Wrestling

We signed Austin and Christian up for wrestling this fall/winter.  Its a bit of an experiment/adventure for us since we have no experience with this sport.  We got into this mostly to give the boys some outlet for their energy with the cold weather and dark nights preventing us from playing outside.  We have been going to practices for a month now and had our first tournament this last Saturday.  It was a little crazy.  The boys are still learning what you have to do to win a match.  I had to take the boys to the tournament by myself.  With Ezra.  It was about 45 min away and it lasts all day.  Each of the boys had 3 matches at the tournament.  Christian came close to winning his second match.  The others weren't even close.  Some of the kids my boys were wrestling against had 4-6 years experience.  It was kind of hard to see them lose.  Austin did win his last match so that helped all of us feel a little better.  At this point we are not sure if this is a chance for them to grow and learn some life lessons about not always winning, or if it is just too hard to come into a sport like this.  It became obvious to me at the tournament that my kids are a little behind even at the ages of 6 and 9 because they are so new to this sport.  Its pretty personal to lose when it is one on one like these matches are and you put every ounce of your strength and energy into the wrestling and still could end up pinned on the mat.  When we left the tournament I was about 50/50 feeling like we needed to just quit.  Today I feel  a little more positive about it because it is nice to have the practice time where the boys can exercise and make friends and learn a new skill.  There is a tournament this next Saturday for just first and second year wrestlers so we are going to give that a try.  Tim will be able to come too so it should be a more positive experience for all of us.  I hope!

Wearing these singlets is a new experience for my kids!

Austin is pinning Christian during warm up time.

Christian is still such a happy kid - no matter what happens. 

Austin is fierce and always ready to try to get the first take-down.

I do have to say this tournament was the first place in my life I have ever seen a shorter line in the women's restroom than the men's.  I was also thinking how this truly is a men's sport.  Can you imagine women participating in a sport where they write your weight on your arm in black marker for everyone to see?  and your age?

Fun in the leaves

We feel so blessed to have a house that gets leaves to rake in the fall.  We were living in houses that didn't get leaves for several years in MI and when we live with Tim's parents.  We even find (well, maybe I shouldn't speak for Tim) that we don't mind the work of fall cleanup when we can have fun jumping in the piles first.  Tim's dad also made us a swing seat that we could hang from the tree.  We had a baby swing there for a while until the boys just couldn't squeeze in to in anymore!  This swing should be fun even when there are no leaves.

Tim was doing all of this with the boys when I was at work one day.  Its never as much fun if you don't have something to jump from...

Some other fun things that happened during early November...

It was driving Austin crazy that Christian had learned to cross his eyes and Austin couldn't.  It was driving Christian crazy that he couldn't whistle but Austin could.  They both took great delight in being able to do something their brother couldn't.  To their credit though, they both tried to teach the other how to do thing they wanted to do.  Austin can now cross his eyes too.  We're still working on Christian whistling...

Should I really post this???

The other night when we were washing hands for dinner Ezra was downstairs because he always realized when he comes to the kitchen sink to wash hands that he has to go potty.  Then Christian realized about 30 seconds later that he had to go too.  Let me just say that when Ezra goes potty he still uses a step to be high enough (even though he is really tall enough to not need the step and I am trying to break him of the habit).  He also takes FOREVER to pull his pants back up after and he bends way over to pull them up because he always pulls everything WAY down to his ankles before he goes.  AND he always stays on the step, right in the way, when he is pulling up his pants.  Some of you probably already know what happened.  Christian came to the kitchen where I was despairing of ever actually sitting down to dinner and said "Mom, I'm really sorry but I really had to go bad and

Ezra was in the way pulling up his pants and I went on his head".  oh. my goodness.

Halloween Fun

A little belated, but I wanted to put some Halloween and pumpkin carving pictures out there. The kids are just at that right age where trick or treating is super exciting which makes it fun for the adults too. Last year Ezra was a little unsure of walking up to strangers' houses, and some of the decorations were pretty scary for him. This year he was all about the candy though and ran to catch up if he was getting behind. He was scared (but not a bad scared) by some of the decorations this time. It wasn't raining, but pretty cold for Seattle. It was a good time all around though. We made the rule that if they asked for candy before mom and dad said they could have a piece, then mom and dad got to pick something out of their bag to keep for themselves. It only took one or two lost pieces of candy for the begging to stop... :)

Disney!

