Quesnel last night, 12-2. Willy got three goals and two assists. He played well and so did the team.

Too bad that didn't continue over to our first tournament game in 'Loops. We lost 11-4 against the Edmonton team. The boys had a hard time figuring out their line positions and who their line mates were as we're carrying extra players right now and have more than four lines. It's going to be a bit of adjusting to new players and who plays well with whom, but there is always tomorrow...

I'll try and post an update tomorrow night so that you know how the games went!

TTFN!
Melissa

And we're off again!

This time for lacrosse... Dylan has a game tonight in Quesnel, then we head down to spend the night at my moms. Tomorrow morning, we're off to Kamloops for our first rep lacrosse tourney of the season.

I'll post when we're home! :o)

Have a good weekend everyone!

Momma bear and her three cubs...

See what we saw on our way home today... Momma bear and three cubs were about 45 minutes north of McBride. They were so active and funny! We were in stitches in the van. Of course, I didn't get out of the van to take any pictures, just rolled down the window and shot out there. Momma was very calm considering we were feet away, and in no way did she act like she was threatened or concerned about me talking to her or taking pictures of her family. It was an honour to have been able to see her this close up with her new babies!


Ahh... nothing like a good back scratch!

Not quite sure why Momma has a bald face... we're waiting to hear what Uncle David has to say.


Baby Bear Attack! So sweet!



This baby wanted nothing to do with the tussling going on with his/her siblings!


Hope you enjoyed the pictures as much as we enjoyed watching them!

And the boys finish 7th...

Sorry guys... I had no internet for the last few days, so this update is a bit late, but better late than never!

The boys finished the tournament 7th, in a knuckle biter with Team North West Territories. The score at the end of the third was tied, 4-4. So off to a shoot out we went... Dylan was the first shooter for Team BC... and HE SCORED! Woohoo! The crowd goes wild... wahhhh! LOL! Sorry, got away from myself there for a minute. In the end, we won the shoot out and Team BC goes on to finally win a game at Nationals.

Here are a few pictures for those of you who haven't seen them yet...







It was such a great experience for him and a fantastic way to finish up his Bantam years of hockey. Thanks to all who contributed to his En Route fundraising campaign and just plain support and encouragement... it means so much to us all!

First goal at Nationals and Game Star too!

Well, Willy had quite the game this afternoon... he got a break away, unassisted, short handed goal in the second period to lead his team to a three - one score at the end of the second period. Too bad Team BC quit playing after 40 minutes and Team Ontario South ended up winning the game 7-4... BUT... Dylan played a very offensive, physical game through out the whole 60 minutes and his hard work was rewarded by getting the Game Star for Team BC... what a highlight for him! AND I was approached by a scout for the Manitoba Jr hockey league about Willy and where "he came from". Dylan was positively ~BEAMING~ at that news... The boys play again tomorrow at 4:30 and then their last game will be on Thursday, depending on the game results tomorrow. But we'll be playing Team Saskatchewan so I doubt we'll come through that unscathed... but miracles have happened! LOL!

I'll post again tomorrow... Go Canucks Go! :o)

Game 2 - same results...

Well, another bad game, this time against Team Eastern Door & the North, a combined team from Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. We lost 10-2... Dylan again saw lots of ice time, both on the power play and the penalty kill. He even spent two minutes in the penalty box for a hook that prevented a goal against us... so he took one for the good of the team. Tomorrow we play Team Ontario South and by their scores against the two teams we lost to, it should be the best game for us. They also lost to the same two teams, but almost the exact same scores. So here to hoping for a better game then! If the boys don't win their game tomorrow, we'll probably be on our way home after their game on Thursday. This way we can spend the day and night in Edmonton at the Mall so the kids have a bit of a holiday on the way. Then home we go on Saturday, so we have a day of rest before heading back to school and work.

The weather here has been quite warm, and is supposed to get warmer as the week progresses.

I'll update again tomorrow night... Till then!

Game 1 - NAHC 2007

Well, game one didn't go quite the way were we hoping... we got creamed by Team Alberta 8-1... OUCH!!! Our D-guys were pretty scrambly and the forwards were being held back offensively quite well by the Alberta boys' forecheck. We only had one ice time last night together, so I guess it is to be expected. Here's to hoping we do better tomorrow! ;o)

Here are a couple of pictures from Dylan's debut at the National level... He's #3, in Vancouver away colours...ENJOY!





We had quite the cheering section for Dylan as well... Our whole family, plus Grandma & Grandpa Willick, Great Grandpa Moston, Great Uncle George & Auntie Emma, Great Uncle Louis and Auntie Joyce, Great Auntie Bonnie & Uncle Armand, Second cousins Dale & his wife Nancy, Trevor & his wife and their kids as well. So lots of extras here to cheer on Team BC and Willy.

The opening ceremonies were quite impressive as well... native dancers, drums, cheifs, MP's, Gov't officials from ALL levels, and of course, all 17 hockey teams, 8 boys, and 9 girl teams from all over Canada... very cool to see!

I'll update some more tomorrow after the game. Hopefully I'll have better news! NIGHT from Saskatchewan...

Are we there yet???

Yes, finally! Oh my... I forgot what a long, BORING ride it is to Saskatchewan. I don't expect to be here again for a long, long time!

I started to not feel good on Friday morning, and by the time we arrived at Twila's in Edmonton on Friday night, I was done for. Stuffed up head, congested chest, nasty cough... and two days later, I'm still not the greatest. Now Donovan has it and has slept most of the day. Hopefully everyone else will not get it, sickies in a hotel room for a week is not my idea of fun!

We've seen Dylan for a second here and there. He seems to have made some new friends, and is quite involved in what his team is doing. The boys got very nice team track suits and gear bags. They look very sharp all standing together.

The boys play their first game in two hours. I'll post an update then. We play Team Alberta first. I guess Wacey Rabbit's brother is on Team Alberta. AND if you happened to catch Global BC news yesterday, you would have seen Dylan and Team BC at the Vancouver Airport with Wacey Rabbit sending them off... pretty cool stuff! :o)

Till later...

Finally!!! Cougars won!!! Game 4 in OT...

Not that I have much of a voice left, but the Cougars won 3-2 in OT tonight... The boys pushed through and made it happen. Devin Setoguchi got the winning goal...

Crazy days here for the next few! Will post as I have time...

TTFN!