Skiing & Snowboarding at Cannonsburg

The whole family (and Nate's friend) went skiing/snowboarding at Cannonsburg today. We arrived at opening (9am) and were on the slopes until a little after 3pm with the exception of a quick lunch. It was a perfect day... the snow was good (though a bit slushy) and it wasn't too cold or too crowded. I actually got to use the snowboard I got for Christmas last year and really got the hang of carving. After a few times down the beginner hill (including Ally going through the slalom course, we headed to the chair lift and the terrain park. We even did our fair share of jumps. Nathan's friend Jonas joined us today and we spent the majority of the day going down the intermediate and terrain park runs. They have all sorts and sizes of rails, boxes, and jumps. The courage award goes to Ally for refusing to leave until she went over the "barrel jump". That's about a 6 foot high jump at the end of the terrain park with a couple barrels stacked on top of it. She tried to go over it about three times and kept getting scared and slowing down too much so she'd get just about to the top of it and slide back down. That happened on our last run of the day and she was a "bit upset" so we took our ski's/snowboard off and walked back up the hill a ways so she could try it one last time. This time she was determined and didn't slow down at all... I'd explain it all but Heidi had the camera rolling so we'll let the video do the talking. I say she landed it and then got her ski sideways... you be the judge. After the video ends, she looked over at me... I was expecting a trademark Allison McDaid scream of terror. Instead she was screaming "I DID IT!!!!" What a fun day...

Ally's Huge Ski Jump


Nathan's Snowboard Jump


Ally and Dad at the chair lift
Nate & Jonas...
Nate & Jonas...
Troy at end of run...

Our Ice Rink

It must have been cold this winter...because the pond behind our house froze solid enough to make a rink. Our rink was approx. 40'x70'... perfect size for a good 3-on-3 game. We were able to skate about three weeks before Christmas and we skated on it a TON until just over a week ago. That's a pretty good run. I even went the extra mile and made my own DIY Zamboni that hooks to our hose to put a thin layer of new ice down after we skated. It made the surface super smooth (see the pictures below). But I did have to buy a couple hoses to reach down to the rink from our house. I'm sure the neighbors thought I was nuts to be out there at 10pm at night making ice....but everyone used it so who's crazy now?!! We had some fun 3-on-3 games with the neighbor kids. Nathan, Ally, and I also spent countless afternoons and evenings over at the Dood's (family from Nate's hockey team) house on their backyard rink. Ally's nickname is now Olie the Goalie thanks to Mr. Dood and she's skating really well now. Nathan is wrapping up his hockey season (4 games and 2 tournaments left). As much as I'm bummed the ice is melting I'm looking forward to spring, green, and a little baseball!

The beginnings of our rink...Nathan playing snow plow.
Couldn't wait long enough to clear the snow so they just started skating on what ice was clear...
After using my new toy for a couple cold nights, the ice was excellent!
Nate stick-handling...

Holland Advanced Hockey Tournament

Nathan's team played in an early season tournament last weekend in Holland at the Great Lakes Advanced Tournaments. Having only played 2 regular season games before the tournament (both of them losses), we weren't sure what to expect. The first game was Friday night against Kentwood and we lost 3-2 and we were lucky it was that close. Our goalie stopped 5 breakaways to keep us in it until the end. Nathan scored one of our two goals. Saturday morning was an 8-3 win over Lapeer. Nathan and one other player on his team each had hat tricks (three goals). Saturday night was a game against Battle Creek who beat the Hawks in their first game of the season 2-0 but Nathan had to miss that game due to a football game. It was a good game and we were up 4-1 but let them back into it in the final minutes and ended up winning 4-3. Nathan scored another goal in that game on a wraparound. Sunday morning was the final round-robin game of the tournament and the boys needed a tie or win in order to reach the championship game. Unfortunately, Heidi and I had to miss the game because we were flying out to Las Vegas for a work conference I had to attend. When we reached Chicago, Nathan called to let us know he had just scored the game-tying goal with less than 30 seconds on the clock to help his team reach the finals against Kentwood!!! Heidi and I were very excited for him and the other boys but very upset that we weren't there to see it. Then, we had to way until we got off the plane in Vegas before we would learn how the championship game ended up. When we talked to Nathan he was still very upset. They had ended regulation of the championship game in a 1-1 tie (Nathan had the goal for his team). The team was short-handed going into overtime and Kentwood ended up scoring to win the tournament. Our Hawks team was the tournament runner-up. Click here for the results sheet. Each boy got his name announced and received a runner-up medal. Additionally, theh team received a runner-up banner which will be decorated with all the player names and hung up at our home rink in Walker. The team manager sent out stats from the tournament and in 5 games, Nathan scored 7 goals and 4 assists. So Nate's stats for the season are 9 goals and 4 assists in 6 games. Not a bad start! I really think playing football this year has made Nate quite a bit stronger and it's showing when he's on skates. He's one of the older kids on his team this year and is learning to be a leader. The games are pretty fun to watch so if you want to catch one, take a look at his schedule here. Click the picture below to enlarge.

