From Man on Man to Zone: 02/01/2022

Thursday, February 24, 2022

Roche Harbor Trip

Since my parents were supposed to be here helping me recover from surgery, they came anyway to see Libby at State. On Monday we headed up to Maren's awesome house in Roche Harbor on San Juan Island. It is so beautiful! And it was COLD! And WINDY! We even got to experience a short power outage on Monday night. We hit both lighthouses, a great restaurant, a somewhat sketchy restaurant, the Fireman Thrift Store (the girls didn't bring coats), and lots of the fun shops around Friday Harbor. We also went to the sculpture park. Wow! So many interesting sculptures. (#goals--to afford one of those sculptures?). It was so fun to be with my parents.

Cattle Point--SO COLD and we almost blew away too. (Libby and Sarah enjoyed the sights from inside the car.)

Tuesday we went to the Lime Kiln Light house, much warmer and less windy.

I was proud of this pic.

The lime kiln

At the sculpture park. Moving meditation.

Chilly ferry ride! For some reason Ben tried to stay outside for the first leg of the trip--he didn't make it. But he got really cold before he came in.

Phase 10 night. I got to Phase 7 or something. But we definitley didn't finish. Who can?

Such a fun time! We came home and hit the ground running back into life. I need to run my February a little differently from now on...it looks like Districts, Regionals and State are here to stay!

State--Mat Classic XXXIII

We were so excited for state this year. SW broke all kinds of school records. Most total to state (7). Most girls to state (3 and one alternate). First freshman girl at state (LIBBY :). And it was a good weekend. But not the weekend we hoped for.

Things didn't go smoothly for Libby at state. Or for her mommy. Main problems: Libby didn't start getting ready right away after weigh-ins. And when she did, she realized she only had one wrestling shoe. I came up to start trying to trouble shoot and also realized her hair wasn't done. Grammy was able to go to the hotel and get the shoe from the middle of her hotel room floor. I had to sprint down the hill from the dome to grab the shoe from their car because traffic was at a stand still. Then I attempted to sprint back up. I made it farther than my old self thought I might. I ran walked the rest. Anyway, I got in and delivered the shoe while she warmed up. (Luckily I had a coach pass.) Then I went to help grandpa into the dome. Meanwhile, apparently Libby thought there was still time to get her hair braided. So she was sobbing in the stands with one side braided and one not as they were calling her down to the mat. It was a disaster. She made it down and wrestled horribly. Pinned in seconds. Not a great start. She recovered after a bit (better than I did--as I am still feeling lots of mom guilt...I should have made sure she was ready earlier.). And she wrestled really well in her 2nd match--against the region champ and lost in the 3rd period--she had even been ahead in the match.

Everyone else won at least a match and Hunter took 2nd. We managed to have fun in the stands for the most part. Saturday got REALLY long. (As usual.). But I'm so glad Libby made it. We had a great time at the team dinners and getting to know the team better. SW has a terrific group of kids as wrestlers.

Two future SW wrestlers?? (Currently on the Einstein team)

Superfans!

It was so cool that Brion and Geneva made the trek--and saved the shoe day!

Great group of wrestlers!

Do they hang out at State differently than they did in 2015?

Not really. Screens screens screens and a bit of wrestling.

Very proud daddy!

By the end of Saturday night--we still had this huge crew! So proud of SW!

Selfies and Other Quick Pics of the Two Week Period...

It was Multiples Day at school! I brought in all the Norton and SW swag I could! It's so fun to be a 21 -tuplet.

We also had an Emma & Trish birthday celebration! Maren got us matching crowns and sashes! I got an awesome stand up paddleboard. I'm really looking forward to summer!

And some fun during scriptures...

Regional Wrestling Tournament

Okay, going back a few weeks now. It's been so insane, I haven't had time to catch up.

So here goes the quick synopsis of the last 3 weeks in a few different posts.

