Saskatoon Road Trip Final Report

It was a great weekend. It was fun getting to know the other girls and their families better. They should have these trips at the beginning of the season. It was a great bunch of girls and their families are wonderful.

After the Championship game we all went out to celebrate at Tony Romas.

We hardly recognized the girls as they went from this....

To this....

(they clean up nicely)

Here's the place we stayed at.

Do the words "Budget" and "Luxury" go together?

When we drove up we had our reservations and started to talk about some of the dives we had stayed in through the years. Plus it was in an interesting part of town. (the dad who booked the place admitted that when he saw it he thought that he was going to be in trouble with all of the other families - this was the only place in town that had rooms available when he tried to book - that's not a good sign either)

But to our surprise it actually quite nice inside. The rooms had been renovated and it was a completely smoke free building.

Its the first place I've stayed it that had LCD TVs.

We were worried when we got our room because it had the outside door. I thought it wouldn't be good for our kids to be running outside to go from room to room especially where were we. Our door was on the back of the building and when we checked in there was a guy dumpster diving not far away. But to my surprise when we opened the door we found that there was an inside door as well. Its the first room I've had that has had a front and back door. It made it easy for loading and unloading because we could park right by the outside door.

Jamie by our "Front" door.

We went to Church in Mike and Petrea's ward. It was small version of some of the churches in Calgary. It was a nice meeting and it was nice to see Mike and Petrea once last time before we headed out. Next time we see them they will be Mommy Petrea and Daddy Michael.

Now for the drive home. I need to set this up.

All you Canadians have to agree that there's something about Canadian TV that makes it look Canadian. I don't know what it is. They can film movies in Canada but they don't look Canadian, but you film a TV series in Canada there is something "Canadian" about it. I can't really explain it but I'm sure you all know what I mean.

That wasn't my point - Let me try to get to the point. There is one Canadian TV series that I really enjoy. Its Corner Gas (www.cornergas.com). Its about a gas station in a small town in Saskatchewan. I like it because I grew up in a small town in Alberta - lots of similarities - plus everyone knows someone who is like the characters in this show.

I'm still not to my point - but I'm getting there. The Corner Gas theme song - Not A Lot Goin' On, starts with the lyrics


You can tell me that your dog ran away
then tell me that it took three days
I’ve heard every joke

That's referring to a classic Saskatchewan joke. My friend Gord grew up in Saskatchewan. He used to say that Saskatchewan is so flat that if you stand on a chair you can watch your dog run away for 3 days.

Ok - here's my point - its NOT a joke. We took pictures on our drive home from Saskatoon to Calgary. (Judy said it was like driving between Picture Butte and Granum - for 6 hours)

I think you could easily watch your dog run away for 3 days. You be the judge.

These following pictures were taken on the drive home at random times - even though it may look like it - they are NOT all the same picture . (Sorry about the dirty windshield.)

I didn't expect to see this. We were driving through a small town and I actually turned around to take the picture. I wonder which Iron Chef runs this place.

Had to take a picture of this - a curve in the road

There was more snow as we got close to Calgary. There was about 6 inches on new snow in Calgary on Sunday morning.

The girls watched movies and slept so the drive went quickly (as quickly as 6 hours can)

A very nice weekend with a nice souvenir

Saskatoon Road Trip Day 2

The girls played the first game at noon.

They won 61 - 21. They only had 14 points at half time. (actually 16, but the official scorer only had 14 - but we found why in the second half. We watched her and saw that she was texting on her phone and not even watching the game.

(Good thing it wasn't close)

In the entire season the most they ever scored in a half was 30 points. They blew that record out of the water with 47 points in the second half of this game.

Jamie & Jenelle discussing strategy

Jamie with the ball

Jenelle driving - notice how much bigger they are then she is.

Winning put us in the championship game.

Between games we went to visit Mike and Petrea and they fed us.

Thanks Mike and Petrea - It was oishii!

Iron Chef

While we were there Candi called

We headed back the gold medal game. It was against the Saskatoon City Champions. They came out with matching bandanas and war paint on their faces. They seemed very confident.

The gold medal game - notice the face paint and bandana.

There was great fan support

Mike brought his camera and took some pictures so I didn't take to many. I won't get those from him until tomorrow. I'll add some later.

The game had some really interesting officiating. We had 3 girls foul out and one that had 7 or 8 fouls but was still in the game because the score sheet didn't have all her fouls.

Jamie "Takahacki" fouled out again. She probably only had 2 real fouls. Her 5th called foul was one of those plays I wish I had on video. A girl had a breakaway and Jamie caught up to her and just after she released the ball on the layup Jamie swatted the ball away and slammed it against the backboard. All Ball and she wasn't even close to the player - oh well. It was one of those games where it was the ref's game and not the player's game. Our team couldn't breath on the other girls without getting called. But unless they tackled one of our players they wouldn't get called. We had one girl with a goose egg on her forehead from an elbow. Another had a bloody nose from an elbow. Another got an elbow in the jaw and bit her tongue. Another got 2 hand pushed and rolled her ankle and so on and so on. No calls on any of them. Ironically it changed in the second half of the 4th quarter and they started calling fouls on the other team. Their best 2 players got fouled out.

