Samantha's Play On! Weekend

The first weekend of Play On! this season we had 3 events, one of which was in Hamilton.  Scott and I were going down and we decided to take Samantha with us.  

A few days before the event, we found out there was a girls team that wanted to play in the tournament, but they didn't have a goalie.  The local operator called and asked if Samantha would be willing to fill in as goalie so the team could play.  She agreed.  

She drew up a practice schedule for her and Scott so that he could take shots on her and give her some tips in the final days leading up to the big day.  She was nervous about being goalie, and also about playing with a group of girls she had never met before. 

There were only 2 teams in this girls division, so it was the first to win 3 out of 5 games on the Saturday.  

Samantha did awesome.  They lost their first game, but won the next three.  And in the final game she got her first shut out as goalie!  

She was so excited to win her first Play On! Champion ship t-shirt and trophy.

She got to spend a lot of time with her two friends who had also come to the event, but didn't play on the team with her.  (Although one of them played against her!)

Here they were having fun inventing new flavours of Jelly Bellies.  Heaven help the poor souls who got duped into trying them.  I was not that brave, and not at all worried about offending the girls after all their work...   Let's be honest.   You can get away with pretty much anything when you're 9 months pregnant.

I was so glad to have Samantha at this event.  Not only did she have fun playing hockey on Saturday, but she spent the Friday working at Check In, and a lot of the weekend working as a rink monitor and scoreboard helper.  

Our hotel was right on site.  Literally.  But when I tried to get her to sleep in, she insisted on coming down with Scott and I at 6:00 AM.  She even wrote me reminder notes asking me to please wake her up so she could come down early.  And for those of you who know Samantha very well, that is saying a LOT!  

AND... when I went into labour on Sunday she helped time my contractions all the way home.  I love this girl!  She is so amazing and I don't know what I would do without her!  

Our Play On! Anniversary Weekend

This past weekend kicked off the first of 17 Play On! events we will have in 2011. Remarkably, all of these events will be held over the next 6 weeks.

We had a great event in Hamilton! Except for the lousy weather, it was really an outstanding weekend.

Scott and I celebrated our 12th Wedding Anniversary on Sunday, and it was definitely a memorable day.

Scott spent the weekend walking the site, talking to players, putting out fires, and training the Hamilton team on the ins and outs of running a Play On! event.

This is where I spent the weekend, in the Scoreboard Tent:

I prefer to stay as dry as possible.

I was really touched that during a busy event day, others would take the time to play a song for us from our first date (thanks, Jeff!), make a loud-speaker announcement, send text messages & emails, and join us for cake, which we ate off paper plates in the Registration tent.

We came home that night to a kitchen full of gifts from our children:

It might take us a while to get through all of those cookies... !

I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful husband. Scott is a devoted, thoughtful husband and a fun, caring, and loving father to our children, and I love being married to my best friend. Happy Anniversary!

Some More Photos of the 2011 National Championships

Although the four photos I snapped on my iphone this weekend were better than nothing, fortunately there were people at our event with really nice cameras and some photography skills.

Here are the links to Dave Bukach's Galleries:

Day 1

Day 2

Yes, the final games were played in pouring rain. So were the semi and quarter finals. And the Celebrity Game.

I love the last photo on Day 2. What a great shot.

Victoria

We had a great weekend at Nationals!

Scott and I stayed at the lovely Empress hotel.


I loved getting these cards on my pillow each night with the next day's weather forecast and a historical fact about the hotel.



Scott - all ready to play in the Celebrity Game on Saturday.




The Parliament building is stunning at night - this is right on the street where 3 of our 6 rinks were set up.



We found this fun and delicious seafood restaurant for our last dinner in Victoria. Really great food. Best seafood chowder ever.

- Posted from my iPhone

Play On! Nationals this Weekend

This week is a Play On! week for us. In a couple of days we will be holding the National Championship Event in Victoria, BC.

The event is part of Hockey Day in Canada, and parts of it will be broadcast live on Saturday, February 12. Fifty teams from across the country will travel to the west coast to compete for the Redwood Cup.

