St. Louis & Ardmore!

 The weekend of April 25-27 was crazy for us!  Evan had a baseball tournament in Ardmore, OK and Blake had a Kuk Sool Won tournament in St. Louis, MO.  So, we had to divide and conquer!  Travis, Evan, Beau, Nana, & Papa went to Ardmore, and Nonnie, Poppy, Blake, and I went to St. Louis.

We left Friday morning in Poppy's big new truck for St. Louis!

 We stopped in Joplin for some lunch at Red Lobster.  Nonnie & Poppy are getting the hang of the "selfie" :)

 We got to St. Louis late Friday afternoon and got checked into the hotel.  Then we met the Moy's at a Mexican restaurant near the hotel for dinner.

 We were up bright and early the next morning for the tournament!  Blake had to be there at 8:30 for check-in.  Here is Blake's fan club!!

 Blake with Nonnie & Poppy.

 Turns out, Blake's division didn't start until almost 2:30, so we sat and watched for a LONG time!!!

 When he finally got to compete, he did great!!  His form, techniques, bong spins, and sparring were all excellent!

 Unfortunately, the panel of judges that he happened to get, had a differing opinion on an etiquette issue, than what Blake's instructor teaches.  So they counted off 0.2 each for his "breech of etiquette" when he bowed in.  So frustrating, since that has absolutely nothing to do with technique or ability to do the required elements correctly, but it still counted against him.

 They told him if it hadn't been for that, he would have medaled in at least 1, and maybe 2 areas.  Oh well, live and learn!  And he really looked so great!  Below, in his sparring gear:)  He looks tough!

 After the tournament, we headed downtown for our annual post-tournament dinner at The Spaghetti Factory.  We had a lot of trouble finding a park.  Poppy's new truck is pretty big, and not easy to park in small parking spots or lots.  But, after Nonnie guided him in, we eventually found a place:)

 And dinner was delicious.  Such a cool, fun place to eat. 

 We knew the weather was going to get bad the next day, so we got up early and headed back to Greenwood!

In the meantime, Evan was playing ball like crazy in Ardmore.  They were playing against major teams, so it was some tough competition.  They lost there first 2 games, won the 3rd, & then lost the 4th.  It sounds like it was a lot of fun, and a good experience!  There were almost 60 teams in Evan's age division!!

After a whole lot of storm dodging, they finally made it home around midnight Sunday night.  The weather is Arkansas was truly deadly that night.  A tornado ripped through the state and killed 16 people that night.  I was never so glad in my life to get all my peeps together under one roof!