Sunday, January 8, 2012

Hibbing Tournament

This weekend our family (minus Kate who opted to stay home with Grandma and Grandpa) headed up to the Iron Range for a hockey tournament. The scenery was pretty, the weather was beautiful, and the company was excellent.
Of course Brady chose the car ride to be the first time to skip a nap. He slept for maybe twenty minutes. Otherwise he chatted with us the entire ride. We checked in, dumped our stuff, got Ryan some food, sent him with another family and hit the pool.
This is THE highlight for every kid who takes a trip. They were in heaven.




The first game we played was against Orono. Here is Ryan warming up. Vicky's husband Rick (who is equally as sweet and kind as she is) whispered something in Thad's ear that got Thad's attention. He told Thad that the coach for Orono was Rob Maclanahan. If you are a hockey fan, you might know that he was a member of the 1980 USA hockey "dream" team. And dang were they good....
We lost...and again in the morning at an early game.

Brady looks out like a light here after the Saturday morning game, but this also only lasted 25 minutes. Where he found his energy, I have no idea.

But the boys won against Evelyth, so that meant a little celebration pizza AND a Sunday afternoon game. The parents were a little bummed that it would be a long day AND evening, but the boys could have cared less.
Look who's part of the crew?


We left our hotel in Mountain Iron, MN, today and by about ten minutes away from Hibbing, Olivia and Brady were out. So we decided to hit a range in Hibbing.
Um....yeah they also have a Greyhound Bus museum. I thought about stopping in....wait no I didn't. Wth?

Then we saw this. My cell phone doesn't do it justice, but it's pretty amazing that there are not only actual hills, but a big iron range in this state.

Mining was going on in the distance.

Olivia was half asleep, Brady was in the car, but Thad and Ryan were all smiles.

The boys won their game. It was a great time. Brady slept on the way home for (again) maybe twenty minutes. The other two kids didn't. He talked about hockey, the pool, and the hotel the entire.car.ride.home.
And guess what? We get to do it again in a few weeks. The boys have four games in the cities the end of January. So we'll pack up the car, stress about money, tune out bickering, and cheer very loudly. I can't wait.