As per usual with our family, things have been very busy for us lately, and I mean that in a good way. Since returning from my trip to Japan, we’ve been to a wedding, had multiple visits from family, had a very fun Halloween, and taken a trip to Canada for another hockey tournament! I’ll go in chronological order, starting the very next weekend after returning from Japan.
Not only was it an honor for me to stand up as a groomsman in Kristy and Beto’s wedding, but it was a pleasure for our whole family to attend. The wedding was held at a farm in Buckley, practically in the shadow of Mt. Rainier. We got lucky with beautiful weather, and enjoyed a full day of dancing, eating, and in the kids case, lots of running around playing with friends.
It was a pretty large event, with at least 100 guests, many of whom we had never met before. Since we had already done the wedding party weekend in Lake Chelan at the end of summer, it was great to see everyone from that group again and get caught up. This was my first time standing up as a groomsman in any wedding and I enjoyed it. I really liked the whole group of guys and would definitely call all of them friends at this point. Hopefully we can all get together again sometime soon.
The ceremony itself was beautiful and very memorable. Ava had been saying for months that she was going to cover her eyes when the bride and groom kissed, so I made a point of looking at her right at that moment to see if she followed through. As it turned out, the emotion of the moment had gotten to her and she was weeping just about as much as anyone, and she did not cover her eyes for the kiss, which I was glad to see. It was great seeing our kids all dressed up, enjoying the moment, and making friends.
After the ceremony most of our afternoon and evening was spent on the dance floor. They had a great DJ who was really funny and playing all kinds of good music. Unlike our kids, I’m not normally that into dancing, but that always changes at a wedding. I’m more than happy to make a bit of a fool of myself on the dance floor, and it was fun watching the kids cutting it up all night long. They also had a fun photo station with all kinds of props to hold, so we took advantage of that and got some pretty hilarious shots.
Overall it was such a fun and memorable day. We’re very thankful to Kristy and Beto not only for inviting us, but for making us a part of the event. We couldn’t be happier for them, and are very much looking forward to hearing about their upcoming honeymoon in France and Italy! They leave at the end of this month and will be back in early December.
At the end of October we were paid a visit by my Mom for Halloween, which is also her birthday. We were all very happy to see her, and the kids were especially excited to see what her costume was. She gave them a hint, which was that it had a tail, and Enzo couldn’t get off a water theme with his guesses the whole time. Shark, mermaid, and whale were some of my favorite guesses of his, but it turned out to be a cat. Not just any cat either – she had the most realistic cat mask I’ve ever seen! It was almost a bit creepy because it had the most unrelenting stare ever. I found myself having to look away after a bit because I felt like it was peering into my soul.
In addition to Nana’s cat costume, we dressed up as the following: Enzo was Darth Vader (or Dark Vader as he says it) on Halloween night, and Captain America for his school party earlier that day, Elise was Belle from Toy Story, Ava was a mermaid, Jessica was Princess Leia from Star Wars, and I was Blippy, a popular kids character on YouTube.
Instead of trick-or-treating in our own neighborhood, we decided to switch it up this year by heading over to the Silver Firs neighborhood by the kids school. It wasn’t that different from our own neighborhood, but was still a nice change of pace. I was particularly surprised by how many kids were mesmerized by my Blippy costume. One parent even went so far as to ask me if I would pose for a picture with their son, which of course I was happy to do.
It may have been a bit chilly, but it was our first dry Halloween in a few years, so we were all happy with that. Overall we didn’t get a drop of rain for nearly two weeks straight, including all of Mom’s visit, so that was really nice. Several houses were decorated quite nicely, but there was one in particular that went above and beyond. They had a full graveyard in their front yard, a pumpkin at the very top of the streetlight out front, creepy videos playing in windows, lights in storm drains, and even a weiner dog dressed up as a dinosaur to greet everyone. Kudos to that family for doing such a great job!
In addition to going out Halloween night, Jessica took the kids to a costume party at their school the previous weekend. There was a cupcake contest going on, and since Elise has been saying lately that when she grows up she wants her own pastry shop, we thought it would be fun for her to make her own cupcakes and enter them in the contest. She worked really hard decorating them, and as it turned out, she ended up winning the contest! We were so proud of her, and of course she was ecstatic. I love the idea of her getting into baking so we’re definitely encouraging her to keep it up, and getting this kind of positive affirmation can only help with that.
We kept Nana busy with various activities the whole time she was here. She carved pumpkins with the kids, read lots of books with them, attended Enzo’s class party, went to the ice rink with us 3 days in a row to watch Ava’s practices and games, and got to spend an evening with Kristy, Beto, and Madi, who came over one night for dinner.
Another really special visit took place on her last day in town when we got to visit my Aunt Norma and cousin Ken, whom we hadn’t seen in far too long. Norma is my Dad’s sister, and she has always been so good to me. I have the fondest memories of her throughout my childhood, and lately I’ve been in regular communication with her son Ken, so it was really special to be able to set this up with them while my Mom was in town. Unfortunately Jessica, Elise, and Enzo weren’t able to join us because they already had tickets for Disney On Ice that day, but Ava came along with Mom and I, then we went straight to hockey practice after. I was really proud of Ava because I had given her the option to either go with Mom and her siblings to the Disney show, or come with Nana and I to visit Aunt Norma, then go to hockey. Without hesitation she said “Anytime I can be with Daddy and Nana, then play hockey, I’m in!”
