Hockey and Toboggans

As a parent of youth hockey players, I have come to realize over the last few years that winter goes by quickly. It is fun. It is busy. We spend a lot of time at our hometown rinks and out of town rinks for practices, games and tournaments. And then BOOM. It is spring. And we realize that we didn’t necessarily take time to enjoy those other lovely wintertime activities as often as we had hoped.

Now throw in the fact that we are part of a family-run toboggan building business. On a weekly basis we ship toboggans to destinations throughout North America to families who are planning fun sledding adventures. And I wonder... Can we be both a hockey family and a toboggan family at the same time?  

A few weeks ago, we decided to give this a trial run. Our next hockey travel weekend was taking us to Crookston, Minnesota. It was time to pack… in went a Little Classic Wood Toboggan (4 ft), snow pants and boots, 2 hockey bags, sticks and luggage for 5. Our first destination was a hockey game. Good game. Kids played well. Onto our next destination – a cousin’s home in Fertile, Minnesota. We visited and then they took us to one of their local sledding hills. It was gorgeous. We looked out over the hills, their local golf course and sledded with other families who were out enjoying the day. The trial run was a success. Now we know that in the future we will be throwing in the toboggan at the same time as the hockey gear.

We had one more hockey travel weekend left in the season, this time to the Fargo, North Dakota – Moorhead, Minnesota area. The game schedule was tight on Saturday, so we knew that sledding would have to wait until Sunday. After the games were complete, we searched ‘Fargo Sledding’ and mapped our way to the Dike West Park. We all enjoyed the fresh air and the hill was in great shape for sledding. Another success. 

Now we are in the midst of wrapping up our hockey season and are looking forward to some slower evenings and weekends at home. I am, however, already excited for next year’s hockey and toboggan adventure weekends. GO ‘BOGGAN!