sorry (again) for the crappy photo. this one was taken with my phone as i was rushing past. it's blurry but it's a visual to go along with my story. 

this weekend was the pro-hockey celebrity hunt in our town. we bring in a bunch of professional hockey players and coaches to hunt pheasants and it's a huge fundraiser for south dakota hockey. the husband is on the committee and was in charge of lining up all the volunteer vehicles and drivers. getting the actual event organized is a pain in the butt, but i think they all have a good time the day of the event. most of these dudes are too busy playing or coaching hockey to have ever done much hunting, so this is a real treat for them. 

here is the funny part. well, there are several funny parts. the first one is that the husband decided to drive these pros around in our old explorer so our new vehicle wouldn't get all trashed out. i was a little worried that the explorer would not cooperate. 

it did not.

the husband had dave brooks (brother of herb, the miracle coach from the 1980 Olympic team) in the vehicle when the battery died. it wouldn't have been so bad except the battery died while they were changing tires on another vehicle...for the second time. these pros COULD have tossed up their hands and gotten angry at the yahoo drivers like i'm betting some pro athletes would have, but they were so gracious and ended up having a ball. the husband sat by dave at dinner and the guy is gem, a 100% genuine sweetheart. i loved him and all his great hockey stories. we kept trying to get the boys to get his autograph but since he's old school and they had never heard of him, they were WAYYYY more interested in chasing tim thomas around all night.  if you don't know who tim thomas is, give him a google. he's one of the best hockey goalies EVER, and has won every award to prove it including the Stanley Cup. (his story rocks. he got turned down time and time and time again, didn't even get drafted to play college hockey. one of the older pros at the event stood up and said "the first time i saw timmy play i said 'this guy is never going to make it in the pros.'" i love stories like that.) 

anyway. back to dave brooks. the boys were not interested UNTIL he got up on stage and they started talking about all his accomplishments as a pro hockey player. when he started telling stories about herb, every little boy in the room wanted his autograph. and he was such a nice guy about it. he ended up being my favorite pro of the night, especially after he put big j in a headlock and called him a bruiser. ha. 

people keep asking if we got pictures of the kids with tim thomas. nope. we didn't. but we did get a blurry shot of all 3 of my jboys with dave brooks, the nicest old time hockey player you'll ever meet. and that's pretty cool in my book.