Ice Ninjas Charity Tournament 2015

For the fourth time in the last 5 years our Ice Ninjas hockey team has hosted a charity hockey tournament.

After taking a year off last year, due to our usual rink being refurbished, we came back with a few changes to our standard tournament structure: We moved rinks from New Sarepta to Josephburg, and changed our main charity from the Stollery to supporting research into Rett syndrome. Nothing against the Stollery (it's a great hospital) but one of our teammates has a special connection to Rett syndrome and as a relatively newly diagnosed disease it can use as much support in awareness and research as possible.

Rett syndrome (RTT) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by the loss of spoken language and hand use, coupled with the development of distinctive hand stereotypies.  This disorder is seen in infancy and occurs almost exclusively in females

The tournament ended up being quite a success with our team raising approximately $10,000 for charity.

For more information on the tournament this year and into the future click the following link.
http://iceninjascharitytournament.com/

Picture highlights from this years tourney below:

 Silent Auction Items:

Beer Pong

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50/50 Shoot-out Competition

Volunteers

Hockey

Looking pretty in my pink jersey

See everyone again next year!

Long Weekend Holiday in Canmore

Over the last couple of years Canmore has been Chrissy and my weekend getaway destination in the Rockies. For the Family Day weekend in February we decided to invite the Fosters out with us to generally just hang out.

Originally we thought that we would get some cross country skiing in but the weather didn't really cooperate and we were treated to unseasonably warm conditions. More time I guess for taking in the sights of the downtown and sitting out on patios.

Canmore Winter Festival - The only snow in sight

We became so adept at ordering and drinking beer we thought it best to just cut out the middleman and visit the Grizzly Paw Brewery. 

The John Black

Color coordination of clothing purely accidental

After a valentines day supper in the condo and a bunch more booze we realised just how lazy we were being and decided that the following day we would do something active.

No longer excited by the prospect of skiing at the Nordic Centre, or better said; not wanting to embarrass ourselves among the Scandinavian level prowess of the skiers at the Nordic Centre we decided on a quick trip up to Lake Louise.

As we headed deeper into the Rockies the amount of snow multiplied in triplicate and it seemed like we were back into winter. With the waterfall near the Chateau Lake Louise as our destination we joined the masses of people on the frozen lake.

Chris, ever the romantic and in the middle of nature, professed his love for his beautiful bride and Tara responded with an oh so typical modern working woman answer ;)

Enjoying the weather and the company we decided to continue on after the waterfall along a wooded path for another kilometre before reaching a dead end and turning back. This return though offered us a great view of the hotel.

Arriving back at the hotel we paused for some pictures with the ice fortress before searching out more refreshments.

Before we were ready the weekend was over and we were travelling back to Edmonton. The Foster's turned out to be fantastic travel partners.  Perhaps we'll have to see if they would be up for a couples trip to a more warm destination next time.