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...

Showstopper Dance Competition - Battle Creek

We just returned home from Allison's second dance competition of the season. We were in Battle Creek at Kellogg Arena for the Showstopper Dance Competition. Luckily, all three of her dances were on Saturday afternoon so we didn't have to do an overnight. Grandma Anderson and Breanna were there to cheer Ally on. Allison was FAR less nervous this time around compared to her first competition. She was having a ball and even went up on stage to dance during breaks just for warm-up. The kids did a great job and ended up winning a couple trophies and medals. Allison had the honor of receiving the awards for The Shoop Shoop Song (tap). They took 1st place in the division and 10th overall for that song. They were 9th overall with their Hey Daddy (jazz). For Scooby Dooby Doo (hip hop) they took first in their division but didn't make it into the overall.

One dancer gets to receive any awards for each song and Allison was lucky enough to have the teacher pick her for The Shoop Shoop Song. When they announced it, she went up to the center of the stage and the announcer asked her a couple questions and then had her say her name and the name of her studio. She spoke up clearly into the mic so everyone could hear "Allison McDaid from Body Language Dance Company!". It was too cute! Congratulations to all the little dancers who are pretty impressive!

Also, Allison is considering doing her tap dance for the school talent show as well. We'll see if she follows through on that and does it by herself. Here are some shots from the day. Click on a picture to enlarge.

Warming-up on stage by doing "The Freeze". It's a move they do in the Scooby Doo routine...
The ending of the Scooby Dooby Doo performance... (hip hop) Allison is front & center.
The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)... (tap) Allison is on the far right.
The beginning of Hey Daddy (jazz)... Allison is on the far left.
Accepting the 1st Place award for The Shoop Shoop Song...

Lansing Capital Field Trip

Today was the annual Bauerwood 4th grade field trip to Lansing. Heidi got to go along for the chaos... er, fun. All three 4th grade classes took charter busses to Lansing and parents tagged along in cars. They visited the Capital Building and the Michigan Historical Museum. Sounds like it was a long day but interesting for the kids and the adults. Sorry to say Nathan didn't get a chance to question any of the legislatures on why they passed that simulus bull... I mean bill. But that's a topic for another time. Here are some shots from the trip.

The Capital Building...
Nathan's class at the museum...
Nathan next to an old logging cart... look at the size of that wheel!
David, Jonas, and Nathan hanging out "on the farm"
Nathan rolling up his sleeves...

Bauerwood Sock Hop

Tonight was the annual Bauerwood Elementary "carnival". But there was an added twist this year as they hired a DJ and held a 50's Sock Hop! Early on, dinner was served followed by carnival type games in all of the classrooms (and lots of candy prizes of course). After the games, the music started in the gym and the kids got to dance to the music. Allison LOVED it and couldn't resist doing the Hand Jive which they've been learning in music class. Unfortunately, Nathan was a bit under the weather but still went and even joined in for the Chicken Dance.

Allison cutting it up on the dance floor with Abbie...
Chester Chicken showed up during the Chicken Dance...

Championship Weekend!

While Allison was starting her dance competition season, Nathan was finishing up his hockey season. This weekend was the Big Bear Spring Showdown Hockey Tournament at Soutside Ice Arena in Grand Rapids. There were 6 teams in our bracket. Our tournament started out on a sour note Friday afternoon with a 4-1 loss to the Chicago Jets. Saturday morning, we played the Kalamazoo Flames and beat them 6-3. Then, Saturday night, we played another Chicago Jets team and beat them 7-2. Nathan played defense during the entire tournament. He's been doing a good job of getting back and forcing the other team wide to prevent easy shots and it's been working pretty well. Based on the first three games, the top four teams went into the semi-finals on Sunday morning. We were the number three seed and had to play another Hawk team in the semi's. That game was a nail-biter because the other Hawk team is pretty good. We beat them in the district play-down game at Walker but it was a close game. They play solid defense but our boys were working great together and we ended up winning 6-4 to head to the finals for a rematch against the Chicago Jets team we'd lost to on Friday afternoon. So we went home and called/emailed everyone in the family to let them know there was a championship game this afternoon.