I am excited to return to beautiful Victoria, where we will get to enjoy warmer weather (although currently, rain is forecasted for the weekend), get to see some family, and enjoy what has always been a very fun event.

Scott and I leave early Thursday morning, and his parents have offered to come watch our kids, bless their hearts.

I've been spending the past couple of days working non-stop on preparations for the event.

I am very grateful for kind friends who have helped out with the kids while I've been working, and for our favourite pizza place that delivers outside of the city.

Here's a clip with some history of the event.

Update: 7 Random Things

This is the time of year when I look at the upcoming schedule and wonder if we will survive the next few weeks of complete insanity that is our Play On! life.

But somehow we always do.

Before it gets too hectic, I want to share a few random things that are happening right now.

If you don't hear from me again until July you will know why.

1. We had a wonderful family getaway last weekend. I know I said we were going to the cottage, but we changed our plans. About 5 times.

And when we finally rolled out of the driveway at 5 something PM on Friday night, only 7 hours later than we were hoping to get away, I still wasn't sure exactly where we headed.

But I packed bathing suits because I knew there was going to be some kind of lake or pool or water slide involved.

Scott found us two great hotels to stay in and we had an awesome time getting away from work and school and the business of life. Not that chasing five kids around a water park isn't busy too, but it was a good change of scenery.







2. My Mom is moving out of her apartment tomorrow and will be moving in with us for a couple of months until we move out when our new house is done.

She is going to watch our kids when we are both working or traveling to events, which is going to be such a blessing! She is amazing.

3. Samantha was home sick from school today. With a fever and upset stomach. She just fell asleep on the couch watching me blog. Apparently it's pretty boring.

4. Our washing machine is acting up. It works on ONE setting and only ONE setting and if you take it off that setting it will run water into the drain non-stop until you take it off.

Consequently, I can only wash teeny tiny loads right now, which means that I literally have to wash five loads a day to get by. Not catch up. Just to get by, which means to give everyone a clean pair of underwear daily and socks too if we're lucky.

5. Nathan made a "dinosaur party" for his friend who was coming over to play last week.

He loves his dinosaurs. It's probably his favourite toy right now, second only to playing Lego with Brett.


6. Tomorrow I am going to donate blood. I'm pretty much a regular donor at the blood clinics and have been for years. I have a rare blood type so it's always in high demand.

I'm also a card-carrying organ donor and hope that my heart, lungs, liver, or kidneys will help save a life when I'm dead and gone.

I worked at the Multi-organ transplant unit for a semester in high school and was heartbroken to watch people die while waiting for organ transplants.

7. Clara loves to chatter. Nobody understands her but she thinks we do. She loves the sound of her own voice.

She also loves to wear dish towels. She grabs them off the oven handle and drapes them around her shoulders and no matter how many times we hang them back up she steals them again.

Weekend in Victoria

Last weekend was our National Championship Event for Play On!  We spent a fantastic weekend in Victoria BC.  This was my second time visiting this beautiful city.  The first time was about 20 years ago.

The weather was great, although it did drizzle almost all day on Saturday.  Not the best for an outdoor event, but at the same time, amazing considering it was, on average, about -20 degrees everywhere else in the country.  We were fluctuating between about 6 and 9 degrees.

There were 30 teams total (26 in the Men's Division, 4 in the Women's).  For more details on the event, you can visit the Nationals page on our website here and more news on the website here.

Also worth reading is an article here, and be sure to click through the pictures.  There is a great one of Commanding officer Chris Ellis dropping the "puck" during the Celebrity Game (more about him later).

CBC did some live coverage as part of Hockey Day in Canada.  If you click here and go to minutes 4 and 44, you will see the interviews that were on National TV.  

Here are some more highlights of the trip:

Flying out to Victoria was a long trip.  I had 2 stops totaling 11 hours of travel time.  Not having kids with me made it seem relaxing instead of long.  I read books, watched a movie on the longer flight, and enjoyed eating airplane snacks without anyone spilling them on the floor.

Our partner hotel was the lovely Hotel Grand Pacific.  They put Scott and I up in a fancy suite.  It had a huge entry way with beautiful hardwood, an over-sized bedroom and ensuite complete with jacuzzi tub, a living room with fireplace, and a dining room with more counter space than I have in my kitchen at home.

