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...

Horseback Riding

Toward the end of summer, we were looking for some incentive to get the kids doing math flash cards in preparation for beginning the school year. We settled on a sticker chart to keep track of how many times they did their flash cards without any complaining. Each time they did them (with a good attitude) they got a sticker. Before they began, we agreed once they got a set number of stickers we'd do something fun (like Craig's Cruisers or something). Well, they both got the required number of stickers and we were planning on going to Craig's Cruisers to ride go-carts.... that was until the Camp Bob Rodeo (see earlier post). While there, a guy named Mike Jones (a different Mike Jones) had pony rides and gave us a card for his nearby farm where they have horse trail rides. The kids decided right then to trade in their Craig's Cruiser special treat to go horseback riding instead. So yesterday, we went. Scott & Val, Zach, and Nick came along for the fun. Turned out the youth firearm deer season was this weekend so we couldn't ride any of the public trails. But we did ride all over the 180 acre farm including one trail through the woods. They had 36 horses, 20-something cows, and lots of open space on the farm. This was Allison's first time on a "real" horseback ride. And Nathan got to have his own horse. Controlling it was a little tricky for him at first. Allison rode with me and constantly wanted to make the horse trot. Needless to say, my backside was tender today. After we were done, we got to go through the giant hay maze made out of those huge round hay bales. Anyway, here are some pictures of our adventure. Enjoy...

Heidi and the kids waiting for the horses to be readied...

Nathan on Shadow (who doesn't like to follow commands)...
Dad and Allison on Fancy. Could Ally have gotten a more perfectly named horse!?
Scott and Nick riding Buttercup...
Val and Zach riding Mariah...

Let the craziness begin...

Sorry for the delay in posting. But we've been trying to get back into the school groove and everything that comes along with it. The kids are back at school now. Nathan is in 4th grade and Allison is in 1st grade at Bauerwood Elementary. They both really like their teachers and are getting off to a good start in class. In addition to school, Allison is in dance at Body Language Dance Company and Nathan is playing hockey for HAWK.

Allison is doing a tap, jazz, and hip-hop routine and will get to compete at a few competitions this year. She definitely loves to dance! We don't have specifics on any of the competitions yet but one may be in Grand Rapids, one in Kalamazoo, and possibly one in Detroit or Chicago. I know nothing about dance but I did get to help teach her how to do "the worm" for her hip-hop class. How funny! Who would have thought that would come in handy after the breakdance craze of the 80's fizzled out!?

After the draft/tryout skates a couple weeks ago, Nathan got to meet his coaches and team. He's on the HAWK Squirt #1 team. Home rink is Walker Ice & Fitness. This is considered a "house" team but they'll be travelling around the west side of the state playing quite a few games. It sounds like he'll be playing from Holland to Lansing, from Kalamazoo to Cadillac to Ludington. Practices have started and there are even a few home games slotted on the schedule so far. You can view the latest schedule here (just make sure you're looking at the Squirt #1 Team schedule). The schedule and opponents are in the process of being put together right now. But the game on October 4th is coming up quickly.

It should be a busy (but fun) winter with all the activities going on....

Camp Bob Rodeo

Labor Day marked a long weekend of R&R up at Pettibone Lake. And like every other year, the Camp Bob Rodeo was going on right around the corner from the lake. What was different this year is we decided what the heck...let's check it out. We've been up there 2 or 3 years in a row and have never gone to the rodeo. It ended up being pretty fun. The kids loved seeing all the animals (mostly the horses and bulls). Nathan even went down into the arena for a kids "shoe" race. Allison was too slow and indecisive to do it. We ended up getting some can coolers, a poster, and an interesting night of people watching. Both kids got to ride a pony (and lobbied for going horseback riding down the road this fall). And, believe it or not, Pammeoke was there (the lady from our karaoke party...see post below from July 12). Here are a few pictures from the evening festivities.




Nice Hat!

