More Greenbrier Skating Pictures

These pictures are from one of Lexy's teammate's mother. Some nice pictures. I stole them from FB. Thanks Kelly...!!

Five of the eight girls went to The Greenbrier performance. Karly, Elisa, Maddy, Katelyn, and Lexy. This is right at the beginning of their program. This is at the finish of their program.

This picture is the girls and their coach Ms. Vicky.This is a fun picture with some of the older girls. From left to right, Lexy, Abby, Devon, and Maddy. Maddy's mom is Kelly who took and posted these pictures. Abby is Ms. Heidi's daughter and JD's sister. And Devon's grandmother is the one who put this whole Greenbrier trip together for us.It was a great time and a wonderful experience for the kids. I hope to have the video(s) loaded up in the next few days.

West Virginia Wild - Squirts

Here are the West Virginia Wild, squirts. They are waiting for permission to get on the ice. They played the Athens, Oh travel team. My goodness they brought some fast kids..

Ice Skating at The Greenbrier

Our kids got a wonderful opportunity this weekend. It was a last minute deal, but the kids were invited to perform at the Grand opening of the ice rink at The Greenbrier Resort in White Sulfer Springs, WV. This is one ritzy place, big time $$$ to stay here. Anyway, the synchro team way invited and they asked the girls to bring their Christmas program for the show as well. Lexy has two programs this year. One by herself and one with Isaac. Ms. Vicky wanted them to only do the together program. They skated to 'Zat You Santa Clause", it's a super fun song. Amy made Isaac and Santa suit and Lexy wore her PJ's.

Here they are practicing just before the show. Lexy was wearing her robe as a 'keep warm' measure. This is them in the show. They did perfect. Everyone was pleased. We got several comments on how well they did together.

Here is Lexy enjoying the ice time. Neither of the kids had skated outdoors before. The resort is still working out the bugs on making ice.

During the break between the 11am performance and the 2 pm performance the kids spent some time with the house magician. He had some wonderful tricks. Isaac was the helper for several of them.
This is a picture of Lexy headed from the dressing room to go out on the ice. Look and how tall the doors are on the right. Very cool...

This is a one last picture shot as we were walking to the car after the shows were over. This is a very cool old building.
This was the scene in the back seat on the way home. Isaac asleep and Lexy watching a movie under her blanket. They travel well.
Here are some news paper articles on the event.

Beckley Newspaper

The State Journal

More to follow...

Thanksgiving Dinner

We had our usual Thanksgiving feast this year. Again we insisted on it being at our house. But different than that last few, we had people come over. We had 3 families from our church come to dinner. We ended up with 17 people in the house from a 1 year old through the 7 and 9 year olds a bunch of 20 somethings and me to old guy in the group. It was a lot of fun.

I was not too proud of my turkey this year. I went cheap and got the $0.68/lbs one. I thought that it was a 21 lbs. bird and needed 4+ hours to cook. After 2.5 hours it was done. CRAP. That was too early. I had another 2 hours until dinner. So we wrapped it up in towels and tinfoil and put it in the corner. After 2 hours the pan was still too hot to hold. The turkey was falling off of the bones, but I thought it was way too dry. No one else would agree with me.

Amy made fantastic rolls. Shalese was bringing rolls, but we made some anyway. Never can have too many. These have been great to make sandwiches out of.Lanna made little turkey cup cakes. Very cool... Here is the table, all set and ready to go, seating for eight.Here is where people wanted to be, at the kid table. Amy had put big sheets of paper all over the table and set out markers and crayons for the kids who were encouraged to draw away. It was great fun. We hope that everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We sure did.

Moth Man

Moth Man is one the big stories here in West Virginia. It happen around Point Pleasant, where Amy is doing clinicals in April and May. The kids have heard the story in school, it is taught as state history. Kind of a fun story. The kids and I were driving through Point Pleasant yesterday when Isaac saw the statue and begged to go back. So we took some time and stopped by. The kids wanted pictures as "Moth Man"

Here is a link to a web site with a long version of the story.

