Last Friday night

Okay. I'm behind here and working on catching up. I'll start with last Friday night. We went to Karate West for a black belt and 2nd degree black belt promotion. It was the first promotion they've been able to have in a year due to the pandemic and the first time the demo team has been able to perform in as long. It was great being able to watch Asher perform with his teammates:

They did quite a few forms, some of which were new. Throughout the past year, they've been practicing in three smaller groups at different times, so putting it all together was tricky and fun to see.

As a 2nd degree black belt, Micah joined the line up to bow in and out and welcome the new black belts. He hasn't been with the demo team in about a year, though he was back at private karate lessons for a few months with Asher this spring and is considering going back to demo now that jumping doesn't hurt.

All in all, it was a great promotion. Six candidates promoted to 1st degree black belt, and one of the boys' good friends (that Asher's been on demo team with for nine years) promoted to 2nd degree black belt.

The demo team has grown a bit and is fairly large right now. They let Micah join the picture since he was there and since he helped even out the colors, lol. I have more "official" looking group pictures but liked this one best, actually. It felt more natural and representative of the good time they have.

So that was all happy. The bittersweet part was that this was Asher's last performance with demo for a good while, possibly ever. Karate has been such a part of his life for eleven years. His best friends are karate friends...

(The picture on the bottom left is the two taller guys acting shorter so the two shorter guys could act taller, lol.)

And he's had such fabulous instructors/mentors...

He's going to miss Karate West while he's in Omaha. And I was already missing Karate West. Ever since Asher started driving, I haven't been there as often. I used to be there three or four times a week and talked to all the kids and watched all the practices. Seeing all the kids in person again and catching up with them just reminded me of all that. So incredibly appreciative of Karate West and the support, memories, skills and relationships they've provided...but simultaneously sad about kids growing up. Sigh.