Nathan is third from the right in the middle row...

Football Update

The Trojans are currently 2-1. The first game was a 42-7 win over the Spartans. Second game was a 12-0 win over the Chargers, and last week was a 14-0 loss to the first-place Steelers. Hopefully, the boys will be able to win their next two games to get another crack at the Steelers in the championship. Nathan's been getting a lot of playing time at defensive guard and is doing a good job of shooting the gaps. He's also getting much more comfortable hitting hard on tackles. A local photographer takes pictures of some of the games and posts them here. Nathan is in the 5th & 6th grade division and his team has maroon jerseys with gold numbers. He's number 81.

Football Season

As I mentioned before, Nathan pressed to give football a try this year. Unfortunately, football is all done by grade instead of age so he's playing with 5th and 6th graders. There are six teams in the league. This is his first year of ever playing football and he's on the low end in weight but he's still having fun and improving each day. It helps that his friend Dylan is also on the team. I think he enjoys it more than I expected him to. His team has maroon jerseys with gold lettering and they voted their team name to be the Trojans (like USC). So far, he's been playing defensive guard (usually against some pretty big kids that can throw him around pretty good...but he can also use his quickness to squirt through the hole). He's also been working on a nice little spin move that he uses against some of the bigger kids. He does a nice job of tackling but we're still working on getting him comfortable (and mean) enough to really deliver a solid hit with the shoulder pads. When he gets to play offense he's usually tight end. They don't run too many plays with wideouts at this age but they do occasionally throw to the tight end.

Last weekend was scrimmages against some of the other teams and he did a nice job. He played defensive guard (his best position), offensive guard, and outside linebacker. He said he liked outside linebacker the best but he'll need to learn to deliver a hit at full speed before he'll see much playing time there. He did a great job of covering the pass plays though. Overall, the team looked pretty good. We've got some pretty impressive kids on the team that are going to be tough for the other teams to handle. Their first game is coming up in a couple days so it will be interesting to see how that goes. Coach Mattson invited the whole team over to his house after the scrimmage so the boys could play together away from football for awhile. It was a perfect day.

All of the games will be played on the Jenison High School football field (here's a cool aerial photo of the campus). It's really an amazing complex that many colleges would probably envy. The last two games they play are during the week at night under the lights. That should be pretty cool. You can see the game schedule here.

Prepping for the scrimmages. Nathan is #81. And for the Weiss boys... Yes, he WILL be getting Timmy's towel back!
Warming up on the field...
I just had to take this shot.
The team party at Coach Mattsons. The boys are on a huge water mat. They could even walk on the thing but not when everyone is trying to get on!

The Fishin's Been Good

It seems the last month or so has been great for fishing both up north (in Bitely) and back home in the little lake behind the house. One of Nathan's friends who's big into bass fishing taught him some techniques to catching more and it's paying off. It's all about the slow retrieve (so I'm told). Personally, I much prefer a fly rod and a kayak (and a cold adult beverage) but that's just me. Here are a couple pics of some of the 10-20 nice bass the boys have caught out back over the past month or so. The nice part is everyone throws them back so there are some really nice ones out there.

Nathan caught this one early one morning by pulling his Senko worm slowly across the dropoff.
Nate's friend Dylan caught this monster on a different morning using the same technique.

