Fitness Fun Run

The kids had a challenge in their gym classes this week to run 1 mile as fast as they could. Allison's grade had to run for a set time instead of a mile. She said it was fun but her and Danni (friend in her class) skipped toward the back of the pack and took their time. She's never been a fan of long running. Nathan, on the other hand, was pretty pumped up to see how well he'd do in the mile run with all the hockey and dry land training he's been doing. When he was training for his triathlon last summer he was running the mile in about 12 minutes. He arrived home the day of the run and called me at work to let me know he ran the mile in 8 min 37 seconds and came in third place in his class. Needless to say he was pretty proud (as was I)!

Then, a couple days later, the Jenison schools held a 1 mile fun run prior to the Varsity football game to promote fitness with the kids and collect canned food for a local food bank. Allison went to a movie with her friend and Heidi was in Florida for work so I took Nathan to the race. It started near the entrance of the football stadium, circled most of the high-school grounds, and ended with a lap around the track while the football teams were warming up. I'm not sure what "place" he took but I'd guess only about 10-15 kids finished before him. But the coolest part was he ran it in 8 min 14 seconds! Way to go Nathan! That dry land training is paying off for more than just hockey...

Warming-up on a cold, rainy night...
On your mark... get set... GO!
Finishing on the track

Allison Gets Published

We have a local weekly newspaper called the Grand Valley Advance that covers happenings around the area. Allison always looks just inside the back page to see drawings that kids have sent in. Sometime this summer she decided to draw a picture and send it in hoping they'd put it in the paper. She has always been a big fan of drawing and coloring (and oddly enough, Nathan has started doing it too...). Anyway, I opened the paper a couple weeks ago and saw they had published her drawing of a ballerina with roses and told her to come look at the drawings in the paper. She casually looked around the page at the drawings and when she saw hers she said, "That's MY drawing!". That page of the newspaper is now hanging up in her room and below is her picture to be stored in cyberspace.

Hawks are now 3-0!

This afternoon was Nathan's third hockey game of the young season and their first ADRAY (West - Squirt - White Division) league matchup. They were playing the KOHA Flames from Kalamazoo. Rumor had it this was going to be a tough game and rumor was right! This was the most exciting game yet. The Flames were good skaters and were good at taking people off the puck. The Hawks jumped out to a 4-0 lead. The Flames answered with four unanswered goals of their own by the end of the second period. Then the Hawks finished strong with three goals to win 7-4. Nice way to start league play. Nathan also got his first point of the season, an assist with a real nice pass from the corner to one of his open teammates in the slot for a onetime shot over the goalie's shoulder. Nathan also had two shots on goal. One of which was a solid wristshot that the goalie barely stopped and then covered to stop the play. Nathan skated better in this game than any of the others so far. I never knew the games were going to be so exciting this year. This was a very fun game to watch. The Kalamazoo goalie robbed one of our better players of a shot with a glove save. Next time down the ice, our goalie stopped a 2 on nobody breakaway. Then, he robbed one of the Flames with a glove save up by his shoulder. They were both really nice plays.

Nathan had an entire cheering section to himself today. Aside from Heidi and I, Allison actually watched the game (now that she knows what the scoreboard means). Bubba and Papa Weiss were there for for their second game. And Aunt Liesje came to watch her first "squirt" game. I think everyone agrees these games are much more fun to watch than cross-ice were.

My cousin Erica Denman, her husband Andy, and their kids Josee and Nathan (born on the same day as our Nathan) came down to Grand Rapids today because Andy ran the Grand Rapids Marathon this morning. What a perfect morning for a run! They stuck around to do some shopping and stayed to watch Nathan's game. They sure saw a good one and joined us for dinner at Logan's. Thanks so much for coming guys! Overall, it was a good (although tiring) weekend. Next week the Hawks play another GRAHA (#3) Team... first away game. Go Hawks!

Bird Hunting

After a nice "up north" breakfast of bacon, eggs, and hash browns, Scott stopped by the trailer to see if we wanted to go bird hunting with him and his dog Remy. Nathan was dressed in his warm clothes with hunter orange vest and gun loaded in the truck before I knew what happened! Too bad he can't move that fast any other time we want him to... Nathan took his BB gun and I just went along for the walk and to scout for deer sign. Remy flushed one woodcock three different times but each time it went up in front of me (and of course I didn't have a gun with me). About 50 yds from the truck Remy started acting very "birdy" and was on a scent but couldn't find it. Scott saw some movement on the ground and was standing about 3 ft from a woodcock spread out on the ground looking right at him and trying to hide from him. Remy was still on the trail and finally flushed the bird up into the air and Scott went 1 for 1 on shots for the day. Nathan took a crack at a couple tweety birds but wasn't able to put one in the bag. But he enjoyed the adventure anyway. When we got home, we found a woodpecker digging a hole in the side of the kids' shack. Uncle Scott gave Nathan orders to get rid of it because it was doing some pretty serious damage. Nate got one crack at it but didn't hit it. He did scare it away for awhile though. Maybe next time we're up there he'll get another chance. Below are a couple pictures after the hunt.