We found out mid-week that Libby would only be allowed to bring 2 spectators to Regionals. It was heartbreaking for the Nortons not to show up in force. But there was "live-streaming" they said. (For only $70!!!!). Turned out the live-stream was several unmanned cameras that kept going down with no one noticing. So I reported it 3 times. The last time I was told I "wasn't being very nice." Yeah....

Anyway, it was an intense day of wrestling. Libby met her most difficult matches of the season thus far. But end of the day, she took 5th and qualified for State!

It was long, exhausting, exhilarating and amazing.

I was so proud of her! And--after the tournament she went home for a quick rinse and a stake dance! It was her first official dance because it is the first one since the pandemic has eased.

Wardrobe: Everyone was in jeans.
Except Libby who was in sequins.

Sunday, February 6, 2022

Sub Regional Wrestling Tournament

The Sub Regional Tournament was in Marysville, which is about 45 minutes away. Since Brion wanted to go see Libby wrestle, Geneva and Brion decided to get a hotel. We jumped on that bandwagon. I'm so glad we did!

Most of the season for Libby and the girls is relatively chill compared to the intensity of the post season. At scrambles, and even at the one tournament that wasn't cancelled, the girls are put into weight groups, not really classes. So this is the first time Libby needed to weigh in at a specific weight class. Well, she was so nervous all day that she ended up weighing in at 101, rather than 103 lbs. So even though she would have been the #1 seed at 105 lbs, she decided to go into the 100 lb weight class (there is a 2 lb. allowance, and on day 2 a 3 lb. allowance.). This made me super nervous for lots of reasons, but mostly--because it meant she'd need to skip her late night calorie make up. But it worked out and she made weight on day 2 after a swim in the hotel pool, a steamy shower, and sleeping in a very warm room. (Thankfully she shared a room with Maren.)

Day 1 she won both her matches. The first wrestler was from Hazen HS. The 2nd match was the wrestler from Shorecrest and the match was very close. She got a point in the last few seconds on a technical violation by the other wrestler. But Libby had also given up a technical violation earlier, so I'd say it was a pretty fair match. The stress of each match was HUGE on this mama! Heart pounding, wow.

Day 2 she lost her first match. It was a loss to a girl with clearly lots more experience. It was hard for Libby and she cried for quite a while after. (This is where having no food in her system really is hard--but she just couldn't eat...too many nerves. And I felt pretty similarly--and it takes a lot to get this mama not to eat!). After several pep talks, she got it together and won her next match in an 8-3 decision. Then it was another match with Rhodes from SC. Libby won this one, 5-3 to take 3rd place in the Sub-Region. She gave up 3 points in the last few seconds--making me almost lose my mind. She advances to the Regional tournament (thankfully only one day) next weekend.

I'm so proud of her hard work and her recovery from the disappointing loss. (The girl who beat her wrestled her older sister in the 1st-2nd match and took 2nd.)

On to wrestle another day--along with 2 of her teammates who are also advancing to Regionals!

Honor Choir

Ben decided he really wanted to sing in honor choir. Full disclousure it was partly because his crush of the moment was singing in honor choir. haha. But I can respect that.

It was a really fun and very short concert (since due to COVID they didn't have the HS or Middle School choirs sing with the elementary kids this year.)

Ben looked so good in his black with a touch of red.

Wrestling Season Continues...

Libby had such a great regular season. She dominated her matches. She pinned every girl she wrestled--making it kind of confusing to her in the post season matches where she had trouble keeping track of if she was ahead or not. (When winning by points, rather than pin.)

The last match was at Meadowdale. The ref didn't show, so one of the Meadowdale coaches, and one of my former freshman English students (like 15 years ago) stood in as a ref. That was super fun to see.

A few pics from that match..I love watching Libby wrestle. Except that I get SO nervous. Also, the scrambles start at 6. Next year I need to figure out a better plan for dinner. There is no time between choir or Rhinos and scrambles. Dairy Queen was a fail that night. If it weren't for the no ref situation, we'd have missed Libby's first match.