Sports Days

We had a busy, fun weekend watching hockey and curling that involved two of our grandchildren.  Last Friday morning we drove to Radville, a first time there for Alan as well as a first time taking #18 west of Oungre.  We are used to the tough conditions of #350 south of Torquay so any other road is a piece of cake compared to that one!  We got to the Radville Curling rink shortly after ten and Abbey's Weyburn team was playing Radville 2.  Weyburn won that game so went on to play CEC1, one of two teams from Carnduff.  That was a challenging game, mostly because of bad ice conditions on sheet #2.  Carnduff had already played on that sheet so had been able to figure out how to read the ice conditions, like taking negative ice for some shots! Weyburn ended up losing that game and dropped down to the B event which would continue on Saturday.

We drove to Milestone Skating rink and got there just in time to have a burger before the 7:00 Bantam game.  It was the second game in provincials between Frontier and Milestone.  Frontier had won the first by two points so now Milestone needed to win by three to take the two game total points series.  But Frontier was tougher and won this game 9-2.  Grandson Eric had assists on the two goals, but also had three penalties!

We enjoyed an overnight stay at Laurel and Greg's.  (Thanks Dawson for giving up your queen bed for us!)  After breakfast we drove back to Radville and saw the last part of Abbey's 10:00 game that Weyburn won.  The B final was at 1:00 against Moosomin on ice #2, the tricky sheet.  This time Weyburn had the advantage as they had experience on that sheet but it was new to Moosomin.  With three sheets to choose from we couldn't figure out why #2 was even used.  But Weyburn was up to the challenge this time and ended up winning the B side, enabling them to play in Regionals next weekend in Estevan.  Our next weekend is planned already!

B  side winners with Coach Clare

There's also a hockey game between Estevan Bruins and Weyburn Redwings that Friday so Alan is looking forward to taking that in as well.  Alan won a one night stay at the Estevan Super 8 in the silent auction at Torquay on Dec. 18. We are going to make use of it on Friday night!

Sunday after morning service at Trinity was the congregations annual meeting with president Phil Risto in charge.  It went smoothly and soon we were enjoying our end of the month potluck dinner!

Then we went home and spent most of the day watching sports on TV with the Tournament of Hearts game, the highlight of the day.  The final between Manitoba and Ontario was tied after ten ends and the eleventh was a thriller.  Rachel Homan, the young 27 year old skip of the Ottawa team laid two and defeated Michelle Englot, the 53 year old skip, originally from SK, now skip for Manitoba.  It will be Rachel's third trip to World's, this time in Beijing, China.  They are hoping for gold after winning bronze and silver in their two previous world events.

The weather is colder this week with some snow flurries on the weekend.  Our green grass is frosty again.

This past week also had two special birthdays in the Johnson family.  Granddaughter Lindsay became a teenager on Sunday, just two days after Ardis' grandson, Samuel, did the same thing!  Happy 13th birthday!  Here's a picture of Lindsay on their recent trip to Mexico.                       

 On Tuesday evening we met Kirk's at "The Tower" in Estevan and enjoyed a birthday supper with Lindsay.  Then we were off to the Orpheum theatre for movies.  Kirk's went to a family film "The Dog's Purpose".  Alan and I chose "Hidden Figures", the story of three black American women who were vital to the success of America's space program in the sixties that led to landing a man on the moon in 1969.  Through this movie, based on the book, their efforts have now been recognized and are no longer hidden.

Grandma with Lindsay, now a teenager!

 Today we had another birthday in the family as Ashley Laura Diekrager turned 9 and catches up to cousin Jamie Johnson.  Ashley is having her party tomorrow so I'll have pictures in my next blog post.

Two children at Play School  had birthdays today and we also celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday as I read "Cat in the Hat" to the class.  I'll see if I can find "Cat in the Hat Comes Back" for next week!

Temperatures are supposed to be above zero tomorrow after a week of below zero ones.  In some ways, it's best to have temps 5-10 degrees below as we usually end up with icy conditions when it's a few degrees above. 

The past couple weeks have been busy and before we knew it, March has arrived so spring is around the corner.  We still have some snow banks in the yard but they have shrunk a lot.

Enjoy the mild weather however long it lasts!