It is now time for Hockey...

Honestly, I don't know where time has gone. Seriously, we started last summer with baseball, a vacation and then it seemed as if we were thrown into football immediately. Football did start the third week of July. I was a bad, I had hoped that the Orange SuperLight team didn't make the playoffs because it was time for hockey to start in October. Well, the Superlights made the playoffs. After the one playoff game, I had the boys stripping down in the parking lot out of football gear, right into putting on their hockey gear because we were against the clock for hockey drills session. Thanks to my hockey husband, Pat Burke, he was waiting at the door to take the kids out of the truck to tie skates. They hit the ice with being only 5 minutes late. That wasn't bad considering we had to drive an hour to get there.

Hockey is in full swing for the Bain Boy's and I just love it! The weekend is spent living at an ice arena and at times you could find us at an open skate. Its a fun way to get a little exercise and have a great time with the boys.

This past summer was an interesting one for me regarding ice skating. I haven't been on ice skates for 15 or 16 years and was scared to death to put them on. Finally, one night, I got enough courage to lace up the skates and hit the ice. All I could think was, "Oh God, PLEASE, PLEASSE, don't let me fall, embarrass myself but more importantly, please protect me from breaking any bones!" After my foot hit the ice, it took a couple times around the arena to feel, OK. Thought, it was coming back to me and wasn't as scared as I was in the beginning. THEN...some PUNK 4 or 5 year old came skating fast and cut me off. I tried to maintain my balance but it didn't work and I wiped out! Although, I hopped right back up and the amazing thing was that I wasn't hurt. However, after four months of that fall, I still think a tweak from the chiropractor is still in order.

My boys are the punk kids now. As of this post, we had gone to open skate at Seven Bridges. At one point, Coulson cut me off, I got nervous because I was afraid of a wipe out. I told him and Logan, they can't do that to me because I'm not all that confident with ice skating yet. They just need to be patient and before you know it, I'll be skating just fine.

Here are some photos of the boys and hockey...
Logan and Coulson at All Seasons Ice Arena waiting for Scooter Hockey.

Coulson and Logan getting ready for their drills sessions.
Tommy Hawk did an open skate with them right before Christmas 2010.
This is my favorite...they had the opportunity to skate at the United Center in April 2010. Logan has #17 on his back and Coulson is wearing #14. That was the day that the Chicago Blackhawks won my heart. They did such an amazing job with all of these kids during a clinic before the Detroit vs Chicago game.

Have a great day and my goal is to be more frequent about posting to the blog. Until then..

Summer? Fall, is it possible?

This summer has gone by so quickly. Logan began baseball in May before school ended and played through the end of June. During a two week period, Coulson's baseball schedule overlapped with Logan's forcing Scott and I to splits kids along with game. Taking turns does work out. ha ha!

The summer vacation was so welcomed! Although I wasn't completely sure it was the right decision considering the unknown fate of my employment but we made the decision to go anyway and I'm so glad we did. The trip consisted of three additional baseball stadiums to check off our list. We began the trip on Sunday, June 27 to Kansas City, MO where we went to Kaufman Stadium for a game on June 28. That was an interesting time because Scott's wallet was stolen...so we didn't get to enjoy the stories of KC BBQ, Scott was very upset. Luckily I had a majority of the cash for the trip. Whew!

Anyway, we left Kansas City bright and early Tuesday morning to head to Minneapolis, MN, another 7.5 hrs in the car... We were able to see the Twins play that night and see high school friend, Jim Thome hit homerun #572. That was exciting! The boys were all decked out in Thome gear, very cute. The new Target field was nice, although Logan didn't like our seats. We were in center field, two rows under the Jumbotron. It was a little high.

Wednesday morning we are heading to South Dakota to see the Badlands and Mt. Rushmore. This was suppose to be the longest stretch of drive for the trip at 10.5 hours. The Bain's made it stretch a lot longer with that due to stops at The Corn Palace, Wall Drug, the Badlands and finally reaching The President's Inn in Keystone, SD. It was a ton of fun! Coulson tried so hard for me to buy him snake skin cowboy boots at Wall Drug but instead he settled on a Sling Shot. Mt. Rushmore was beautiful! We were had the privilege of meeting the last surviving artist/worker for Mt. Rushmore. Kind of cool!

During our two days in Keystone, SD we went to Crazy Horse, Custer State Park which included a Lantern Cave tour at Jewel Cave. I think this was the boys biggest highlights. South Dakota is absolutely beautiful! I could give everything up and move out there to have land, horses and quiet. That is said too before I truly know what the winters are like. LOL Maybe I'll settle for something during the summer.

Once we left SD, we head to Denver. This stretch was to take roughly 6 hours. We made it Denver and Coors Field. Scott was taking pictures along the way and the boys are having a good time. After the great fireworks display, heading back to the hotel, poor Coulson had a horrible bloody nose. He was so upset, I just think it was the fact we were in Mile High City. He's a little trooper! The next morning, we decided to check out early, go to Rocky Mountain National Park and just hit the road. While at 14,000 feet in the Rockies, the boys and I got out in our shorts, flip flops and played in the snow. They thought that was so cool! By the time we finished the drive up through the park and reached the bottom, we should have just stayed in Denver that night because we were so tired but we continued to drive as long as we could into Nebraska's nasty storm! This storm was horrible! Tornado's had developed throughout the area but we were fortunate to get into a Hampton Inn.

