Hockey – October onwards

Since it’s started to get colder here we’ve been introduced to hockey – ice hockey, that is, for anyone who didn’t grow up in Canada or the US! It’s lots of fun, even when you’re absolutely useless at it like me! Also funny to watch… Hockey is definitely the biggest sport in Canada, in terms of people playing it themselves as well as the biggest league sport – there are lots of leagues too.

Most of the friends play hockey, so there are plenty of games for us to go and watch as well as join in (the less serious ones at least!). There are also professional games to go and watch, ranging from local leagues to youth leagues up to the National Hockey League (picture all the tickets sold out for every game about a month in advance, including all the $200 tickets…Every game.)

With a few of the young friends around Didsbury, we’ve hired out the small ice rink in town a couple of times so far (about a third of the size of the regular full size rink in the same building), and had a good skate around and game of hockey. We’ve also got to join in a couple of games with a few more people, both in Weyburn in Saskatchewan and in Calgary where they play on Saturday mornings. They play some more serious games on Tuesday and Thursday nights, where you’d want to be pretty decent to actually play! Everyone over here seems to have hockey gear, and it’s not really a sport you can join in half heartedly – it’s Ok to play a casual game with just a few people not playing seriously, but for anything more than that you definitely want some padding! So to learn to play you really need to buy a few things… That’s Lawrie’s excuse anyway J - now with knee/shin pads, elbow pads, hockey helmet with a face shield, hockey socks to hold the shin pads in place, and padded pants… Although he held back on the shoulder/chest padding and jersey that everyone else has! It seems you REALLY don’t want to get hit with the puck, someone else’s stick, or the ice!

Brett, Colter, Elton

Lawrie

Sherwin & Patrick (both first time on the ice), Andy, Brett

Nicole, Lawrie, Colter

Robert, Joel, Lawrie

Joel, Robert, Nicole

Sherwin, Patrick (Phillipinos who work for Brett)

David, Brent, Tim, Robert, Joel, Lawrie

Robert, Lawrie, David, Joel, Nicole

It’s really amazing to watch how the good players skate – it’s so much faster than running around, and they can really sprint! But also, they can stop so much faster than when running (full pelt to an immediate stop, by skidding to the side and carving up some ice!), and head back in the other direction straight away, as well as turn around and skate backwards while watching the puck, and stop immediately when going backwards too – it’s all about stopping and changing direction super quickly, which is not so possible for us so far! It’s like some of them were born on skates… So it’s all about the puck and the hockey game for them, without even thinking about the fact that they’re skating instead of running around, whereas the skating is a big part of it for us!

We went to see a WHL (Western Hockey League) game in late October, and saw the home team, the Red Deer Rebels, lose 4-0 to the Edmonton Oil Kings… Amazing to watch though!! Also nice to have front row seats for only about $20, compared to the scary prices for the NHL (National – includes Canada and the US). So we were pretty close to some of the action, when the players were checking each other into the glass right in front of us!

Starting line up for the Red Deeer Rebels

We hope to try and play a lot more hockey while we’re here, and get a bit better, hopefully get the stopping down pat! Lots of chances to try anyway J

Saskatoon, SK, and Wainwright, AB – October 15th to 17th

From Weyburn we headed to Regina, about an hour away, and had dinner, before deciding to find somewhere along the road to sleep as we didn’t feel like driving the full way to Saskatoon that night. Surprisingly, it wasn’t too cold in the car, although it was pretty chilly outside! So with a massive amount of sleep the next morning, we felt much better about the day ahead! For a while at least…

After driving 2-3 hours, we got into Saskatoon in time for a very late breakfast/normal time for lunch, after driving what must have been the long way through town, and not being able to find anywhere to eat. By the time we made the most of the free internet and our food, it was mid afternoon, and we were feeling tired again, plus we couldn’t get hold of anyone in Saskatoon, so we had a nap in the car in a park, before making dinner plans.

We had dinner and stayed the night with Tyler and Sara Stewart, another of Robert’s nephews, so we are slowly making our way through meeting the family! Turns out they’ve been to Wollongong before, and have also stayed with the Martins in Christchurch, so once again, it’s a small world among the friendly folk! Tyler and Sara have a ‘little’ boy who is 2, Tristan, although comes across as so much older, and a little baby who was less than 2 weeks old, Emerson – Tyler’s younger sister Rebecca also dropped by to say hello, which was great! We’d met her on the weekend in Weyburn, so had hoped to catch up.

Tyler and Sara, Tristan & Emerson

The next day we met up with Rebecca’s cousin Christine (this time not a Stewart), who we’d also met in Weyburn, and headed to the river in Saskatoon to see a little of the sights. There are beautiful fall colours near the river, and lots of colourful leaves falling from the trees as you watch, and it was pretty chilly… Saskatoon is apparently the city of bridges, with a high number of bridges per capita, and some were pretty cute and old bridges!

Christine & Nicole

Cute railway bridge in Saskatoon

It's fall! Leaves flying off the trees...

Awesome fall colours in a tree lines street

We met up with Rebecca for a delicious lunch at a cute little café called ‘Calories’, which is well known for its desserts, then headed on for the afternoon drive to Wainwright, where we stayed that night.

