Wrestling 2014

It's that time of year again when the mats are rolled out and kids wrestling begins.  This year Garrett has been joined by his younger brother Matthew.

Garrett:
Garrett says he loves wrestling.  I'm not sure whether this is an actual love, or if he 'loves' it because he knows it was dad's sport.  Whatever the case, this spring, like the two before he has eagerly requested to participate.  He continues to get better, learning moves and starting to get a feel for he sport.  By my count, he is 6-0 this year.  It's hard to prove this because the volunteer referees and scorekeepers are often clueless.  Nevertheless its a lot of fun--of course if you are taking pictures of him while he wrestles there's an equal chance he'll concentrate on the match as mug for the camera--we'll blame mom for that.

Mathew:
If Garrett loves wrestling because of his dad, Matthew loves it because of his brother.  This is his first foray into the sport.  He says he loves matches but doesn't really care for practices.  I think he's 4-2 on the year.  Although often what transpires between 4-5 year-olds can hardly be classified as wrestling.  It's more like entangled spinning or aggressive dancing.  Still, as the season has progressed, Matthew has started to figure out the objectives of the sport.  Last match he even tried a half-nelson.  YAY Matthew, we're so proud of you.

Pictures 2-2013

Its been a while since I've added some pictures.  Here you go, feast your eyes to a random assortment of our family happenings.

This is the boys dressing up for Kids Club 80s night.  Matthew is a Star Wars wearing mini Mr T. in training while Garret is sporting a Voltron shirt with a hairdo that seems to be a cross between Flock of Seagulls and Billy Idol.

The snow is now quickly melting.  Thanks to a couple days of rain and warmer temperatures.  However a week ago there was still plenty of the white stuff for a fun day out with the boys.

In other news Garrett is participating in wrestling for the second year

While Matthew is loving his first foray into organized sports, playing soccer.

Of course Matthew turned four.  Where has the time gone?

And Garrett decided to dress up as Abraham Lincoln.  Or so he told us.

And then the boys found other ways to entertain themselves.

Love this crazy family.

Where Have You Gone Dan Gable?

It's been a while since I've blogged, here, on my own little blog.  I've done some fill-in work for my wife on her blog and I've written plenty of articles for my church, but I've sadly neglected my own little piece of cyberspace.

I need to return.  My two readers are depending on me.

Actually I'm not blogging for anyone today.  I am on a rant.  I'm ticked off.  Angry.  I could type out those little symbols that they put over cartoon characters heads.  Today was going absolutely great until I happened across a headline online while looking for something entirely different.

Wrestling Dropped From Olympics.

You can read the article too.  It's hard to type when you'd rather throw something.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME!  You are going to drop one of the Olympics oldest sports, a sport that a great man nations compete in, from Russia to Iran, to China, to Cuba to the United States . . .  you're going to drop it so you can add something new?

One of the comments on that article said it nicely, "Ribbon dancing and trampoline jumping are now Olympic sports but wrestling is out?  What a joke."

When they deep sixed softball (which I was against) it was supposedly because there weren't enough countries who could compete.  Not the case here.  It is a sport that any nation can compete in.  AAAGGHH!

I wish I knew where to contact the IOC and blow up their inbox with petitions and complaints.  Maybe I'll have to settle for hanging them in effigy.

But instead of ending this in a venomous tirade I decided to suggest some new changes that the IOC should consider making.

They should drop the rowing competitions and replace it with aerial freestyle (where the contestants jump out of a plane and perform as many insane tricks as they can before pulling their parachute).

They should drop the shooting competitions and replace it with competitive web surfing.

They should drop bicycling and replace it with an International Dance Off.

They should drop diving and replace it with team Karaoke.

They should drop swimming and replace it with a Settlers of Catan tournament.

They should drop synchronized swimming and replaced it with a Battle Bots competition.  (OK I would actually go for that but I'd feel really bad for the athletes who have been training for years for the next Olympics).

They SHOULD replace rythmic dancing with a Jousting Competition

Of course they will never touch their media darlings: track and gymnastics.  But I might not even watch those next time.  I am so mad.  Maybe I'll be working on a time machine to go back to the original Olympics.  Where, you know, wrestling was one of events (the number of which you could count on your fingers).