The next day was the last leg of the trip and honestly, I thought we were never going to make it home, it took FOREVER!!!! The storm from the night before wasn't moving horribly fast. We driving through it for most of Iowa and finally stopped after we crossed the Mississippi into Illinois. This drive finally picked up again and we were able to pull into our neighborhood as the fireworks started shooting into the sky. It was a great way to end the trip! This trip we drove 3,833 miles. WOW!

Hopefully, I'll post some pictures soon from the trip. After the trip, Coulson was able to finish his baseball for the summer, giving us a three day break.

Football started this past Monday, July 26. This is now every night, Monday thru Friday for three weeks before it starts tapering down and school will start. Honestly, I don't know where the time has gone. The boys did take tennis lessons along with bowling and swimm lessons during all of this as well. They have bee very active, very busy.

Until I can post some pictures, have a great day!

Spring Please...

This morning when we woke up, it was a relief not to see the 6-10" of snow that was predicted. Instead we received about 2-3" of wet, heavy, slushy snow. It wasn't the kind of snow you could use the snowblower with because it would clog up the augger so it was time for the old fashion way with a shovel. It was definitely packing snow, it would be a great day to make a snowman or have a snowball fight.

Logan has been enduring a fever since Friday night so I won't allow him to go out, which means Coulson can't either. If one can't do it, then neither can.

Spring, where are you? I realize it is hopeful thinking but I truly hope we'll begin to see tulips, daffodils, crocus and all the other beautiful spring time flowers. The sunlight is lasting longer which is great. It's one step closer to the glorious beautiful days of spring.

I'm hoping to post some recent pictures of the boys.

Have a great day!

The Summer Adventures Continue...& School begins...

When baseball finally ended for the Bain Boy's, we had about 9 days until Scott & I, completely surprised the boys with a trip to Tampa. I had been doing laundry over the weekend, taking clothes and packing them when they weren't looking. The night before we left, I had a back pack with activities for them along with a DSi & PSP. We had the truck packed up before we woke the boys. We told them they were going on an adventure, Logan assumed we were going to Brookfield Zoo. On our way, Logan says, "This isn't the way we go. Where are we going?" This is as we started heading North on I-294/Tri-State. Surprisingly, he knows his way around the Chicago area. Then when we parked in long term parking at O'Hare, Logan again says, "Why are we parking here, the zoo is that way." He points South, which was correct.
We got the boys out of the truck and asked, "What would you think if we told you we are going to the beach and a baseball game?" They both started jumping up and down, screaming. It was cute. We met my friend Susan, from Charolette, SC.
We met Susan at the airport and headed to Tropicana Field. Susan is a native, Bostonian, and therefore a die hard Red Sox fan. We scheduled our trip by seeing the Red Sox play Tampa Rays and Scott was able to check off another stadium of our tour we started two years ago.

The beloved Boston Red Sox, for my dear friend, Susan. We were trying to find Daniel Bard, her good friends son. Daniel pitched for the Red Sox and Susan has known him since he was a little boy. We couldn't really see him but she got to see one of her favorites: The Big Boppi, Ortiz.
The next morning, the boys were extremely excited to get out on the balcony. We stayed on Sand Key, our hotel was on the inner bay but across the street from our hotel was the Gulf of Mexico. It was very nice.
This was the view of the pool and the inner bay.
You can totally tell who tans in our family! The beach was so nice. I just LOVE the Gulf!! The water is so nice and warm, not to mention the beach is so soft compared to the Atlantic coast. Any beach is nice, don't get me wrong, I love the Gulf! So all this fun lead us to two weeks of playing around. The time has come for the Bain Boy's Summer Adventures to conclude as they begin the 2009-2010 school year. It was raining on their first day of school. They boys were happy and ready to leave at 6:30 am.
Hopefully this post finds you doing well. I will post some other adventures soon.

Lov,
Hol

Bain Boys Summer Adventures Continue...

Finally, I've uploaded some pictures of our adventures of Spring & Summer 2009.

Celebrating the boys' birthdays with their friends bowling. The had a ball...turning 6 & 7, can't believe it! Time is flying!



Logan is above with a pretty good swing. He is our "Little Rudy," the smallest kid on his team but he had more heart than five of those kids put together. He was always the first one on the field, the first on off and ready to bat. I pray he continues with that enthusiasm. Coulson is batting in the picture below. Don't you just love his stance? This child bats and throws BOTH lefty & right. Most of his season he batted left but threw right...go figure, its Coulson.

Coulson thought Magic needed to see the fish he caught.

Enough!
The new neighbor's puppy, Bandit, loved tugging on Logan.

The boys with Rachel and my dad otherwise known as "Papa PJ" at The US Cellular Field to see the Chicago White Sox. It pained me to buy Chicago White Sox items, it was ok for the Thome shirt as I went to high school with him. If Jim wasn't on the team any longer...it would have been very difficult for me to purchase a shirt let alone a hat. This was my niece's First Major League Baseball game. It's a shame I couldn't have taken her to see the Cubs. Anyway, look at their smiles.

High School friend, Jim Thome. The boys were able to receive his autograph. Jim will more than likely be in the Hall of Fame one day.