Hockey Night in Idaho

Last Saturday, I took Jake to his first hockey game. The Idaho Steelheads are our local minor league hockey team - a feeder team for the Dallas Stars system. We had a very good time and Jake really liked his first exposure to the sport. For those that have never been, you are missing out. I am not a big hockey fan, I don't follow the sport, don't watch the game on tv - but given the opportunity to see a game live, I would never turn it down. Strictly based on the on the field product- hockey is my favorite sport to watch live. I love baseball - but it is a whole product (sunny days, hot dogs, sunflower seeds, it 's the sum of it's parts) - but hockey is so fast, so exciting....it's really not to be missed.

The Qwest arena here is a really nice building, and a great place to see a game. I was a little worried as hockey is such a violent sport and the crowd is always a little rough and tumble to begin with....but I had nothing to worry about. There was an announcement made before the game started that anyone using profanity would be ejected from the arena....but I don't think it was necessary, I didn't hear any swearwords that didn't originate from yours truly (I REALLY am a good role model!). There were a couple of good fights and a lot of scoring (Steelheads 3, Phoenix Roadrunners 6), so it was a really fun game to watch.

We had seats right behind the penalty box (literally, we were on the glass). Jake got a big kick out of the hockey guys getting sent to timeout for misbehaving, it was a lot of fun to watch. Jake knows that he can't ever play hockey for real on a team and seems to be okay with it, because of his kidney problem - but he still wants to learn to skate and play with his friends - and that's okay, long as it's not full contact.

Jake did great, he was a trooper and wanted to stay until the end. The game didn't finish until after 10:00, we got home close to 11:00. Jake and I crashed out in the guestroom so as to not wake Tanner and Marisa. We had a really good time, but have had a sleep deprived pre-schooler for the past few days. Parents out there know what that's like, for the rest of you...imagine wishing for death by fire ants....and then you have an idea what they can be like!