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February 2011
Well, after the chaos of the holidays, we were able to begin to get back into the routine in January, but still manage to have some fun at the same time. After the house was set back to normal, we were able to get back to scrapbooking, painting, and our normal routines.
Then, at the end of the month, we had another adventure! We attended the NHL All-Star Weekend in Raleigh, NC, with our awesome friend Leah. Yet another picture-perfect vacation ensued.
The All-Star Weekend is a break in the hockey year when the best players from the league come together for a fun weekend. They do a skills competition on Saturday night which consists of some very cool challenges such as fastest skater, fastest shot, a relay, accuracy shooting, and such. Then the game itself is on Sunday. In Raleigh, they also had a Fan Fair going on at the convention center where you could try on new hockey gear, play hockey games, hang out with the team mascots, and get your picture taken with the Stanley Cup and other trophies.
Immediately upon entering the Fan Fair on Friday, we found mascots, and then the challenge began: Leah was determined to get her picture taken with each mascot! So it felt a bit paparazzi-esque to be running after her chasing fuzzy bears and weird lightning bugs around. We managed to get most of the mascots that night, and the remaining ones were hunted down throughout the rest of the weekend.
Here are Leah and I with Sabretooth!
Then that evening at the Fan Fair, they held the first ever player draft, to determine the teams for the game on Sunday. It was awesome even though we were in the back of the convention center and couldn't get to be the lucky few on the benches. The players sat down below and when they were picked, they came up to the stage, put on their jersey and sat on their team's side on stage.
On Saturday, we arrived early at the RBC Center where the Super Skills Competition was being held. At 4pm, the players arrived and did a red carpet walk to the arena, signing autographs and doing interviews. We ended up standing behind a media section and it turned out to be AWESOME because we had excellent views of playes giving interviews!
Here are a few of my favourite pics from my 2 hours of photo-taking in the cold:
Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals
Cam Ward, Carolina Hurricanes 
Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers
Marc Staal, New York Rangers 
JC being eaten by the San Jose Shark!!
Then the Super Skills Competition was really cool. They did six different challenges and changed things up a bit from last year. Rookies even got to participate in the competition, so there were rookie-specific challenges.
The All-Star Game itself was Sunday afternoon and it was really exciting. We didn't take photos during the game because it was just too cool to watch, but of course you have to get pics of the guys warming up!
And here I am up in our nosebleed seats.
One more thing scratched off the bucket list! Next goal: an NHL Winter Classic game!
2011
SPAIN PHOTOS
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JILL'S CREATIONS:
Album - 2017
Album - 2016
Album - 2015
Album - 2014
Album - 2013
Album - 2012
Album - 2011
Album - Penn State
Album - Cedar Point
Album - Wedding
Cards
LOAD513
LOAD214
Mini Albums - Coffee and Daily Junque
