Detroit Day-Date with Scott!

To celebrate Scott's 44th birthday, I took the day off (Scott was on mid-winter break) and we went to Detroit for the day while the kids were at school.  We started at Bask for an hour reservation to use the cold plunge tubs and their sauna.  We were the only ones there at 11am, which was nice to have the place to ourselves.  I couldn't do the two coldest tubs, but Scott tried them all.  I'd do it again!

We used the locker rooms to shower and put ourselves together then walked across the street to "For the Love of Sugar" for some treats to go.  We drove a bit down the road for lunch at Midtown Social.  Afterwards, we went to Greektown Casino to play the slot machines for a bit.  I actually walked out winning $40 after playing for over an hour.  Scott wasn't as lucky.  Our final stops were at two breweries, Six Spoke and Batch Brewing.  We picked up tamales from Tamaleria Nueva Leon and headed home to see the boys.  It was a really fun day!

Happy birthday, Scott!  We celebrated with the boys on his actual birthday with a homemade cookie skillet that the boys made and some gifts.  He opted for carry-out pizza from Main Street and some beers at Bearded Lamb during Evan's hitting practice.  

Sean's Freshman Wrestling Season - February and Banquet

Sean finished off his wrestling season with a tournament in Livonia, one final varsity crossover quad in Livonia, and then the KLAA Championship team competition and individuals.  He just missed the podium at the KLAA's and at the tournament in Livonia, taking 6th place.  He competed at individual districts and lost his first match to the same kid from Salem that was really good.  He finished his season with 16 wins and 25 losses (assuming I kept track of his record correctly).  It was definitely tough wrestling varsity as a freshman, going up against seniors in many cases with a lot more experience.  But, he had some good wins and learned so much this year!  Not to mention the friends he made throughout the season.

They recently had their banquet this past week at One Under in Livonia.  It was such a nice night!  I helped plan the banquet and helped set up, leaving my parent teacher conferences early to help out.  Sean earned his varsity letter and Coach Lat said something nice about each kid.  Sean's speech was about how he had to cut weight and fluctuated between weight classes, alternating with Ben, but rose to the occasion and how several kids Sean wrestled this year came up to the coach after saying how strong Sean was.  Then, we were surprised when Coach Lat gave out 6 special awards, and Sean won "Co-Freshman of the Year" with Ben.  The coach said both of these kids work hard and have great potential of getting 100 wins or more by the time they graduate.  It was such a special moment for Sean!

Coach is resuming open mats in April that Sean will go two times a week and the coach is planning a wrestling camp at Olivet in the summer for the team to attend for 3 nights!  I think Sean understands that if he wants to get better, he will need to put in work during the off-season.  I'm excited to see him grow as a wrestler!

Evan's Winter Indoor Baseball Tournaments

Evan's off to another season of baseball with Motor City Ice Baseball organization, playing 13U this season!  It's been a busy "winter" of two practices a week starting in November and hitting an additional two nights a week.  He got a new bat for Christmas and batting gloves from Bruce Bolt.  He chose the Hype Fire for his bat this year.  He also saved up his money to buy an outfielder's glove from 44, being able to customize the entire thing!  It took almost two months to get here, but it's pretty awesome!  

The team did fundraising in the fall and was able to get a few sponsors to help pay for new bat bags, our banner, and tournament fees.  The boys walked around Downtown Plymouth asking local businesses for sponsorship.  I'm happy to report that Evan was able to get Bearded Lamb to commit!  They just had their team photos taken a week ago or so and I'm excited to see how the banner turns out!

The team had an indoor tournament in Toledo the first day of Christmas break.  Not everyone could go with it so close to Christmas, but we won our first game and lose our second game.  We would have had a third game, but a few boys had to leave for a basketball game so we dropped out of the consolation game.  Most of the team stuck around for a team meal at a pizza restaurant and arcade.  It was a fun day!

Evan did a Hittrax tournament one weekend with a few teammates.  They almost made it to the finals, but got knocked out.  It was good practice!

They did another indoor tournament over President's Weekend in February, in Brighton.  We had an evening game Sunday night and two games Monday late morning, so a few of us opted to stay at a hotel in Brighton to make it a little fun for the boys to swim and hang out in the lobby.  We checked into the hotel after dropping Luna off at June's house and then went to get an early dinner and some beers at Block Brewing.  The team got their butts kicked pretty badly in Sunday's game.  Evan was the starting pitcher and hit multiple kids and the umpire at one point.  Needless to say, he was upset.  We went back to the hotel to swim, ordered Green Lantern Pizza and hung out playing Yahtzee in the lobby with other parents.  That part was at least fun!

Monday's games went better, even though we lost both.  They were close!  Evan hit his first homerun in the first game and hit a double in the second game.  We picked up some food on the way home, picked up Luna, and relaxed at home the rest of the afternoon.  It was a quick little staycation.  The teams we had to play were some of the best, locally.  These indoor tournaments are open to any division or team so I'd say most were AAA teams.  

We've had a few scrimmages the past two weekends against other Ice teams and won both of those!  It's been fun to see the kids in their uniforms.  Last Saturday, we did a team meal after the scrimmage at Twin Peaks.  It was fun to see the kids get all embarrassed talking to the waitresses.  The service was terrible, but the boys had been talking about going to Hooters all last season so this was the next best option. 

Can't wait to move practices outside and to start the official season next month!