Rivermen Game!

Today Mason wasn’t feeling good so Rob stayed home with him and Justin & I went to the Rivermen game together.  I love the age he’s at – he is getting to be so much fun to take places and hang out with him.  Last night he stayed up with us until 1am and was not crabby at all…then he slept until 11:30am

 

At the end of each game, they do the “3 stars of the night” where the best 3 players (can be from either team) get the stars.  So right after the game, whoever gets the star comes out of the locker room and waves to the crowd and last year they threw a t-shirt . This year they changed it and they give away a nice wooden hockey stick.  With where our seats are, I thought Justin would never get one.  We sit about 6 rows up from the bench and where they skate out of the locker room, so they always skate out, give the stick to someone and come back.  We have Ben Bishop (goalie) as our adopt-a-player again this year.  We sat by him at the Christmas Party this year and we were talking about the sticks.  I told him next time he has a shut out and gets a star he should just pretend like he’s bringing it back to the locker room and give it to Justin because he stands over where they go in.  I didn’t think he’d remember or do it, but tonight he did!  He played great and they won 4-0; sure enough he got the #2 star.  He skated out and went almost all the way across the ice and I thought for sure he forgot and was going to toss it across the rink, but he skated back with it and brought it to Justin   There was even an adult guy next to Justin who was trying to grab it and Ben told him no and didn’t let go of it until J had it.  He was so happy and I love seeing him so excited!  Then he skated with the team after the game and Ben was chasing him around the ice.  It was a fun evening out with my little man!!!

Here is Justin with his new stick.  Ben autographed the blade part of it with a silver sharpie.  He’s sleeping with the stick now, but tomorrow Daddy is going to hang it over his headboard with brackets; it will look so cool in his sports bedroom!

Thanksgiving in Michigan

We had SUCH a great Thanksgiving!  I love spending time with family and we got to see eachother for more than a quick weekend which was so nice.  Justin & Mason love all of the attention and kids to play with and Rob and I enjoy the help

We left Tuesday after work and stopped in Mattawan to pick up Megan & Morgan.  We didn’t get to Bay City until 1am, but that’s okay because almost everyone was up still.  The Jacobs only beat us by about an hour.

Wednesday we just hung out, did a little shopping, the kids made rock candy with Grandpa & Grandma, and then at night all of the older cousins went out.  I have not been home in years, so I hadn’t gone out with everyone before.  It was so much fun!  My great-grandma had 11 kids, so we have a HUGE family.  We went to the Rat for a few drinks and then headed to the Stables.  It is a building that used to be a brewery with Clydesdales and so now that the horses are gone they turned the stalls into seating areas.  We had two stalls reserved for our family so it was nice to all be in the same area.  I got to catch up with lots of people that I don’t see nearly often enough.  Best part?  We were running a tab and our bill only came to $54!  I know that was not right because I was drinking Absolute Tonic/Soda all night and Rob had a ton of beer.  PS.  Don’t think that just because your drinks taste like water that you should drink them as such.  I paid for it on Thursday with a pounding headache until evening. 

Thanksgiving was fun too!  Lots of family over and everyone brings a dish to pass.  It was a pretty early night though because most people get up to shop at 4am the next day.  I stayed in bed until 7:30 though and then me, Rob, Ry and Manda went to the mall.  We only shopped for a little bit, got what we needed and headed to O’Hares   Then we met everyone at Hooters and then the Rat.  It was fun to go to the places I used to drink before I was 21 with a fake ID! 

Friday evening Grandpa & Grandma Brooks came to visit.  The boys had fun playing with them!  We will see them tomorrow too because we are doing our Brooks Christmas at our house this weekend!  After they left, Mason went right to bed and I went out to eat with Rob and my siblings. 

On Saturday, Aunt Michelle, Manda and I went to Birch Run.  We found a few good deals!  After shopping was my Great-Grandma Bowen’s 93rd Birthday party.  I had never been to this either because it’s an adults only party and I was usually on my way back up to Tech or home in Peoria.  It was a fun time; food, family, cards – and I won the 50/50!  My cousin Rob started it a few years ago when he didn’t bring a gift.  He stopped and grabbed a roll of tickets and 1/2 goes to Grandma and 1/2 to the winner.   I won this year and me and Grandma each got $185!!  Good thing because Rob and I could not win at cards to save our life. 

Sunday we got up early and headed home. We had a 7 hour drive and Rob had hockey at 4.  The ride was miserable.  Mason was wide awake and NOT wanting to be strapped down.  We made it though and then got our exterior lights put up since it was such a nice day! 

Here are some (a lot) of pictures of the weekend.  I don’t have time to caption them all, but you get the idea   If you click on them they show up bigger in another screen.

Hope everyone else had as much fun on Thanksgiving as we did!

Raking leaves

Sorry about the last stupid post; I’ll delete it soon.  I had to do it to get 50 free christmas cards   It saved me over $70!!! 

 

Here are some pictures from our last day of fall….raking leaves.  Last year we procrastinated and then it snowed, and snowed and snowed so this spring we had a huge dead spot on our lawn were the leaves had piled up.  We didn’t get every one, but we got about 10 bags full!

 

I love the top picture, but I blew it up to frame and Mason has a bad runny nose.  Oh well; I’ll probably still frame it because that has been the story of his life the last few months!

It felt really good to get the yard ready for winter….now all we need is snow!