First Day Of School

Today was the first day of school and the kids were mostly ready to go back. While it's nice to have them back on a routine it's also a bit hectic with fall activities starting up too. Nathan is now in 5th grade and Allison is in 2nd. Only 2 more years and Nate will be at the Junior High building. That's crazy! I can still remember holding him when he fit in my hands. Everyone says the time just continues to speed up and I'm starting to understand it.

Allison with friends Abby and Hannah on the first day of school.
Heidi's annual picture of the kids on their first day of school. Allison looks WAY too old in this picture for me...

Camp Geneva

Nathan and cousin Noah attended Camp Geneva again this summer in Holland. They both went last year and had so much fun they decided to do it again. It sounds like box hockey was the big hit again during free time. But other than that the boys enjoyed skits, games, polar bear morning swims, worship time, candy at the camp store, and who knows what else.

Nathan and Noah with their cabin counselors.

Ludington Camping Trip

We took our annual week-long camping trip to Ludington a bit earlier this year from July 10-17. The weather was quite a bit cooler than usual but we didn't get much rain so it still worked out well. We hit all the usual spots and, of course, went to House of Flavors for ice cream more than people should. Here are a few shots from the trip in no particular order...

Fishing on the Au Sable River at the Hamlin Lake Dam (Allison, Troy, Breanna, Grandma Anderson)
Floating down the river from the dam to the beach at Lake Michigan

Nathan working on his skateboarding moves at the skate park downtown

Allison and Zoe on the boardwalk by the river...

Big Sable Point Lighthouse (4-mile round trip bike ride from our campsite)...

Allison and Nathan on the old tree stump by the lighthouse... the 127 is how old the tree was when it was cut down.

Family photo at the top of the lighthouse (90-some feet up). Great view... but it was pretty windy that day! Heidi, Allison, Nathan, Troy

Allison climbing a tree during one of our hikes while Zoe took a dip in the lake...

Red Wings vs. Ducks - Game 7

Today started just like any other day... get up, get ready for work, pack a lunch, check the calendar (Ally - dance practice, Nate - baseball practice).. and off to work I go. Then at about 11:30am as I got back to my desk after a staff meeting I got a call from Heidi. She'd been looking online and found two tickets to tonight's Game 7 NHL Playoff game between the Red Wings and Ducks at Joe Louis Arena for a decent price. Now, anyone who knows me knows I'm not Mr. Spontaneous. Knowing that I've been swamped at work and both kids have practice, I turned them down and said we can just watch it on TV. The view would be better anyway. But Heidi was persistent and talked me into leaving work early, picking Nathan up from school early, and driving to Detroit for the game. Don't you all wish you had a wife that would do that?! I finally agreed.

I left work a bit early and planned on picking Nathan up from school at 3pm. Remember, he had no idea of what was planned. But Heidi had called his teacher to let her know we'd be picking him up early (and why). When I got there, the receptionist called him down to the office. Having no idea what was going on, he was afraid he was in trouble for something. When he walked into the office and saw me sitting there he really got worried. I let him sweat it for a few minutes while we walked to his locker to get his stuff. He kept asking why I was picking him up early. I just told him we had a lot of running around to do tonight and I didn't think we'd be home in time to watch the Wings game on TV. That upset him! "Why?!", he asked. And I said, "Because.... we're going to the game!" After a couple minutes of convincing him I wasn't joking he was giddy with excitement. He couldn't believe I was picking him up early from school to go to a Red Wings game, let alone a PLAYOFF GAME!

Since Nathan had a math test the next day, he studied for two straight hours in the car with no complaints (no way he would have done that at home!). We got there about an hour before gametime and went down by the glass to watch the Wings warm up. It was a great game and the crowd was super loud. The Wings ended up winging on a goal by Cleary with about 6 minutes left. It was a GREAT TIME and I'm really glad we went. Who knows when we'll get another chance to attend a playoff game. Heidi definitely earned some brownie points for this one!

Here are some pics we took while there.

Nathan on the steps to Joe Louis Arena, home of the Detroit Red Wings...
Watching warmups up-close. The player right in front of Nathan is Jonathan Ericsson. Just two years ago, while he was playing with the Grand Rapids Griffins, he came to one of Nate's hockey practices and worked with the kids on drills. Nathan has kept an eye on him ever since. Now, he's one of the top defensemen on the Wings!
Face-off to start Game 7...
Nathan and I before the game...

