My mom came to visit and attend Asher's second degree black belt promotion. She got here last week and we had a lovely visit...seeing Micah rock climbing, shopping in Old Town, and getting pedicures. (The boys opted not to join us for those last two, lol.) On Saturday, we had Asher's promotion:

On Sunday, I remembered to actually take some pictures...

...and then mom, Micah, Nathan and I went to see Tarzan at Candlelight Dinner Playhouse. 

We thoroughly enjoyed the food and show...it was well done! Afterward, mom wanted a picture with Tarzan...

(I've never taken pictures with any of the cast before, though Nathan and I have been to a number of shows both at Candlelight and at Midtown Arts Center, lol.)

Mom also taught us all how to play gin rummy while she was here, and the boys and I went up to Estes Park with her Monday...where we shared good food, played some more games and browsed some of the fun shops. My brother Zach and his family met us up there...and he, my niece and my nephew stayed up there with my mom and Micah for a couple days. They'll get her to the airport later this week.

All in all, a very nice visit!

Okay, gotta catch up here. :) Today is my Micah's fourteenth birthday. He's out of town with family, though, so a post about that will have to wait. In the meantime, let me start with the momentous achievement that my Asher earned last weekend...

So. Back in March, Asher began the training for his second degree black belt. Over the spring and summer, then, he added extra training sessions and did a full week of testing earlier this month...a night of target testing, a night of combinations testing, a night of testing on self defense and sticks, a night of testing on forms, weapons and specials (each candidate had to create and perform a form of his/her own) and an afternoon session of sparring testing (a full hour of sparring rounds with other black belts and higher). It was exhausting to watch...so I imagine it was even more exhausting to do, lol.  

Having successfully passed all of that, hooray!, his promotion was last Saturday. The promotion included five candidates...one promoting to first degree black belt, two to second degree black belt, and two to third degree black belt. Asher was quite busy during the ceremony...as he participated in all of the candidate exhibitions as well as performing with the demo team during all six of their numbers. It was impressive. 

The boy is quick, so getting pictures that weren't blurry wasn't easy, lol. Here's a sampling of some of the many skills displayed during the promotion:

(Again, these are just a few of the many skills displayed...and great big thanks to those who helped out as partners during the training, testing and promotion.)

And then, finally, it was time for the awarding of the new belts and going down the line of black belts present to be congratulated...

Micah enjoyed picking his brother up. :) And we're so grateful for the community that Karate West has created...a community that continually shows support and encouragement...and where our boys feel at home. 

(For the record, Asher's new belt has his name and rank embroidered on it and he can now wear a red uniform...which is in the laundry as I type, though he won't be able to wear the new jacket until I move all the patches.)

And then there were group pictures and food and cake and relaxing with friends...

...and I remembered this time to get a photo of Mrs Yee with Asher! 

...and I found these past photos to add to Saturday's of Asher with Mr Yee...

 
It's been such a wonderful journey. So many thanks to the Yees for the many hours of instruction and guidance and inspiration over the past nine years! Looking forward to more!

So. This happened yesterday...

Yup. I finally got tired of my long teal hair, lol. Had almost a foot cut off and switched to purple touches. Yay!

We're a bit over halfway through our summer here already (well, it's less than halfway for Noah, who got out for the summer slightly later and starts back to school later). May and June seem to have flown by, and I'm trying to be more intentional about how I'm spending my time. Also, on any given day with these three teenagers, it's entirely possible to start dwelling on negatives, lol. But. I'm trying to avoid that. I'm generally a very optimistic person. So, I'm looking on the bright side and want to share why I'm pretty darn happy about this summer and these teens of mine...

Noah and I have started going to the archery range and shooting together. My shooting earlier this week wasn't great but before that I managed this grouping...which I thought wasn't so bad, considering it had been more than a year since I'd gotten my bow out. :) 

For what it's worth, I feel much stronger than before but still lack aim, lol. Noah, annoyingly, has pretty good aim. :) (He claims it has nothing to do with the fact that he's shooting a compound bow with a sight and I'm shooting a bare recurve bow. Ahem.)

