Blake's Shiner

You should have seen the other guy!

Blake and Dave finished their wrestling season on Saturday.  Valley hosted a Multi Team Meet at Valley High School's brand new wrestling facility.  Blake is getting spoiled with is new wrestling room and work out facilties at Valley.  Best of the Best. 

The Valley Elite Mat Club hosted a big meet attracting the best wrestlers in the metro area.  Dave coached the Valley Elite team of 20 kids.  Blake was the 90 lber.  He went 3 of 5 for his matches.  The photo above was the result of his toughest match.  He said he barely remembers when the other kid's hand meeting with his eye.  It was an accident, but he still went home with a nice little reminder.

This weekend Blake has his first baseball tournament........

Free to Walk Alone

Grandpa Al doesn't need an escort anymore :)

He can walk the street alone.

On Monday, he'll wow the surgeon when he comes in for his final appointment.

Happy Spring, everyone!

Walking in the Moonlight

At 5:30 a.m., Grandpa Al and I took a walk under the crescent moon. 

The temp was perfect, the breezes were whooshing through the palm leaves,

 and my little flashlight lit the path.

Grandpa Al has graduated to the cane but we still have to be careful. We walked down to Tony's house, knocked on his garage door (just kidding), and walked back.

Is it time to buy headlamps?

Or tickets to London?

Visiting Grandpa Al

He's in good humor today, the pain of yesterday fading.

I brought my camera in so you could see his set-up.

He joked about his colored bracelets because they resemble the ones school kids wear.

Well, maybe not. :)

 

 

The doctor's pleased with the surgery and Al says he feels upright now when he stands.

(He used to stand at an angle because his leg was 1 1/2 inches short on that leg~~the knee was so bad. Surgery gave him back the missing inches.) His backache is getting better too, thanks to the now straightened leg that supports it on that side. Therapy going on...

Blake at Districts

Superbowl Sunday was also Districts for Blake.  He wrestled all day up to the finals.  He made it all the way to the end and in a moment of unbelievable loss of concentration he lost a match. That loss landed him in 5th place.  That sounds great.  To be 5th out of all the kids in the district which includes Des Moines, all the sourrounding cities and 4 other counties around is a huge accomplishment. 

But unfortunately, only 1-4 qualify to wrestle at State.  He is the alternate and went home empty handed.  He has been sad for about a week.  He is still going to practices, but his heart has moved onto baseball.  Go Mustangs!

Here he is at the Superbowl Party we threw for him after his tournament.

Hi first Baseball tournament will be March 15-17th.  His team has been competing in an indoor invitation in St. Joe, MO.

Hunter's Math Counts and Baseball Starts

Hunter has a new serious sport.  Math.

He has been attending the Westridge Math Club all year; competing for the top spots for the math team.  He made it into the top 9 this week.  This got him a spot on the team that will be going to the Math Counts Central Iowa Competition in Des Moines on Feb. 21st. Yes, they get to miss a day of school to do a whole day of Math.  Some would call that a punishment only matched by death, but not these kids.  To them that is like a big treat!

On Saturday, he competed in a scrimmage between 6th,7th and 8th graders from his elementary school and his new middle school.  He earned 8th place in that competition.  Every competition he improves his sprint round score a few points moving him up the ladder more and more. 

I was going to photograph the Crunch bar he won on Saturday, but he inhaled it and I can't find the wrapper.  Sorry no action shots for this story!  Math competitions are definiately not a spectator's sport.

Interesting info:  there are 4 classes at Westridge with about 28 kids per class for a pool of 132 kids.   Hunter also scored in the 99th percentile in all areas of Math for his Iowa Assessment two years in a row.  Currently, he has decided he wants to be a CFO who plays baseball in college.  Seems like a good choice.

Hunter is also getting his baseball legs back again.  He is throwing and hitting faster and harder than last year.

His new team started practices at the end of January.  He loves his new team already.  They were very excited to see him join.   His coaches love him too.  His first tournament will be April 14th.  We are all very anxious to see how this new team comes together.

 Sorry no photos yet.  We are working on it.

Disney Marathon 2014: Team JDRF

After walking for JDRF for our nephew Carson, learning a coworker's son was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes and seeing the Team JDRF tent at the 2013 Walt Disney World Marathon I have decided to run the Goofy Challenge for Team JDRF at the 2014 Disney Marathon weekend (1/11/2014-1/12/2014). Registration hasn't even opened yet, but I decided I needed get the word out so there is no turning back. This will be my 5th Disney marathon and 10th marathon (unless I run two more this year). This will be a big fundraising challenge so I'll be asking for support throughout the year. Please help the cause in the future, keep posted for opportunities to help in the coming year. Until then here are some pictures from this year's marathon (sorry for the poor quality, I was running a marathon after all):

20th Year of the Disney World Marathon

Cindy's Castle decorated for Christmas

So, who out there can name this character?