Youth Wrestling

With the end of football season comes the start of wrestling season. We never though Thaddeus would be wrestling one year after his leukemia diagnosis, but here we are!

We love to travel to Utah to be part of their tournaments. They have tons of high level athletes, and the tournaments are super family friendly, quick, and fun. 

Traditional first stop when we travel is the Cracker Barrel in St. George.

The deep thoughts by coach daddy before the tournament begins.

The warm up. I love that they always have each other to warm up with!

End result was three wins (with 7 pins) for Christian who triple bracketed.

And a first place for Thaddeus in his age/weight division. Not only was he able to wrestle (even with his port in place) he was able to win! Three, first period pins. 

 Proud brothers with all their hardware!

It meant more than I can express to watch TNT walk on to that mat, win, and have his arm raised in victory. Then when they announced over the loudspeaker, "And your first place champion is Thaddeus Thatcher!" I could hardly control my emotions. He is a champion in more ways than that announcer could ever fathom. 

Juliette did not feel well and stayed home with Meems. They did fun things like make pizzas while the boys were wrestling. We feel incomplete when she isn't with us, but we are thankful she has grandma ready to take care of her and help her have fun while we are traveling. 

The ride back home was peaceful and relaxing. We had our traditional end of trip stop at Dairy Queen and sledding in Cedar City. The kids are such good road trippers after all the years of traveling for wrestling. Next tournament we will have ALL our boys with us. Wrestling is so tough but SO worth it!