Bringing the Outdoors IN!

Mike was off work yesterday, so we took a mini vacation to Grapevine.  We found places to experience things you usually see outside (like sea life, camping, hunting, etc) in the great indoors!  Temperatures have still been in the 100's, so it's not very pleasant to do outdoor activities!

The first stop was Sea Life at the Grapevine Mills Mall.  It was fun looking at all the very unique fish/creatures that God made! 

(Disclaimer:  All pictures in this post were taken with my iPhone.)

 

These were some of the most intriguing ones I saw....

 

We walked through one room where you could see shark swimming in a huge tank below you.  There were big sections of the floor that were clear.  Barrett didn't trust the clear floor.  He did NOT want to fall through into the tank with the shark, so he scooted across the floor on his bottom!!

 

After we walked through Sea Life, we took the boys to lunch at Rain Forest Cafe (another place full of things you usually see outside....but can see inside with air conditioning and food! lol)  Then it was off to Bass Pro where the boys tested out all the tents...

 

tried on clothes for hunting season (you have to admit Barrett slightly resembles Elmer Fudd here! lol)...

 

and tried to escape being eaten by a shark....

We got home just in time to change clothes and make it to our Snap Fitness softball game.  After the game we went to On the Border with some of the other families and didn't get home until 11:30 pm!  Thankfully our boys are old enough to sleep in and we were able to sleep until 9:00 this morning!  I don't remember the last time I slept that late!  I think the only reason Mike was able to sleep that late is because his body is still on Alaska time.  Us going to bed at 1 am and getting up at 9 am is like him going to bed at 10 pm and getting up at 6 am in Alaska...Monday morning is gonna be hard for him!! 

Legacy Baseball Camp

Today was the last day of baseball camp for the summer.  I went to watch the first little bit of camp and ended up staying the entire 3 hours.  There's a stiffling heat wave across the middle of the US right now and it was HOT at camp today.  I felt bad for all the boys wearing the black camp t-shirts!

Brody was of only two five-year olds at camp this week.  He was in a group of 6, 7, & 8 year olds.  It was fun watching him compete against all the older kids.  I was so proud when he beat out all the other kids in several different competitions (fielding grounders, catching fly balls, and accurate throwing).

 

 

 

Below they were playing knock out where they had to cleanly field a ground ball and then throw it accurately into the circle in the middle of the green net to the right of the picture.  Brody won!

 

 

 

Below:  Coach Snyder passing out baseball cards to his team after they won their scrimmage.

 

Since it was the last day of camp, they busted out the slip-n-slide to practice sliding head first into home.  One of coaches would throw a ball to the coach playing catcher who would try to tag the runner out.  It was a great way to cool the boys off on a hot day!

 

There were over 50 kids in line for one slip-n-slide.  A lot of them were goofing off in line...but not Brody.  Notice how he's calling the runner "safe"? (he's in the white baseball pants with a red belt in the middle of the picture below)

 

Birthday Hug!

 

Barrett woke up all smiles this morning.  In fact, he came into the living room and gave Brody a BIG birthday hug....as a FOUR year old!  He has really been looking forward to turning 4, so today was a big day!  Grammy, Angela, Jayden, and Laney drove in last night so they could be here for his birthday. This week is VBS at Daddy Steve & Namaw's church...and Jayden made it here in time to go with the boys last night.  They've had a fun week with lots of friends (Taylor, Kori, Trey, Nate, & Jayden) joining them for VBS.   

 

This morning while Brody was at baseball camp, the rest of us stayed home making Barrett's birthday cake. After camp, we headed up to church where I taught a Sunday school class (the boys were some of my students) that was taped to be made into a training video for potential volunteers in the children's ministry.

The boys were so excited about Mike coming home from Alaska today that they wanted to go straight home for nap time. I promised to wake them as soon as I heard that he was getting close to home.  Needless to say, Mike was ambushed when he walked in the door....and the boys didn't want to leave his side (neither did I)! 

We asked Barrett, "If you could could have anything you want for your birthday dinner (me cooking or us eating out somewhere), what would you want?"  I was a little shocked when he picked Panda Express!  Since that's what he really wanted, that's where we went for dinner!

 

 

Temple Visit

 

Yesterday the boys and I drove to Temple with Daddy Steve and Namaw.  Caleb, Audria, and Axton followed us in their car.  It was a fun weekend full of lots of laughter, shared stories, and sweat!  Praise the Lord for air conditioning!  I loved getting to see sweet McKenna (who let me wear her bow for the picture above) & Jayma and they loved getting to meet Axton!  His precious smiles had everyone smiling (even though we were all melting in this Texas heat wave).  Along with Ginger's family, Sharon, Cindy & Dave, and Liz all came over for visits!  Caleb and Daddy Steve were such troopers...taking the kids outside to play while the rest of us hid inside with the a/c!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jesse & Ginger's Family Pictures

 

 

 

 

Our little MVP - Baseball Camp #1

Brody spent Monday thru Thursday this week from 8-11:30 am at MHS baseball camp.  He wasn't really old enough for the camp, but since he's played ball the past 2 years they said he could attend.  I was more than a little nervous dropping him off the first day.  The camp is for 1st-9th graders and there were tons of boys there milling around the stadium.  None of them were sitting with their mommy, so I walked B up to the stadium, instructed him to sit and wait for a coach to give him instructions, promised him I'd be back at 11:30 to pick him up, and then walked away. 

When I picked him back up at 11:30 he was so excited!  He had so much fun and had learned some new baseball skills!  When I asked it if made him nervous when I left him alone (since he wasn't attending with a friend) and he said, "No.  I just started talking to the people around me and made some new friends!"  Whew!  That made me so proud!

