Congrats to our Hockey Daddy!

This is long overdue but congrats go out to the hockey dad of our clan Thomas for receiving the award for Volunteer of the Year!  In case you missed it the number of things he did this year was long...Housing director for AAA Omaha hockey, squirt level commissioner, squirt select team manager and that's just the things he had names for!  He organized many activities and events as well. 

Happy Father's Day

Father's Day wishes go out to the awesome dads of our wonderful hockey sons!  Happy Father's Day Joe, Dave, Chris, Ken and Brian!

More Congrats!

More congrats are in order!  This time it goes out to our other hockey son Isaac who has been drafted to play for the Twin City Steel.  In case you have been following, yes that is the same team as Marshall.  Looks like Dean Hockey will be traveling to the cities this season:)

One last congrats goes out to Isaac for his high school graduation!

Congrats!

Congrats goes out to our Hockey Son Marshall for being tendered with the Twin City Steel!  We are all proud of you!

To All of My Boy's Moms

Happy Mother's Day to the wonderful mom's of all the boys that we have been lucky enough to have come into our lives!  Thank you for sharing your wonderful children with us and letting them become a part of our family!

Teresa, Liz, Julia, Cheryl and Michelle you are amazing women!

The Dean Family

Peter the Great!

When you first meet our family you learn very quickly that we are HUGE Colorado Avalanche fans!  The truth is though that I AM a huge fan and my poor family have been brainwashed to ride the train.  The other thing you quickly learn is that Mommy adores Peter Forsberg, former member of the Avalanche.  On the day we found out Kaiden would be a boy, I would not take no for an answer he would have the same middle name as Peter the Great.  Years later, with honestly no prompting from mom he chose to wear the #21 as his hockey number.  Just a few months later Kaiden announced to us that someday he wanted to be the Captain of the Colorado Avalanche when he grew up.

One evening during the last summer I got up for work and Thomas tells me that we won't be going to Salem in October(our already planned vacation).  He pulls up for me the information for the newly announced retirement ceremony for Peter which just happens to be in October.  He says to me not to argue that we don't have to go, because he doesn't want for me to miss the retirement of my all-time favorite player. 

Just a couple months later I am standing in the entry way of a hockey rink in Minnesota(we had traveled to watch our hockey boys play) trying desperately to buy tickets. When I finally get an attendant they inform me that the event is already sold out.  This was only three minutes after tickets went on sale.  Then she told ME that this was a popular event!  A couple hours later I bit the bullet and bought tickets on StubHub for a more expensive price, but it was worth every penny!

Our trip was quickly upon us and was filled with all sorts of hockey related events.  On Friday we attended the Avalanche practice.  Here's a hint to all hockey fans...its FREE!  Cloudy couldn't believe how fast they all skated for "old" men.  Kaiden enjoyed watching Matt Duchene and Ryan O'Reilly spend the last part of the practice playing baseball with pucks.  Once practice was over we were able to hit the ice ourselves and the kids loved getting to skate in the same place that their team does!


The morning of the retirement ceremony we drove around Denver purchasing pretty much very Avalanche piece of merchandise I could find!  Before hitting the game we strolled around downtown Denver and ate dinner at the Hard Rock. 

The time came though to get to watch them raise Peter's banner to the rafters.  I knew that it would be special to be there with my family but when he walked out on the ice to be honored the feeling was so much more than what I thought it would be.  During the highlight video of his career Kaiden kept saying"Wow that is so cool."  Sometime in the actual ceremony I looked over at Cloudy and she had tears in her eyes.  Whatever their honest reason for coming they knew those moments were important to their mommy and they wanted to share it with me.

The score of the game was unimportant as we left that night.  The kids had an amazing time at their first NHL game.  As we were walking to the car Kaiden asked me if Peter had ever been the Captain of the Avalanche to which I had to tell him that he had been only an alternate captain.  He looked at me and said, "I don't need to be Captain mom.  I'll just be an Ace Captain like Peter."

-Veronica

The Great Move

This may not be entirely true.

Home is where the heart is…or in our case where all the kids, hockey bags, and smelly gear can fit and our old house was just not cutting it anymore.  Veronica and I had been searching during the summer for a possible solution to the fact we had outgrown our home in the four years we had lived there, but we struck out at every turn.  On a whim I was sent to look at a house that I was not impressed by at all – the amount of work it would need to make it a home for me was more than I cared to take on.  However, Veronica saw it and was ready to move.  The size was a major selling point not to mention a family room with a fireplace, and 5 nice sized bedrooms the smallest being larger than any of the room at the old house.

At that point I was set off on a mission, a mission to paint and get the house ready in 2 weeks for the big move.  Every wall in the house was the exact same color – a cross between honey and burlap so not something we could live with or very long at all.  I started in the hockey boys’ bedrooms – the first I was out to be wild and crazy so I painted two of the walls orange and two slate grey walls with black and white trim throughout the room.  Cloudya still holds to the fact that the grey is actually lavender – she may be right but I keep telling myself it is grey and someday I will convince everyone that I am right.  Next came the bedroom that one day will hopefully be a guest bedroom leaving the walls the same color I added vertical striping in blue.  The stripes started as something I thought would be cool but in the end I realized my yard stick was not straight and I had to make some adjustments adding to the work load.

Kaiden's bed Avs and Sharkstuff everywhere

The kids’ rooms became my next task Kaiden’s was easy enough as he wanted his room to look the exact same way it had before so the Colorado Avalanche bedroom was reborn.  Shaded ice took on the wall color and two wide stripes in maroon and blue blocking in by black stripes made of hockey tape.  Decorations were added and a hockey bedroom any Avs Fan can be proud of came to life.   

Cloudya's overly colorful room

Now if you know Cloudya she is all girl and totally wild when it comes to what she wants – so her room looks somewhat like a fairy attacked a paint store.  She has walls painted purple, green, and a Caribbean blue with everything trimmed out in pink accents – like I said a lot of color.  There is no doubt the room belongs to a princess – just you would never know it is a HOCKEY PRINCESS.

While I love painting by that point I was kind of beat up and running out of time; packing during the day, painting and unpacking at night takes a lot out of you.  The only rooms that have been painted since the move is the Family Room and entrance of the house, both Veronica has picked some very bold colors.  A deep purple for the Family Room and a nautical blue for the entrance into the house, making both of these rooms my favorite.  As time moves I am working on pieces here and there and adding new décor to the house in every room and I will eventually be done. 

Veronica was able to see something more than I had, which is often the case as I am more of a realist.  The house is coming together and everyone can actually spread out and have a bit of space which is by far the most important thing.  I have my fingers crossed that we don’t outgrow this house too soon. Besides if we do the poor soul that moves in here will never get the stench of hockey bags out of the garage no matter what they do – I know I have tried.