Jumping into Spring

I didn't realize we had done so much in the past few weeks.  Just when we think things will get less busy.... here we go again.  So, after winter sports concluded, there wasn't much down time before diving into different activities.  Right after basketball ended, we went right into softball and more wrestling.  One more folkstyle tournament and then the start of freestyle season.  Banquets, spring break, and spring sports for Mizzou are among many things that have been consuming our time in the past month.

First, a trip to Iowa for Folkstyle Nationals

Ruby got to go.

She looks pretty guilty here.

Auntie Annie let her on the furniture

Riding along in the car

We left school a little early Friday afternoon to make it to West Des Moines for weigh-ins by 6:00pm, then headed to Annie's after dinner at Texas Roadhouse.  Otherwise, it was an uneventful Friday night before leaving early Saturday for a day of wrestling.

Waiting with Bryce.

Owen won his 2nd round... first-round bye.

Ended up losing the next 2 matches, so did not place.

There were a lot of good wrestlers from across the country.

Nick, Bryce, and Kyle watching Owen's match.

Waiting for his last match.  This would determine if he placed.

Gracie entertaining Kaia and River while we wait

River thought he could take her down.

Watching Bryce's match

Kyle was pretty animated.  Bryce ended up placing the next day.

After Owen's first win, there were a couple hours until the next session, so Gracie and I met Annie and her kids at the mall for a little bit.  Then we headed back to the arena for more wrestling.  The rest of the day did not go Owen's way, and it was a quiet ride back to Woodward and another uneventful evening.  We had Mexican for dinner and watched a movie with Annie and her kids.  We left pretty early the next morning to get back home and get some things done back in Missouri.  It was great to see Annie, Chad and kids, but not a great weekend for Owen.  He was pretty disappointed, as was Nick. But we move on.

The kitties will find anywhere to cuddle.

Gracie took this before heading to school.

Basketball Banquet

The week prior to spring break we celebrated basketball season, the same night that Nick and Owen left for Philadelphia, which I will get to in a minute.  The girls had a fun night and the coach recognized the successes of the season, despite the record.  Gracie made all-conference honorable mention and was awarded the "Iron Woman" award.  She was recognized as the player who puts in the most work to get bigger, faster, stronger; better, both at practices and outside of practices.

Iron Woman - Gracie

All-Conference Honors

Gracie with Coach Jennings.

I really hope he stays one more year.

Gracie with Coach Nick.

He will not be coaching the girls next year.

Gracie will miss him.

Gracie, Nick, and Liyah.

Gracie and Adisen... their last sport celebration together.

Gracie and Drew... They still have one more year playing together.

Gracie and Gail

So, Gracie says, "one more year."  Junior year was a lot of change and adjustment for the girls.  We'll see what her senior year brings.

Spring Break:  Pennsylvania Adventure

Owen's one Christmas request was a trip to Philadelphia for NCAA National Wrestling.  I guess Nick benefits from this wish, as well.  About two weeks prior to departure, they were still planning to make the drive east, but then we found some reasonably priced flights and bundled with rental car to make it affordable.  However, the flights were not exactly efficient.  Their flight out of St. Louis was delayed, with the original time at7pm, then they had a layover in Denver, which resulted in an arrival time in PA of about 6am ET.  Owen learned what flying the red eye is like.  I'm sure it was a long night, and luckily when Nick called the hotel their room was already ready, so they got to check in early.  Then, three straight days of watching wrestling.

Airport living.

They made it!

I think this must be finals.

I think this must be the subway.

Owen's first time that he remembers.  He rode the subway in New York, but he wasn't even 2 years old.

Owen said that they talked to Daton Fix on their ride to wherever they were going.

Riding electric bikes in Philadelphia.

Nationals - semi-finals, maybe??

.5

Portrait Mode

I found this on Nick's phone from State Wrestling.

Just thought I'd throw it in.

While Nick and Owen were across the country, I watched from home.

I think there was one day that I had wrestling on my computer, softball on the tv, and tennis live stats on my phone going at the same time. I might have thrown gymnastics in there just for fun. The grind never ends during the spring.

Also while Nick was away... I had a visitor.

Early Friday morning I let Ruby out through the garage before getting ready to go run.  She chased something out of the garage, and I was hoping it was just a neighborhood cat, but nope.  Ruby chased it around the outside of the house and it ended up climbing the post on our back porch.

No, I did not shoot it.  I simply turned the lights off so it would feel safe enough to go away.

I also closed up the garage for the next two nights.  The cats were not happy being trapped in there, but the raccoon stayed away.

Gracie and I had a few days at home before our turn came for spring break. School and work continued.

Spring Break: Florida

Wheels up for St. Pete!

