Sunrise, Sunset and Everything In Between: Nile's First Wrestling Tournament...and A LONG Drive Home

Saturday, January 3rd, my friend Amber and I loaded up kids and headed to Atlantic for an all day wrestling tournament. She and her son Brock drove their van and followed us. Amber's husband Matt is the head wrestling coach at Glenwood and Dain is in his first year as an assistant. He is really enjoying himself and loves to be back in the wrestling room doing something that he is passionate about. The girls were very excited to go watch daddy. The drive to Atlantic was fine. The kids napped and the weather held out and was just lightly raining most of the trip. We made our way in to Atlantic...drove around the town trying to find the high school...stopped and asked for directions once...each of us called our husbands once for directions and eventually we found it!! Amber headed in to the school with Brock and the girls and I stayed in the car to feed Nile his lunch. When I got in to the gym, we decided to feed the kids. Amber went to the concession stand while I stayed back with the kids, who were all playing very nicely. Lunch came and for some reason Emily and Clara could not stay seated for more that a few seconds before they needed to change bleachers..up and down and over the top of people. Food was on the bleachers, both where you sit and put your feet. They would set it down and then pick it up and eat it. Amber informed me that during wrestling season, eating off of the bleachers is "okay" and pretty much the norm. But wait kids, let's use the hand sanitizer before we eat!! Sitting down started to become a real challenge and I was starting to feel really bad for the older gentleman who was sitting in front of us...Clara was using his leg to help her get up and down. Luckily, the tournament was coming to an end. Then came the weather report. Freezing rain and icy roads were making their way from the west and we would have to drive right in to it. We loaded up the kids and headed for the interstate, thinking this would be better than back roads. Amber and I followed each other home and made several calls to each other to see who was scared about the current conditions. Atlantic would normally be a one hour drive. That night it took us two hours to get home, creeping along the interstate at 35-40 mph, gripping the wheel the whole way. We enjoyed our wrestling trip minus the drive home, and Nile slept through his very first wrestling tournament!!