Now it's official. Wrestling is OVER - for now.

I agree Braylon, its awesome that wrestling is over!! Our lives pretty much revolve around wrestling from the first of November-to the end of March. This was the Pine View HS tournament we went to with Preston. This trip was the first time Braylon gave us these big-wide-mouthed smiles. I think it was in January.

Braxton fell asleep towards the end.
Preston played catch with the boys during breaks.
And Brax and Mase did their best to keep Braylon happy. I was more than happy to go to the wrestling banquet (because it meant the season was over) but Preston did a little punk thing. I was in the cafeteria trying to keep Braylon quiet, and people started coming out wishing me a Happy Birthday. I kind of said, "Uh....Thank you?" Thinking...hmm...how did they know? Apparently Coach Holgreen asked everyone to wish me a Happy Birthday when they saw me. I'm not exaggerating when I say if I were to do that to him-he would kill me. Ok, exaggerating a little, but he would be pretty upset with me.

Now on to Bantam. Preston coached Braxton and Mason's team. At one of the practices, Mason kept coming over to talk to me and I had to keep telling him to go back with his team. At one point Preston called all the wrestlers over to him to "take a knee". I told Mason to go over to Coach, and he said, "No, not just coach. Coach Dad." It was pretty cute.

The Parowan tournament.



The Beaver tournament.
Preston was all over the gym helping/coaching wherever he was needed. I helped at one of the pre-school tables. It wasn't even Mason's table. I had to keep track of my table and make sure I didn't miss Braxton or Mason's matches on other mats. Luckily there were a few extra helpers to man my table when I needed to be elsewhere. The tournament ran very smoothly, especially for having over 400 kids. Yikes!

The North Sanpete Tournament.
I really like this picture. It's in Preston HS, but he's supporting Beaver instead of Sanpete. Hee Hee!!
This is the morning of State. We were always dragging them out of bed bright and early. I didn't take any pictures of State, only videos. Braxton and Mason ended up wrestling in different gyms, so I only got to see 1 of Braxtons matches. Wouldn't you just know they ended up wrestling their first matches at exactly the same time?!?! So Preston stayed with Brax and I had Mase and Bray. Braylon is not a fan of wrestling. He hates it. He screams. A lot. And there were several times when I would try to help Mason and say, "Come on Mason, get up-get away!" And he'd look up at me and say, "I'm trying!!"

Braxton was so disappointed that he didn't place, and thus didn't get a medal. Mason was just glad to be done, I think he was tired:)
I wish we had never gotten involved in wrestling. Wrestling Moms will know what I'm talking about. You want your kid to do well, and enjoy it. They win some, lose some-which is good for them to learn early on. But it's so hard to watch your kid lose right at the end of a great match!! And no matter how much you tell them how well they did, and all that matters is they do their best, its still hard to see how disappointed they are. And poor Mason wrestled quite a few kids this year who looked like Ultimate Fighters rather than pre-school wrestlers. He was choked, kicked in the face, pinched, scratched, and one kid kept sticking his fingers in Masons eyes. It makes me want to choke parents and refs. But through all of that, he never quit or cried. He's a tough guy. If I have a hard time now, I don't even want to know what it will be like when they're in High School. I have been told on several occasions by Preston, that I can't try to talk them out of wrestling, or sway them towards basketball. Oh, and also that someday when we have a basement, that's where we'll keep our wrestling mat for them to practice. Really?!

I think we all need a nice long break from wrestling, then hopefully we'll be ready for it to start again way too soon. I'm very excited for baseball season, and the boys can't wait for their first practices!!