Gracie and I left for Belleville early Saturday afternoon for an evening flight to St. Pete.  After a short delay, we were on our way to a few days of sun in Florida.  We didn't get in until late, but had fun for the next three days on the beach and in the sun.  Running/walking in Florida during early spring is always something that I look forward to after Midwest winter.  I took advantage every day.   First day was just relaxing, sitting by the pool... Gracie watched the Mizzou/OU softball game from the pool.

Sunset after the first day.

It got kind of chilly

It did not disappoint.

Day 2 at Bradenton/Anna Maria Island

We made a 3 hour drive south to meet up with Porters for a fun afternoon on the beach.  The drive should not have taken that long, but traffic was terrible.  The water was definitely not warm, but the kids swam anyway.  I think Gracie was happy to see Nova.  When we arrived, it was a little overcast, but the sun came out and it ended up being beautiful and warm.

Gracie and Nova in the gulf.

Basking in the sun

Ending the day with some good food and friends.

So glad it worked out to see Porters!

Day 3 at the beach again

We started the day shopping at John's Pass, had some lunch, then went back to the water.  Another fun day.  Ended the day with another sunset over the water.

Gracie and Grandma Deb on the beach.

And another sunset.

Another wonderful vacation in Florida checked off.  Deb's house is still on the market, so it might be the last, at least in this location.  Crazy to think that we have been visiting Deb in Florida for 10 years, almost every year.

While we were spring breaking, my parents gave us some updates from the British Virgin Islands.  They stayed there with friends for almost 2 weeks, not too long after returning from Texas.

They seemed to be having fun, as well.

Living their best life.

We returned to the Midwest and back to reality.  Back to work and back to being busy.  Gracie and Nick left for a softball tournament two days after we came home.  Owen and I spent the weekend together and I got a lot done at home.  I have zero pictures to document Gracie's softball outing, but it went well until the last game, which started at 5:00pm on Sunday evening. Up to that we had done really well.  After zero hits on Saturday, Gracie went 6-6 on Sunday.  She ended up hitting over .500.  Not bad for a slow start.  She was also walked 8 times during the 7 games played. We were run-ruled by another team from KC, then they started the 6+ hour drive home to return around 2am and get to work/school by 8am.  Monday was a rough day back from break.  

And then March ended.  We are in April and doing lots of things again.  Owen went back to track practices after school and has wrestling Tuesdays and Wednesdays and at least 3 more freestyle tournaments coming up.  Gracie has weekend practices in KC, midweek workouts/hitting, and more tournaments coming up.

Wrestling Banquet

We celebrated the wrestling season on Friday night.  It was a great night recognizing many accomplishments of our wrestlers.  Really good food, too!  There are so many wrestlers this year; I think there were close to 100 people in attendance on Friday night.

Here are the captains for the 24-25 season.

Aidan will be leaving, and he did a great job stepping into this as a first year wrestler.

Owen was recognized as the "Top Dawg."

Addison Hinton on the girls side.

I'm not sure exactly what this means, but the coaches recognized Owen for going into the wrestling room every day and grinding with the best in the room.  He overcame the adversity of losing to some pretty amazing competition throughout the season and coming back to win the 3rd place match at districts after being down 14-2.  He has grit and keeps going back for more.

Gracie decided to join us for the evening after the Mizzou/Texas softball game was postponed due to rain.  And this was her only option if she didn't want to cook for herself. :)

Nick and Owen

Owen's accomplishments for his freshman year.

Team Captain, Letter Winner, Academic All-State, and Top Dawg Award.

Excellent first year.

I suppose he'll need a jacket for that letter now.

Nick created this... kind of fun. 2021 vs 2025. 10u vs 14 yr old freshman

I wonder what this will look like 3 years from now.

Next: Freestyle Season

Owen is wrestling the under side of 16u, the way the birthdates fall.

This weekend was the first of a 3 tournament series in the KC area.  We left by 5am to check in by 8am and start wrestling shortly after 9am.  Owen was in a pretty tough bracket wrestling; a Missouri state qualifier from Seneca, a runner-up for Missouri Class 3, and a 14-year-old coming off his 14u state championship from Kansas.  I'm guessing he and Owen were the same age, even though the other kid is still in 8th grade.  Going 2-1 on the day is nothing to be ashamed of.  His loss was to the state place-winner.

Getting ready to go.

First match was a win.

Talking with his coach.

Yep, that's Kyle there too.

We wouldn't want to go a weekend without Bryce.

Take down

Winner

3rd match - another win.

Very scrappy, gritty win.

Owen was teched in the 2nd match, but came back with a dub to finish the day, and took 2nd place.

DQ after a day of wrestling.

The tournament went pretty smoothly after it got started, only lasting about 5 hours before we were done.  But it was a long day.  Five hours in a car, 6 hours in a gym, about 10-15 minutes of actual wrestling competition.  Seems about right.

Hoping for more of these sunrises and warmer weather.