The Championship Game: Nathan was a little giddy prior to the championship game because the team has been so close to making it to a tournament final and they were finally going to play in one. This weekend has been great to watch. For some reason, after Friday the boys finally have gotten the feel of how to play together as a team by playing positions, passing the puck and spreading the other team out. Everything sort of came together. Additionally, they've all been skating hard and back-checking to prevent the other team from getting easy scoring chances. They've learned passing the puck makes scoring goals a LOT easier and results in more scoring chances for our team.

In tournaments, they typically begin the championship game by lining up both teams on the blue lines, announcing all of the players, and playing the National Anthem. For some reason, they lined up the players, didn't announce them, and then realized they didn't have a national anthem to play. That's where the fans in the stands came to the rescue (man, I wish this one was on tape)... Someone began singing the national anthem and the entire crowd (which was pretty large and loud since this was a championship game) joined in. We sang through the entire anthem while the players stood at the blue lines. Too funny!

Once the puck dropped, the boys picked up right where they left off from this morning. Everyone was skating hard, doing their part and playing as a team. We jumped out to a 1-0 lead and held that until the middle of the third period. We scored another goal to go up 2-0 with about 4 minutes left. After a mix-up in our end, the Jets scored to make it 2-1. We were still doing a good job of stopping their rushes. They pulled their goalie and really put the pressure on and shot a game-tying goal past our goalie with 24 seconds left in the game to tie it 2-2. Talk about taking the wind out of our sails!

But... immediately after the face-off we went down in their end and put a shot off their goalie. Our center slammed the rebound off the goalie and in the net to go up 3-2 with about 10 seconds left. From there it was a matter of running out the clock. When the game was finally over, the ice became littered with gloves, sticks, helmets, etc. as the boys were celebrating a hard-fought title. They all jumped into a big pile and were screaming along with the crowd. It was great that they were able to end the season on such a high note. I know for Nathan it was extra special because he's been pretty bummed knowing the hockey season was about over and he wouldn't be playing with alot of these boys next season. Most of them are a year older and will be moving up to the Pee Wee age bracket.

After the celebration was over, they lined up each of the teams on the blue lines again. They announced all of the players from both teams to get their trophies and shake hands then they presented the team trophies. After all of the hoopla was over the entire team went out for dinner (and drinks for the parents). I'm completely worn out and I'd imagine the kids are feeling the same way after this weekend. But it couldn't have been scripted any better. Both of the kids did a great job at what they do.

Congratulations HAWK #1!!!
2009 Big Bear Spring Showdown Champions!!!
Nathan is in the front row just to the right of the goalie...

The celebration... I wish I had pictures of the crowd going crazy after that game-winning goal. It was pretty insane!

Congratulations for everyone. I must say the Chicago Jets team was very good. The parents and team were a class act and good sports.

Coach Jim took photos of each of the players and their family with the trophy before heading out for dinner...

Allison's First Dance Competition

Ever since last fall, Allison has been practicing three dance routines for competitions:

Jazz: Hey Daddy
Hip Hop: Scooby Dooby Doo
Tap: The Shoop Shoop Song

This weekend was her first competition where her dance team performed their routines. The Talent On Parade (TOP) Kalamazoo Regional competion was held at Miller Auditorium on the campus of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. It was pretty cool to go back to the campus Heidi and I both graduated from. So much has changed since we left (about 14 years ago... yikes!!!). Anyway, Nathan was playing in a hockey tournament this weekend so after his early game Saturday morning we zipped down to Kalamazoo to catch Ally's dances. Her first routine was Hey Daddy. It's kind of a fast country number. All the girls are dressed in jean skirts, jackets, and lots of sparkles. Her whole group did a great job. We could tell she was pretty nervous. Who wouldn't be nervous performing for the first time in a giant auditorium with tons of people, judges, photographers, and videographers watching?!. But she kept smiling at the judges during the whole routine and looked like she had fun. Even with all that she did great.

What was really funny was I think Nathan was more nervous for her than Heidi and I put together!! He was always asking when Ally was up and when she was coming up he would get all serious and focused hoping she did good. How cute!