Def Leppard and Billy Idol

We had actually purchased tickets to see Def Leppard, Styx, and REO Speedwagon back in April. But the lead singer of Def Leppard was sick and the show had to be cancelled. It was rescheduled for August 15th at Van Andel Arena except Billy Idol was now the opener instead of Styx and REO. This was Nathan's first real concert (besides Drake Bell at the Muskegon Summer Celebration last year). Billy Idol was decent although he took awhile to warm up the vocal cords. Heidi thought his first song (Cradle of Love) sounded a little too much like a lounge act. Nathan didn't care much for him because he only knew one of the songs (Mony Mony). But Dancin' With Myself and Rebel Yell were pretty cool. As always, Def Leppard put on a GREAT show. They've got so many hit songs they could probably play for 3 hours straight if they were so inclined. But Pour Some Sugar On Me defnitely brought down the house. A guy in front of us was laughing at Nathan because he knew the words and was singing along with EVERY song. He goes to sleep at night listening to either Def Leppard or Poison's greatest hits album... go figure. It makes me laugh to think back and remember when I first heard a Def Leppard song back in 5th grade when Ms. Jacobs (a student teacher at the time from CMU) played some songs off the Pyromania album for the class. Don't ask me why she did or why I remember. But I remember thinking she was the coolest teacher ever and loving that music. Now Nathan is going into 4th grade and he's listening to the same band... Crazy.

Here's a picture of Nathan in front of the band's tour buses after the show behind Van Andel Arena... Mom splurged on a shirt for him. (And get a load of the jeans. Those were decorated last Halloween when he dressed up as a rock star... very appropriate for the evening!)

3rd Annual Has-Been Whiffle-Ball Tournament

Today was the 3rd year of the all day whiffle ball tournament at Joe McDaid's house in Ithaca. Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera with me so I don't have any pictures. But it was great to see a bunch of old high-school friends and have a little friendly competition. In the end, the Founding Fathers took the crown again and our team ended up in 2nd place for the second year in a row. Congrats guys!

Camp Geneva

Nathan has been at Camp Geneva from 8/7-8/9. I have to admit I was a little jealous when we dropped him off that I didn't get to stay too. It brought back a lot of memories of staying at different summer camps while growing up. Nathan was a bit nervous but he was also very excited. He and cousin Noah Weiss were bunk mates and had a great time at their first overnight summer camp. Uncle John and Cousin Ryan (their cabin counselors) were a lot of fun and kept the boys busy non-stop. Nathan's favorite things were free time (playing box-hockey) and all-camp games like capture the flag. He also met a whole cabin full of new friends. On the last day (pick-up day), Allison got to go along to pick up Nathan and enjoy activities throughout the camp such as swimming and archery. Something tells me we'll be sending two kids to this in a couple years... Here are some snapshots from our camera and from a disposable Nathan took with him.

Nathan and Noah being dropped off at their cabin on the first day (nervous but excited)...
Cousin Ryan, Uncle John, Noah, and Nathan on the last day...
Soaking up the sun at the pool...
Allison at the archery range...

R.I.P. Michael McDaid 3/23/1978-8/5/2008

It's with a very heavy heart that I write this... My younger brother, Mike, passed away yesterday at the age of 30. Thank you to everyone who has expressed their sympathy and well wishes. Please keep his daughters, Breanna and Kelsey, and the rest of the family in your thoughts. We'll be scheduling a private family memorial gathering in Ithaca in Mike's memory in September. The obituary can be viewed here.

A trust fund has been set up for the girls. Memorial contributions may be made to The Breanna and Kelsey McDaid Trust Fund.

Mail to:
The Breanna and Kelsey McDaid Trust Fund
5410 Azalea St
Portage, MI 49002

Mike, I'm so sorry. May you finally rest in peace little brother...