West Virginia Wild - Squirts in Roanoke, VA

Isaac had his first hockey games this weekend. In fact there were two. Both against the same team on the same day in the same town. We drove to Roanoke, Virginia to play the squirts team there. For those of you new to the kids hockey terms, like me, squirts are the 8 and 9 year old kids.

Here is Isaac after the games, in his hockey pose.
They played at the Roanoke Civic Center. It's a pretty cool place. It is where the Virginia Tech Hokies Hockey team plays.

It was a pretty big stadium for this little guys to play in. This is a shot of the team talking to the coach just before the game. Look at that big stadium and all those empty seats, the squirts get no respect.

Here is an action shot of Isaac playing defence. He did a great job of staying in position, being where he was supposed to be. Keeping the puck in the attack zone and clearing it away from the net and out of the defence zone.

This is a shot of Isaac and his friend Branden on the blue line, Isaac is #75, of course, and Braden is in the yellow helmet. There where the defensive line.Just before the game the coaches handed out stickers for the helmets. Some numbers for the back, "Wild" for the sides, "West Virginia" for the front. It was pretty exciting in the locker room putting them on all the helmets.

West Virginia Synchro Nov2010

On November 2oth our ice arena hosted the Mountain State Synchronized Skate. They had teams for all over the region, Ohio, New Jersey, Maryland, etc. The group form Maryland had 50 skaters on 4 teams. We were glad to have them. Lexy's team skated in the Beginner 1 Class against two other teams. The skated to a tiki, hula girl song and dress like they belong on the beach somewhere.

After months of practice, they won first place, gold metals. All the little girls were soooo happy.

Two of these girls have only skated with the team for about 6 weeks. The minimum number of skaters to have on the team is 8, they had just enough. Not they take this routine to 2 Christmas shows and an intermission at the big WVU vs Pitt hockey game in January. There is a small chance that they may travel to another synchro competition.

One of the highlights for the competition is to have the University of Ohio's Synchro team perform. They are pretty good. It's great to show the little girls what opportunities are out there if they want to continue.

Best Buy in Charleston

The new Best Buy just opened up across the parking lot from the Ice Arena. We have been watching it close in anticipation. Can't buy anything from them, but we have been watching close. Isaac and I saw people in plain cloths walking in and out on Wednesday as we were driving away from the Ice Arena. Sooo... we stopped by. I guess that it was the 'soft opening' for friends and family of the workers. We had a bunch of fun in there getting our sneak peek.

Then on Friday, it was officially open. So we all went.

Lexy is excited and Isaac has the sun in his eyes. Two totally different emotions and facial expressions, all captured in one shot.

They have a lot of interactive stations in this Best Buy. Isaac loves it. It's like going to the arcade without having to pay for any of the games. Here is a picture of Isaac playing the Xbox 360 Kinect and Lexy is playing the Playstation Move. The Playstation one is a step below the Wii, but the Xbox Kinect is sooo cool... No wires, no controllers, no problem. This thing recognizes when someone steps into the playing area, scans them and adds them. If someone needs to leave, once they walk away the game recognizes that they have left and switches back to single player mode, mid-game. The kids have played it at Best Buy about 3 hours so far. I'm kinda starting to feel guilty.

Here is another cool bit with all of the interactive stations they have adds some nice little perks. This is a picture of the charging octopus at one of the stations with a computer, Wii, Playstation, and Xbox360.

No picture, but we all listened to the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones.

W O W... Very cool, very expensive.

Car Wanted

Isaac would like this car. If you are able to find one for him he would be very thankful.

Books a Million

The kids and Amy are off today because of Veteran's Day. It's nice that they get a day together. Amy likes that days that she gets to be 'a mommy'. With her working 5 days a week in clinicals it's hard for her to spend time with the kids like we are all used to. I don't have the full story behind this picture, but it's great.