Back To The Ball Fields

Baseball and softball seasons are in full swing now. Let me translate... we live at the ball fields most nights of the week. But it's fun so I can't complaiin. Nathan moved up to the 9-10 yo. kid pitch and Allison moved up to the 6-7 yo. machine pitch. This is Nathan's first season with kids pitching to him off a mound. It's quite an adjustment but he's starting to come around. I'll tell you what.. the fields they have put my high-school field to shame! Nice mound, grass infield, dugouts, unreal. They've both had a couple games and are enjoying the season. Allison is hitting the snot out of the ball and Nathan has scored a couple runs. The highlight for this season so far is happening at home though. I've been pitching whiffle balls to the kids which lasted about 15 minutes before they were bored. So I taught them how to play long-base baseball (only one base and home plate...and you can throw the ball at the runner to get them out) and introduced them to the "ghostie" runner. We've played each of the last couple days in the yard and they've been asking to play even more. What a sneaky way to get them to work on their hitting, fielding, throwing, and rules of the game. I only wish I'd thought of it earlier. I couldn't even count how many hours I spent playing the exact same game in the back yard while growing up.

Allison hamming it up before the pitch...

Nathan's first game...

Nate up to bat...

TTQ and the 2009 Tulip Time 5K

So, for the past 2-3 months, Nathan has been attending Total Trek Quest after school two days a week. Basically, it's a program aimed at getting kids off their butts and get them doing some physical activity as well as making new friends. For about an hour each Tuesday and Thursday, the volunteer "coaches" would work with the kids on stretching, running, playing games, setting goals, etc. Surprisingly, only three boys from Nathan's school signed up for the program. But he still had fun and improved his endurance. The program culminated with the kids running in the Holland Tulip Time Run 5K race. Nathan did a mini triathlon last summer but this was his first 5k. It was a perfect morning for a race, clear and a bit chilly but not too cold. The entire pack took off very fast from the starting line and I was worried he'd burn himself out too early. After snapping some pictures at the starting line we headed for the finish line to wait for his arrival. The crowd gathered on both sides of the course leading to the finish line. Nathan's goal was to finish at around 28 minutes (pretty ambitious in my opinion). Interstingly, the overall (adult) winner finished in a little over 16 minutes... crazy! Nathan finally made the turn into the home stretch with just under 30 minutes on the clock and ran through the cheering crowd to the finish line. He placed 198 overall out of 486 finishers and his final time was 30:02. See his results here. I expected him to look a lot more tired than he did at the end of the race. He looked like he could have ran another mile no problem (but he did sleep hard that night). He also asked if we could do the Fifth Third River Bank run 5K next Saturday. That was our plan... until we found out it would cost $34 each for us to run in it. So we decided to pass on that one. Congratulations Nate... GREAT JOB!

Nathan approaching the finish...
The Bauerwood TTQ Team (Nathan, Mason, Vitale, and Coach Eric)...

Spring Break - Gatlinburg, TN - Part 2

After the rain had subsided a bit, we all drove up into the mountains to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. We did a 2+ mile hike to see Laurel Falls which is a cascading waterfall. It was strange driving up to to top of the mountains where there was still snow. The air was definitely cooler too. The hike was uphill all the way there and downhill all the way back. There were a couple spots where Nathan was sure to be on the mountain side of the path since the other side was a very steep drop-off.

We also did a driving tour up in the mountains one night just before dark. We were hoping to see some black bears but didn't have any luck. However, we did see a couple turkeys, a number of small waterfalls, and some really old mountain houses and farms. On one of our last days part of the group went horseback riding in the mountains. It actually turned out to be really nice. Allison and Reygan rode horses all by themselves for the first time and were very proud about that. The trails went up and down in the mountains and across a couple streams. Overall it was just a nice quiet ride with some good scenery. We also took the kids into town to a kids-only portion of the Little Pigeon river where they stock rainbow trout every Thursday. There were some VERY large trout in that stream and I think almost all the kids caught one.
Nathan's big catch at the kids-only section of the river.
On our last night, we went to Gatlinburg so the girls could take a peek at the shops. We took the aerial tram up to Ober Gatlinburg (think 1970's ski resort that hasn't changed since it was built). the tram ride was pretty cool. It goes WAY up in the air and there were a couple parts (after passing a tower) where you'd get the "falling" feeling for a second or two. At the top, the skiing was done for the season but they had a skating rink, tubing, low-budget zoo with black bears, a couple rides, and a few little shops. It took awhile to get back down since it was the end of the night and everyone was trying to ride the tram back down to town.

