2008 Year in Review
Well, we had some ups and downs, but 2008 was pretty good year all around. Here are some of the highlights!
Winter 2008
It wasn’t a cold winter in King City, but we had more snow over the course of the winter than we’ve had since we’ve lived here (some 15 years). I gotta say, I still love the snow.
January - We had a hockey tournament with Sean in London, and had a great time. We put in the largest rink we’ve ever had – about 55 feet by 25 feet. I didn’t think it would take (we had torrential rain in early February), but it lasted through the end of March. I believe the neighbours think I’m crazy.
February- In place of a birthday party, Sean and two friends (from his hockey team) elected to have a skating day to collect contributions for the local food bank. The result was a resounding success, including about thirty-five happy kids, several hundred pounds of food for the King food bank – and a bunch of kids who are starting to get it.
We also squeezed in some skiing at Horseshoe. The kids are doing pretty well – we need to do more of that.
Spring 2008
March - Season 21 of Geek Hockey came to an end – in the usual way. Oh well, there is always next year.
I had a business trip to Paris – left three feet of snow, to see blossoms along the Seine. The family is still bitter.
April - Ally’s junior girls basketball team went to the York Region finals after winning the area championship. They had a SMOKING season! Of course, the video meant I had to buy a new quad-core computer for editing 
May- I spent a few days in sunny San Antonio, with enough time to actually walk around and see a few sights! I was also Berlin (Kopenick) for a few days – first time there.
I attended the annual “Old Geek Hockey Squad” training camp, to celebrate the end of Season 21. Worked on our golf swing, but not much hockey!
Ally met her favourite author – Erin Hunter – writer of the “Warrior” series of books, stories of cats living in the woods (perhaps hunting the bunnies of “Watership Down”). She and her friends were beside themselves.
Summer
A busy summer that was affected by Sean’s busted landing gear, but we managed to have a good one nonetheless. I had a blast coaching four on four pond hockey. Sean played a few games at the beginning, and managed to return for the last couple of games after having his cast removed.
June - A brief but exciting trip to Killbear Park ends up with Sean falling out of a tree (what else is a ten-year old boy gonna do I guess?) and broke his left leg in two places. Our camping trip turned into a three hour visit, followed by a night in Parry Sound.
My brother and his family visited for a couple of days on their way to visit my Mom in Marathon. We all went to a Blue Jays game (the Jays beat up on Cincinnati), and we stayed up far too late.
July - Stuck around the house mostly, and found cast-friendly things to do with Sean. I gotta tell ya, for such an active kid, he dealt with the six weeks of downtime in a pretty mature way. Ally was great with him too, pushing his wheelchair at the Zoo, and taking pretty good care of him.
August - We had a great week camping at Silent Lake, surviving the rain, attending a wolf howl at the Haliburton Highlands Wilderness Preserve, and partaking of the “Walk in the Clouds”.
Darlene and Ally went back for a girl’s weekend later in the month. This included rock climbing, canoeing, and night hikes – very cool.
We also got reacquainted with some old friends, Sean, Theo, Roan and Riley. Good to have them close again. I just need to talk Sean into the Pukaskwa Coastal trail while our knees are still up to it….
Fall 2008
September - Second trip to Paris this year, including visiting many of the sites on foot, and spending two days at an amazing conference center (built in the 1500s).
October - Ally makes the volleyball team for the first time – they had only moderate success, but it was a great experience for Ally – and, to paraphrase Arnie, “She’ll be back!”.
We also spent Thanksgiving at the Delawana Inn in Honey Harbour, for the third time. Sean managed to put his foot down beside a rattlesnake, and that was enough excitement for us.
November - Sean and Nobleking Peewee 1 attended a hockey tournament in Wasaga Beash, winning the B pool, and having a blast in general.
December - A busy month, as always, including a week-long trip to Marathon to visit my Mom, Christmas dinner for twelve at our house, followed by a three day hockey tournament in Niagara Falls – and with a flooded basement and blown-down tree on our return. Not the way we wanted to end the year, but what the heck….
Work
It was a busy year at work as well, including lots of travel – 75,000 air miles (not so much), 41 flight legs (which was plenty), including a Tuesday day trip to Dallas in March – with a canceled return flight to Toronto, resulting in a desperate red-eye through Las Vegas so I could make it home to shovel out the house, go visit a customer, and then get on a flight to Paris on Wednesday afternoon…but far be it from me to complain, as I had great trips to San Antonio, Berlin, and Paris (twice!).