They are at Books a Million or "BAM!" as I say it. It's a nice bookstore close to the house. It appears to me that that kids are enjoying reading books there. I know that Isaac has been wanting to get the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book. That might be what he is reading. And as I look close at the picture, it looks like Lexy has one of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books too. This is sooooo much better that them watching TV all day.

Web Broadcasting...

I have been playing with UStream.com to try to figure out a way to broadcast some of the kids stuff. I have it figured out and will be showing some of the Syncro Competition on Saturday the 20th. I will also be adding posts, FaceBook, emails,etc on some of the hockey games that I can broadcast. Keep your eyes open, I'll let ya know when we are planning a broadcast. It's kinda fun to film that stuff knowing that it is going straight up on the web.

Here is the link. Book mark it so you can check back with us.

Isaac Playing Goalie

Isaac got to play goalie last night during hockey practice. He has been wanting to ever since the coach said that he would give them the chance to try it. He's knees are very sore today because the pads would slip to the side when he dropped to his knees to block the puck.

Amy said that he had a lot of fun. He said that he stopped a lot of shots from the other kids.

Chef Isaac

Isaac is on a cooking kick. He has been wanting to help cook dinner, or cook it him self. Two weeks ago he wanted me to teach him how to make spaghetti sauce and spaghetti. Well, he remembered it well enough that on Tuesday night he made it again nearly by himself. I was in Ohio and didn't get home until super late. Amy turned Isaac loose in the kitchen. He used hamburger and sausage both in the sauce, pick his own spices from the cabinet, and only used his mom to handle the hot noodle pot. I had some warmed up later, it was good. The boy makes me proud.

So, on Sunday morning there was frost on the ground and the air was brisk. Looked like good walking weather. So after I left Isaac decided that he would have some toast and jam. As he pulled out the Blackberry jam (Thanks again Amanda and Trisha) he said that he thought to himself, "Biscuits would be better than toast." She he got out the recipe box and look for the recipe to make biscuits. He found it and thought it looked like too much to do. In the search he found the 'Raisin Pudding' recipe and thought, "Mmmmm, that sounds good, I'll give that a try." So to work he went. Amy heard him in the kitchen and thought that I had come back from my walk.

He had not found that big container of raisins, so he used the lunch size boxes to get enough. Once he got the 'soda' he wasn't sure which 'soda' it meant, so he woke up Amy to get some help. He had things a little out of order but every think seemed to be right and in the bowl. I helped him finish off the batter and warm up the sauce. We through it in the over and the box was super excited. I told them that this was one of Grandpa Walbeck's favorites, so he call, texted, and picture messages Grandpa to let him know that he had cook Raisin Pudding.

Looks good.

Tastes good..!!

He keeps saying that he wants to learn how to cook more things, with a attitude like that he can cook about anything.

Principal's List

Grades just came out... Our little Lexy made the Principal's List with straight A's.

Great Job Lexy Jo...!!!

Bonus for Lunch

It has taken us some time to figure out how to live like college students again. I still don't think that we have figured it out completely. It's hard to provide the opportunities for the kids that we want to and are used to without the funding that we are used to. One of that thinks that we have done is cut eating out down to a rare occurrence. Amy and I still date once or twice a month and eat out then. But the kids don't get to much and we don't go as a family. The other day one of our day to day favorite West Virginia's asked me to step into his office. He gave me an Applebee's gift card and said, "Take those kids out to lunch." It was fun for all of us to go out. The kids were great.

Lexy ordered a corndog, ate most of the fries, and still got some dessert. Isaac got is FAVORITE... RIBS...!! A full rack, Applebee's doesn't sell a half rack. He even had enough to finish for dinner later that night.

Thank You Mr B...!!!

I better mention that Applebee's has a great Veteran's program for Veteran's Day.

Ferrari on Corridor G

We saw another Ferrari on Corridor G the other day. Isaac was able to snap a couple of pictures. It looks like it was a Ferrari 430. This little car has 483 hp and a top speed of 196 MPH. Ferrari 430
Isaac sure enjoys seeing cars like this, so do I. This one has a price tag of $150k to $200k.