12 Days - Day 7: Black Belts!

I started to post about a Taekwondo tournament from this month when I realized I still have not posted about the black belt testing and tournament from October! Here is October. Bet you can guess what tomorrow's post is! 

Josh and Carley started Taekwondo in 2011. Three years, many tests, hardwork and much determination later, they tested for and earned their 1st-degree black belts!

Black belt testing was held on Friday night, the tournament was Saturday during the day and Saturday night was the belt ceremony. We spent the weekend in Reno. 

The black belt testing was fairly quick moving once it got started. The students had to perform their forms, free-sparring and break boards to pass, although in August was a pre-test which really determined if the students would pass or not in October. 

Carley set the goal to reach black belt and then she wanted to move on to something else in order to learn something new. Since this was her last tournament, she decided to only compete in forms. Unfortunately she did not place but she had a great attitude about it. She was there for her black belt and that she did earn!

Josh competed in both forms and sparring. He was bumped up an age division to 15-17 year olds even though he is only 14. Here's the short version: 

1.  Josh is continuing in Taekwondo
2. UWTA (United World Taekwondo Association) year runs October to September 
3. Black belts can earn points toward a top-four competition the following October

I may repeat some of this stuff in tomorrow's post. 

In order for Josh to shoot for top-four, he had to compete as a black belt and in the age division in which he'll compete in October 2015, which is 15-17 year olds.

Josh was close to placing in forms. He was in a 3-way tie for 4th place, there was a rematch and he took 6th. Sparring is what he loves to compete in though. He was up against some big guys and had not practiced sparring in 4-6 months! Walt and I even talked about how that might be the first time Josh "got schooled" in sparring.

What little faith we have in him. Josh went out there, competed against 1st, 2nd and 3rd-degree black belts and HE TOOK THIRD PLACE! I was floored. I seriously was and still am completely floored. He has so much natural ability. If he really honed that and practiced, he could probably go somewhere! 

Right now he's going for top-four. I think that's pretty great. 

 When a competitor is hurt, the one who caused the injury is supposed to kneel facing away until the match is ready to begin again. 

After a long day of tournament competition, we grabbed some dinner, got dressed up and headed back to the venue for the black belt ceremony.

It was so impressive to see my kids sitting there in their black belt, tea ceremony with their black belts and certificates in front of them. I start to whell up with tears just thinking about it.

The students are sat in rank, age order so neither Josh or Carley got to sit by friends.

The tea ceremony went on and on and on. I felt back for the kids having to sit for so long on the floor in tight, cross-legged position. They were definitely happy when the ceremony was over.

This is not a good picture but it's the group of kids from Josh and Carley's Taekwondo school who tested and recived their black belts. So stinkin' cool. 

Okay, I loaded these videos of Josh's sparring matches to YouTube back in October. If you are interested in watching them, I think they're pretty great. Watch below or check them out on my YouTube channel. 

Here's a few notes:

The 2nd match was against Michael, who goes to the same Taekwondo school as Josh. In fact, they went to the same elementary school for a year or two, as well. Josh and Michael often have to compete against each other in sparring since they're the same age. Josh always wins but Michael is such a great sport and just laughs about it. It's become somewhat of a running joke.

The 3rd match is the only match Josh lost. The opposing guy is a 3rd-degree black belt and took 1st place in this competition.

Josh may have kicked the guy from the 1st match and the guy from the 4th match in the nuts.

12 Days - Day 3: Washington for 48 Hours

This is a phone post, or at least all the photos are uploaded from my phone. Better than nothing, right? 

In September, I took a quick trip up to Seattle to celebrate my mom and step-dad's 20th wedding anniversary. My sister, Ashley, recently moved back home to Washington and hosted a party for them. 

My step-brother and his family was there, as well as two of my sisters and their families. It was such a wonderful time. The only thing I wish is that my family could have flown up with me. Flights are just too expensive to fly somewhere for a weekend with a family of four.

I loved having some silly time with my nutty sisters. Living so far apart gets really old sometimes.

Ashley is renting a house on the water. It's more like an old cabin. I loved it. The fire pit on a wonderful night was perfect. 

Happy Anniversary to these two! 

Man, I love this city. I swear everyone complains about the Pacific Northwest rain but it's always sunny when I go visit. It's as if Mother Nature is trying to taunt me. 

Already the End of July!

It's hard to believe that my last post was of the kids' first and last day of school pictures. Now it's only 2.5 weeks until school starts again. The summer vacation has definitely flown by.

Wait. It's not July anymore? I actually wrote this post over two weeks ago and never got my photos together to finish it. Now we are well into August and the kids start school THIS WEEK! Only four days left of summer vacation. Seriously, where has the time gone? 

Now back to the regularly schedule post. 

We have not had our usual busy summer vacation. Well, it has been busy but with regular stuff: I am working part time as an accountant, Josh had water polo twice a week and both kids are preparing for their Taekwondo black belt test.

We did have two major family events in July, so prepare yourself for a lot of pictures to get this blog current.

First, Walt's dad was out for the long Fourth of July weekend and Walt's brother and family came over to hang out three days in a row. I really enjoyed having so much family in the house, just hanging out and visiting with each other; I think everyone enjoyed it.

Second, we went to Patrick's Point State Park for a Tandy family reunion. My maternal grandfather was a Tandy so my mom, her three siblings and one of her cousins plus some of their children and grandchildren were there. Follow? All-in-all there was about 50 people there including blood family, spouses, partners, and friends.

Our family camped for five nights in the park along with my sister, Shelly, and her family. All other families came in and went out at different times, some camping and some staying in a local motel. Our group event, on a Friday evening, was in the park and that was time we had set aside to all be together at once. The rest of the time was split between camping, beaches, and redwoods with whoever was willing to join us. I had such a great time that I didn't want to leave and would have been happy with two more nights there.