Genesis 32:24-28
The man asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered.
Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."
While we were having great fun eating Chinese food Sarah asked Riley if he would like to go up to Hood River on Saturday to see the end of Zac's wrestling tournament. Feeling comfortable and relaxed he said "Sure." It wasn't until later that it was explained to me. I'm not what you would call a big fan of wrestling tournaments but I could see that it would be good for us to take Sarah to Hood River rather than have her drive alone. Hood River is about 60 miles up the gorge and in winter the gorge can be horrible.Well on Saturday morning Heidi called and asked if we could baby-sit Emily so that they could take the rest of the kids to a movie. I explained that we were already committed to going to Hood River with Sarah, but as I was speaking Riley seemed to be saying that it would be alright for us to take Emily.
So it was arranged that Heidi would drop Emily by our house at about 1 o'clock. I think I did my best to just dink around until then, since I had originally thought it was going to be a very relaxing Saturday. Emily was brought in her usual zip-up pants, so I changed her into an outfit with knit pants, got everything ready, like bottles and toys and knitting, and we headed out to Gresham to collect Sarah. Despite the fact that Riley had a "senior moment' and turned the wrong way on Powell, we were soon redirected by Sarah and were on our way. It was a lovely afternoon, practically sunny. Emily slept and we all had a pleasant ride.
The directions map, by Google I think, got us to the high school without a hitch and we found a parking spot right outside the door. Zac's guys still had some wrestling to do, despite the fact that we were exactly on time, so it was decided that Sarah would go in with Zac and Riley and Emily and I would go for a while into Hood River. I knew that Hood River had become somewhat of a touristy town because of its proximity to Mount Hood and because of the wind surfing in the gorge, so I was expecting to find a nice place where we could sit down and have a cup of coffee. We parked the car, changed Emily and headed out. The first place we decided to try was an Italian sounding bakery. It was small and cramped, only had stand-up-to tables, almost no merchandise and was closing in 15 minutes. They directed us up the street to find coffee. Well .... there were lots of places to have a cup of coffee but not one of them was nice. I was shocked. That shows what a big city girl I am. We finally settled on a place that had a very nice outside appearance and advertised that they used a brand of coffee that we know to be good. 
But I was no more than a few steps inside the place than I began to have great doubts about being there. There was a children's play area towards the back and I felt that Emily had been in a seat long enough, so I let her out to play. But as I looked around I was horrified at the dirtiness of the place. The chairs provided were couches and I absolutely could not bring myself to sit on any of them. They were so dirty and all I could think about was bugs. So I quickly put Emily back in her stroller (she did protest very long) and got out some napkins I had and wiped her hands. We got our coffee, and banana for Emily, and headed out. We hadn't strolled long before Zac and Sarah called to say Zac was now available for "lunch." It was decided that we would go back and get them because there wasn't enough time left to chance their getting lost.
Again we got the perfect parking space and collected Sarah and Zac and it was soon decided that we would go to the "Char House", a local hamburger joint that Zac had been at the day before. It was nice enough given it's setting. The hamburger was quite ordinary and the fries were the pre-made kind, but we had a pleasant time. 
Zac is so good with Emily. He will be a wonderful father. Did I mention that they are expecting a baby in July!!! Sarah hardly looks pregnant, but she sure is eating a lot. We needed to get back in time for Zac to change into his suit. In the finally wrestling tournament events couches wear suits. Sarah paid our admission, which was $6 each! For some reason it was decided that we should sit up in the balcony. This made me uneasy, but I went along with it. I knew that it would be hard to let Emily out of her stroller up there and she had been sitting for a cey long time. Emily was somewhat difficult from the get go. We soon found out that the program wasn't due to start for another half hour. Keeping Emily happy was becoming my main preoccupation. There was a basketball court behind the balcony bleachers and I took her there to watch. This worked for a while only. Then Riley bought popcorn and it was a small variety so I let Emily eat that for a while. With a firm grip, I had her sitting on my lap as we looked down to the arenas below. She fussed and squirmed a lot, so I put her back in the stroller. 
Finally the festivities bagan. She watched attentively for some time, but was still fussy, and people kept crowding in front of us. All the players were paraded in, starting with the 103 pounders up to the 270 pounders! Then the presenters, the honorees and the coaches. We sang the anthem and they cleared the mats and lastly they cleaned them. I have to say that the you men assigned the cleaning task did a very poor job!Well it was a pretty interesting wrestling tournament if I say so myself, but Emily's fascination with the whole thing did last too long. I was holding her only lap as we watched the second smallest guys wrestle when all of a sudden I realized that both of my pants legs were getting quite wet. I must have had here sitting there just right. I held her up and realized that she was soaked. So I grabbed some new clothes for her and a diaper and wipes and headed for the bathroom. Well the bathroom had no counter, I I surely wasn't going to change her on the floor of the bathroom so we headed out to see what would work. Finally, at the end of a long hall, I found a carpeted area. Emily was quickly changed, the diaper quickly disposed of, and I let her walk back, much to her delight.
Back up stairs I saw that the kids had ceased playing basket ball, so I left Emily have the run of the court. There was a small boy, maybe 4 years old, also on the court. He immediately took a liking to Emily and showed her how to race up and down the court. She took to this like a duck to water. I always stayed within a few feet of her. This puzzled the little boy, who finally asked why I did that. I don't remember what I said, but a few minutes later my reason was affirmed. All of a sudden she headed under the bleachers. I caught her almost immediately, but if I had been farther away I could have quite a struggle catching up with her under there. At that I took her back to where Sarah and Riley were. We watched the end of the current round and then Riley decided we needed to leave.Zac came out from the floor and we all walked out to the car. Zac was in a very good mood because of how well his team was doing. We headed out and Emily was definitely a bit fussy. She hadn't eaten much at dinner so I suggest we stop at McDonald's, where we got cheese burgers. Emily still didn't eat too much and it was the glass of water with a straw that interested her the most. We left, taking the cup and straw with us.
In the car Emily clearly wanted the cup and straw, but I wasn't comfortable with leaving her in the back in the dark with the straw, so I didn't give it to her. She slept quite fitfully until we got to the bright lights of Portland. I could see her then, so I reached back and got the cup and straw for her. She had a great time with them all the way back home. I took her into the house, took her upstairs to change her, gave her a bath in the sink (which she loves to do), and put her into her pajamas. She was very sweet and pleasant at that point and we then took her home. All in all we all had a most pleasant day.
But I would guess that Zac had the best time of all. Here are the results of the tournament that I found on the internet:
Gresham won the Mount Hood Conference tournament and will send 14 to state, including five district champions.
2008 MHC District Tournament
Media Results Report
RANK SCHOOL POINTS
1. Gresham (GR) 351.0
2. Hood River Valley (HR) 272.5
3. Sam Barlow (SB) 229.0
4. Reynolds (RY) 221.5
5. Centennial (CE) 158.0
6. David Douglas (DD) 125.0
7. Sandy (SA) 111.0
Coach of the Year - Zach Enoch, Gresham
1 comment:
...Could we call that a "pre" senior moment? We did have a good time, and I didn't even fall asleep while driving.
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