We got to see my little brother for the first time in almost two years.  It was great to see him and catch up a bit.  Miss you, Sami!

We also got to see Scott's brother, one of his sisters (and brother-in-law), and two of our nephews, who all came out from Alberta. It was so good of them to all come out and help us work all weekend.  Especially Parker & Matt, who couldn't be dragged away from the rinks on Saturday to eat lunch or get warmer clothes.  They were awesome! 

After the event was over, Commander Ellis invited us to come down to the Naval Base to have a tour of the HMSC Victoria, one of only four submarines in Canada.  This was absolutely fascinating! 

To explain a portion of the things I learned about submarine life or to tell you how much I loved the tour would require another blog post of it's own.   That's not going to happen, so I figure giving it two mentions on my list would be the next best alternative.  It was an incredible, once in a lifetime experience.

I found the people in Victoria to be very friendly.  I don't think I've ever met a friendlier group of people other than in Newfoundland. I guess Canada has friendly coasts... ?!

On the way home we flew through Seattle and I got to see my dear friend Shaunie for the first time in years!   Shaunie and I became friends when our husbands started their MBAs together (back in the good old days, as I like to call it).  We were first time Mom's with baby girls the same age and we got together at least once a week to scrapbook and share recipes and talk about our babies.  It was just like old times, visiting at the Dish D'Lish in the Seattle airport, and it was so good to see her!

My Mom & the Puddicombes took such great care of our kids while we were away.  I don't even think they missed us being gone. 

Lots of work.  Lots of fun.  Great memories.

Play On! Nationals Weekend

This past weekend we had our Play On! National Championships in Windsor.

After Family Day on Monday (we had a fun Primary Activity at church about Families Around the World), we were glad to get some of the kids back in school so we could get organized and ready for the big weekend.

Scott had the usual pre-event stuff to do, including a trip to Toronto all day Wednesday to pick up the jerseys, coats, and other supplies.

I packed for the four older kids to go to Pat & Bill's house. Then I packed for Scott, Clara & myself to go to Windsor. Finally, I packed all of the Master Scoreboard supplies and printing.

Scott left Thursday morning in the big Discount truck and I left Thursday afternoon with all the kids. We stopped in at the Hills to drop off Nathan with Nana and pick up Papa, who was taking the older kids to a Spitfire Game after taking Clara and me to the hotel.

The tournament started on Friday morning. We had 16 teams from across the country, including Vancouver, Halifax, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal, and more.

I spent about 6 hours at the site before returning to the hotel with Clara because, did I mention that this event was outside? In February.

Yeah, it was really cold.

And even though I had Clara bundled with extra layers of clothes, 2 coats, snowpants and 3 blankets, her feet were still cold when I got her back to the hotel. I quickly put her in a nice warm bath, bundled her up again, cranked the heat, and put her down for a cozy nap in our hotel bed. Then I promptly fell asleep next to her. You know, to make sure she stayed nice and warm.

Saturday was the Playoffs, and we had CBC there covering the event as part of Hockey Day in Canada. Scott was interviewed by Scott Russell of CBC on national TV. The very end of the final game where the Redwood Cup was awarded to the winning team was also on CBC. We also had some local media coverage throughout the weekend.

You can read more details about the event here.

As it turned out, our other kids ended up joining me on Saturday morning. We decided to stay over one more night at the hotel as a family. Scott took the kids swimming, and we had take-out and watched movies and hung out.

We got home yesterday afternoon. Well, except for Scott, who had to do some more things in Windsor and will be back home sometime later today.

It was a really fun weekend, and I'm so proud of Scott for all the hard work he put into making it a huge success.

Front Page News

If you're in London and get a chance to look at the London Free Press today, there's an article about Play On! with a picture of Scott. It's not huge, but it is on the front page.

If you're not in London, check out the article online (minus the photo):

>>> click here <<<

While you're at it, check out the new Play On! website and let me know what you think.

www.playon.ca

Oh, and in case you haven't talked to us in the last 48 hours... this blog has gone PINK for a reason... :)

(No, it's not October)