Ludington Vacation - Part III

So, when we weren't fishing, swimming at the state park beach, floating down the river, or riding bikes.... we were at the new skate park, playing on a secluded dune on Hamlin Lake, or searching for treasures! We went geocaching for a "treasure" that we've found the past 5 years or so out on a point in the woods bordering Hamlin Lake. To the right is a shot of the kids looking through the treasure after finding it. It's standard practice to take one thing out and put one thing in. Then sign the guestbook. We looked back in the guestbook and found the last few times we signed it. Then Zoe and the kids played for a little while on the "cliff" down to the lake.
Since Papa Weiss left the boat for the week, we took the kids tubing on Hamlin Lake and then dropped anchor at one of the dunes on the north end of the lake. It's great. We anchor the boat in about 2-3 feet of water and have an entire dune and beach all to ourselves. We had races from the top down into the water, the kids built a "beach hut fort", Zoe chased her retrieval toy, and we all soaked up some sun.

Below is a video Allison and Nathan made while on the dune. They built a "fort" and wanted to do a video like MTV Cribs (Dad is working the camera...). This was the second take. Ally froze on the first one.

The new skate park, called "The Plaza" was the highlight for Nathan. He skated there with his wave board four or five different times when we went to town. Our last day in town, we went early in the morning and had the whole place to ourselves. Ally and I even took took a crack at riding the big bowl (think of an empty swimming pool...). It was actually pretty fun. Below are some pictures from the skate park.

Ludington Vacation - Part II

Our next adventure while in Ludington was our annual bike trip up to the Big Sable Point Lighthouse. It was storming earlier in the day but cleared up nicely so we could make the trip. We've made this trip every year and now that Allison has a mountain bike with gears the ride was MUCH more pleasant for everyone. The ride is a little more than 2 miles each way from our campground. Part of it is bike path but the majority is an old two-track gravel road that goes from the campgrounds straight north along the Lake Michigan beach to the point. It was a special night so they had old fashioned games, tours up in the tower, educational information about the lighthouse, and s'mores around the firepit. During the educational portion, the host used Nathan and Allison as helpers while explaining how the lighthouse lense focused all the light into a narrow band to make it visible for a greater distance. Take a look at what that does to someone's face while they're in the thing!

Afterwards, the kids played around by the beach before eating s'mores...

The next day was spent mainly doing laundry, relaxing at the beach for kayaking and swimming, visiting the skate park (more later), and, of course, going to House of Flavors for ice cream in a waffle cone.

Nathan also got hooked on skimboarding while at the beach. We ended up staying until sunset and were the only ones on the beach...very relaxing. Here's a video of one of his wipeouts... but he ended up getting the hang of it and mastered the 180.

Kodak moment...

Sunset skimming...

Ludington Vacation - Part I

Sorry for the delay in posting, but we just returned from our annual week-long camping trip to Ludington State Park. If you like camping and have never been there, you MUST go. The state park is huge with three campgrounds in the park sandwiched between Hamlin Lake and Lake Michigan. We always stay at the Beechwood campground which is next to a boardwalk on Lost Lake which connects to Hamlin Lake. This was our 9th year going and it's still as fun as the first time. We spent the first day on the boat fishing with Papa Weiss. He continued fishing on day two and ended up with enough for us to have a fish fry and fill a one gallon zip lock as well. We caught bass, bluegill, rock bass, and walleye. On day two, we floated down the river from Hamlin Lake Dam to Lake Michigan to play at the beach and ride the Lake Michigan waves in the kayak. Of course, we made the trip to town to get ice cream in waffle cones at House of Flavors (Heidi's favorite) and Nathan noticed they built a new skate park at Stearns Park in downtown Ludington... but more on that in a future post.

Here are a few pics from our first couple days...

Papa Weiss with some large bluegills. Don't be fooled. Papa has VERY large hands...
Nathan and Allison riding the waves on Lake Michigan...
Nathan and Heidi doing the same...
Ally "The Fish" McDaid swiming in the waves...