Easter Recap

Easter was a really nice family day that gave us the chance to spend time together, chillax and eat tons of delicious food. Like Christmas, it is really important to Husband and I that Easter has meaning behind it. With Beau doing his CCD classes this year it was cool to talk to him about what Easter means and why we celebrate it...not for the egg hunts or the plastic candy filled eggs..but the true meaning of Easter. After a lovely Easter Mass with my parents and many friends, we headed to our house and enjoyed the ultimate feast. 

We have so many blessings and days like  this are good reminders of His love and grace in our lives. 

What We Are Reading...

Tanner and I just finished my all time favorite young adult book "Who Put the Hair in My Toothbrush" by my all time favorite young adult author Jerry Spinelli. I read this book countless times when I was in my early pre-teen years and I was happy he enjoyed it too.  Every kid with pesky siblings should read this great book!

Reading with Tanner at bed time is my favorite and I am planning schemes to keep doing it as long as possible! We just started "Ungifted" by Gordon Kormam and so far we are really enjoying this tween novel. 

Beau is currently reading Charlottes Web...classic!  He's very captivated by this story...his two favorite characters are Avery and Templeton. He especially loves my Templeton voice. I'm interested to see his reaction to the end of this story as he is very tough, but surprises us with his tender heart. 

Finny Minny is reading....everything! This girl is a reading fool and just moved up another reading level.  She comfortably and easily reads second grade level books, which is so awesome!  She hasn't really found a chapter book series that she loves but reads a lot of Magic Treehouse and Junie B. Jones. And of course Fancy Nany never gets old. 

Weekend.

This weekend Husband and Beau had a super fun time together in Spokane at the final wrestling tourney of the year...the "state" tournement that had wrestlers from all over Washington. It is a really big tournement with something like 1400 wrestlers who are all really tough...and initially Beau wasn't going to go because we (ok me) just needed a weekend at home. But his coaches were only taking a small group of wrestlers and they really wanted him to go and experience this challenge...so Husband and Beau had a little weekend get a way together.  Which was pretty fun for Beau because he and Daddy don't get tons of alone time. 

Beau pinned his first opponent, beat the second by points and lost in the finals by getting pinned. Beau was not happy losing and didn't want to talk to me on the phone. Heartbreak. He didn't cry and held it together until he had cooled off. I was so proud of him...second place out of all those kids...that's awesome...but mommy's little pep talk wasn't taken so well. "I wanted to win!"  Sigh. 

While he and his teammates waited for the medal ceremony he found his smile and enjoyed the rest of the night. All this was reported to me via text from my wrestling mommy friends. Thank God for them!

So now we can finally hang up the singlet and headgear until next Winter. 

Back in Omak I enjoyed the first soccer game of the season with Big and Lil. The cold April wind was miserable and I was almost...almost wishing for a stinky wrestling tourney. After soccer I attempted some house cleaning but ended up catching up on my many hours of DVR. It had to be done. Felt great. 

Husband and Beau enjoying the day together. 

Husband said this picture was taken from very far away...hence the blurrrrr...but it captures the love between Mateo and Beau. Pep talk in staging for round one. 

Before round two..Blake "The Beast" and Beau "The Sandman" with game faces on. 

The three amigo's...all took home silver. Very proud of these boys and love their friendship!

Disney Recap

Our Spring Break Disney Trip was a huge success!!! Everyone had a great time and lots of fun memories made.... Not relaxing or chill, but busy and go-go-go with action packed days. Thankfully we've learned a few tricks over the years to make long days at the parks more manageable...go early...mid day break/nap...return and stay late...hit the rides during parades/lightshows, and grab Fast Passes quickly and stick to one park per day!

It was really awesome to see the excitement and joy of all the kids!  They handled the lines really well and had a blast riding all the super scary-fast rides...which meant we all had to ride them too. It was a great family adventure and I hope we can continue this tradition with another family vacation next year!

                   Day 1...in matching shirts I had made! Super cheesy and very cute!

Papa stayed back at the hotel to rest, while we headed back at night.  We rode Splash Mountain several times in a row on this night. 

                              Front seat ride on Splash Mountain. 

                                      Cousin Love!

An afternoon in Radiator Springs was awesome! Everyone had a blast at California Adventure. 

Too cold to swim for the adults...but the kids didn't mind. Brrrrrrrrr

That is not me in the back....I was hiding behind Husband. In fact in every single one of these ride shots...from Splash Mountain to Space Mountain, Tower of Terror and Screamer...I was hiding in fear. There were some pretty hilarious pictures. 

And That's A Wrap!

Today was our last wrestling tournament of the season..and thank you Baby Jesus it was at home because I'm so tired of traveling. Hosting a wrestling tourney takes a lot of prep and help, but we have such an amazing team and it went off without a hitch. 

