Christmas Day - Elf on the Shelf - Nerf Rhino

2016 Christmas Trip to Hershey - Day #2

2016 Christmas Trip to Hershey - Day #2


So now it is Christmas Eve.  Day #2 of our trip Chrismas trip to Hershey.  Boys were up and ready to rock at 7:30 in the morning.  Our first adventure was to go down to the Water Works at the Hershey Lodge to have some fun in the pool.

Only we were a few minutes early, so we had to wait.

So wait we did, in the arcade which was right next door.

We were at The Water Works for about 2 hours.  The boys had fun on the slides, but that was nothing compared to this Reece's Pieces water walk seen below.  I think they each tried to go across it at least 50 times (no exaggeration)

Over to Chocolate World.  We get there at 11am, do the tour, and take in an early lunch.  All so we can get to the park right when it opens at 12noon.

We get to the park, and there are no lines at the gate.  We walk right through, and start trekking all the way to the back of the park.  There is nobody back there but us.  All we see are Hershey employees.

Nate and I hop on the Wild Mouse right off the bat.  Chris didn't want to do it, so he just waited for us.  Then we made our way over to the Laff Trakk.  We did that one several times, since there was nobody in line.

The over the Wildcat.  The boys did that one a few times too.

Then over to the Howler.  We have yet to wait in line once.

We had over to the monorail next.  I made a slideshow of many pics taken from the monorail ride, along with pics taken from the skylift, and just some general pics of walking around through the park.  Just take a look at how empty the park was.

Next up, the swings

And our final roller coaster of the day, The Super Duper Looper.

Well, we have to do the Speedway again before we leave.

Finally, a game of Plinko for each boy

And Nathan ended up with a Hershey Bar, just like Chris.

A tremendous way to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Eve Eve.  We will be back here next winter for sure.

This picture is on of the stadium.  It is just too awesome to not include on this post.

2016 Christmas Trip to Hershey - Day #1

2016 Christmas Trip to Hershey  -  Day #1


Back in October, Grammy asked the boys what they thought we should do for Christmas.  Christopher looked at her and said we should go to Hershey, cause thats tradition (like we did for Grampy's last Christmas.).  Upon hearing this news, Grammy lost her shit (in a very positive way), so up to the Hershey Lodge we went on the Friday (12/23) of Christmas weekend.  We check in to the Hershey Hotel

and then a shuttle over to the park

All lit up for Christmas

The park was somewhat crowded, so we decided to save the roller coasters for tomorrow.  We still did the cars (see below) as well as the Swings, Super Duper Looper, the Kissing Tower (just to name a few)

Can't wait to go back tomorrow, when it will be much less crowded.

2016 Brian's Run

2016 Bran's Run
West Chester, PA



So, another year almost over, and another Brian's Run is upon us.  This year, I figured I would sit this one out and let the boys do it.  Notice the old school Brian's run hats they are wearing.  They go back 30 years.

So Christopher is up first.  He is running in the Tot Trot, which is ages 4-8 years old.  Being that he is 8, I knew he had a shot to win it.  He knew this as well, since he was running against 4,5, and 6 year olds.  I told him just to do his best, and whatever happens, happens.

And he's off.

He had the lead at the half way point, but ran out of gas on his way back, and ended up in 2nd place overall.  He did place first amongst boys (so that means he got beat by a girl, and that will be something to tease him about for all of 2017.).  I was super proud of the effort he gave.

And now it was time for Nate's run.  He was running in the 9-13 race, which I think was about 3/4 of a mile.  Being that he is only 9, I told him to just do his best and have fun.

And as always, nobody smiles more when he runs like Nathan Bugey does.  A true runner in the making.

Over to Las Vegas Pizza for a few post race slices for my little runners

And finally, we marshaled the 5 miler, and told the runners where to go.

So next year, the kids will be in the same race together (9-13).  They are already looking forward to it.  This was another great end to the running year.  Looking forward to 2017.  

2016 Dutch Wonderland

Dutch Wonderland

Our annual Christmas Trip to DW in Lancaster, PA.

All 3 Bugeys
All 4 Bonnes's
All 4 Halls

Even though the kids are getting a little old for DW, its still fun if they all go together.  Half the fun is watching them run around from ride to ride.

My coat is stuffed with hats and scarves and gloves in the front.  It does make me look like I weigh 300 lbs.  I might not be skinny, but I am certainly not THAT big.

Afterwards, a drive over to Pizza Hut for dinner, and another year in the books.

Rec Plus Tournament

Rec Plus Tournament



Leading up to today, WCUSC participates in the Rec Plus Soccer League tournament.  Of the ten teams in the WCUSC U10B division, each team selects 3 players to for the Rec Plus tournament.  That gives us 2 teams of 15 kids or so.  I coached one of the teams and Jackie Burton coached the other.  The 3 kids from The Sounders were Andrew, Trevor, and Christopher.  I thought this would be a lot of fun to get to coach these 3 kids again.

Now Nathan had only played 1 regular season game and 2 play-off games.  I had told him he was not eligible to play in the Rec Plus Tournament because he barely played any games.  He begrudgingly understood.  However, I got a text from coach Jackie that she did not have a goalie.  I had mentioned that she could have Nathan for the first practice if she needed him (just to fill in).  Sure enough, she said that she would take him on her team, which of course was music to my ears (because having to drag Nathan to watch him brother play 3 games and not be able to play himself would be terrible).


It is a one day event where each team plays 3 games.  The top two teams advance to a championship game.  Chris was on the black team (coached by me) and Nate was on the black team (coached by Jackie).

I was not going to be able to watch Nate play, because all their games were at the same time.  Chris's team won the first game 4-0, and Nate's team one their first game 4-0 as well (Nate played the whole game in goal).

Sure enough, the 2nd game they played each other.  Nate's team won 4-0 again (another complete game shutout for Nate).  Chris of course was not happy with the loss.

3rd game was a 1-1 tie for Chris, and a 6-1 win for Nate.  His team got up early, with a halftime lead of 5-0.  Coach Jackie took Nate out and put in one of the better goal scorers in net so that the score would not get out of hand.  To really try to even things out, she put Nate on offense...and wouldn't you know it, he scored a goal.

So Nate got to play in The Championship game, and Chris did had to sit and watch (which of course Chris thought was bullshit.)  Now that I was done coaching, I was thrilled that I could just sit and watch Nate as well.  His team won 5-0, to win The Championship

Thats 3.5 games of shutout soccer for Nathan in the goal, and he scored in the half he played on the field.

Nathan was in a freak accident back in July.  It took almost 3 months for him to be cleared to play soccer again (and to be honest, that was the least of my worries.  We though he was going to have permanent vision damage as well as serious long term concussion issues).  It took dozens of doctors appointments and a lot of just mental toughness to not only overcome these issues, but to have the patience to get to this point.  I felt like a winner the minute he took the field today, but he got to feel like a winner at the end of the day.

(and yes, Chris still thinks this is all bullshit....and the only reason Nate was on the team in the first place is because people felt sorry for him.  It wasn't fair.  I told Chris that he was right, and it wasn't fair....and that it also wasn't fair that his brother got hit in the eye with a bat, got a real nasty concussion, and couldn't play any sports for 3 months.....so shut your god damn mouth and be happy for your brother.  You have had plenty of moments to shine, let your brother have today.  Chris then agreed.)