Hockey...just call us one big family.

So it is no secret that we are a hockey family. Mark and I have always been fans of hockey, but it wasn't until our town had a hockey teams of our own to cheer for that we started to understand what "Hockey Family" really means. (FYI: I have no idea if other sports have similar "families" so I can't honestly say this only happens with hockey.) But over the past few years, we have been lucky to find our own little spot with our new "family."

The hockey teams in our town have players from all over, which means most of the players are hours away from their real families. Yes, sometimes that's great, being hours away from your parents. Other times...you just want home. So we have opened our house to give them a "family like" place to come to just to be around family. Because I would love it if a nice family would open their home to my kids when they venture off years from now. (I am done using quotes around family...because we love our hockey boys like they ARE family.)

Here is a picture from Thanksgiving last year, during No-Shave November, Mo-vember (whatever you want to call it) that is why the cute one has a mustache! Our original hockey boy spent the day with us and as you can see, fit in perfectly with our crazy family.

 We do our best to do non-hockey things with our boys, so every year we get to bowl with our hockey team. Our new hockey boy this year, is really good with the kids...both Megan and Joey love seeing him. It is going to be fun the next few years as they really get to know each other. (Side Note: Megan and Joey loved our original hockey boy too...but he left us. Luckily, we still hear his name everyday, when Joey plays hockey around the house.)

Nope, Megan and Joey don't like our hockey boy at all. It was so hard to get a picture of them together :)

 As if the hockey boys weren't nice enough, they even take time after their practice to talk with the young 8U hockey players. Seriously...I can't say enough nice things about all of the hockey players we have met along the way. Don't get me wrong, on the ice, they might be tough and "verbal" but off the ice, they are as nice as can be. That is why our kids and their friends, love our local hockey players.

 A couple of the boys came over the other night just to be "home" for a bit. Grace, Zeke, Megan and Joey, made sure that hockey boy 1 and hockey boy 2, knew what it's like to have younger siblings. Not sure if the hockey boys were playing hide and seek because they wanted to play or if they were trying to escape the constant screeching noise that the kids were making. Either way, it was a fun evening and I can't wait to see how our crazy hockey family grows over the years.

So when we say that we are a hockey family, for us, it is so much more than just being a hockey fan. (Yes, if you're thinking I left out names...I did that for a reason.)