Wrestling

Spencer- Finished up his first year of ARL wrestling on December 4th. We were going to be in contention for a team trophy, so Spencer said he would wrestle up a weight class to help the team since we didn't have anyone in the weight class above. The other kid in his weight class didn't want to move up. When I asked Spencer he said, "No Problem Coach." I was impressed because he didn't even think about it, even though he only weighed 78lbs and would be wrestling kids that weighed 85lbs. Spencer probably had his best tournament ever! The kid never stopped wrestling even if he was down and time was almost out. He was down by one with 40 seconds left in his first match and got a take down to win with 8 seconds left in the match. The Second match with a kid that was a lot bigger, the match was tied with 15 seconds left and he got another take down with 2 seconds left, to win it. The championship match was tough. He was wrestling a kid that pinned him quickly at the first of the year. Spencer didn't seem to care, he went right after the kid and got a take down. The two of them scrapped all match! Spencer made one mistake and got put on his back, but he didn't let the kid pin him. He even came back and made it a close match. In the end the kid beat Spencer, however the kid looked like he had all he could take from Spencer. Second place at heavier weight class wasn't a bad way to end the year.

Jayden- While his younger brother was wrestling in Cortez, CO, he was wrestling in Panguitch, Ut. Earlier in the week Jayden dislodged one of his ribs. (ouch) This caused him to miss around three practices, however Jayden still wanted to go wrestle over the weekend. Missing almost the whole week seemed to affect his wrestling on Friday. He lost both of his matches that day. Tammy said he looked a lot better on Saturday. On the 11th he wrestled in Dove Creek and took 3rd at 130lbs. He looked pretty good, especially since he missed another two practices at the end of the week because he was ill.

Thanksgiving

The Squires family is doing well. We just finished up a nice long Thanksgiving Break. We stayed in town this year and celbrated with Tammy's Family. Her brothers' Jim and Jeff came down with their families. We spent most of the time eating, visiting, and playing games. Almost all of us went and watched the Harry Potter movie. It was our second time watching the movie, but it was still good. We wrapped up the weekend by watching the Broncos lose a heartbreaker to the Rams! We still had a good time watching the game up at Grandma Sparling's house.

Tammy- She has been really holding the house together with all of us running around busy all of the time. I don't see how she does everything and still does her own job. She is simply amazing! She didn't go out on Black Friday this year. I believe it is the first time in several years. However she did stay up half the night and spent plenty of money online. Tammy will be traveling to Panguitch this weekend to watch jayden in his first wrestling match of the year.

JJ- I have been pretty busy with wrestling. As soon as I was done with football this year I jumped right into coaching the middle school wrestling team. I am having a blast coaching Spencer and the team. It has been a little overwhelming, because I have almost 30 kids out this year. It is a big jump from when Jayden's team only had 10 and my first year last year had 18. it does mean the high school should be getting more numbers again. Unfortunatley I will be missing the first high school tournament this year because the middle school team wrestles in Cortez. This is the first time I will miss this tournament in probably eight years. Some of the boys' are upset by this, but we all must get used to the fact that I am no longer coaching the high shcool.

Jayden- Had a great football season. Really made up for the lost time last year. His coaches were impressed with his dedication and desire. The football team took state this year. jayden didn't get to play in the game, but was on the sidline and got to feel the joys of a championship game. He is now busy in the wrestling room. On Monday he had a little bit of a scare and hurt his ribs. Tammy took him in on Tuesday and they found out that he dislodged one of his ribs. They popped it back into place. Jayden said that it hurt worse to get it back in than when he popped it out. Amazingly he will be ready to wrestle on Friday in Panguitch. He plans on wrestling at 125lbs this year, but he doesn't qualify for that weight until Christmas.

Spencer- Is doing really well in middle school. He has had straight A's all year. He has been doing quite well on the mat too. Hehas taken second a couple of times and third once. He will wrestle in a dual tonight and then wrestle his last tournament in Cortez on Saturday.

Shaelyn- Has been doing awesome in school this quarter and currently has straight A's. She seems to be enjoying her last year of elementary school. She is doing gymnastics again this year and is constantly having me help her do back hand springs. She will be traveling with Tammy this weekend to Panguitch to watch her older brother wrestle.

Way too far behind to catch up!!!

Well it has been a long time since I have posted. I think I took an extra long break from all of the posts I made during our road trip.

Believe me we have done a ton since the road trip though. Everybody is a year older now. All five of us had our birthdays during the months of July and August. All of the kids have started school and are doing well. Shaelyn is in the fifth grade and this will be her last year in Elementary school. Spencer is in the sixth grade this year and has me as one of his teachers. Jayden is a Sophomore in High School. Jayden is playing football and is doing quite well being is first year, after missing last year with his broken leg. He plays Starting Corner on the "C" team and is a back-up linebacker on the JV team. Spencer is also playing football and doing well.

Tammy and I went down to a Scorpions concert for her graduation present. I am so glad and proud she is done with school. I was spoiled at the end of summer and Tammy bought me a new Toyota Tundra. It is way cool. I am the new reading teacher and I am really enjoying my new position.

Hopefully the next post isn't as long!

