warming house

Drew landed the perfect work gig for him this winter. He was a rink attendant at one our outside hockey rinks warming house. This was a perfect fit during his own busy hockey season as he was able to do homework, hang out with friends and do some skating… all while making a bit of money.

Can't beat that!

hockey, family, friends and food

This past weekend Drew had a hockey tournament in Chicago. The team, the coaches and some of the parents loaded a coach bus early Friday morning.

Pete and I decided to drive and meet them in Chicago because we were going to extend our trip by a day and head to Indiana to visit Jake.

The tournament booked our team in a hotel and we found out that it was in the exact same town that some of my relatives live in. In fact we have stayed at this very hotel. We met my cousin Cindy and her husband John for a fabulous dinner at J. Alexander's before Drew's 10pm hockey game.

It was so great catching up with these two!

Drew's team played a total of 4 games over the weekend against some good competition. 

One thing that none of the parents could get over was that they served alcohol right in the rink-- we have never seen that before.

Saturday night we had dinner at a cute little authentic Mexican restaurant called De Campana in Bensenville.

Over the weekend we also stopped at Gene and Jude's for our favorite Chicago style hot dog!

Policemen on lunch break. :)

And a stop at Johnnie's in Elmwood Park for an Italian beef sandwich.

3 Chicago policemen in line in front of us- we were beginning to see a trend in the dive places we visited. :)

These beefs are so good and have been rated {here} as the best in Chicago. And I totally agree! :)

Sunday, after Drew's last game we headed to see Jake. Notre Dame is just under 2 hour from Chicago, so this was an easy little trip. Jake wasn't home for Easter and it was his birthday just a couple of days before, so we thought we would take him out for dinner to do some belated birthday celebrating. We met him and two of his friends at Corndance Tavern.

The birthday boy.

It was a fun night with a lot of talking and laughter and presents and good food. :)

A trip to ND wouldn't be complete without a stop in the bookstore.

This view never gets old.

I had to get a picture of this cute car. :)

On Monday, Jake had a two hour window between classes and we picked him up at his dorm, packed up some of his things to bring back home for the summer, and took him to lunch. He had a real busy day but it was so nice to see him again before we headed back home.

It was such a fun weekend filled with hockey, family and friends and so much good food!

The fun ended when we arrived home late Monday night...to a flooded (finished) basement.

More to come on that soon.

{lately}

The month of February is always a fun month for us and with a birthday, an anniversary & Valentine's Day we have much to celebrate.

Lately we have enjoyed-

:: The Winter Olympics started and we have been enjoying watching everything from the Opening Ceremonies, figure skating, snowboarding, bobsledding... This always brings back such good memories of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City that we were able to attend! So much fun then and we just love to watch on TV now!

:: I finished this book; "The Fault in Our Stars" in one day. It is technically a teen book but I had heard such great things about and I couldn't put the book down.

:: I kidnapped Pete and took him to see the movie 'Frozen' that I have been wanting to see. :) Yes, this is an animated, children's movie-- and we both loved it!

:: We celebrated Pete's birthday. He wanted to try a restaurant that he had seen on Guy Fieri's 'Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives' Food Network TV show called 'Smalley's Caribbean BBQ' in Stillwater, MN. It was a little drive for us, but very worth it.

It was a great new find for us and we absolutely loved all the food and drinks we ordered.  All of the food that we tried was great and highly recommended: conch fritters, the jerk pork tacos, mac 'n cheddar with chili's and bacon, braised brisket and the Dark and Stormy Ginger beer.... so good!

:: February 10th was our 24th anniversary! We were going to go out and celebrate on Saturday, so we kept this day simple but special- flowers, drinks at our local wine bar & fondue dinner at home.

:: Drew had his last JV hockey game of the season. I can't believe it is over already!!

:: Valentine's Day brought us to the Gopher Hockey game. Some friends offered us tickets for this game and I jumped at the chance because I haven't been to a Gopher Hockey game forever and it is always a fun time at Mariucci!

We took the shuttle bus to and from the game from Blarney Pub and Grill and enjoyed some great country music after the game.

:: Saturday Pete and I headed to St. Paul for a little getaway for our anniversary. We stayed at the gorgeous St. Paul Hotel.

:: And enjoyed an amazing dinner at Kincaid's-- which has always been a favorite of mine!

:: Sunday morning, we had a leisurely breakfast in our room before checking out from our little getaway.

It has been an awesome February so far!

hockey perseverance

The day after Christmas, Drew played in his first high school JV hockey game.

Some great lessons learned these past couple of months is that hard work and perseverance do pay off. Drew is very excited to be part of the high school team!