Second degree black belt

Remember a couple weeks ago when I posted about Micah's 2nd degree black belt testing? Well, this morning was his promotion! In efforts to best accommodate pandemic conditions, the promotion was outside (in the parking lot behind the Karate West building) with social distancing and masks. Given summer weather in Colorado, we opted to start the ceremony at 8am. Despite sleepy people, it worked well and temperatures remained manageable (glad, too, that the clouds rolled in so that most of the promotion was overcast). 

So. I took a lot of pictures. Here's just a sampling. :) 

The three candidates displayed their skills in forms, weapons forms, special forms, combinations, targets, sticks, and self-defense. In between those, the guys on the demo team performed a number of routines. (Two of the three candidates are on the demo team...and their partners for some or all of the testing are also on the demo team. Micah's only partner for everything was Asher. Everyone agreed that it's just plain fun to watch brothers...particularly during knife and club defenses and sparring, lol.)

And when everything was done, new belts (with names embroidered on them) were awarded. Rather than the usual shaking of hands and high fives, everyone did elbow bumps along the line...until Micah got to Asher, who promptly lifted him. :)

(Given the givens, this promotion wasn't as heavily attended as most have been, and there weren't nearly as many black belts to spar candidates. (Sparring others outside your family unit required waivers to be signed...we had Micah and Asher only spar each other.) So we were very appreciative of the Karate West members who did show up to cheer the candidates on!)

And then we managed a picture of the candidates with Mr. & Mrs. Yee...

And I got a picture of my guys...

...but let's assume that they were smiling under the masks and count that. Because this is what I got when the masks came off...

And then, despite not having the usual cake and potluck spread, there was some visiting...so thankful for our Karate West community!

And that was Micah's 2nd degree black belt promotion. :) So proud of my boy for persevering through pandemic complications and occasional arthritis flare ups on top of the "normal" challenges of earning this in the first place! Whew.