Paige "The Stick"

Game Face?

The regular youth hockey season officially ended last weekend. And, I must admit that I am a little sad.  I won't have to wait long for the next hockey related activity to begin (about 2 weeks) but this season just seemed to fly by.  Blake has been playing for River Lakes for three years, but this is Paige's first year.  My super fantastic husband did the majority of the work since he was a coach on both of their teams.  I will emphasize that driving them to practice and the occasional game is no small task given that between the two hockey players there was generally practice 4 days a week.  Also, since we live nowhere near the rink, a 1 hour practice takes nearly 3 hours from the time you start getting gear ready to the time you get back home.  And I know that non-hockey families think we are just about as crazy as you can get, but we love it.  What a great way to spend time with your kids!

    

                            

She even gets the puck on her stick from time to time!

Paige went from looking like Bambi out on the ice to being a pretty good little skater.  She never complained or whined when it was time to go to practice.  And, she put her own gear on, minus the helmet and skates, from day one!  I have said it before, but I'll say it again, I can't get over what a great attitude our funky monkey has.  I am so excited to see where that go-getter spirit is going to take her.  

This picture makes me laugh.

Odds are that the puck will make it into the goal, eventually.

Their were a total of five girls on her team so it was fun to see the interactions that resulted from the sudden influx of pink tape, pink laces, and ponytails on the ice.  My favorite was when I walked into this serious conversation between Paige and "the girls" and Joshua (one of her teammates) and "the boys".  

Paige - "Girls go to Mars to get more candy bars and boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider."  

Joshua - "And then at our next practice, boys go to Mars to get more candy bars and girls go to Jupiter to get more stupider."

Paige - "Yep."

Joshua - "Ok."

Then they all turn and head out on to the ice.  So cool.

Who knows...maybe a goalie?