Squires Road Trip 2010 Day 16

Well today was our last day on the road. However keeping with Squires Road Trip tradition we would make a few stops on our way home from Albequrqe. Our first stop was actually right in Albequerqe at Petroglyph National Monument. It was pretty cool and provided another stamp for us. After our brief stop we headed to Grants, New Mexico for another visit to a National Park. I figured I would periodically post a picture of the kid's favorite activities while in the car. As you can see Spencer was usually playing with his DS.

Our Stop in Grants was pretty quick but informational and fun. We learned about two parks in the area and even bought us a new book about parks in our area.

Jayden read the book below on our trip. He got to where he couldn't put it down for long.

Today we crossed into Colorado and took this picture of the kids on the sign.

In Memphis Shaelyn found a giant jar of cheese balls and enjoyed eating them on the rest of the trip.

Our last state sign was the Utah sign. We finally after two weeks arrived back into our own state. I will most likely post some periodic tidbits about the trip later this week.

Squires Road Trip 2010 Day 15

As we were headed to New Mexico we saw a sign for a national park 20 miles off the freeway and decided we would go check it out and get another stamp in our passport. It was called Washita Battlefield. It is a historic site where General Custer wiped out a Cheyenne camp. It was a great lesson in U.S. history. Today we entered Texas, I believe this is our 14th state on the trip. We would travel through the pan handle of Texas today.

Our pit stop for the day was in Texas outside of Amarillo. This place is called Cadillac Ranch. Basically a farmer decided to bury 10 Cadillacs into some of his farmland and allow people to come put artwork or sign them.

The kids found some cans of spray paint with some paint still in them and had a blast painting the cars.

Below is a picture of the kids by a car they were painting on.

In the afternoon we entered New Mexico and gained an hour back. We had been on Central time for over a week. We are pretty close to home now that we are in Albuquerque. We will make the last leg of this trip tomorrow.

Squires Road Trip 2010 Day 14

We started off our day with a huge history lesson. We had a great morning going to the Central High School Visitor Center. We were all amazed by the amount of things we learned in the time we were at the center. I highly recommend all to visit this place if you are ever in the area. Jayden and Spencer learning about the Little Rock 9 and how they helped the desegregation process. I should probably should write more about what we learned today, however it would make this page very long. If any of you are interested in hearing more just let me know, I would be glad to tell you more.

After we finished at the visitor center we went over to the High School which is actually still in operation and took some pictures of this magnificent building. We then headed out of Little Rock, Arkansas and started on our long drive for the day. As you can see below we crossed into Oklahoma today.

We made a brief stop in Oklahoma City to go see the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. Again this was educational for ourselves and our kids. The mood was pretty somber the whole time we were here. Of course that is understanding since it is a memorial for a tragic moment in our history. Below Tammy and the kids are looking at a picture timeline of the events.

Below my kids decided that they were going to leave a message for the people who died that day. Shaelyn wrote "God Bless Us", Spencer wrote "God Bless the Kids". I was a proud dad that my kids wanted to do that. I was equally impressed that the memorial provides chalk for the kids and people to write in a designated area to express their feelings about this event.

Ok after I figured out how to work the parking meter and paid for my parking and someone Else's parking we fought through the construction downtown and found a way out of town. I must say as you can see from the pictures below the kids are still being really good in the car and they seem to adjust well to all of the travel.

Wide awake one minute crashed the next. They all took naps on the trip today. I believe I was the only one not getting some sleep on this leg of the trip.

Tonight we are staying in Elk City, OK. It is located on the historic route 66. We went by the museum and then went and ate dinner at a nice restaurant.

Squires Road Trip 2010 Day 13

We started today off by going down to Graceland. We did not go on the tour but Tammy and the kids went and took some pictures out by the gate and the wall. We probably would have gone in if it wouldn't have cost us an arm and a leg. It was still pretty cool to see the grounds the famous gates and his planes. We did find a gift shop that had about everything you could think of with Elvis on it.

We then headed to the banks of the Mississippi for our riverboat tour. We had to wait for awhile before it started and it was pretty hot, however it was kind of cool just hanging out on a riverboat. The tour eventually started and we headed down the Mississippi. I was not aware that we were going to learn so much about Memphis and the Mississippi. It was amazing all of the things that we learned on this trip. The views and the ride on the river were pretty neat too. Down below are some pictures that we took on our riverboat ride.

Above is a picture of the "old" arena for the Memphis Grizzlies. It is pretty cool to look at but is not currently used. Below is a picture of our kids riding on the boat with Memphis in the background.

We were able to get a picture of the whole family as we rode down the Mississippi.

The picture below is of the riverboat we were on during our tour of the Mississippi. We rode in the middle at first and then moved to the bottom later during the ride. We finally succumbed to the heat and humidity and move to the area of the boat that was air conditioned. It was about 98 degrees and 85% humidity today.

After our riverboat trip we headed towards Little Rock, Arkansas. On our drive we continued to fill out our scavenger hunt sheets. We also played road trip bingo. It was only a two hour drive and seemed to go by pretty fast. Tonight the kids played in the pool for a couple of hours. I don't see how they can stay in the water that long.