Usually on the weekends you will find us in some hockey rink around NYS. People ask me how I do it and I quite happily reply that I enjoy the whole experience. I have enjoyed watching hockey ever since my dad first took us to an AHL game when I was a really little kid. We would stay for the first two periods and then go home. Eventually, as I grew older my dad stopped taking us to the AHL games because we could finally understand the language in the stands. ( one of the downfalls of hockey in my opinion) From there he would take us to high school and local college games. As I went off to college I was pleasantly surprised to find that my school had a strong D-3 team and the college across the river had an outstanding D-1 team.
We never pushed our kids to play hockey although it was a natural fit since we have a pond in our yard and they were skating on it as soon as the could walk or so it seems. So when I look at these pictures it's hard to believe that Matt has been playing for six seasons and Ry has been playing for five. They have grown into good and fair athletes. Ryan needs to be pushed at times and Matt needs to be reminded not to "think" so much and play from the gut. We don't coach our kids after the games, just encourage them and ask if they have had fun. And when someone asks how we can spend all this time on one sport we just reply that we can find no other way to spend such quality time as a family. We are together, as a family, cheering each other on, for the entire weekend. Can't ask for anything more than that.