The second routine she did was Scooby Dooby Doo. It is a hip hop mix. The girls wear white hoodies with Scooby Doo airbrushed on the back along with white tennis shoes and visors and a purple sparkled skirt. During this dance, Ally looked less nervous and was clearly starting to get a little comfortable. The last number was her tap dance. The girls wore very poofy skirts with bright pink and even more sparkle. By this time, Ally didn't look nervous at all and did great! I think this was their best performance of the three. It's funny... there were probably about 20 girls in the routine and I didn't ever watch any of the other ones. At the end, her groups did well in the scoring and won some awards. She brought home six ribbons. But I'd be lying if I tried to say I understood them. I don't know if they took 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in anything. Everything was "First place", "Top First", and "Elite Top First" whatever those mean. In addition they also won awards for overall categories. Hopefully the instructors can explain how that all works this week at practice so we at least know what they're shooting for. But for a first competition it seemed to me like they all did a great job. We've got a few weeks before the Battle Creek competition. Here are some pictures of Allison back stage before the performances.

"Hey Daddy" - Jazz

"Scooby Dooby Doo!"

"The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)"

Goalie (for real)

I previously posted about Nathan playing goalie in practice. Well, today, one of the other kids on the team was planning to play goalie but decided he didn't want to yesterday so the coach asked Nate if he would. He was excited to give it a try in a real game and wouldn't stop talking about it for the entire 24 hours. We were playing East Grand Rapids at home. He was nervous at first but had a lot of fun. I have to say watching your kid play goalie is about as stressful as anything I can think of. Even though it wasn't a tight game, every save was a relief!! He did great and the team played solid defense in front of him. We ended up winning the game 5-2. Of course, now he wasnts to play goalie a few times next year too.

Jenison Junior Wildcat Dancers

Allison can't seem to get enough of dancing right now. Aside from her competition routines, she learned another one this week. The Jenison High School Varsity Dance Team held a fundraiser that allowed the girls to learn a routine in about 2 hours on Monday night and then perform it at halftime of the varsity basketball game tonight (Thursday). This is similar to what they did during football season when they performed at halftime of a football game. If you ask me, they do pretty well considering they learned it all in only 2 hours. I've posted a video of the performance on our YouTube channel.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PERFORMANCE!

We've also gotten some sneak peeks at Allison's three competition routines and they're looking pretty good. They're coming down the home stretch for her competition dances with Body Language Dance Company. Her first competition is the first weekend in March. She's been getting a little nervous about the competitions but she seems like she's getting over it especially after tonight's performance. She had a lot of fun! Enjoy!

Allison with some of her friends before the performance...

Goalie

Nathan has been bugging coach Jim for about a month to get a chance to play goalie at practice and today he finally got his wish. I think playing goalie for mini sticks has gotten him interested. He played goalie a few times last year during cross ice but this was the first time he faced some pretty hard shots and the boys make a game of trying to put it off the goalie's head in practice. Colton (our usual goalie) was nice enough to let Nate use his helmet. Nathan held his own and had a blast. Now he wants to try being goalie in a game sometime next year... we'll see...

It's hard to believe but the hockey season is almost over (4 more weeks). It's such a long season but it goes by so quickly. We're at Georgetown this Friday. Next weekend is Adray playoffs at Southside. Go Hawks!

MAHA District 6 Tournament

Wow, I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last post. Time is really flying and it doesn't look like it's going to slow down until late March!

Anyway, Nathan and I spent the weekend in Ludington for the MAHA District 6 Tournament. Heidi and Allison joined us after Ally's dance rehersal Saturday morning (BTW...her competitions are coming up and her routines are looking pretty cool!... more to come on that topic). This tournament was the beginning of the playoffs for the west side of the state. Out of 28 organizations in the district, only 8 teams made it this far so it was an honor for the boys to earn a trip to the tournament (first by beating the other two HAWK teams and then by beating Chelsea in a play-in game). In the win column, the weekend didn't go great but the boys really played some great hockey against some very good teams. Here's the rundown:

Friday vs. West Shore Wolves (Ludington) - Ludington jumped out to a 4-0 lead by the end of the first period and things weren't looking good. But none of the goals were from breakaways (which has been our achilies heal). One was a power play goal and the others just sort of happened off rebounds. Coach Jim made some moves to try and generate some offense... and it worked. The boys played as a team, were making some very nice passes, dumping and chasing the puck into the other end, and wearing out the other team. After a scoreless second period, we owned the third. We scored three goals and the Wolves were tired. We had a couple chances as time ran out but were unable to tie it up and ended up losing 4-3. But it should be noted that Ludington took first place in our league and never lost a game. Our team was very happy to have played probably our best game of the season even though we lost. Nathan moved back to play defense after the first period and did an excellent job. Looks like he might continue spending time there...

