Day 9: Charging our batteries

Day 9 is about resting, eating well and getting ready for 2 potential Saturday games.

Rene circulated her notes on nutrition with suggestions for hydration and food choices. Lean proteins, easy to digest carbs and lots of water is the order of the day.

The team is together this afternoon and will help C-Mac celebrate his birthday at the bowling alley. There's guaranteed to be roars of laughter as our birthday boy is well known for his comedic lines and brilliant sense of humour.

The team curfew is set at 8pm tonight.

The big game is at 8AM in Le Colisee tomorrow.

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In other exciting news, our Brandon media has given a shout out to the team with CKLQ 880 mentioning our victories and the Brandon Sun publishing our photo from the RNH game yesterday.

So if you're in Brandon today, please make sure to grab a copy of the paper so we can have the souvenir when we get home.

The Quebec City paper had 2 pages of articles on the Peewee Tournament. Our victory was noted in two lines at the bottom of the page, but we'll take it!! Perhaps when we win Saturday we'll get more space.

Day 5: BEST DAY EVER

It was cold. We bundled up. We went & we conquered!!

Let's just say that's about as much fun as you can possibly have wearing ski pants & a toque!

And enough players survived to field a team. So, we're good!
(Kidding, all are fine. Even the parents.)

We have 1000 pictures and even more memories. Here are just a few. Once again, I'm rushing to the next activity. This time it's team dinner.

Lots more to follow. Including epic video.

Day 4: Mall hockey is fun

We had a great day. The boys were pin trading outside the locker room with the players from the Quebec Typhoon.

Today's game at the mall was just exhibition, so the major pressure was off. Instead of 7000 fans we probably had 500 people watching at the rail and another 200 people on the carnival rides.

It was nearly impossible to see the whole arena without obstruction. 80% of it was fronted with net, likely so the players don't hit anyone just casually shopping.

The best view was from a bridge between the mall and amusement park area. It went overtop the rink. However you would miss the play when it went under the bridge. And the bridge physically shook when people walked by.

..... more when we return from a grocery run.

(We won 7-0)

Update:  We actually did get groceries. There's an IGA about 10 minutes from here that will sell you a salad with cheese, nuts and croutons for $3.  It's a nice alternative from restaurants and concession stands. You certainly can not eat out 3x a day for the week. Ok, and they sell beer and wine for a good price. To quote Boyechko, "beer isn't a bad price out here, as long as you don't buy it at a gas station."


Anyways, back to the game....

The arena in the mall is a sight to see. There is literally an amusement park that surrounds the arena on three sides and at two levels. There is a ferris wheel, a carousel, a 'drop of doom' and several other rides. There are blinking lights and screaming kids. It's really a quite the distraction. But if that doesn't grab the goalie's attention, there was a bright afternoon sun shining through the mall skylights and right into the eyes of the goalie. Literally. But that being said, it was SO MUCH FUN for
everyone involved.

Since we were up 4-0 into the 2nd, I grabbed Tia Slate and headed for the ferris wheel. We watched most of the 3rd period from the 2 storey amusement ride. Because we could. I mean, when else are you ever going to get the opportunity to watch a hockey game from a ferris wheel?  Naturally we took video and posted it to YouTube. With 1000s of hits here on the blog checking in, we decided to up the ante on the entertainment value for you.

Here's a great clip of the game action from on top of the bridge. 

Here's another perspective with some fun commentary. Please remember it was an exhibition game, at the mall. 

I believe the day was as much fun for the dads as is actually possible to EVER have at a shopping mall. Though the sight lines were terrible and the amusement park chaos was ever-prevelant, we played some good hockey and had fun. Photos to follow next blog post.

I used Riley's You Tube account to post the videos. He was in net for the first half of the game, and Simmer was in for the second half. They have decided to split the exhibition games this way. Riley was not in the audience taking silly videos. That's me, his mom.

Cathie

Day 2: The agenda

Our agenda is as follows:

Who's doing the ice slide?

Here's an updated look at Carnaval 2015.

Bring your ski pants! Adventure and once-in-a-lifetime winter fun, awaits.

What's on YOUR must-do list?

Ice in your veins?

If you are Canadian, love hockey and can deal with the cold, you will want to take a good look at this!  It's a hotel of ice. Guess where it is located?

If you said Quebec City, you're right!

Here's one of the news articles written about it.

If you're wondering what the "special promotional" price on it is... it's $495 per night, per family of 4.

There is a lunch tour that is available at $30. Or rates for school groups (we should quality) at $16 per person that does not include lunch.

This is the 15th anniversary of the ice hotel. It is, of course, seasonal and closes each year in March.

Pretty cool eh?

Trust me, this will be an adventure.

It took our team to the last minute, of the 5th game, to win the championship. And that's the "never quit, dig deep" attitude that will serve us well in the Quebec International Pee Wee tournament.

We have big plans and big dreams. We're going to show the other teams what it means to be a Brandon Wheat King. We mean business. We live, eat and breathe hockey here on the Canadian prairies. We ride a bus 5 hours, just to play a Friday night in the big city.

We work hard and we have a lot of pride, but we are nothing without the support and guidance of our coaches and parents. So this isn't just a players' journey. It's a total TEAM thing.

You are invited to follow our journey. Get to know our players and coaches and experience this with us.  The journey will be narrated here, by Cathie Crossin, a goalie mom. Not all moms bake cookies, not all dads can skate. We each have a part in this team effort. Cathie will log the stories and capture the moments so the players and coaches can focus on the games.

The next 41 days will go quickly. There's a lot of work to do and we can't wait!