We went to Disney October 1.  It has taken me a long time to get it together to do a posting.  We went with Tim's parents and flew into Orange County.  It felt like a short flight since we are used to flying to Michigan.  It also felt pretty easy since the adults outnumbered the kids!  We spent 2 and a half days in Disney and California Adventure.  We stayed in a hotel that was within walking distance of the park.  It was hot and sunny the whole time we were there.  Felt like a little extension of summer.  The park was quite crowded but we were surprised at how fast most of the lines moved.  We were able to ride all the rides we had hoped to ride at least once while we were there.  Needless to say, the boys were thrilled with everything they saw.  It was definately a once-in-a-lifetime experience for all of us.  Jim and Kaye even watched the boys for us one night so Tim and I could go back and ride some of the rides that were too scary for the boys.  Our feet were so tired by the end of each day - but it was well worth it!  We didn't even lose any kids in the crowd. 

We rode the Buzz Lightyear ride several times.  It was Ezra's favorite.

 It was really great that Ezra could ride so many rides.  There weren't many things he would have wanted to ride that he was not tall enough for.

 It was really hard to get the kids to cooperate for a family picture.  Can anyone relate??!!

 This was the only character we saw that we could get a picture with.  I think his name is James Sullivan. 

 This was a painted wall at California Adventure.  Stuff like this just amazed me - and it was everywhere!  Right next to this we took Christian and Austin on the Hollywood Tower of Terror.  That was one of the few rides that we probably shouldn't have taken them on.  It was a little too scary but they recovered quickly!

Climbing Tarzan's tree house...

 We often had to split up and have someone stay back with Ezra and ride calmer rides while the rest of the group did things that were a little more adventurous, so he had his picture taken a lot...

 Thank you, Grammy and Pa, for such a wonderful trip!!

Family...

Right before we went to Disney (blogs to follow) I finally had family t shirts made.  I had been wanting to do this for a long time.  I like how they turned out.  We ordered extras in bigger sizes that the boys can grow into.  Hopefully my guys will be willing to wear them for several years to come when we have special outings, or for no occasion at all!  We had been looking for a family theme versee, too.  We chose Micah 6:8.  "He has showed you, O man, what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God".

Football and Breakfast

One of the funny things about living on the west coast is that we get football games starting at 9am.  I really wanted to watch a game recently so we watched my Michigan Wolverines and had breakfast on the rug in the family room Saturday morning. 

Another cool thing about living out here is being able to see Mt. Rainier from the side of our house.  Even after 4 years of living out here it is still amazing to me.  This morning it was completely visible and was painted pink by the sunrise.  Amazing. 

Running!

I have been running this summer.  A lot.  The weather in Seattle is perfect for running, if you don't mind running in the rain occasionally.  It never gets too hot or humid and never gets too cold either!  It was fun up until 3 weeks ago.  I had decided to train for my first half marathon.  Let me just say I am not one of those natural runners.  Working up to a higher mileage takes a lot for me.  It was great, though, to have a goal to work towards and to have the time this summer to go for it.  It was also great to have something that was just about me, not the kids.  One of the things I love about running is that no one talks to me or asks me for anything and I am not refereeing children during that time!  I made it up to 11 miles.  I even did the 11 mile run 3 times and was ready to go for the half marathon.  The last time I ran it though, the recovery was pretty bad.  I have had achy feet and knees that were getting progressively worse, among other things.  I took a week to think about it and decided not to try the 13 miles.  It was REALLY hard for me to back down from that goal but I was afraid if I had another bad run I would ruin running for myself and not be able to keep doing it this fall.  I am just going to choose to be proud of myself for running 11 miles, because that is a feat I never would have dreamed I could accomplish before this summer.  So my dear friend Amy, who would have run the half marathon with me, came over and we did a 6 mile run last Sunday on a trail near my house and I am calling it my "end of the summer run".  It has been 5 days now and I still haven't been out running again!  I hope to get my motivation back soon.  I really would like to do something different like swimming or aerobics or something but haven't been able to find an easy way to do that.  Running is so convenient.  Anyone have any ideas for me??