hi-ya!

Really there's nothing that makes you feel more like a grown up than taking your three kids on a trip all by yourself.  All of that responsibility has the potential to sap the fun right out of you.

The kids have been taking TaeKwonDo since February and are pretty darn good, I think.  And last weekend, they went to prove it at their first TaeKwonDo tournament.  But JP had to work, so it was up to me to make sure they arrived at American University in DC at 8am on Saturday.

Luckily, we have family that lives less than ten minutes away from the campus.  Well, we really have most of our family up that way, so we headed up Friday to visit.  The hardest part?  Having the three kids shoulder to shoulder in the back seat of JP's tiny car (since he needed my van).  It was just like in the movies, or an episode of The Middle, "She's touching me! He's playing with the window! He won't share the pillow!"  Definitely, nightmarish.

There was an exciting nighttime drive through downtown DC, too.  One wrong turn and it added about 20 minutes to our trip.  And have you ever driven around Dupont Circle?  I'm definitely not qualified to do that again.

But we made it and had a great time seeing family.  I'm not sure they were so happy to see us...the kids were pretty wound up in all the excitement and put on quite a show everywhere they went.  I'm used to most of it, so I just had to laugh it off when the wide eyes of onlookers would dart over to me to see my reaction to the boys' jumping and falling.  Yes, boys are different than girls.

On to American University.  We arrived on time, and I had fun reminiscing to my college days...American was probably my second choice university back then.  Oh, the road not taken.

The lobby had two giant colorful statues...a donkey and an elephant.  Diego was taken with the donkey.  Foreshadowing for November?  Who knows.



Here are the kids practicing their routine.  They were SO nervous, not knowing what to expect.  The gym was huge, but really there weren't as many people watching as I had imagined...it was mostly parents, not olympic trial onlookers.



And they won a medal for every event.  Not a dollar store medal, either...a nice heavy keeper.  Makes it worth the money we forked over for the tournament.



You can tell by Joaquin's expression just how nervous he was.  I remember being that nervous for every ballet performance I ever did.  It never got easier for me.  I hope it won't be the same for them...that they'll grow in confidence and be able to try for anything their heart desires.



The medal ceremony...really just a quick picture on the podiums.  Not the Olympics, but pretty close!



And Diego behaved well for the several hours we were there.  A cup of play-doh used up a good 45 minutes.





The trip home was the same as the trip up....more complaining and whining... only double since the nerves had worn off.

But I'm almost as proud of myself as I am of them.  We were on time. I didn't lose anybody.  Nobody got hurt.  I may have been sapped and I received no congratulations, but my medal is stored in our memories.  I don't think the kids will forget their first tournament, and I'm pretty sure I won't either.