State Wrestling '09

One of the great things about February is the State Wrestling Tournament in Des Moines. B has attended every year since he was about 2 months old. Several members of hubby's side of the family are there and we have a great time. Since B had been sick for 7 days!!! before this we did not get to go up on Friday morning to Des Moines as we had planned. We had wanted to be able to spend some time with our Des Moines friends, but were not really able to do that this time. We needed to stay close to the hotel and keep it a little quiet.
Our Arrival in Des Moines, several hours later than we had planned. We were excited to see Daddy again since he had been gone since Wed AM. The Wells Fargo Arena where all of the action takes place.
Saturday Night Finals. Matt did not have any wrestlers in the finals this year. He took 3 to state and one place 6th. This pic shows 4 generations. B, Hubby, his dad, and his dad.
The Grand March of the weight classes. Hubby's wrestler was in the 285 section.
All of the place winners lined up after the Grand March for the National Anthem.
Sleeping during the action. B probably slept through half of it this year.

Back at the Hotel pool...

B loved the pool. It was so cold so I only swam once out of the 3 times we went.

Adventures as a wife and mom

On Thursday my friend Ashley and I ventured up the road to LC highschool to watch our hubby's coach the wrestling dual. This is her hubby's first year to be helping Matt coach and they are both Glenwood Alumni so they have a lot of fun coaching the Rams together.

Where should I start to explain how *wonderful* our night was?

Lets see... First we always make quite an entrance with her 3 and my Brock. Of course we were late getting there. So we have to walk through a huge crowd of fans as we find our way to a spot that looks big enough to accommodate our big clan. It was a mini family reunion for me so we squeezed into section surrounded by several of my relatives. Once we were seated, we moved on to getting hats, coats, gloves, blankets, etc. off of the 6 of us. Next on the plan was discussing what we needed for dinner from the concession stand. We leave right after I get off work so it is always time for dinner when we get to a dual. This time it was Ashley's turn to go get the food so she went down with our order while I stayed with the kiddos. On her list was: 3 hot dogs, a pretzel with cheese, cheeseburger, nachos, pepsi, and 2 gatorades. She calls me from the concession stand to tell me they are out of pretzels (for me so I was totally bummed. They are my favorite!) so I have to switch to the old standby of a hot dog for myself. B and E enjoyed sitting nicely together while they waited for their dinner as I played with C.

As I look over and see her coming back through the crowd in the stands I have to bust out laughing because for the first time, they sent her back with a BOX! I couldn't find my phone to take a picture fast enough (camera still broke). Of course we have to get the kids their food asap to get them settled down so there was no time to take a photo while the food was still in the box, but here it is after we served dinner to the kids.

B, E, and C all enjoyed cheering for the Rams while they yelled out "There's my dad!" and drank their gatorade.

Hubby's mom took a turn holding Ashley's new baby N while we ate. He was sporting his Rams shirt just like his big sisters.

Then it was baby N's time to eat. Ashley spent some time feeding him in the posh surroundings of the ladies restroom. I am at least hoping she used the handicap stall so she has some extra room. During this time, the kids began to get silly. B, E, and C all had fun laying on each other and squeezing into the small space between each bleacher. Usually C was laying on top of them but for some reason she was not in this picture.

I think Ashley asked the question when she came back "Is it even worth leaving the house for this?" I would have to say yes, but I do think she plans on getting a babysitter next time.

We lost the dual to LC that night which is always a bummer, but as we bundled up to go home, I still had fun. B got to ride the bus home with his dad again which he really enjoys. I wanted to go to Target since I had a little time to myself but as I got in the car it was 9:58 and Target closes at 10. Bummer. I headed home and took this picture to show how cold it was that night.

One more thing I forgot to mention. I said that we squeezed into a spot when we arrived with a little space around us. At the end of the night we had a quite a large area around us. Ashely and I said we should have counted the number of people who moved away from us. I wonder why. :) Next time we are going to sit on the visitor side I think, if Ashley doesn't get a babysitter!