Beau had a really good season...he faced some really tough opponents and battled hard in many matches. Beau continues to love this sport...and as his coach pointed out to me today, Beau has the physical strength/stamina...but also the mental toughness. He doesn't just rely on his strength, but uses his brains to figure out what moves work in different situations. You can see him thinking and strategizing as he's out there. He's not a crier, but a total fighter. 

He pinned his opponents in both the first and second round today and in the finals he had to wrestle one of his good pals who is a year older and very tough. They don't often meet because of weight, but today the brackets landed with them together. Beau lost 5-6 but did such an amazing job and didn't give up! The best part of the entire match was hearing the cheers for both boys from everyone and having the boys give each other a giant hug afterwards. That is what it's all about..sportsmanship, hardwork, and friendship! 

Bryson and Beau ready for the final match!

It was a hard fought match!

Hugs and exhaustion!

A lot of hardware for Beau and his friends! Along with his pal Alex who is always so encouraging to Beau. 

Perspective

Dear Lovely Children of Mine,

We adore watching you play sports and have fun! We love seeing your smiley faces as you practice with your teammates, your respectful listening when a coach is talking or working with you on a skill. Mommy and Daddy encourage involvement in a lot of different sports and keep you busy each season because we see the life long value...not of being the best, or having any delusions that you will be a professional __________, but because of the character, teamwork, integrity, sportsmanship, and enjoyment these activities provide.  

We promise to always make sure you're on time to practice, at your games ready to go, and that you understand that school work, family, and faith come first, but if you make a commitment to a team you keep it. 

We will never call a coach and complain or question playing time. You will need to talk with them first. We will never negatively talk about a coach who is usually a volunteer or greatly underpaid. We will never require you to play a sport that you don't like; but if you begin a season you will finish. We will never yell obnoxious things from the sidelines nor will we allow you to display anything but positive sportsmanship.

We will yank your buns off the field, court, or mat if you ever act like a brat, use a sassy mouth, or intentionally push/shove/hit someone in a manner not related to the sport. We will require you to get your homework done, even if you're exhausted from practice and just want to go to sleep. 

We will never buy you ridiculously expensive shoes or equipment simply because everyone else has it. We promise to spend time working with you at home throwing, catching, shooting, etc. If you want to.  We will support you when games or matches don't turn out like you wanted by giving you love and positive talks. Not by blaming others. We will embrace the teams you end up on;

Not complain or whine that things aren't fair. We will never move for sports. 

We will always be your biggest fans, but we will never live vicariously through you. We will encourage you to find enjoyment, while also realizing what sports are really about.  We will be proud of you win or lose and always work to help you see the big picture of things..the important lessons and character building moment sports provide...not the sport itself, or the trophy or glory, but the life long lessons and memories. 

To the moon and back,

Mommy and Daddy

Getting Ready for Disney!

The countdown for our family Disney trip is on, and in 14 days we will be departing for So. Cal. for a week of Dinsey/California Adventure. This will be our second time taking the lil kids, TJ's third trip, but the super fun part of this vacay is that we are going with Husband's sister and her entire family...and Papa and his girlfriend! 

Now this might not seem super spectacular or amazing, except my wonderful father in law kinda likes to stay put...and going to Disneyland was probably no where on his list of "Must Do's!"  And plus..."I've already been there!" And Husband laughed and said, "yeah like 20 years ago. It's changed!"  

So basically my SIL and I smothered on giant layers of guilt and persuasion.."it's OK, we'll go with just our two families...You'll miss the memories and magic of watching your grand kids" And vooolah...we all ended up going! I think SIL and Husband and I felt really compelled to plan this trip because Papa isn't getting any younger, the kids are the perfect ages, and this will be a life long memory.  

I adore my SIL, her husband and their children...and we all value the friendships and enjoyment the cousins have with each other along with our own friendships. It hasn't always been that way, so I love that we've become so close and I always feel in my heart that Georgia would be so proud of our relationship today. 

So a few weeks ago we had a "Pre Vacation Meeting" basically to ease Papa's mind of all his fears and concerns about the trip. It was so hilarious and SIL and I kept sneeking laughs at each other while Husband and Uncle Dan drank beer and kept telling Papa to relax. Papa's biggest fears include someone getting lost, making sure all the air travel/hotel travel that I booked for everyone was set, and having to sit by Beau and Diesel on the airplane...haaaaaa!

We assured him we would always keep a buddy system and no one was going to get lost, I gave him paper copies of all confirmation codes and times to ease his worry that somehow I had actually booked tickets, and we told him "Sorry, we voted and you were selected to sit between Beau and Diesel on the flight" Evil Laugh Evil Laugh!!!

We all agreed we just need to have patience and enjoy the trip; it's hard traveling with a lot of people but we've planned out the days and the children are so excited!  I know I'll have some hilarious stories to share and I hope when the kids are older they can sit around and remember and laugh about our Griswold Family Vacation to the Magic Kingdom.