Walking home from work

 

Swimmin' with Axton

After work and rest time, Audria and Axton came over to swim with us! The boys had so much fun entertaining Axton in the water and Audria and I had fun hanging out, talking, and watching our sweet boys play together! I have a feeling these boys will grow up to be more than cousins....they'll be great friends!

 

 

Ready for a day of work

Event Photographer

 

 

 

Barrett's fav part of Hawaiian Falls....

 

Fireworks from a trailer!

 

Tonight we went to David & Daina's house (Audria's parents) for a July 4th celebration.  Daddy Steve & Namaw; Caleb, Audria, & Axton; Carl, Trisha, & CJ; and Poppy (David's dad) joined us there.  Along with all the yummy food, we had fun time just relaxing and hanging out.  We missed Tyler, Ann, & Luke being there with us (they were recovering from another stomach bug).

 

 

 

 

Relaxation

I think we've had the perfect start to our July 4th holiday....

• Night swim last night in our pool
• Sleeping in 'til almost 9 am
• Yummy French toast breakfast
• A competitive game of NFL Monopoly

 

Shhhhh!

Barrett told me to keep the door shut to his room when we were leaving for work today and to be quite in the hallway.  I asked why and he said I could peek in and see.  This is what I found....

 

He had tucked "Real Bear" in bed with the baseball pillow under his head.  He'd also left the music (John Denver) playing and had turned off the lights and closed the blinds.  He said Real Bear was gonna take a nap while we are at work today and he told Barrett he likes it dark and likes to listen to the music.  Barrett was so serious telling me all of this....and it was so precious!! 

Our 'lil entrepreneurs

Today at work the boys spent most of the day building with Pipe Works.  The set at Daddy Steve and Namaw's house is from when Caleb, Tyler, and I were little.  I'd say this toy was a great investment!  They are so well made that I'm guessing my grandchildren will still be playing with them!

Normally I am being interrupted 5,387 times to help the boys build something.  Today I wasn't interrupted at all, so I was surprised to discover that they had built a lemonade stand all by themselves!  They were super excited about having completed it and couldn't wait for me to finish working so I could help them make lemonade and set up shop!

We took it home with us, made a pitcher of lemonade, and then they sat outside to wait for cars to drive by.  Brody said it was the perfect time for a lemonade stand because it was time for people to come home from work.  After several cars passed without stopping, the teenager who lives across the street pulled into her driveway and got out of the car.  When she started walking towards the garage door to go inside Barrett yelled out, "HEY!!!!   WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?" and held his hands up in the air with exasperation!  After I was able to stifle my laughter, I spent some time talking with them about the proper etiquette of running a lemonade stand.

 

The boys had 2 "real" customers today (Daddy Steve, Namaw, and Mike also purchased lemonade...but do they really count?  The boys told them they didn't have to pay for lemonade...but were happy to take the money when DS, Namaw, & Mike insisted).  They may not have made tons of money today with their business venture, but I was so proud of them for being little entrepreneurs!

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!