February 16, 2009: President's Day: A Time for Homework!

With a pretty-packed schedule for hockey, scouting, piano, etc. it was a real blessing that Nolan did not have school for Presidents Day. This gave Scott and him a much needed period of time to finish up Nolan's penguin project for school. His project is on the Snares Island Penguin (aka, the Snares Penguin). After about 6 hours of work, the above photo is the result. It contains a life-sized drawing of the penguin, a food chain for this particular penguin, and 3 paragraphs containing around 7 facts about the penguin. Nolan will get to include some additional facts in his oral presentation to his class next week. Don't forget, you can click on the photo above to see a larger version if you want to read his paragraphs.

Kelly and the boys will be off to Casper for this coming weekend for more hockey-just Nolan this weekend. Scott has to stay behind and work day shifts this weekend.

February 13-15, 2009: Colorado Eagles and the Laramie Shoot-out

We started Valentine's weekend down in Fort Collins so Barrett could skate at intermission during a Colorado Eagles game at the Budweiser Events Center.

Barrett is on the right in this photo.

Barrett (in blue) making sure Slapshot (the mascot) is not going to do anything "crazy."

I guess we don't have any pictures from the Laramie tournament, but it was a busy weekend for us all. Barrett's team played (with Scott coaching) once Saturday and once Sunday. Scott helped coach the C team too, and Nolan's D team played several times too. The C team made great progress in just their second full-ice tournament and played really well against Laramie and Rock Springs over the weekend. Nolan's team lost to Rock Springs Saturday night, but earned a rematch in the finals by defeating Gillette Sunday morning. The Capitals only gave up a power play goal in the finals against Rock Springs and earned the championship with a 2 to 1 victory!

Scott worked evening shifts Saturday and Sunday, so he made 4 trips over the Laramie range in 2 days getting back and forth to the games and work. Kelly and the boys were much smarter and just got a room in Laramie and stayed overnight Saturday into Sunday!

February 7-8, 2009: Vedauvoo Meltdown in Cheyenne

This was our big weekend to host hockey in Cheyenne for the mini-mites and mites. The Rapid City mini-mite team had to back out, so we put together a group of our A kids, including Barrett to fill in for Rapid City. The rest of Barrett's group just scrimmaged each other Sunday afternoon, but he and 6 others were able to play half-ice against teams from Rock Springs, Laramie and the next better skilled kids from Cheyenne. These kids did a great job!

Here's Barrett taking his turn playing goalie.

And here is Barrett chasing after the puck (he is at the right-center of the picture).

Nolan's team played full-ice games against one of the Arapahoe teams (from Denver), Rock Springs and Casper. They won the first two games and then lost to Casper early Sunday morning. It turned out that they played Casper again in the semi-finals and won during a shoot-out following a 3 minute overtime. This was a great game between two pretty even teams. For those who don't know, Casper and Cheyenne are big rivals in the state, so there were a lot of happy Cheyenne folks after such a good win! The second team from Arapahoe was outstanding, and really took it to Nolan's team in the Finals. The Capitals were very proud of a 2nd place finish, especially since this was the first Cheyenne U8 team to earn a trophy at our own tournament!

Nolan lining up for a face-off during one of the weekend games.

Nolan showing Barrett his 2nd place trophy after the finals.

Nolan and some of his teammates celebrating their 2nd place finish. Their goalie had his birthday party at Pizza Hut right after the game, so they had a good time celebrating that evening.

The team 2nd place trophy was already in the trophy case by the time we got ready for a picture, but it can be seen right next to Nolan's left shoulder in this picture.

January 23rd, 2009: Barrett's Birthday Party

Barrett and his pre-school friends celebrated his birthday a little late, but with a fun party. Barrett continued the recent tradition of a "charity" party, choosing to collect donations for his favorite Tigers at the Denver Zoo.



After a "picnic" lunch on the living room floor, they played pin the tail (behind your back) on the tiger, and tiger bingo before settling in for some cake.

Another of Kelly's awesome cake creations!!!

January 18, 2008: Nolan's First D Full-Ice Tournament

Nolan's hockey team played at a full-ice tournament in Littleton, CO on the 17th and 18th against the highest level of 8 and under competition from Colorado. They lost 0-6 and 0-8 against two very good teams from Hyland Hills (from the Denver suburbs), and then tied one of the teams from the Foothills Hockey Association 2-2.

They really played well against some very strong competition.


Here's Nolan (#21) hustling back on defense.

January 16, 2009: Visiting with Grandma and Grandpa and Jack and Darlene

Nolan had a hockey tournament in Littleton, CO so we all made our way down to Great-Uncle Jack and Great-Aunt Darlene's house in Evergreen for the afternoon. Grandma and Grandpa had to leave from Denver early the next morning so we said good-bye and headed down the hill into town for the hockey weekend fun.

Barrett and Great-Uncle Jack

Barrett and Great-Aunt Darlene

Nolan and Great-Uncle Jack

Nolan and Great-Aunt Darlene

Great-Uncle Jack, Travis and Kelly

January 15, 2009: Barrett's 5th Birthday!

Grandma and Grandpa C were visiting for Barrett's 5th birthday.

January 11, 2009: Pinewood Derby Building

We enjoyed a nice visit with Grandma and Grandpa Carpenter in mid-January, and this gave us all a chance to help out Nolan with his Pinewood Derby car for Cub Scouts. He chose to model his car after the Winnebago Matchbox car we have.

Dad helped carve the shape, Grandma helped paint, and Grandpa helped get the wheels on.

It turns out, Nolan's RV was second fastest in his Den so he'll be getting a trophy for that at the next Pack meeting!