Nathan, dinner, Remy, and Uncle Scott after the hunt...
Troy, Nathan, dinner, Remy, and Scott...

HAWK Squirt #1 is 2-0

Nathan's hockey team had their second game of the season this morning at 8am at WIFC. They actually had their real uniforms for this game. Nathan is #15. The Hawks were facing the GRAHA #2 Griffins from Grand Rapids and were wearing their home white jerseys. The boys were controlling the puck for the majority of the game but were having trouble finding the net. I don't know how many shots went completely over the goal. The score was tied 1-1 until about 6 minutes left in the game. Then the Hawks scored two quick goals to seal the win. Coaches said there will be some shooting practice this week! Nathan had two good scoring chances but wasn't able to get the puck to settle down on either one for a shot on goal. After the game, we headed up north to try and get my first bow hunt of the year in. The good news... I saw four doe. The bad news... they were all while I was driving to/from my stand. Maybe next time... I think the no baiting rule this year is going to result in fewer deer taken during bow season.

Dance Like Nobody's Watching...

That's what Allison's T-shirt said this morning. How appropriate! Allison signed up for a one night "dance camp" at school on Wednesday night led by the Jenison High School dance team. And today, all the girls got to do a performance at halftime of the cub football game at the Jenison High School football stadium. They danced to the Hannah Montana song Rock Star. I have to say for only practicing for 2 and a half hours, I was pretty impressed with the routine. Allison loved it. The girl has got some rhythm. After the dance, we headed over to the next field to see a couple other cub football games for kids we know. It was a really nice day and we even got a little sun burn! Crazy. Here are some pictures of the big day...

Warming up & last minute practice...
The big moment... (Click to enlarge. Allison is in front just to the right of the 50 yard line. Look for the long white sleeves)

Lions "Game"

Though I've never claimed to be a huge Lions fan, I would like to see them actually compete one of these years... We went to Ford Field today mainly to watch cousin Noah Weiss' football team (Gull Lake) play at halftime of the Lions vs. Bears game. We all wore Gull Lake Football T-shirts with the number 2 and Weiss on the back. When I counted, I think there were 18 such shirts just for Noah. And since all of the Weiss' are Bears fans they had a lot to cheer about. As usual, it looked like boys (Lions) among men (Bears) for the entire game. But the Gull Lake team did really well against Newaygo at halftime and scored a touchdown. The best had to be Brian Weiss' "pumping of the fist" on the way off the field after the boys played...classic. Below are some shots of the crew at the game...

Heidi, Nathan, and Allison outside Ford Field
Meeting up with the whole crew prior to the game...
Cousins Nick & Zach, Allison, and Nathan
In the stands...

HAWKs 6 - Grand Valley Stars 3

This morning was Nathan's first "real" hockey game. He's played cross-ice the last couple years but today he was playing for the HAWKs, full ice, with referees & scoreboard...but, unfortunately, no uniforms. They hadn't come in yet so we had to use uniforms from the coaches kids from previous years. So almost all the players wore jerseys with the same last names. But after that was all squared away and they dropped the puck, Nathan had a blast! He is playing for the HAWK Squirt #1 team. Today, they hosted the Grand Valley Stars team at WIFC. It took him a period or so to get confidence in knowing where he should be positioned during plays (cross-ice was more of a free-for-all... now they play positions) but he did a great job and ended up getting a couple scoring chances (but no goals). He played left wing most of the game. The Hawks jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first period and then gave up three un-answered goals to go down 1-3. They fought back to tie it up and eventually pulled ahead for good to end up winning 6-3. The team has been doing dry land training (running & plyo) after practices to get their endurance up and it REALLY showed in the third period. The Grand Valley players were definitely winded and slowing down but the Hawk players were still going full speed and playing as a team by making some nice passes. Nathan said his first real game was "AWESOME!". So it's back to practice on Monday (followed by dry land training of course). If anyone is interested in seeing a game, the schedule is now posted here. FYI - The game scheduled at Battle Creek next week has been CANCELLED! Here are a couple pictures from the game...

Face-off! Playing left wing (Nathan is in the white helmet on left side of the picture).
Locker room celebration and snacks...