Things to do with your son over a long wet weekend...

This weekend, Daniel and I went to Dash Point State Park for a lovely two days of working out in the rain with a dozen other members of our dojo (karate school).

We arrived on Saturday morning at 8:30AM and left at 5:00 on Sunday, and we worked out a LOT.  There's something about doing Nifunchun Shodon for 45 minutes in the rain, non-stop.  Or standing still, with your knees bent, and tailbone tucked under for an hour.  Lots of fun, but my quads are SO sore right now :).

There's no question that for me, the highlight of the weekend came at the end.  The three candidates for black belt got up and demonstrated the "Core Six" Katas (forms) for the rest of the group.

Here's Daniel doing Bassai Dai:

Later on in Bassai Dai:

And, when it was all done,

Daniel finally got his black belt!  He's been working hard for this for more than half his lifetime - he started training when he was five and a half years old, and he's been training for the belt now for seven years.

Needless to say, I'm increadibly proud of him, I know how much he's worked on getting to this point.  You ca't really see the goofy grin on his face in this picture, but it was there, take my word for it.