Provincials

Our weekend away was amazing. Wonderful visits with family with a karate tournament mixed in made for a whirlwind trip with so many memories.  This post will be dedicated to the tournament and then I will follow with a second post highlighting our family time!

Friday morning, an official snow day, we left early and trudged through the winter storm to the 401.  It took us an hour and a half just to get to the 401 but once there, the weather took a turn for the better and we were able to make it to London by 4:00.

The hotel was wonderful, a pool, a Starbucks and we were given a suite.  Sid was bouncing around soaking in fun of staying at a hotel

Some food, some swimming and an official registration and weigh-in, in the lobby and we were set for bed.  Sid was thankful the hotel had wifi, she had been concerned that she wasn't going to be able to watch Spiderman for 4 days!

The next morning Dave and his mom Sandy and Sid and I hit the buffet before going to the tournament site.  Loaded up with bacon we were ready for a day of challenges and fun.

First division was continuous fighting.  The girls lined up and put their cards in. Sid was qualified to fight in the -25kg division.  Sadly there was no one there for her to fight.  Sid's disappointment was quickly eased with a beautiful gold first place medal and her first official spot on Team Ontario. All our kids made it in continuous fighting.

Happy Kajukenbo kids

Happy Sigung!

The part of the trip Sid was most excited about was seeing Addy.  The crew arrived a bit after 9:30 and played and played and played until it was time for Sid to warm up for her kata.

Sigung helps her with a few finishing touches while she focuses her mind on the task at hand.

She was in a category for all girls under 12.  The other girls held black belts and were older.  As always Sid was the youngest, smallest and lowest belt.

If you could weigh intensity, Sid would be 350 lbs.

Size and age do not matter in karate.  Intensity and skill are what count.

She was first up and first to be scored.

Awesome and good enough for second place!  See the big girl brown belts this little one beat?  WOW!

Pride on both sides of the camera.

Sid's Kata Video

Then it was back to playing with Addy.  The kitties were drinking from the plant pot.  The sand was milk maybe?  Not sure but they found a great sand box and had a lot of fun playing cats.

Addy had a lot of fun in Sid's gear.  Perhaps there is another Martial Artist in the family?

Next up was point fighting.  Sid met her friend who she met in Ottawa at the Canadian Open.  Both these girls were brown belts and Sid and the girl with the blue helmet were having fun warming up together.

Speedfight is on!  Two minutes to score as many points as possible

Sid got 6 points with punches to the chest.  She did take a knee in the nose though

And with Greg and Shae as my witness, when I asked her about her bloody nose, she said "Well Mom, that is what Kajukenbo is all about!" LOL

Sid took bronze in the point fighting and did a good job, she only lost the first fight 9 - 6 and the other girl lost to the girl that beat Sid 13 - 4.  Sid did well!

Sid's point fight

Addy loved the sparring gear and had fun running around in it.

Here the girls pretend to square off.  It was super cute!

Back at the club, all 5 kids qualified for team Ontario and will compete in May to be on Team Canada.  Could we possibly be going to Italy in October????