Cooper's Holiday Hockey Tournament ~Crabtown Showdown Baltimore, MD December 27th-29th

Cooper played in a hockey tournament in the Baltimore area. We repacked after getting home from MN then Jordan, Cooper and I headed out on the road to Baltimore. I am thankful to a friend who took Braedyn for a couple days. Charlie had to work and could not go on the trip.
I was very nervous making this trip by myself and driving that far with two kids. I am very thankful for my new car and technology! I was able to meet another family to caravan up. The car ride was wonderful as far as the boys go, they were so well behaved! It was the traffic that drove me insane. I hate traffic and we were stuck in it for a very long time. I could never live in a big city again! It is a drive that is supposed to take around 5 hours. It took a little over 7! We saw a really bad car accident were two cars were engulfed in flames after crossed the Washington Harbor drawbridge which they thought the bridge was cool.

I was very happy to arrive at the hotel and so were the boys! I then had to unload the car on the cart by myself and haul it up to the room (that is usually Charlie's job) and those dang things are hard to push! I can only imagine what I looked like. We got checked in and ate some dinner. We had an early morning game.

Tournament started for us on Friday at 7 am. We played the Bowie Bruins, a local team at their rink in Bowie, MD. They were a very good team. They beat us 12-1. The highlight and what made the crappy drive worth it was Cooper scoring! He had to fight for it as he was being hooked almost the entire way. He shot it Hugh and it went in off if goalie's glove! I instantly jumped up and hugged the person next to me and luckily it was another hockey mom who knows my excitement!  He was so excited and mom was proud! It's always so cute when the team all piles up and gives each other a big hug!!

congrats!!

Yes!

finally getting away from the guy

going in for it
 

Then it was my first experience having to navigate back to hotel by myself! The person I followed told me about google maps and how it works in my car with Bluetooth. It was great! The boys acted like it was such an accomplishment every time we made it back to the rink by myself! 

The team at the showdown skills competition

The evening was Olympic skills competition and while I was getting Cooper ready Jordan fell asleep and then I got ready and Cooper fell asleep with all his gear on. I almost just let him sleep and forget the competition. Great I have to leave in 10 minutes and he is not going to be happy when I wake him up and I can't carry both of them to the car! The competition was interesting to watch And Coop did good in the event he was put in.


tired boys!

 

silly crab



Abby and Sharon, Me and boys in Laurel, MD

The next morning we got to sleep in a little and we had a 10 am game in Laurel, MD. They played hard against a well matched team finally. We should have won that one. It was a close game and cooper hustled his butt off. He also had local fans come watch! I was I happy to see our friends the Drells. Warren was my dad's best friend from the Navy and was best man in their wedding! His wife and daughter came to Coop's game! It was so fun to see them it's been 20 years or so. Her boys grew up playing at that rink so it brought back memories and just seeing them did too! Abby surprised and flattered Coop by asking for his autograph and told him remember I was the first to get your autograph when you are famous one day...he turned red and signed it! Was a fun morning! 



We went back to hotel while some others went out for lunch and also went sightseeing. I was not going to attempt that. I was just happy to make it back to the hotel and Cooper was tired. They had fun swimming and playing knee hockey but mostly Cooper just hung out and relaxed in the room. He was saving his energy. They played again that evening against another very good team that wasn't evenly matched which is par for the course this year. It was a good thing he saved his energy as that game was played on the Olympic sized rink! It looked huge! They fought hard and never gave up. Cooper is always going hard.

We had the last game on Sunday morning against the team we had evenly matched up with but late in second and third period the score got away from them. We were tied and going back and forth in first and beginning of second period. Cooper played well again. He had to sit in the penalty box for tripping the goalie while one of his teammates were scoring and so the goal was taken away which he felt really bad about. But it didn't cause him to let up. He plowed over a guy with the puck at the blue line full on and they both wiped out and Coop got up and skated away like take that as his teammate was able to get the puck on that play. He is one tough little guy! We lost that one too....so yes we lost all of our games but we came away with some great memories.

In the box~Sometimes it happens...

 

After the games ended I thought I was following that same family home but their plans changed so here I was very nervous to go alone! I almost started crying...I rely on my husband for a lot and this was something I knew I could probably do I was just very uncomfortable about it. We had lunch and We took off with the help of google map and Bluetooth! I did it....we just took it mile by mile thru the city and traffic but it really is a straight shot home on 495 south to 95 south to 85 south. I was very proud of myself! I did it and it only took 5 hours and 20 minutes! Cooper commented on how proud of me he was for making it home! I should give myself more credit! 

I am happy to finally be home after being gone 14 days and slept one night at home in that mix. I am very thankful to have one more week of break with the boys to enjoy some down time at home! 

I won't be driving that again for a very long time or ever again will be fine with me!