Tag Archives: ericiv

day 3103: odin shows off his lego millennium falcon.

day 3103: odin shows off his lego millennium falcon. I.

like a lot of kids his age odin loves lego and while he hasn’t seen the star wars movies, he somehow seems to know a lot about them and really likes the millennium falcon, so he was super excited to have gotten the lego ship as a gift for christmas from his grandparents.

while it isn’t the 5,000 piece star wars ultimate collector’s millennium falcon ( which can be had for $3,000! ), it’s still a large 1,500 piece set and i thought it would take him a few days to put it together.

as usual, i underestimated him. it took about 4 hours 🙂

day 3103: odin shows off his lego millennium falcon. II.

in honor of putting together the grand ship, we decided to right a wrong and watched episode IV: a new hope so, you know, he could see the inside of the ship in the movie ( he loved the movie ).

day 3095: hanging out with family on the eve of christmas eve.

day 3095: hanging out with family on the eve of christmas eve. I.

per usual, we had whirlwind travels to see friends and family over the holidays. on the eve of christmas eve, odin and us had a fun time hanging out with grandparents and cousins!

odin and his cousin jonah only get to see each other a few times a year, but that doesn’t stop them from getting on like old buddies.

day 3095: hanging out with family on the eve of christmas eve. II.

what are the odds, i can get a picture of three grandkids with grandma with everyone looking at the camera? slim and none. and slim is out of town 🙂

day 3095: hanging out with family on the eve of christmas eve. III.

perhaps jonah is wondering when all this picture taking will be over!

day 3095: hanging out with family on the eve of christmas eve. IV.

and yet even more evidence as to why i should not be the designated family photographer. just kidding. sort-of.

day 3095: hanging out with family on the eve of christmas eve. V.

who might be trying to tickle grandma while i’m trying to take a picture! grandpa, or odin? OR BOTH?!

day 3074: a doubleheader in onalaska!

day 3074: a doubleheader in onalaska!

coming off their exciting first tie game in black river falls, odin’s hockey team played a doubleheader in onalaska, wisconsin today. if you’ve ever skated up and down “full ice” a few times, you might have a sense of how exhausting two games can be so a doubleheader is a good way to see how well the team can play while tired ( incidentally, odin almost never played in the game because he/we forgot to put his skates in his hockey bag and the arena is an hour away from home. luckily and unusually, the arena has a pro shop with rental skates that was open on a sunday so he played in skates that seemed to have never been sharpened 🙂

the first game was against the onalaska squirt “b” team which means they were playing against mostly older and more skilled players ( although the official designation doesn’t exist, odin’s team would be considered squirt “c” since it has a few new 8 year old squirts, including odin, who moved up to fill out the roster in lieu of having enough 9 and 10 year olds ).

odin played defenceman which is his comfortable position and he did a fine job. here he is coming up behind the net going after the puck in the defense zone.

not unexpectedly, they lost but only 2 to 0 which is an awesome score for such a young team.

in the second game againt the onalaska squirt “c” team, odin played the offensive right winger position for the first time! every so often, he had a little trouble remembering exactly where he was supposed to be on the ice but that’s certainly to be expected when you’ve never played ( or practiced! ) the position before. still, he made some great plays and even had a shot on goal! he claims he loves playing offense way more than defense now so it’ll be interesting to see what he settles into over time.

even though it was their second game, the team played well and controlled the ice through all three periods and won 2 to 1!

so, three games into the season they’ve tied 1, won 1 and lost 1 which is an excellent start against some great teams.

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge.

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. I.

it’s the holiday season which means it’s time for another trip to snowy ridge our favorite christmas tree farm! only there wasn’t any snow. boo. at least it wasn’t muddy.

odin picked out a fine looking white pine for our family tree.

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. II.

he’s holding the tree while i lay in the ground with the saw after he gave up trying to cut it down himself. maybe next year! of course he’s totally used to me saying, “oh hey, wait, let me take a picture!”

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. III.

haulin’ the tree out…

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. IV.

time to start the process over again with the second smaller tree that will go in odin’s room.

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. V.

he gave another go at cutting down the tree and almost made it through before running out of steam. i bet he’ll do it next year and this will actually end up being the last year i cut down a tree for a while 🙂

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. VI.

happy to be haulin’ both trees out…

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. VII.

it’s a long walk back to the car so i guess i should lend a hand. but just one. the other one is for the camera.

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. VIII.

then it’s finally time to ride the zipline! they took the tree down and built a bigger platform.

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. IX.

we’ve been doing this for six years and i still marvel at the genious of combining a christmas tree farm and a zipline. it’s a magical memory maker.

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. X.

seeing this treehouse every winter partially inspired our wanting to build a treehouse with a zipline.

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. XI.

as we do every year, we ended our visit in a cabin warmed with a wood fire and enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate and more than a couple of cookies.

thanks once again to the folks who run snowy ridge for all the great memories.

day 3067: odin’s first game as a squirt!

day 3067: odin's first game as a squirt! I.

after making the cut to move up to the squirts and a a few practices running plays odin and his new teammates played their first game today against black river falls.

and whooboy, what a game! viroqua played well through the first two periods and maintained a commanding 4-1 lead. they looked awesome for their first game!

odin struggled a little in the beginning to remember exactly where he needed to be on the ice, but he caught on quickly and made several great defensive plays ( here he’s in blue swatting the puck away from the net after a face-off ).

day 3067: odin's first game as a squirt! II.

as viroqua got tired in the third period, black river falls scored three goals and with literally seconds left in regular play scored a fourth goal to tie the game and sent the game into over time! it was all almost too exciting ( i totally lose cred as an amateur sports photographer by missing the game tying shot )!

day 3067: odin's first game as a squirt! III.

after several heart stopping moments, where it looked liked black river falls was going to win in overtime, virouqa held on with excellent ( albeit somewhat tired ) defense and the game ended a tie.

it was a great game played by both teams. i can’t wait to see how odin’s team progresses through the season. although hopefully not all the games are this exciting!

day 3061: running plays with the squirts!

day 3061: running plays with the squirts!

remember that hockey test test to see if odin had the skills to move up to the squirts? well, he made the cut!

so, now he’s practicing with older 9 and 10 year old kids and they actually practice running plays on his new team ( the 8-9 year old mites mainly concentrated on skating drills and learning individual positions, not necessarily integrated plays ).

i imagine this will mean odin’s already impressive skills with improve really, really quickly over the coming months ( here, he’s in the white jersey playing goalie ).

day 3058: school assembly and stone soup!

day 3058: school assembly and stone soup!

friday school assembly is one of the many neat things about odin’s school. first thing in the morning, the kids all gather together in the gym and each grade take a turns performing a little play or song they’ve learned in front of the other grades and many parents who are able to attend.

it’s a simple and clever way to get the kids to gain confidence in performing in front of a crowd which is a skill that will serve them well over the years.

on this particular day, odin’s teacher was also happy to announce they harvested 835 potatoes from their school plot. they gave the big ones to Jim The Cook and made themselves stone soup from the rest.

They believe this is Completely Normal and The Way It Is Everywhere.