WWE Fan's Reaction to Surprise RAW Tickets

Most Monday nights you can find our entire family at home watching WWE Monday Night RAW. 

There are very few Monday's (and usually Tuesday's) that Emmitt doesn't come flying in to the living room just before 7 p.m. to rip the remote out of anyone's hand to flip the channel. We all moan and groan and say we don't want to watch it and then I look around the room a few minutes later and there we all are staring at the T.V. 

Two months ago I had an email, text and a coworker tell me that WWE Monday Night Raw tickets were available for pre-sale in Minnesota. I quickly text Barrett, tried to convince him we needed $500 ring-side seats and settled on lower level, nobody behind us seats. 

Next up...keep the surprise from the boys for two months. Fast forward to Monday morning. The boys are up and getting ready to head to Duluth for Emmitt's ortho appointment (braces are off!) and we tell them to pack an overnight bag. We are heading to the cities to have dinner with the Uncles and off to Wisconsin to meet new baby Clara. 

We pull into a random parking lot that has a GIANT "Event Parking" sign and a few random people wearing WWE t-shirts. Nothing. They have zero clue what is happening. I toss Emmitt both of his WWE shirts and tell him he should change. Still nothing. All he thinks is we're having dinner and heading to uncles to watch RAW on his giant flat screen.

We legit walked past a WWE Staff sign. Parker busts me trying to record with my phone and gets suspicious. He whispers in my ear if there is a surprise for Emmitt tonight. I just wink and then lie to his face and say no. 

They still think at this point we're walking towards the Excel but that we're crossing the street to the restaurants and waiting for uncle to text us. 

We didn't totally plan out how we were going to tell them but as we're approaching the entrance the loud speaker makes an announcement and that was it. Emmitt did not react how we were thinking he would. How do you ever really know how people are going to respond? He heard it, hugged Barrett first, went to hug Parker assuming he was in on it. Parker awkwardly pushes him away and says he didn't know anything and then he comes to me. Which at this point I'm bawling for an unknown reason. I think it's because he didn't freak and scream and jump like we anticipated but that he was grateful. #worthit

Still getting used to that new smile but love how genuine it is.

Once we got inside we walked around the Excel, found our seats and saw this random Fox 9 News station where there was a very short line to do some announcing. They have a script of lines they want you to say. Emmitt asks the guy if he can do his own thing. 

PLEASE child, always do your own thing! I'm now a new follower of Fox 9 News on Facebook and stalking to see if and when this footage is ever used.

Parker's fave - Roman Reigns, The Roman Empire. 

Momma's fave male wrestler - Seth Rollins 

Becky Lynch has such an amazing name that she's my for real fave!

$45 for 2 pretzels and this fancy cup I'm making them use forever. Just look at this face though.

Here's to one unforgettable night for the entire family, especially our WWE Superstar in Training.

Vince Shute Bear Sanctuary

Ten years ago was the last time we visited the Vince Shute Bear Sancutary as a family. The boys had been there a few times over the years with other family members or friends. 

Well we finally had a weekend evening free and what do we do? We hit the road and do something. NONE of us do well with just being. Something we should actually work on. But our weekends and time to do what we really want are pretty limited. Not that we don't want to travel for sports but sometimes we just need to have something different. 

Going back and reading the 2009 post makes me laugh and cringe at the same time. 

https://becknbear.blogspot.com/2009/06/bear-sanctuary.html

The boys were tiny, would never remember it, busy, harder to handle, etc...but we still took the time to do things with them. I still laugh that I thought we were heading to the bear dump to watch the bears from the back of our car! 

But here we are 10 years later and nobody peed off the observation deck, we didn't have to tell anyone not to yell or run and I wasn't concerned about anyone falling asleep in the car unless it was the driver.  

Still enjoy watching the little ones get down from a tree. 

Too "old" for a face painting tattoo, but will totally take one on his hand.

Bears = Bugs

And these new insect repellent wipes were a MUST towards the end of our evening!
Just open them up, wipe your skin and carry on. 

Still trying to get over the fact that he has me beat in height. But love that he'll still hang out with us.

Emmitt Wins a Bike!

A couple of weeks ago I let the boys ride their bikes to school for the first time. I slowly followed them in the car. I just wanted to be sure they made it. Well they didn't. We made it a block from school and Emmitt started screaming. Parker just kept biking. I yelled at Parker to stop and check on Emmitt. I put on my hazards in the middle of 13th Street and got out of the car to check out what was wrong with the bike.

When I finally approached the bike I had looked at the welding and it had completely snapped off. When I picked up the bike to put it in the back of my vehicle the tire went bouncing down the road as if it were a cartoon. Emmitt witnessed my brief but dramatic 35-year-old tantrum (I may have dropped a swear word) and then got a ride to school. So there I left my kid in front of the bike rack crying with no bike and told him he had to walk home.

I remembered that a flyer had come home about a week prior to that about collecting pop tops for a chance to win a new bike. When we got home I asked him if he wanted to try to earn a new bike by participating in the contest. Of course he did!