Saturday vs. Lansing Capital Pride - This game was a nail-biter from beginning to end. Every team around knows Lansing plays dirty and this game was no exception. And it's too bad too... because they do have a good team. If only they'd learn some sportsmanship and mutual respect...oh well. Anyway, Lansing scored in the first period on a broken play where we turned the puck over in our own end. After that, both teams played some solid hockey and both goalies made some nice stops. The score remained 1-0 the rest of the way until we pulled our goalie with a minute or so left and they were able to send one in the empty net. We just weren't able to get the puck to go in for us and lost 2-0. After the horn sounded to end the game one of their players took a run at one of our guys and boarded him (hit from behind into the boards). It's basically the lowest cheap shot in hockey. The kid got a penalty but should have been out of the next game in my opinion. And as a true example of the Lansing mentality his coach gave him a pat on the butt and a "good job". Mom always said if you don't have something nice to say about someone then don't say anything so I'm done with comments for that game :-)

Saturday vs. Jackson - After losing the first two games we knew we couldn't move on to the semi's or finals on Sunday so coach moved things around to let guys play positions they don't usually play. It was a fairly uneventful game but we ended up getting our usual goalie (he wasn't playing goalie in this game) 2 goals for his birthday and we ended up winning 6-2.

Other than playing some really good hockey, the highlight of the weekend was the whole team staying at the hotel in Ludington. Everyone got to go swimming, down the waterslide, hang out and talk, play video games, etc. It was good fun. Coach Lou even invited everyone to his cottage on Bass Lake on Saturday afternoon for mini sticks, good food, and what turned out to be a snowball fight. We all had a blast. Here are some pics of the weekend.

Mini-sticks (knee hockey) at the Scarpino Cottage...

The boys after the snowball fight. Front row: Cameron, Trevor Z. Back row: Dyllan N., Nathan, Collin, Brandon, Dylan M., and Dakota

Mr. Nawrot running the "gauntlet" and getting pelted with snowballs...

Post-game swimming: Collin, Nate, Trevor, Brandon, and some kid I don't know

Allison and Maddeline playing checkers before we left to go home.

Happy Birthday Grandpa McDaid

We weren't able to go up to Grandma & Grandpa McDaid's house for Christmas Eve like we usually do (in fact it didn't seem like Christmas because of that) but we were able to make it up to Grandpa McDaid's (86th?) birthday party today after Nathan's hockey game. It was a small crowd but it was still nice to see everyone that we missed at Christmas. Here is a picture of some of the grandkids with Grandpa McDaid.

Nathan M., Allison, Great Grandpa McDaid, Nathan D., Josee, and Cameron

Skiing & Snowboarding

We've been so busy with hockey and dance this winter that we haven't had a chance to go do another fun winter activity: skiing/snowboarding. But we finally had a chance today and decided to take it. We packed up the kids and headed out to Cannonsburg Ski Area near Grand Rapids to hit the slopes. Heidi and I used to go skiing a couple times each year when we were in college. Nathan and I snowboarded a couple times last year but Heidi has been skiing only once in the last 10 years or so. An interesting twist this year was we put Allison on skis for the first time. We probably could have worked with her and taught her how to do it but we figured she'd be more likely to complain or freak out if we did so we sprung for a 1 hour lesson and Heidi and I agree that was the best idea we've had in a long time. By the end of the hour, Allison had mastered the "snow plow" technique and her instructor took her up the chairlift and let her come down one of the medium difficulty runs!! Seeing that, Nathan decided to set aside his fear of falling off the chair lift and rode up with Heidi to the top of the same run and snowboarded down. By this time, I had re-injured my back while bending over to buckle my boots and ended my night after only one time down the hill (big bummer...but that's another story). So Heidi, Nathan, and Allison went up the chairlift and down the run for the rest of the night. It was a bit cold but it was snowing constantly and there were a few inches of fresh powder. It was a great night for skiing.