Out for lunch - Rebecca, Christine, Nicole, Lawrie

out for lunch - Rebecca, Chrstine

As it was Wednesday night, there was a gospel meeting in Wainwright, which was lovely, and we got to have supper with the workers beforehand, as well as some time with them afterwards and the next day! We stayed with the parents of Logan Truman (previously lived in Australia, and now lives in San Francisco where we stayed with him!), Terrill and Deb – it was so great to meet them both, and Logan’s sister Chelan too, and to see where Logan grew up! Chelan is a builder running her own business, and showed us through a couple of homes she has built/is in the process of building – they were pretty amazing inside!!

Saskachewan highway...

The workers - Adrienne and Carmine

Adrienne with her parents, also their for the night

The Trumans - Terrill, Deb & Chelan

Chelan

It turns out that the Trumans raised lynxes when the kids were young, and even raised a few kittens as tame! But that ended a long time ago, and now they have one of them (the non tame ones!) stuffed in their living room, and another pelt on the wall – they’re a decent size!

Lynx

They also have a bunch of horses (it used to be a ranch), and an awesome African Grey parrot called Harley (very similar to Mambo who we met in Colorado with Blake and Rachel!).

Harley

Although Lawrie insists that he hates cats, he felt in love with the adorable little kitten that the Trumans have, so I had to fight him to have a cuddle myself! We were pretty tempted to take it back with us… J

Lawrie's new favourite...

He was much cuter than this,,,

Weyburn, Saskatchewan – Thanksgiving weekend – October 11th to 14th

From Pincher Creek we drove all the way to Weyburn in southern Saskatchewan, where we would be spending the weekend with many other people! It seems that every Thanksgiving weekend there is a weekend organised for heaps and heaps of young people from various places in Canada, mainly Alberta and Saskatchewan, including duck hunting, hockey, and lots of other fun things! It’s held at Robert’s brother’s house in Weyburn, so we met LOTS more Stewarts, including some of Robert’s brothers, and many MANY nieces and nephews! Not to mention also lots of people who weren’t related!

Famous teepee just out of Medicine Hat, Alberta, on the way through

Sights on the way to Weyburn

Saskatchewan... Directions involve 'Turn off after the hill, or the bend'

We saw a few familiar faces from New Zealand too – cool to catch up with Jane Freeman, Brodie and Blake Helms, and Savanna Blair, who we’d finally met in Pincher Creek!

To start off the weekend there was a hockey game in town – although not many were fully geared up, to me it was a pretty fast game, with people rotating on and off pretty quickly! Lots of range in skill level, from some really good Canadians through to some Aussies and Kiwis! Lots of fun had by all! J

Lining up for hockey - Jane

Lawrie

Early the next morning a whole bunch went duck hunting, but as we’d stayed up til a ridiculous time the night/morning before, we passed on that one… Not to mention we need a rather expensive license to shoot anyway (you don’t mess with poaching here…) – so although it would have been fun, we gave it a miss, and slept in a little instead, as did quite a few people by the look of it! There were quite a few more people who had arrived overnight, so there was quite a crowd of young ones!

Apparently it was pretty muddy when they went out shooting...

Some of the spoils from one trip...

Through the day on Saturday we played a bunch of different games inside, and people went on various little duck hunts nearby, some clay pigeon (‘skeet’) shooting in the yard, and did some pretty impressive trampolining tricks, particularly the Kiwis! That night we headed to the nearby Junior High school gym to play some basketball and volleyball, followed by dodgeball! Lots of fun, but I didn’t take any photos…

Shooting 'skeet' with awesome 'Fall' colours

Brodie on the trampoline

Proud 'Uncle' Wade, all the way from Australia

The 'Sign' game

After another too late night, we had an amazing meeting on Sunday with SO many young ones in a massive meeting, then a gospel meeting in the afternoon which was even better! Even more people came back to the Stewart’s place for supper that night, and we played some more games inside and heard the testimony of Leah, the younger worker, which was pretty special!

The next day we were all heading off back home, but not before… The Hunger Games! Basically, the name says it all (if you’ve read the book…), we played a ‘fight to the death’, with ‘death’ being a splotch of paint bigger than a ‘loony’ (dollar coin), or having your plastic bead necklace broken or torn off. We started off in a circle, than ran to find paint weapons such as a paint can, brush, sponge, or tennis ball or something else we could cover in paint then throw… There were some areas that were paint free areas (‘death’ by beads only!) too. There were also a couple of ‘immunity masks’ hidden around, which meant that if wearing or carrying one, you couldn’t ‘die’ by paint. The games went on for a while although many of us got painted pretty quickly (especially by those who found the masks!) – then it was pretty funny watching the last few fight it out! Carma Lewis won at the end, in a battle that had to end by paint on the face or tearing of beads – and a fight it was!

With the immunity mask for paint...

Jeremy about to lose to a girl!

The aftermath - Taylor, Tya, Jo, Mike

The aftermath - Jenna

The aftermath - Tya, Jo, Savanna, Jenna

The finale - Josh vs. Carma

The finale - Josh vs. Carma

The victory - Carma

Then it was discovered that only some of the paint was water soluble, so there was much washing of faces and hair! And after another wonderful lunch, and saying goodbye and thank you to our wonderful hosts, Brad & Deanna, we headed off towards our next destination – Saskatoon!

Brad & Deanna