connor's adventure

for a five-year-old, connor has been to a lot….A LOT of professional sports games. and we have NEVER purchased a ticket. we happen to know lots of people with lots of season tickets and passes.

when we were at the tigers game, he got a fly ball to take home. when we skated at the joe nathan found him a practice puck under the bleachers. but this next adventure was his favorite. one of nathan's co-workers had tickets to sunday's wings game. a few text messages later and the tickets were waiting for nathan at will call. since he had never gone through will call before, nathan wanted to leave early to be sure he could find the tickets, find the seats, and maybe have time for a hot dog before the game.

everything was working out great. they even got there early enough to see the guys warming up. they were RIGHT next to the tunnel where the wings come out of the locker room. they got to see all the favorites run past and hit the ice. bertuzzi, lidstrom, and the man himself….zetterberg. or as connor calls him, "zetty". they got to be up close and personal as zetty warmed up, grabbed a quick gatorade, chatted with the coaches. you know, the usual.

so, it was almost time for the wings to hit the locker room again, and connor was ready to jet off to their seats. nathan told him they would wait just a minute more….hoping that maybe, just maybe, one of the guys would be handing out pucks to the kids that were down front watching. sure enough…. kris draper came zipping to the wall with a pile of pucks. "here ya go, buddy." i imagine connor didn't hear those words. i imagine he heard something a little more angelic….with trumpets perhaps. his eyes must have been as big as saucers. and to make the night even better, nathan bought him his first red wings baseball hat. the kid was loving life.

so, during his retelling of all the fun from the evening he let slip a story that i'm positive nathan wanted to keep on the down low.

connor: mom, at the red wings game someone fell on the ice, and they said it was our fault, but it wasn't so i had to say, "BOOOO!"

me: who taught you that? *fully expecting to hear, "dad."

connor: well, nobody. i just had to say it. everyone else was. *i spared him the "if everyone did…."

me: well, do you think that was very respectful to the ref?

connor: well, no. but the ref had a bad brain or something and everyone had to yell, "BOOOOO!"

i think we have more work to do on sportsmanship. b/c it definitely won't be learned at the joe.

chillin' down by the ice for warm-ups

a quick photo op with pin pal

i hope this guy doesn't turn out to be a shmuck. connor has always liked watching zetty play.

draper was squirting water on the kids that were down front

no big deal. just chillin' with the wings.