Kids State

Last Friday, we loaded up the kids and dog and headed to Redmond for Kids State. We thought we would make a fun weekend of it so we rented a house in Eagle Crest. Hanley was excited about the hot tub at the house and Henrik was excited to sleep in "bonk beds."  But before we hit the road, Hanley reminded Cody to pack his phone "that way Daddy can play my wrestling songs in the morning". I love how much this tournament morning tradition means to him.

Friday night was spent getting settled into the house followed by a dip in the hot tub, weigh ins at the fair grounds, out for pizza for dinner, then back to the house for another dip in the hot tub.

Saturday morning was typical for a tournament morning. We were up and out of the house early at 6:30am with all the necessities (snacks, lots of snacks).

Hanley didn't have a very good warm up that morning. His elbows were skinned up and starting to split open from the prior days adventure at JJ Jump. A couple bandaids and he seemed a little better.

Pee Wee 35-40lb bracket was a 16 man bracket, double elimination.

He got dominated in his first match.  Pinned within 30 seconds. With a poor warm up, I could tell he just wasn't ready to wrestle. We wished this match would have lasted long so he could have gotten more experience out of it.  But instead it was over in the blink of an eye.

By his 2nd match, he was ready to go.  You could see it on his face in the pre wrestle handshake. He wrestled well and technically sound. He pinned his opponent in the 2nd period. If you ask Hanley about this match, he will tell you all about how he "couldn't get that kid in a half nelson, so he put him in a cradle and pinned him!" Listening to a 5 year olds recap on a match is always entertaining.

He wrestled hard in his 3rd match. His opponent was a 2nd year wrestler from Burns and he was tough.  Hanley gave it his all but ended up getting caught in a Saturday Night Ride and the match was over in the 2nd period.  And with it being his 2nd loss, so was the tournament.

Once off the mat, the water works came. When asked what the tears were for he said "he just wasn't tough enough". We told him that wasn't the case at all. He made that kid work hard for that pin and we were so proud of him. We also reminded him that we had a whole fun weekend ahead of us back at the house!

We finished out the weekend having lots of fun at the house with Oma and Opa.  Being the water dogs that the boys are, they spent most of the weekend down at the pool or in the hot tub. We also played endless amounts of board games, had family meals at the house, and took a long walk with the dogs along the bike trails at Eagle Crest.

On our way home Hanley told us two things when we asked him if he would like to come back and wrestle at State next year. First he said, "Heck ya, we are coming back next year. I'm gonna bring lots of thunder for all those guys there." Then he asked Cody if he could teach him how to do push ups so he could get stronger. This is what I love so much about Hanley. Instead of feeling down and defeated, he accepted the loss, searched for ways to become a better wrestler and isn't afraid to take on the challenge again next year.  This kind of attitude is what will take him far in life...on or off the mat.

...And since we have been home, he's cornered Cody every evening so they can work on their push ups together.

Keep up the hard work kid...in whatever you do in life.