Last weekend we attended the annual Horseshoe Tournament--a family reunion of sorts on Lance's mom's side of the family. We try to go every year and have a great time catching up with relatives and eating some super yummy food, including peanut cake, my favorite from the family recipes. Lance and I usually slide out of the horseshoeing part, as neither one of us really has the grit or desire to throw shoes for a couple of hours, usually in the hot sun and dirt. But this year Danner and Garrison both wanted us to be on a team with them. Danner picked Lance and Garrison picked me. Lance, as usual, was a great sport and did not need to be cajoled into competing. I had the care of Kestrel as my excuse, but it seems I could not pry her sweet little form away from my mother-in-law Corli or her sister Linda--they were enthralled with her! :) So after much convincing, I decided I would throw. Certain that we would qualify the first two rounds for double elimination, my mind kept telling me I would probably only need to endure this for at the most an hour. Yes, I had a bad attitude.
For the first round Garrison and I were teamed up with, of all people--Lance and Danner! I thought for sure that they would beat us, as Lance has the most horseshoe experience, but Lance was a little off on his throw, the 12 year old was really off, and the 9 year old was extremely lucky (as usual). So Garrison and I went on to the next round, which we lost 21-13. I was actually pretty shocked that we even scored that many points, as we were playing Donovan and Brittany, whose dad has been known to win the entire tournament. We needed to lose one more round to be eliminated. I thought to myself, again with the bad attitude, "Good, just one more round....hopefully this will be quick!"
But then something kind of magical happened. Garrison wanted this win, and he was convinced we could do it--really convinced. He took coaching from Norman, our competitor, and took his throws with grace and stealth. Garrison also had total faith in me. "Come on Mom, we need a ringer--you can do it!" His cheerleading was impeccable and spot on. His earnestness was heart-melting. And I thought, what the heck--go for it, put all my heart in it, and see what happens. And it happened--we scored point after point, and each of us even got a ringer! We didn't win--the score ended up 16-21....but we played with gusto. That night Garrison taught me that I need to try things I feel a little uncomfortable with and that it is always OK to have some faith in yourself.
