Breaking Boards and Fighting Boys

 Now Avery's on to breaking boards.

This is such a cool picture!

 And she's sparring every Thursday.

Sometimes with the Instructor's Aide (he's the only one her size! :) )

Who would've thought?!

Memorial Day

We decided to stay home for Memorial Day weekend.

We needed a little outing one afternoon so we tried a new park.

The girls thought it was pretty cool.

I loved how they played and played and then paused to let me take a couple of pictures!

Gramps

After my Mom passed away I made my Dad promise to come spend his birthday the following week with us in Ferndale.  He agreed and I was so glad he came.

We went to dinner to celebrate.

Annalise even shared a birthday rainbow sherbet with him!!
He stayed for a few days and it was so great having him here.

I can't even imagine what it must be like for him.

They were partners for 52 years.

High school sweethearts and then married for 48 years.

They loved each other deeply.

They were best friends.

They were a team.

When my Mom was diagnosed with kidney disease 20 years ago, my Dad took on another role...caregiver.  And he was an amazing caregiver.  So patient, so loving, so fully present.

He would say "yes, Stephie" when she grumped at him.

He would swell with pride when she called him a "saint".

It wasn't always easy,  yet there was never a doubt in his mind as to what he had "signed up for".

I worry about him.
I know that he will be just fine.
It's just that now he's on this journey without his partner and that breaks my heart.

Thankfully we can look back and be grateful for what they had.
Many years of a deep, true and pure love.
One that some people are never so lucky to have.

Happy 6th Birthday Annalise!!!

The day after Hanmadang was Annalise's birthday party!

Her FIRST with friends!!!

She was bursting at the seams with excitement!

 She was dressed and ready to go hours before the party started!!

We were off to the Jump Around Fun Zone....

We got everything all set up in the party room.

The kids have time to jump first, then once they have cake, etc. in the party room they aren't allowed back on the jumpy toys. (I like this rule! :) )

They were jumping in no time!!!

And taking some water breaks!

Avery and Jordan were too big to jump...so they played hangman 

until the littles were done jumping.

When the jumping time was up, we headed into the party room.

Annalise decided to do cupcakes FIRST!

Then Avery thought it would be a good idea to have a game prepared just in case we had some extra time.  Avery organized the girls to play "Pin the sunglasses on the Barbie".

(We forgot a blindfold, but they were creative!)

There was also a cool board for the girls to write a message to Annalise....

Next up....PRESENTS!!!

So many great things....Annalise was a little overwhelmed!

And finally....a photo shoot with all of the girls before heading home.

Happy Faces....

Mad Faces....

Silly Faces....

We all slept well that night!  Then Monday was Annalise's birthday.

More presents to open before school....

Her requested birthday lunch....a "bun-wich"...

And a special birthday hair-do!

She had a great day at school and requested "Good Burger" for dinner.

No complaints from the rest of us! 

Happy Birthday to our sweet and sassy six year old Annalise!

We love you so very much!!!!

Taekwondo Hanmadang

For survivors, life continues.

I wanted it to just stop for a bit, but it didn't.

Life went on.  Without Grams.

I stayed with my Dad until the end of the week, 

but wanted to be home to cheer Avery on at her first Taekwondo competition.

Leaving him was so hard. 

(He promised to come over to our house the following week for his birthday 

which made leaving at least bearable.)

The US Taekwondo Academy where Avery takes classes held a regional competition called Hanmadang (pronounced Hah-Mah-Dong).  What is Hanmadang? 

It is the Korean word meaning "Festival". One time a year they host a Taekwondo Festival for students from all 9 USTA Martial Art Studios.

Since it was Avery's first competition, we had no idea what to expect.  She chose to only compete in performing her poomse (poom-say) and not do the sparring competition. 

The day began in Marysville at 10 a.m.

There was a lot of waiting around.

Uncle Geoff and Auntie Robin met us there....

They did the opening ceremony and got all of the students down on the mats to warm up.

They did the Taekwondo version of "YMCA"....

After waiting for a couple of hours, it was finally Avery's turn.

The staging area....

Then they get called to the ring where they will perform their poomse in front of three judges.

This is when Avery started to get nervous.

She did awesome!!!

The judges let the audience see the scores before they flip their cards around.

Everyone was cheering.....

We had no idea the day would be quite so long (the girls gobbled down all the snacks I brought within an hour of getting there!) and we were all STARVING, so we decided to leave before the closing ceremony and get some lunch.

Avery got her medals and was very proud of her performance!

We're so proud of her too!!!

Such confidence and poise.  Way to go Avery!