It started with a day trip to Sacramento, for dinner and Belt Promotion with the Howes and Aunt Barbara. I think Meredith was a little worried that she was dragging us along to Elijah's Belt Promotion Ceremony, but she had nothing to worry about once we got there. The Karate instructor was warm and inviting, plus humorous, teaching the kids values rather than just butt-kicking. It was awesome. The kids were stellar. Elijah is a serious martial artist. I'm not saying I think he could take me out in a street fight, but he worked with determination and poise, and was clearly one of the more disciplined kids there. Elijah received his purple belt with pride.
As a bonus, we were all treated to a couple of martial arts exhibitions, one by a little guy named Scott Wu. Little? Yes. Meek? NO! Small in Sprit? His Chi was enough to give me chills. If you're interested, do a Google or YouTube search for his name, you will be blown away by what we saw up close and personal.
Upon returning to the house to catch up a bit, we got to experience the magic of non-martial-arts sword fighting between two brothers and a dad. When Jonah took a long enough break from running around in circles, he was a pretty good sword fighting partner for Elijah. Fred, clearly the master swordsman of the group, made quick work of dispatching Elijah of both arms and one eye. I fear his martial arts training will suffer, but he'll hang in there.
Bedtime came, we got to spend a little time catching up with the grownups (Meredith was extraordinarily angry with Fred about the bloodstains on the carpet - StainMaster is no match for Swordfighting.) All kidding aside, we got to catch up on years of missed time, and it seem Mer & Fred are doing great. Aunt Barbara LOVES being Mom Mom, and while we didn't get a chance to squeeze Tom, he was there in spirit.
On the ride home, we had a remarkable, notable moment at one of our favorite National Treasures: Our first In-n-Out Burger of the trip. Yum.
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