As expected the visit was very special, and they were so impressed with Ava. She conducted herself so well and made me very proud. Since Jessica, Elise, and Enzo couldn’t make it, I promised Aunt Norma that all 5 of us would be out again very soon for a holiday visit. It’s important to me that she gets time with all of our kids, and I know they will love it just as much as she does.
After hockey practice that day we took Nana to the airport and had to say goodbye. It was a really great visit with her, but they always go by too fast. We really appreciate her coming up and look forward to another one sometime soon.
A couple weeks after Nana’s visit we were paid a visit by Grandma Amy and Grandpa Tom, who ended up joining us in Canada for our first travel tournament of the season. There are a total of 4 tournaments this season, and we’re planning on going to 3 of them. For comparison’s sake, we only made it to one last season, but it was so much fun that we really wanted to ramp it up this year.
We were in Burnaby, which is directly connected to the eastern part of Vancouver. You don’t even realize you’ve left Vancouver because it’s such an urban area. It’s in an area called Metrotown, which has a big shopping mall and more Asian restaurants than I’ve ever seen anywhere, other than Asia itself. We drove up Friday evening, checked into our hotel, and ended up at this awesome Chinese restaurant for dinner. It wasn’t your typical American Chinese restaurant, but instead was so much more authentic. Some of my favorite dishes included the pan fried pork dumplings, and salt & pepper fried shrimp, which I followed customs on by eating the whole thing, head first.
Our first game was at 7:00am Saturday, and players had to be there 45 minutes before gametime, so it was an early start. We were caught off guard by the way this referee was doing line changes, so the other team got the first goal while we were switching players and had basically no one on the ice. Even though we took 3 times as many shots as them, they had the best young goalie I’ve ever seen, and we ended up losing the game 2-1. It’s okay though because the loss lit a fire under our girls and they played amazing in the other two games, crushing our next two opponents by about 10 goals in each game.
After the early game on Saturday we had the whole rest of the day to ourselves, and it was raining, so we decided to go to Science World in Vancouver. This was the best science center I have ever seen, with so many activities to enjoy and shows to watch. We ended up spending about 3.5 hours there and everyone really enjoyed it. The rest of that day was spent relaxing at the hotel, and going swimming, although we were caught off guard when we found out our hotel pool was outside! It was heated, so the kids were fine with it, but the adults all had to sit there wrapped up in towels trying not to freeze. It was pretty funny and memorable, but there was no way any of us were getting in that water. That night Tom, Jessica, and I had a really authentic Japanese meal at a Ramen restaurant while Grandma stayed at the hotel with the kids. I had been craving Ramen since leaving Japan and this place really hit the spot.
Our game on Sunday morning wasn’t quite so early, so we all got to have breakfast together at the hotel before heading to the rink. Five seconds into the game Ava got the puck on her stick, passed it to her teammate, who was right in front of the goal, and scored. That was her first of two assists that game, and she ended up playing great. That night at the team dinner everyone kept talking about how well she was passing, and how tough and physical she was. She’s the second biggest player on the team, and spends most of her time these days playing defense, which is a natural fit for her. We’re not really supposed to be checking at this age level, but Ava plays a physical game that way, and gets so much praise for it. She made a couple physical, but totally clean plays, during this tournament that left her opponents in tears, but you never get complaints from any of the Canadian coaches or families because that’s the way they prefer to play as well. We ended up winning that game 12-1.
Later that afternoon we met up several of her teammates and their families at another hotel and went swimming. This time it was an indoor pool, so that worked out nicely, then that evening we went to the team dinner at Boston Pizza. It’s always chaotic when you get that many kids together at a restaurant, but it was a good bonding experience for everyone, parents included.
Since it was Veteran’s Day yesterday, we had one more game to play, and again Ava did great. She stuck back on defense the whole time and did really well stopping shots before they even got to the goalie. She was cutting off opponents and forcing them outside to the boards, and played a very tough and physical game. We were up by 12 or 13 goals at one point, then started to lay off a bit, which allowed the other team to come back a bit later on. We ended up winning by 9 or 10, which doesn’t matter because you don’t keep score at this level, but still feels good, especially to be dominating Canadian teams like that.
Not only did our girls do well, but so did all of the teams representing Washington Wild, and our 14U team actually won the whole tournament for that age bracket! After the final game we said our goodbyes to the rest of the team and got on the road. Luckily crossing the border wasn’t too bad and we made good time getting home. We got to spend one more night at home with Grandma and Grandpa, and enjoyed watching the Seahawks pull off a nail-biter over the undefeated 49ers on Monday Night Football.
Today Grandma and Grandpa head home, and the rest of us are back to our normal schedules. As usual, it was a really fun getaway weekend, and we look forward to the next one. All 5 of us always love going to Canada, and staying in hotels is always a special treat for the kids. Next up we’ve got a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Rudd coming for Thanksgiving, so that should be fun. I love Thanksgiving, and just hope there are no food debacles this year. I’m leaving the turkey to Grandpa Rick and will focus on the sides, which are always my favorite part anyway. Enjoy the recent photos, as well as a montage of video clips from Ava’s tournament.
