Wrapping Up 2024
A fun way to end 2024
Kind of last minute get together with our neighbors...improvised progressive dinner. From 7pm until midnight (or later) we made our way around the Bentlage area, visiting different houses with games, food, and fun! This was the best New Year's I have had in awhile. Moving to a different location every hour or hour and a half passed the time very quickly and allowed us to see a lot of people throughout the evening. We started at our house and ended at Talleys', bringing in the new year and staying way longer than intended.
Only missing some of the Drummonds here.
They were hosting a lot of 7th graders at their house.
Stop at Drummonds'
I seem to have missed the black shirt memo.
Fun times with friends at Drummonds'
And games were played. I am not very good at flip cup tic-tac-toe.
Bonnot's house
One round of "trash" took the entire alotted time.
We started the evening at our house with the Bonnots, Burns, and the freshmen boys. I wish I had a picture of them when they were playing games in the basement. Not entirely appropriate, but the shirtless boys seemed to be having fun. They followed us to Bonnots', skipped Drummonds', and went to Talleys'.
Gracie and Chase decided to go out to eat for New Years at Texas Road House, but Gracie joined us later when Chase ended up not feeling well. Glad she came out to finish the night with us. As you can see in the first picture, she and Holland are largely outnumbered by all of the Bentlage boys and their friends. We have some amazing neighbors!
So... Back up to before Christmas; Gracie had a basketball game in KC and Owen had one more tournament in Harrisonville. Deb came to visit and watched Gracie's game and Owen's tournament on Saturday. The basketball game was a little rought again, but Gracie played the entire 2nd half without coming out of the game. I'm not sure what the strategy is with that, but she did pretty well. I thought he would take her out with 4 fouls, but he didn't and she didn't foul out, so that's a good day.
After their game, Gracie rode home with Deb and I went down to watch Owen wrestle two more times. I made it there just in time to see him win his second match and I got to see all of his third match.
Pre-game
Game vs St. Pius @ HyVee Arena
The last time I saw this arena, it was covered with 16 wrestling mats.
Here is Owen's last match on Friday night
I think he had 3 pins on Friday.
Shortly after Owen's last match, we left for Belton to stay there. I had my own room for the night at a different hotel from the team. However, there were 4 other teams at the hotel I stayed at. Before I went to my room for the last time, I peaked in the fitness center and there was already a wrestler in his sweats on the treadmill. Sad. I talked with Gracie for awhile before I went to bed, and I must say, I haven't slept so well in a very long time. It was the kind of sleep that I didn't wake up until my alarm went off at 6:30am and I was so disoriented that had to really think about where I was. That was amazing. By the time I went down to work out in the morning, the wrestlers had cleared out and I had a fitness room all to myself. :)
Moving on to Saturday, Owen lost his last pool match to a state qualifier from last year, and then lost to a kid from Oklahoma in the first round of brackets. Again, Owen was 3-1 in pool competition, so made it to the top bracket which meant that he could medal. I think there were 3 tiers of 8-man brackets. After losing the first round, the best he could do was 5th, though, and he did that. He won the next two against pretty good kids. Apparently he and Peter are the first freshmen from SBC to ever medal at this tournament.
After his fiftth place match
5th place
We all watched the first place match at this weight and it did not disappoint. I think the score was 20-11, but it seemed much closer than that. Both kids were very aggressive. Owen will probably see the 2nd place kid again this season.
SBC wrestlers
There were only 7 who competed at this meet.
The rest were sick, injured, or otherwise unavailable.
Owen rode home with Grandma Deb, and Nick opted to ride home with me instead of on the bus. We spent the ride home deciding what to do that evening. We opted for the VU lights and magic tree. We had done neither of these things yet this year and Deb had never been to either. So, after a long day of wrestling, we headed to Columbia. The VU line was much longer than last year, but we patiently waited, listening to Christmas music in the car. Gracie invited Chase to come, as well, so he got to partake in all the fun. The lights did not disappoint!
It's crazy how many lights/different displays are constructed each year for this.
Magic Tree
Pictures just do not do it justice.