The last night at the cabin was spent around the fire in the outdoor pavilion at the cabin cooking s'mores. As is the case with most vacations, this one was far too short. But maybe we'll do it again in a few years. It was definitely a nice break from Florida crowds.

Some additional pictures from our trip...

Nathan and Allison on their horses...

A dozen rainbow trout caught right behind the cabin (the only day they really seemed to be biting)...
Scott wading a section of the river a couple miles downstream from the cabin...

Spring Break - Gatlinburg, TN - Part 1

The time is finally here... Spring Break 2009! We haven't taken a big trip in a couple years so this year, after talking to some friends about their trips, we decided to rent a "cabin" in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee for a week. Heidi did the legwork of looking around and found an AMAZING cabin through Jackson Mountain Homes called Skipping Stone which was right on the Little Pigeon River, a nice mountain trout stream. It was a bit expensive so we split the cost with three families (her brothers Scott and Keith and their families). We didn't even have much planned once we got there but I knew I wanted to do some fishing and relaxing, Heidi wanted to do some shopping and relaxing, and the kids just wanted to play (no relaxing).

Our trip had us driving down to Cincinatti (actually Florence, KY right at the Cinci airport). We spent the night there and then continued on to Gatlinburg, TN the next morning. I'd never been down to this area of the country before and it was my first time in the mountains. I must say it was pretty cool to see. When we got to Gatlinburg we did our grocery shopping and picked up our fishing licenses and then checked in and got directions to our cabin. I had some pretty high expectations of the place based on the information online and the price. But when we finally got there I was completely BLOWN AWAY (as was everybody else)! In fact, I think Scott may have been literally jumping up and down out of excitement when he got out of the car...

The place was twice as big as I expected and we could have easily had another family go and still have had extra room. We all spent the first hour or so unloading cars and groceries and touring our home for the next week. It happened to be 72 degrees when we arrived and we knew the next few days were supposed to be very cold so we took advantage of the weather and spent the rest of the day outside fishing and relaxing by the river (pictures below).

Just as expected, the next two days were very cold. We even had snow on the ground one morning. But that didn't hurt anybodys feelings. We spent the time relaxing and playing inside and also made a trip to the Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies. It was pretty cool as far as aquariums go. They have a really cool tunnel through some of the aquariums and we got to see all sorts of sea creaturs up close. The highlight for us was the sharks. The lowlight was the crowd of people. Everyone had the same idea of visiting during the cold stretch.

Here are some pictures from our first couple days.... Stay tuned for more on our trip.
Rocky (the dog), Zach, Nathan, and Nick stretching their legs at a gas station just before we got to Gatlinburg...
Skipping Stone - our home for the week in the Smoky Mountains...
Nathan and Allison on the rocks by the river. This is one of my favorite pics from the week...
Nathan and Keith fishing the Little Pigeon River right after we unloaded the cars. Keith would eventually slip on the submerged portion of the rock he's standing on and get a taste of how cold a mountain stream really is...
I got to try out my new Cabela's waders right after we arrived and they didn't leak a bit!

Allison, Nick, and Reygan playing in the river...
Allison, Rocky, and Angie chilling out on the swing by the river...
Keith caught the first trout shortly after we started fishing. We thought we'd be catching them that quick all week. Later, we found out only one day would be a 'good' fishing day...
The swim spa was a big hit with the kids. It doubled as a large hot tub too so we got to use it every day regardless of the temperature outside...
Shot of a shark swimming over us at the aquarium while we were in the tunnel. Look at those teeth!
Heidi and the kids at the aquarium...
Nathan after diving with the sharks.... (just kidding, just posing for a photo-op)
Nathan and Zach getting ready for bed in one of the four "cubby holes" up in the padded play area...