This past weekend our family traveled to Cedar City for the Utah Summer Games. Hayden's Tae Kwon Do Performance Team was performing, and Hayden was competing in sparring. We drove Friday, stayed in a hotel and arrived at the tournament at 8:15am for check-in.
This was the opening ceremonies.
Team Jaguar did a great job on their performance, blowing the competition out of the water! They all received gold medals.
The team, displaying their gold medals.
Hayden with his gold medal.
After what seemed like forever, the sparring event finally came up. Here's Hayden geared up and watching the black belts spar.
Here's Hayden sparring for the gold. The boy he sparred was several inches bigger than him, but Hayden was aggressive and never backed down.
They were tied most of the round, but in the last 15 seconds, his opponent got in two good hits and beat Hayden 8-6.
Hayden received Silver and couldn't have been happier. He LOVES sparring which is so funny, given his mild, quiet personality. We were so proud of him! And now that competing is in his blood, he can't wait for several tournaments coming in the next few months.The three other children were troopers. The tournament lasted over 8 long hours, with no lunch break. Imagine trying to keep an extremely active one year old content for 8 hours, on bleachers. I'm not going to lie...it was a nightmare. When Hayden's turn finally came up to spar, they all came down to the mats to watch. By the end of his two minute match this is what they all looked like...
Summary
Hotel room: 110.00
Gas: 60.00
Food: 50.00
Registration fees: 35.00
3 bored, tired, hungry siblings: too expensive (and excruciating) to count.
One Gold Medal, One Silver Medal, One Happy boy: Priceless ( I think).