Auntie Tracey, Uncle Kurt, Grandma's Grandpa's, Uncle Jimmy and Auntie Paula, Uncle Kerry, Tex, Casey Kittelson, Auntie Tolle and a stranger from Facebook donated over 17,000 poptops (let's face it some were beer) to help this little guy out.

Daddy and Emmitt spent hours removing pop tops off of dirty cans. Grandma Audrey when ditch digging for cans. Truly every top counted!

Emmitt ended up with 13.1 pounds. Second place was 12.9. If my math is correct he won by roughly 200 tops!

Emmitt received a phone call early this morning from Mrs. Shermoen asking if he could be to the high school to pick up his bike at 9 AM. He was so excited! We arrived at the school and met the sponsors and the school staff. We were welcomed into the lobby with a big round of applause.

Mr. and Mrs. Ohlquist were the amazing people who donated the bike. It is in honor of their son. They chose the Mr. Pete Foundation to donate the money from the pop tops. Mr. Pete used to collect pop tops from around the globe and my connection with Gina and the Peterson family makes this all come full circle.

My  little hugger was more than grateful for his new prize!

Mr. Ohlquist told us there are 1,336 tops in a pound. That's 17,500 pop tops that Emmitt brought in! Crazy! We don't even drink pop!

The proud family members who helped collect and the sponsors.

He was ready to go on his new wheels.

We weren't sure if he was big enough for the bike, but he made it up on the seat and rode right out of the school!

Off he goes...

We made a stop at The Sport Shop to say thanks to Milt too.

Amazingly emotional day and what a way to end the school year!

Mother's Day Program | Emmitt Style

I was invited to a special "orange" carpet event today in Emmitt's classroom. Mrs. Dowty is a fantastic teacher who pushes the kids to try their best and then to go a little farther. She was amazing with Parker and created a wonderful year for Emmitt. 

She had all of the kids draw a picture of their mom and then write about them each day. Their writing reflected their reading and it was amazing to witness what those kids have to say about us moms. I will admit I was half expecting something like, "my mom only wears yoga pants" or "if my mom had more time she would play on her phone" or worse, "my mom yells all the time." But that little dude of mine does realize that I love to snuggle him and read to him and help him with homework.

Here is what Emmitt had to say wrote about me..."My mom's name is Becky. She has brown eyes like me. She is tall. She has red and yellow hair. She works at VNP. My mom does my laundry for me. She helps me clean my room with me. She helps me do my homework with me. She takes me to Subway. She took me when I got my tonsils out. My mom makes the best lettece because it is made of lettece. She puts on Ranch dressing with tomatoes and croutons. I love my mom."

I say wrote and not read because my baby, my tender hearted boy got to the part about our eyes being the same and lost it. His little lip started to quiver, his voice cracked and he just couldn't do it. I lasted through the next line as Mrs. Dowty read his words to me and I scrambled up to the front of the room. He just stared at the floor as she read for him and I rubbed his back. When she ended with, "I love my mom" he let me hug him and pick him up. Now, he was the first speaker of the day in the crowded room, but he's read at church and performed before. I'm not sure if it really was "all the people" as he says or if it was actually him being vulnerable and opening up in front of all his classmates. I mean, if I had to get up and speak to a crowd about how much I loved my mom, I would be crying too. He let me carry him back to his seat and he let me soothe him and hold him. After a few of the other kids read to their moms he let me return to my chair.

We finished the program with him receiving a Magnificent  Mathematician award and some treats. And this was the one time that I actually took advantage of the "optional release." I'm always the mom rushing back to work and making my kid ride the bus home. We talked on the way to the car about how he was feeling and then we snuggled a bit more at home.

My sweet, sweet boy. My baby. My seven year old. My tender hearted little man. I love you and am so proud to be your momma.

Happy 7th Birthday Emmitt!

There is a first time for everything! And I'm not talking eating cereal out of a bowl without using a spoon. I'm talking about a little brother picking the exact same birthday party theme as his big brother. That has never happened. And I'm not so sure it'll happen again. But hey, I'm not complaining. It was very easy, I had all the decor ready to go and the ideas for the cupcakes already planned. Oooh, and I'll get to scrapbook both boys' pages with similar layouts and paper. Mom win!

The morning of Emmitt's birthday he was served Cocoa Puffs as his Kibble in a dog dish. He pounded it.

It's crazy every year how much he really changes, but this year there is a big difference. More and more boy looking and less baby face.

We celebrated with family at our house on President's Day. The boys had back to back hockey games over the weekend in two different countries. We just couldn't hold his birthday on the 13th...Friday the 13th nonetheless.

Guests were served "Toilet Water" to wash down their pupcakes.

Bone Appetit everyone! Enjoy a dog biscuit on your pupcake.

Don't forget to Fetch your utensil and wipe your paws! Oh and be sure to enjoy some puppy chow along the way!

Auntie Tammy loves the puppy chow and these goofballs. Pretty sure Uncle Scott taught Parker the "hide your finger up your nose" trick. 

Here we go...really turning seven when you blow out all the candles and the family has sung, "Emmitt has a birthday, Emmitt has a birthday, one year older than he was before." 

Happy seventh birthday Emmitt.