Asher and I have been going to the gym after he gets home from work every other day or so...in preparation for his second degree black belt testing next week. We've been working on cardio and endurance by doing interval drills on the assault bike and rowing machine and treadmill...yes, both of us. This usually has been happening on afternoons after I've already gone to boot camp that morning (boot camp is an hour each time and I've been walking to and from the gym for that this summer due to having two vehicles and four drivers). I don't have any pictures from the gym, lol. 

And Micah and I have been going to the climbing gym three times a week all summer. (We really like Ascent!) He has friends who meet us there some of the time and I'd initially figured I wouldn't climb those days. But. I've been climbing every time and am actually getting better! I don't have high aspirations or anything but am proud to have recently started moving beyond only the "beginner" routes. Here's me on an overhang route that I finally conquered earlier this week:

I'm definitely getting stronger and learning more technique but still have some issues with my dislike of falling, lol. 

So. Yes. I'm a little tired lately, lol. (In case you weren't counting, in one week that's three times to boot camp and three times to the gym to do intervals and three times climbing and once or twice to the archery range.) Things will slow down in a week or two after Asher's second degree black belt testing week is done.

For the moment, though, I'm trying not to think about the fatigue and instead focusing on and appreciating the fact that I'm able to hang with these boys of mine (and hold my own, if I do say so myself, lol)...and that we have the time in the first place...and that they're willing and happy to spend the time with me. :) So fortunate and thankful.

Just five random things that have been making me happy this summer...

1. My peonies. They're done blooming now but were gorgeous a couple weeks ago. I have such fond memories of cutting peonies with my parents for Memorial Day arrangements. 

2. This driftwood suncatcher I made. So...one of the things Nathan requested after his grandparents died was a giant driftwood collection that had been arranged on a big board and hung inside and outside their house for years. When Nathan's parents drove out last year for Noah's graduation, they brought it with them. And then it sat in the basement and took up a decent amount of space. ;) After some discussion, Nathan removed all the pieces from the board and we stored them in a big tub until we could figure out what to do with them.

Seemingly unrelatedly, I have some fun snowflake suncatchers that I put in/on the kitchen window every Christmas. I love how they cast rainbows around the kitchen and am always a little sad to put them away after the holidays. 

These two things came together when I decided to use some of the pieces of driftwood with a prism. We made one for us and one for Nathan's parents...excellent (and smaller, lol) momentoes of the large driftwood piece and fun suncatchers. And now I have rainbows year round...yay!

3. These women. Every so often, as time and schedules allow, a group of us tries to get together. These are women I began our homeschooling journey with (this picture is a subset of all of us...those of us who were able to make it to happy hour last month, lol). We've been through many years and curricula and transitions...and, though our kids may be taking different paths these days, we remain a tribe. And I am thankful and blessed to call them friends.

4. Letters like these. I was sorting through boxes in the basement recently and found a stash of letters. Among them, I found a collection of notes written by my mom and three youngest siblings...notes mailed to me while I was at college. (By the way, they sent me a LOT of letters. I feel kind of bad that we don't send more mail to Noah when he's at college. Then again, it's so much quicker to text, lol. Still. I'm so thankful for the sheer volume of correspondence when I went away.)

This is a sample of the letters from my youngest sister (who was almost 9 when I left for college). It cracks me up.

5. Getting rid of stuff. I was going through the boxes in preparation for our neighborhood garage sale last weekend. I actually went through much of the house and purged a lot of stuff back in February and felt I was doing pretty good. When the neighborhood announced their garage sale, I figured "why not?" (and thought it would be good incentive to get Nathan and the boys to do some sorting) but didn't expect to have too much to sell. But we did end up selling a good lot of stuff and promptly took the leftovers to Goodwill rather than bringing it back in the house. Yay! (Plus, it was a good excuse to visit with a number of our neighbors and even meet a few new ones!)

And those are some of the things making me happy this summer...hope yours is happy, too!