The instructor said he was pretty surprised Allison was doing so well since she'd never been skiing before and suggested if we do another lesson with her sometime he'd be able to take her down the face (most difficult run). I don't see any need for that at the moment but we're really happy she had fun. We'll have to do it again before all the snow melts.

Pond Hockey

After the boys beat Chelsea in the district play-in game, Coach Jim invited the team and families over to his house for pizza, skating, and hockey on the pond behind their house. Turns out the pond is larger than an Olympic size hockey rink. We only used one end of it for playing because it was snowing and we had to constantly have someone playing "Zamboni" with two shovels. Otherwise, the puck wouldn't slide through the snow real well. We had a game going for a couple hours and some of the girls were skating around next to the game.

It was a perfet day for skating and the ice was the smoothest pond ice I've ever skated on. Coach Jim takes some pride in keeping the ice nice and smooth. There were two full-size goals with "goalies" on them. There was also a perfect place inside the house with extra carpeting so everyone could put their skates on in the warmth. Plus, Coach Jim has a water pump, fire hose, and ice auger right by the back door that allows him to drill a hole in the ice, pump water from the pond and spray it all over the ice surface to get it nice and smooth. I bet he's having fun with that right about now since our temps are currently in the single (and negative) digits. Below are some shots from the party.

Game on!

One-timer... that's Nathan in the middle.

Nathan deking the "goalie".

Coach Jim acting as the Zamboni.

Maddeline and Allison figure skating. Maddeline's Mom, Tara, taught Ally how to twirl and that's all she wants to do now!

Qualified for MAHA District Tournament

Saturday was the district play-in game in Lansing against Chelsea. We knew nothing about the Chelsea team but the boys showed up to play and won the game 7-0. The highlight had to be Josh getting his first goal of the season. That was great to see. That win put us in the Michigan Amateur Hockey Association (MAHA) district tournament in Ludington in early February.

Sunday was a rematch with the West Shore Wolves (Ludington) at WIFC. The first period was going great. We were pressuring the puck quickly and forcing mistakes. We also had a number of shots on goal but couldn't put one in. After Ludington scored their first goal our skating slowed down and we started watching them too much. We gave up quite a few breakaways and didn't score on many of our own. The final ended up a loss 2-7. Upcoming practices will emphasize speed since we may meet Ludington or Lansing during the district tournament.

Games this weekend are Saturday at Georgetown (Jenison) 1pm and Sunday vs. Battle Creek at home (Walker) at 8:30am.

Hockey update

I just noticed my last hockey post was when Nathan scored his first goal. Since then, the boys haven't been playing too many games but as of late he's been in on the scoring quite a bit. Last weekend they played East Grand Rapids at home and won 5-1. Nathan got a goal on a nice move at the blue line, went wide left with a defender on his hip, and ripped a nice shot that hit the goalie's right shoulder and deflected up under the crossbar. Good thing he put some steam on that shot. He actually had two more very good scoring chances. One ended up with the puck on the goal line and the other was right into the goalie's glove as he was down.

Today, we hosted the Southside Owls. Nathan had a goal and four assists. All the boys were skating and passing really well today. They didn't do too bad on defense either allowing only 3 shots on goal in a 12-0 win. Nathan's goal today started with a nice feed pass from Dakota just inside the blue line. Nathan took the puck down the right side, made a nice deke to his forehand right in front of the goalie and slid it right through the five-hole for his third goal of the season. This was his first game on the new skates he got for Christmas. They seem to be just fine.

Next week is a district tournament play-in game against Chelsea who we know nothing about. Plus, a rematch with the Ludington team who has yet to be beaten this year. Go Hawks!

The picture above is a shot we got from when they had team pictures at the beginning of the year.

Allison lost her first tooth!

Allison took a bite of a hard cookie over the holiday break and said her tooth hurt. We thought maybe she was getting a cavity. But then the tooth started getting more and more loose. Well, she finally lost it at Noah and Layla's birthday party last night. She put it under her pillow and the Tooth Fairy left her $1. The tooth is now in her baby book right next to a bit of hair from her first haircut. And now she looks pretty funny when she smiles... It was only two years ago that Nathan lost his first tooth.