I'm mad.  But I am slightly worried for the IOC when true supermen and former Olympic and collegiate wrestlers go looking of them.  You know men like Dan Gable, John Smith, Aleksandr Karelin, Cael Sanderson, Alexander Medved and Randy Couture go looking for them.

Happy hunting.

I did notice they didn't axe the shooting competition. You DON'T want those guys looking for you.

Christmas Candids, part 2

As Christmas approached there was first Garrett's preschool program (he's seen here as the Happiest Christmas Tree).

Then there was the Church Christmas program

Finally Christmas Eve arrived!

The boys were excited

And the crowning achievement was the gift of a new bunk bed

Here's Matthew showing off how much he likes the new bed.

And the next morning came and Santa had brought a snowboard . . .

and tools!

What a great time of year!

Christmas Candids, part 1

Christmas has come and gone and I finally have the chance to update this blog with some of the Holiday happenings in our world. To start off I begin with some photos of the boys in the early days of December as they awaited the big day.

Here's Matthew with the one of the decorations.

Pirates at Christmas, cause that's how we roll around here

Garrett & Matthew getting ready as Christmas approaches

The boys hamming it up and having a good time in front of the camera



And one more of the boys together

Carnivals, Costumes, Candy and such . . .

Every year we have an annual Harvest Festival at our church. It usually coincides with Halloween and is a fun, safe carnival style event for kids. This year it was a couple days early as we really didn't feel like hosting the event on a Monday night. There are lots of game booths including the ring toss, bean bag toss, and many many more. There is one game where little participants can throw a ball through the openings of characters from the Bible story of Daniel and the Lions' den. As we were closing up shop the targets became costumes for Garrett, Matthew, and a couple of their friends.
The harvest festival in the rear view mirror our two boys donned their costumes in the early afternoon, October 31st, to got out and find candy. Here are G & M as cast members from How to Train your Dragon
While Matthew wasn't exactly a toothless replica, we do believe he was a cute little dragon.
Luckily the nearby shopping complex has their own Trick or Treat event every year. So the boys went out and invaded Barnes and Noble, Rubios, Jamba Juice, Old Navy and many more establishments. They took in quite a haul.
The best part of the night, however, was when we got home. We didn't go out into the neighborhood, but we still were ready to be invaded by hordes of candy seeking costume clad children. Garrett wanted to hand out the candy. Really, I just had to be nearby (Lori was distracted watching her beloved Chargers play).

Garrett had more fun handing out candy than he had getting candy earlier in the day. I was so proud of him to be excited to be the candy-giver. He truly was more blessed giving than receiving.
And that brought October to an end. But less than a week later, Garrett attended a birthday party that included a face painter. So the G-man became a tiger. A pretty cool looking tiger if you ask me. (For the record Matthew was there as well, but he wanted no part of the face painting).

A Tale of Two Beaches

Lori and I both love the beach. However, the beach we are in love with looks a little different. This is very probably very much a product of where we grew up. Lori is a Southern California girl. For her the beach is sun, and surf, and sun. The beach is a place to go to lay out in the rays of the wark sun, to play in the waves, and perhaps to walk around a festive boardwalk.

I, however, grew up largely in the Pacific Northwest. For me the beach meant the Oregon Coast. It was scenic, and contemplative, and largely rugged. For a few summer months it could be sunny and useful for ocean sports that might be familiar to those from California or a similar climate, but even in July and August the weather could be pretty much a coin flip. While I always enjoyed the Oregon Coast it looks and feels very different from a California beach.

And I'm just guessing, but I'm pretty sure I would feel at home near the Ocean in Maine or Ireland or somewhere else grey and misty, and green beneath the salty air. Lori, however, would probably resonate more with the Florida Keys or Tahiti or some Greek Isle. I'm certain there are places where our notion of what the Ocean and beach should be do overlap--places like Kauai where there are daily rains and the mists hang in the rugged mountains overlooking a warm sandy beach with people playing in the surf.