On Wednesday he told me that he earned 2 gold stars (which he used to buy a popscicle at the concession stand).  He said that he won his group's home run derby.  He also said that he won the pitching competition.  He said they were throwing in the cages and his coaches were clocking their pitches with the radar gun.  He said his speeds were 42, 44, 56, 69, and 70 mph!  Wow!  I knew he could throw hard and far...but I never imagined it was that fast! 

In googling about pitching fast at a young age, I found an article that explains why I "throw like a girl".  Some of you might find it interesting, so I'll paste it here:
 
In order to throw a baseball, you need humeral retroversion (Crockett AJSM ’02), that is you need to achieve excessive amounts of shoulder external rotation, which is achieved by having a large amount of humeral retroversion. Studies have shown that throwers with excessive ER also have a corresponding amount of humeral retroversion. This develops when you are a child and you throw while your growth plates are open (Meister AJSM ’05). This is also why girls used to “throw like a girl.” Females did not participate in youth baseball in the past so they did not throw a lot while their growth plates were open. “Throwing like a girl” basically just means that you can not achieve a lot of shoulder ER. Sorry guys but males that did not throw a lot as a child will also throw like this. Crockett (AJSM ’02) showed this when assessing retroversion in a group of soccer players that did not play baseball when growing up. If you don’t have this retroversion and ER, you can’t throw a fastball.

Today was the last day of camp, so I went early to watch them play Tiger Ball for a little bit.  Daddy Steve had just gotten home from a business trip, so he and Barrett went with me to watch.  I was glad we went early because that meant we also got to see the coaches give out the camp awards.  There were 2 awards give out to Brody's group. 
1.) Best Attitude - Storm (one of Brody's new friends) got this award for talking to the other kids about baseball being more about having fun than about winning.
2.) Best Hustle - Brody got this award!  His coaches said they were impressed with how agressive he was in fielding and hitting and loved how he was able to make diving catches.  Again....so proud!

Coach Daniel, Brody, Coach Blake

 

 

It may be the end of MHS baseball camp for the year....but next week is LHS baseball camp!  Brody begged to go to the LHS camp too since Cade J (from his baseball team) will be going to that one.  I should've known that 4 days wouldn't be a long enough baseball camp for him.  I think he'd like to have camp every day all summer long!

Fun with the green screen (aka...Coworkers in Costume)

Last night was a big night for Mike.  He has been managing a HUGE project at work for the past 18 months and it is finally nearing completion!  The project has been very demanding of everyone on his team, so he organized a dinner for 40+ people (employees, contractors, and their spouses) at Austin Ranch.  Not only was there a delicious dinner, there were also lots of fun activities!  There was a virtual skeet shoot, a quick draw competition, a pool room, and you can't forget the green screen.  The green screen provided a lot of laughs thoughout the evening as people dressed up as different characters to have their picture taken!  Here are pictures of the pictures that we brought home...

Wade, Mike, & Aubrey.  These guys spent a ton of time on the road together the past 18 months.

 

 

Alright...quit your drooling.  I know my hubby looks sexy in a cowboy hat...but he's taken ;)

Axton's Birthday Party

 

 

 

 

CAKE TIME!!! aka - Luke's 1 yr photoshoot

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meeting Mike Adams

Today I took the boys to a local Whataburger for a Texas Rangers player appearance.  Mike Adams (pitcher for the Texas Rangers) came to sign autographs for fans.  This was our first time to go to an event like this and we arrived just in time! Adams was scheduled to arrive at 10:30 am and we got to the parking lot at 10:05.  The line looked like the line for the Texas Giant at Six Flags!  We walked up and got wrist bands 221, 222, & 223 out of 225 that were being handed out!  If you had a wrist band, you were guaranteed a signature.  Whew!  That was close!

Mike Adams arrived promptly at 10:30 and by 11:15 we were inside the Whataburger getting baseballs signed (could you sign your name 225 times in 45 minutes?!?).  While we were waiting in the parking lot, however, there was plenty of entertainment.  Yes...the Rangers fans provided a lot of entertainment/amusement...but so did Captain (the Rangers mascot) and some of the TX Rangers Six Shooters (cute girls who help with Rangers promotions...they were putting on temporary tattoos and making things out of balloons for the kids).  One of the Rangers staff took a picture (like this one) of the boys with Captain and it appeared on the Texas Rangers Facebook page!

 

See all these people still waiting for an autograph?  These are the people who were in line behind us!  These people didn't have wrist bands, so they weren't even guaranteed they'd get an autograph...but they love the Rangers so much they were willing to wait for the chance at one!

 

Brody brought a Texas Rangers souvenior baseball that we got him at a game last year.  After Mike Adams signed it, he turned to me and said, "I touched Mike Adams hand!!!!" 

 

I should've looked at the ball Barrett picked to bring before we left the house.  It was some giveaway ball.  It has the mastercard logo on one side and some ad for a home run derby on the other side!  I wonder what Adams thought when he was handed that ball?  I hope he didn't relate it to how much Barrett valued the autograph....because you better believe that signed ball is now sitting in an enclosed baseball case on Barrett's nightstand.  He is sooooo proud of the fact that he has a ball signed by Mike Adams!!

 

Not only did the event run smothly on the Rangers part, Whataburger did an amazing job of keeping everything organized and getting food out quick!  They even gave out free whoppers!  It may have just been a quick run in with a baseball allstar....but I think it was a highlight of the summer for our boys!