WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS....of the Hockey world!

Jarred's Bantam AA Hockey team won the state championship this weekend. They will be moving on to Nationals in New Jersey. Its so unbelievable, I never thought in a thousand years this is where our hockey journey would lead to this year. We are so proud of him and his team. Its so amazing his coach has suggested we preserve his gear forever! We have been told this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I believe it. Kids dream of winning state championships and moving onto a national spot light is out of this world as far as the hockey world goes....WOW pretty much sums it all up...WOW!

Valentines Day 2010

This year JR and I went to the Ramada Inn in Grand Rapids for dinner at Old Chicago and an evening to ourselves. The hotel has an indoor water slide, pool and hot tub all of which we enjoyed! It was a fun and much needed mini getaway!

CRAZY BOUNCE PARTY

We had a group of 38 wonderful join us for a birthday celebration at crazy bounce on Sunday. WOW I can hardly believe it went off without any problems, you would think 21 kids and 17 adults at crazy bounce could be cause for some concern! After a blast going up and down and up and down all the slides at crazy bounce we headed over to pizza hut for pizza, cup cakes and gifts. The boys were again so spoiled, everyone is overly generous, these are two very lucky 4 year olds, greatly loved! Many of these friends have been in our lives for well over 10 years, I can only imagine what the future holds with these kids and their relationships with all our friends kids over the coming years, you can already see personalities clicking and friendships being made, so darn cute! Of course sense the party all the gifts have made great collateral at last count all toys have been returned for good behavior besides one=)

Pirate Party

A Pirate themed 4th birthday party took place at our house on January 23rd! The boys were spoiled by all the family and enjoyed dressing up the adults with eye patches and jewels. Its great to have so many family members near by to share these special days with, we are grateful.

Great Wolf Lodge

We went on a little weekend getaway to the Great Wolf Lodge with many other families. It was great fun. We stayed with the Houles in a huge fancy room. The boys were tall enough to go down all the slides and even Colton got over the initial fear and went down the biggest slide there! Jarred brought a friend, Landon and they too had a great time.

International Silver Stick Tournament

 

 

 

Well what a weekend, not a great weekend for great Griffins Hockey but nice none the less. The first game against Scarbourough was a good game taking home the win 3-1. The spirits of the Griffins were dampened a bit after loosing 4-2 in the game following opening ceremonies and again in the morning 4-5. We almost snuck in the quarterfinals only missing out by one goal...bummer..not what this team is used to doing but lessons are always learned. The opening ceremonies were great, the hotel room was awesome, and I believe they will pick up from this loss and learn from it going into districts. I read a great article in the program from a parent commenting on the priceless lessons learned from travel hockey and I must agree the determination, dedication, ability to take criticism, life long friends made, ability to arrange schedules, keep up on school work, disappointment, learning to be humble, pure enjoyment and excitement and character building are all a part of this process and Jarred has made extreme strides in each area over the years. Yes the time is all consuming, our check book could be thicker but in the end I have to agree its been priceless, we could take nice vacations every year or have a large savings account in replace of this thing called travel hockey but I truly would not trade in these experiences for Jarred for anything and if this is our last year we will all miss it a bit, even JR! And YES...if they want too...we would do it all over AGAIN. I hope all my children find something in their adolescent years that they can take so much pride in, dedicate themselves to and enjoy as much as Jarred does hockey. Unfortunately this weekend was on the side of learning to deal with disappointments but the season as a whole has been great.

Winter Sports Complex

 

 

 

 

What a great place! The winter sports complex in North Muskegon is true winter fun. I have never been a big fan of winter weather but I have two boys (Brady and Jarred) who couldn't be bigger fans of the cold outdoors, so therefor the rest of us put up with it! But this place actually was very enjoyable. All three boys played hockey, skated through the ice trail and had a great time, we will go back for sure. JR had a proud daddy moment when one man said "Is this boy yours (brady)"? "I can not believe his stick handling skills, how old is he"? Well I guess all of those buffalo's vs. the Wings game going on in our living room are working out for Brady..hahaha! Wondering where we got the name for the Buffalo team? Well the first choices were boodie and tootie so when Buffalo was thrown in we made a big deal out of that being the best team name we heard!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Feast at School

All the parents were invited and and we brought a dish to pass at the Westshore preschool Thanksgiving Feast. I am thankful for this great environment the boys are a part of at Westshore preschool where God is the center of instruction. We have seen so much growth in the boys in many different ways so far this year, Mrs Jensen is awesome!

Thanksgiving

This years Thanksgiving had a bit of a twist, originally we were going to have a small lunch with my dad and a big dinner at the Swanson's later in the day. Due to JR being in the hospital, Jarred at his dad's....the day got a little switched around but in the end, as always, it was very nice. Gram and Gramp Stearns were going to head to Detroit but that did not figure out either (see it was a really spur of the moment Thanksgiving!) but we were prepared none the less! Grandma and Grandpa Ohime along with the Stearns grandparents came over for a FEAST as the boys would call it and all went great, the boys enjoyed helping grandma get the dinner ready and it was nice to have their great-grandparents there as well!

Stearns Family Christmas Party

The last couple of years we have held the Stearns family Christmas at Grace Church. It has worked out very nicely, we order pizza and bring an easy dish to pass, the kids all get stockings filled with fun goodies and we enjoy the time together, it seems there is usually a new baby, this year its baby John...wonder who it will be next year?!