Emily and Jamie were the first two to foul out but were still right there encouraging their teammates.

They were great cheerleaders. Brittney (sitting on the bench) was also fouled out. Jenelle was on the bench for this picture - she hadn't fouled out.

They held on to win the championship game

The Championship Team

Our Champions

End of Day 2 for me.

The girls are still having fun in one of the other rooms. They are doing facial masks and watching "Twilight"

Tomorrow we will go the church with Mike and Petrea and then start the long trek home.

Saskatoon Road Trip

Here I am sitting in the Riviera Motor Inn in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Jenelle's basketball team had a basketball tournament. In Saskatchewan the age groups are a bit different than in Calgary. The teams here are a year older. So Jamie and one of her friends were invited to fill in for a couple of the girls who were away for spring break - they played for this coach last year.

We left around 7:30 this morning - Jamie, Jenelle, Judy and me plus two other players Emily and Kim.

We were told it was about a 7 hour drive but its really just over 6.

The girls watched first watch High School Musical 3 (thanks to Candi for letting us borrow her laptop).

But most of the trip the girls were like this

We did make a couple stops. One was to get gas and stop for a bio break. The other was to get bottles of water out of the back of the van.

Ironically we stopped to get the water in this ismall town that had an Old Railroad Water Tower museum. Its where trains stopped to get water.

We all arrived safely and went to the school to scout the teams the girls would be playing.

Here's the team (less one girl who was visiting her uncle)

This was a day of firsts.

The first time most of us had been in Saskatchewan.

(I've been here before but have never driven)

It was the first time 2 of my daughters have played on the same team at the same time.

It was the first time 2 of my daughters started in the same game.

Here are Jamie and Jenelle right after the opening tipoff.

(Notice the great position both Jamie and Jenelle have on their checks - too bad the ball was tipped the other way)

Here's proof - Jamie (45) and Jenelle (35) on the court at the same time.

I wish I had some action shots of them playing but there wasn't enough light for my camera.

The game was close until the 3rd quarter when our team took off. They had only scored 15 points by half time. They came to life in the 3rd quarter and scored 19 points.

Another first - two Takahashi's fouled out of the same game.

Jamie fouled out in the 3rd quarter (second time in her life)

Jenelle fouled out in the 4th quarter (second time in her life - first was last week)

There was one call where Jamie actually did foul a player (she says that only 2 were "real" fouls) but the ref gave the foul to Jenelle. So Jamie got some extra playing time - but Jenelle got fouled out with 4 "real" fouls. I wonder if was because they looked alike and they had similar numbers (35 and 45). It reminds me of when Sheila and Sharon played basketball. I remember one game when one was #12 and the other was #21. Sharon was running down the court by the bench saying she had 6 fouls - but the score sheet only said 4. But the scoresheet said Sheila had 2 when she had none. There are rumors that one would take all the foulshots because she was a better freethrow shooter and no one ever caught on.

The fouled out players don't look too upset.

I guess it helps to be 15 points ahead with only a couple minutes left.

After the game - they are now known as the "Takahacki's"

There were family from Saskatoon that came to the game as well.

They came late but in time to see Jamie get her fifth foul.

Michael and Petrea came over to our hotel for a brief visit after the game. We enjoyed visiting with them.

The two hacks

End of Day 1 in Saskatoon.

They play again tomorrow at noon.

Happy Birthday Candi - Part 2!

I just have to give an update on a couple things that happened today.

Remember my report on the cheap glasses from zennioptical.com? Well Candi also heard of another place - clearlycontacts.ca (its the same place that AK mentioned). This place sells name brand glasses for around $40. I used them to get contacts for Jamie once. I ordered them about 3 in the afternoon one day and they arrived at our door by 10 the next morning. That's good service but that's not the story I wanted to tell.

Candi ordered a pair of Joseph Marc glasses from this place just over a week ago and they just happened to arrive in the mail today. An unexpected birthday present.

So what do you get for $40 (actually $38 plus $8 shipping)?

The glasses come in a cloth pouch that is in a nice case. There is also cleaning cloth and an eyeglass screwdriver.

So how does it compare to Zenni Optical? Candi paid $19US (about $23 Can) for her expensive pair at Zenni. With Clearlycontacts.ca she paid $38 Can. These glasses are name brand. The case is nicer and you get the pouch for your glasses plus the little screwdriver. The quality is good for both. I don't think you can go wrong either way. So now Candi has 3 pairs of glasses and she's spent less than $70.

Modeling the new glasses.


Just as we were taking picture of her new glasses the doorbell rang.

It was someone delivering some flowers.

Who are these from?

She found this note.

We were all confused at first. Who is Mary?

But as she read the message again there were hints and she figured it out.

I know who Mary is! Its Savannah!

(you have to check Angie's blog here for the story about Mary)

She couldn't stop laughing and crying

When she finally stopped laughing she had to wipe away the tears.

Thanks Mary.....I mean Savannah

And as an added bonus on her birthday they let her off early from work at the hospital. She was supposed to be there until 10pm or so but was finished around 6pm.

Hope you had a good one Candi!