The whole Grubbs family traveled down to Terre Haute to participate in the 5th annual Vlasic Classic pickleball tournament.

My family includes myself (Rocket’s son!), my wife Abby (6 months pregnant) and my two year old son Brandon.  Plus my mom and brother Zack and his wife Amy played as well.

The weekend started out meeting Grandpa and GG in Indianapolis where we left a car to car pool the rest of the way to Terre Haute.

We had to get to Terre Haute for the start of the 5.0 singles tournament late Friday afternoon.  We got to the courts to set up our chairs under a shade tree and get Brandon familiar with the park.  There was a playground and a basketball court perfect for Brandon to ride his four wheeler on.  After warming up with the Rocket (dad), we wandered over to the scorer’s tent to check out the draw.  I was in the opposite bracket as Dad and had to play three matches in the round robin format.  I was glad for that, because with the heat being over 90 degrees, his wicked angles make you run…a lot.

The singles tournament went on until sunset making it hard to see the ball.  Play was suspended till the next morning at which I had to make a decision.  Wake up at the crack of dawn and play some more singles or sleep in and concentrate on doubles?  Having GG at the tournament who would get up with my son if he woke up early made the decision easy.  SLEEP IN!

The next morning, after a good night’s rest, we headed back to the courts to get ready for the start of the doubles tournament.  My partner, Terre Haute resident and friend Brad Bilyeu, warmed up and got ready for what would turn out to be a long day.

We started out in pool play and got off to a hot start both on and off the courts.  The temperature that day was in the 90’s and felt even hotter on the court.  Try telling a two year old to stay in the shade!  We swept through the pool play without dropping a game. We even took two games off eventual champions Deli and Alvin Stinnett.  After sweeping the pool play we received the number one overall seed for the single elimination shootout.

We played well enough to get to the final four but ran out of steam.  We definitely weren’t prepared for the dink fest that took place against Lynn Carlson and Al Hager.

Now it was time to concentrate on the mixed doubles!

Time for the fun to begin as I brought out my secret weapon!  My wife is six months pregnant and one of the most competitive people you will ever meet.  You don’t score 2,000 points in basketball and have your jersey retired at Bethel College without being a little competitive.

After warming up Sunday morning the tournament director yells out the first matches, “Grubbs and Grubbs!”  We all just sit there and laugh since I am playing with Abby, my brother is playing with his wife Amy, and my dad is playing with my mom.  All Grubbs and Grubbs teams!  The Grubbs’ are taking over!

We finish pool play and received the third seed.  Not bad for Abby having to carry a kid around in her belly and me on her back!

When the single elimination brackets were posted we found out we would be playing the Rocket and GG.

Now who is going to watch Brandon?  Lucky for us there were about fifteen sets of grandparents who were missing their grandkids and jumped at the opportunity to watch Brandon even if it was only for twenty minutes.  We played an episode of Mickey Mouse on the Ipad and headed out to the courts.  Isn’t technology great!

The match against mom and dad was a long hard fought battle but after a long weekend, youth eventually prevailed.  GG wasn’t too upset because now she could just watch Brandon the rest of the time.

Eventually we lost in the final four after a great day of pickleball with my wife.  Abby was definitely the talk of the tournament with how well she played being six months pregnant.

We had another great time playing in Terre Haute and spending time with family.  Hopefully next time the Grubbs’ will bring home a little more hardware.