Durango

Time for yet ANOTHER hockey tournament. (Good thing we LIKE hockey).

For President's Day weekend we made another trip to Durango, Colorado. They have a very nice facility and the drive isn't all that bad (well, maybe only because we missed all the snow storms?).

There were 5 teams in the tournament, and they all seemed to win each other. For example, the teams we played real good against beat the teams who made us look completely disorganized. All in all the kids learned a lot and had some great competition. Participating teams were from Flagstaff, Arizona, Rio Rancho, New Mexico, Los Alamos, New Mexico and Durango.

(It was nice to not play the Boise Hawks for a change!)

To Infinity and Beyond?

The school district in Davis County is building a new elementary school that plans to open next fall. Occasionally the district asks for input on the name of new schools from students, and then allows students who live in the area of the new school to vote on the final name.

Well, this new school is planned to have a "galaxy" type theme with different areas of the school being called Sombrero Galaxy, Whirlpool Galaxy, Starburst Galaxy, and
Antennae Galaxy. I think this is a pretty creative way to help teach kids more about science.

Additionally, the school names the kids get to vote on were so funny (downright silly?) that I couldn't resist sharing them. The choices are: Galactic Elementary, Infinity Elementary, or Starship Elementary. Seriously??? Any one of these would officially be the silliest name for any elementary school in the district.

While these school names might work well for the younger kids, I would think when the kids get to the upper grades they might be a teeny tiny bit embarrassed.

James, one of Heather's calculus classes (via very important email), my friend Terri and I came up with some alternate names just in case they need any more suggestions:

Twinkle Elementary
Buzz Lightyear Elementary
Zurgg Elementary
James T Kirk Elementary
Outter Rim Elementary
Black Hole Elementary
Skywalker Elementary
and so on...

Snowboarding

Hooray for snow!

Last year we missed out on ALL snowboarding because of James' broken arm (although we did get in 1 ski day at the very end of the season). This year we took our first runs on Martin Luther King day with our friends Isa and Kai.

I hadn't boarded for 2 years and I was glad remembering how to do it came back so quickly. I didn't even fall down getting off the lift! (And believe me, that IS an accomplishment.)

Not quite sure how many times we'll be able to sneak up to board this winter, but we will make the most of each chance we get.

There was a small bit of snow falling and it was an all around
great day to be on the slopes!

Funny how in still photos it looks like they're not really doing anything.

James has learned to ride very well up on his toes.
When I try to do this for more than say 7 or 8 seconds, I generally fall down.

This was Kai's first day skiing ever. He got the hang of it quickly!

Drive in Movie

The sixth graders at James' school have a "drive in movie" activity each winter. To participate in the drive in movie you must make a car out of a cardboard box to take to the movie in the gymnasium.

I don't even remember what movie they watched (James probably doesn't either), but I do remember many interesting car creations when I dropped off James at school.

Here are some photos of James' car - a 1960's Volkswagen Bus complete with many "stickers" and curtains in the windows.

Trying to Breathe...

One nice thing about traveling out of town during the winter is we get to escape some of the bad Utah air. But, when we're back in town it's impossible to escape. Today the Wasatch Front had the distinction (?) of having the worst air in the nation (www.airnow.gov), and it's likely to stay that way for some time. At least we don't live in Logan where it's bad air usually 2x as much as the rest of the valley.

At times like this you really, really, really, really can't wait for spring to arrive. However, that just brings on an entire new breathing problem called....allergies. :/

brrr....Salmon!

The Salmon, Idaho tournament was fantastic this year. There were 9 teams and our cats did very well - 3rd place! It almost made us forget about how super cold it was this trip. The locals joked that compared to the week before they were experiencing a "heat wave." By the last day I think the high reached freezing.

Here are some photos from the weekend:

First game

This was the temperature at noon on Saturday.

vs. Idaho Falls Eagles

vs. Missoula (who took first place)

vs. the Hawks - they beat us again and took second

Kyle, Kaige and James

2nd Place Win!

For the first tournament of the new year James' team went to the Break the Ice Tournament in Boise, Idaho. They played teams from Oregon and Idaho and after a tough battle took 2nd place. First place (unfortunately) went to the Boise Hawks (the team that beat us twice at Thanksgiving).

Here's the kids with their second place medals. :O)