The pic is pretty dark, but the tree is beautiful
Another with Gracie
again, a little blurry
Warm Springs Ranch
I don't think we went to see the Clydesdales last year, but Deb sure seemed to love it this year. We spent Sunday evening out to eat an then visited the horses over by Boonville. It is so pretty there, too.
Warm Springs
There were a couple "little' ones.
Most of the Clydesdales are huge, though.
Another baby
This one's job is posing today.
Family pic
I asked the kids several times for Christmas lists, but they were not cooperative this year. Gracie sent me a couple different things, but no crazy requests. The only thing Gracie really wanted to do was go to church and be at home for Christmas and the only thing Owen really asked for were tickets to NCAA wrestling nationals. We had chicken tortilla soup for dinner and went to the late Christmas Eve Church service after opening some gifts at home. When we returned home from church we watched the Polar Express. Surprisingly, no one had watched it yet this year, and we failed to make it through the entire movie before falling asleep.
Here we are... Christmas Eve.
Owen and me.
my Gracie girl.
The sibling pic.
She has heels on and Owen is still a couple inches taller.
Another pic of Gracie and Owen
I can't remember what this was, but she was excited!
Owen's NCAA nationals confirmation.
Nick is reaping the benefits of Owen's request.
Now they just have to get there and try not to be homeless for a few days.
Nick opening gifts
Owen with his gifts
Our ginormous tree with multi-colored white lights. The picture makes it way more noticeable, but I think I mentioned that we ran out of the same colored lights.
This is my favorite, though. Early morning, peaceful, quiet hours.
We woke up to full stockings in the early hours of the morning; at least I did.
Santa does not disappoint.
Although it would be easier if he had a list, I'm sure.
More fun things from Santa.
G&O on Christmas morning
And just like that, it's done. My parents stopped by for cinnamon rolls on their way to Iowa, and we spent most of the day not doing a whole lot. It was very restful and much needed before we start going non-stop again. The rest of the week was pretty laid back, as well. Owen and Nick had practices, and Gracie went to open gym. I haven't done a whole lot outside of my normal workouts/running and continuing to catch up on house things.
Trip to Iowa!
We made a trip to see Annie and Chad and watch River wrestle. Fun times! River did great and placed 2nd in his bracket. I'm so glad he wanted to compete and we got to watch! We hadn't seen him wrestle yet. We left pretty early Saturday morning and went directly to Earlham, IA to meet my sister. We were out of there by about 3:30 and headed to Woodward.
Fun times at wrestling!
River in his 2nd match
River's corner in his last match.
Quite the coaching crew.
We got to see a couple friends from Ballard, who came to visit at Annie's. We ordered take-out Mexican food and had an otherwise uneventful night at the Wearmouths'. So glad this worked out. We didn't stay too long the next day before we started making our way home. We stopped to shop a little in the Jordan Creek area before heading south.
This week has passed very quickly since the new year began. We went to see my parents before they left for Texas and watched football almost every day. Gracie and Owen went to a Mizzou basketball game earlier this week and we are probably headed to the Beauty and the Beast meet tonight. Things are about to go full speed again.
Gracie has softball practice and a banquet in KC tomorrow that I'm taking her to. Practice starts at 8am, so we have to leaver here pretty early. We'll see about the banquet.... We're in a winter weather warning starting tomorrow evening. I might skip the Aces banquet. Nick is coaching at the JV meet tomorrow in Eldon; they leave at 7am I think. Then school is supposed to start again Monday. Again, we'll see if that actually happens. If we get a foot of snow on Sunday, we're probably not going anywhere. Maybe it won't happen.
Next week will be a full week of activities, as long as the weather cooperates. 3 basketball games, another wrestling double dual, and conference wrestling meet. There is something every day and the grind will start again. I also go back to the office on Monday for the first time in almost 3 weeks. Crazy. It's been pretty nice working from home. Wow... I just thought about it. I haven't been in my office since December 17. I have heard from one of my students that we still do not have furniture in our offices after the new carpet was put in. So maybe Monday is not meant to be. We'll see... either way, next week will be rough and I know we will hit the floor running!
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