T-Ball, Baseball and Other Summer Activities

From March until August there is one main word that rules our house: Baseball (or T-Ball or Softball).  I tried to add up all the games we went to this year, but I couldn't count that high!  Ha, ha, just kidding.  But it was a lot!

Logan was on the Orioles again this year.  He turned into quite the little ball player this year and made the All-Stars team at the end of the season. 

At the pick-up game on the 4th of July, Logan and Jensen ended up being on opposite teams.  Yup, you guessed it...Logan ended up getting Jensen out.  It didn't go over very well at home later, but I'm pretty sure they will always remember it!

Logan and Jensen always played their games at the same time.  I ran back and forth when I could sneak away from score-keeping.  Sometimes it's as exhausting to play first base as it is to run up and down the hill to see my boys play!

This was Holden's first year playing and he knew exactly what was going on.  He knows more terminology than your average four year old!  He was awesome at hitting!

He also knew how to play first base.

But his favorite thing is the free snow cone after the game!!

Here's Holden at the end of season party.  He LOVES his medal!

Ally reluctantly signed up for softball this year.  She likes it, but has so many other things going on, we weren't sure how it would work out.  Well, after dragging her to her first game, she was hooked!  I think the coach judged her unfairly at the beginning because he knew she was a ballerina, piano playing actress, but she ended up being one of the most important players on the team.  She couldn't make it to the practices, but she made every game and worked hard!  She ended up playing second base.  Her team (the A's) ended up playing in the championship game, but lost by one point. 

Way to go, Ally!

Holden:  Going slow makes me angry!

Grandma and Grandpa brought everyone hats back from Oregon!

Swimming Lessons!  I put the kids in private swim lessons this year with Miss Bonnie and they loved it!  They made so much more progress than they ever have before.

Well, that sums up a little more of our summer.  The way I'm going on this blog, I might get caught up with summer...by Christmas!!!



Fishing Day!!

In June we always have our annual fishing trip to the Uintahs.  The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed our day at Trial Lake.

Things got off to a pretty slow start.  We were wondering if we were going to catch any fish at all.

I love this picture because it has the five most important men (boys) in my life in it.

We were still waiting...

Finally!  Holden reeled in our first fish of the day!  He was way excited to catch a fish.

This is Logan holding Josh's catch of the day.  Impressive, right?

Jensen caught a nice one!

Logan and his catch.

Holden got another one!  This one was huge!  He got the $2 from Grandpa this year.  One dollar for the first fish and one dollar for the biggest.

Ally finally caught one.

As soon as she and Katelyn caught their fish, they headed back to the trailer for treats.

S'mores anyone?

The keepers.  We had a wonderful day and were glad the Kotters came to join us once again.  I love this tradition!

Willard Bees

Jensen's baseball coach decided to put together a competition team for the 2013 season.  Jensen was asked to be a part of the team! 

They named themselves the Willard Bees. This was right before his first game.  Unfortunately, it got rained out!  He was able to play his second game later in the day, though.

The Team

Jensen was one of the youngest players on the team.  He was playing up a year.

Jensen was sort of a ball magnet.  He got hit a lot.  In the very first practice game, he even got hit right in the eye.  He was a little nervous to get back out there, but the coach started giving out candy bars to the kids when they got hit by the pitcher, so he was okay with getting hit after that!

This was his last game where he got hit, by really hard pitches, each time he was up to bat.  He had bruises the whole season!

Jensen has never been a fast runner, but he definitely improved during the season.  He got the award of "Smiles" at the end of the year.  He did not like striking out or making mistakes and got emotional when he did. But he always went back out with a smile the next time.

I didn't volunteer to scorekeep for the Willard Little League, but I got volunteered to be in charge of it anyway!  When Jens' team heard I knew how to keep score, I got volunteered for that job, too.  Needless to say Ally and I spent almost every game score keeping.  It's the best seat in the house, but stressful at times.  Especially because I don't know all the rules!!!

Anyway, we had so much fun watching his team play this year.  They might not have had a winning season (they lost every game), but it takes a lot of guts to keep getting out there even when you know you probably won't win.  Can't wait for next season!

Ballerina

Ally's ballet this year was Paquita.  Ally and Breonna were Jr. Royal Dancers.  I don't think Ally knows exactly what a Jr. Royal Dancer was for sure, but she did beautifully as usual.

She got to dance with Breonna again.

This was her ending pose for one of her dances.

Picture day!

Ally and Breonna

After the ballet.  She looked gorgeous!

Summer 2013 According to My IPhone

I LOVE having my camera on my phone.  I can catch the best moments while I'm out and about every day.  It was so hard to choose which pictures to use, but this is a pretty good representation of May through August.  I will go back and fill in with some larger posts about some highlights (baby ducks, anyone?).

We love irrigation day!  The kids look forward to it all summer.

Ally had her choir concert in May.  Don't they all look so thrilled to be there?  She did fabulous and got to sing a special part with some other girls.

Holden loves to give us "scruffies".

Ally sang the National Anthem with two friends on the last day of school!  Proud Mommy moment!

This is what the back of my car looked like for most of the summer...

And I was a taxi.  I finally understand those signs people used to put in their cars that said "Mom's Taxi".  Yup.  That's me now.

We love to go for walks around town as a family.  The sky was especially pretty this night so I snapped a picture of our house.

We made a trip to the cabin for Father's Day.  We went on an awesome (LONG) four wheeler ride to make Josh happy.  It was beautiful!

Logan got braces!  However, because of his missing teeth, they left a big hole!  Our dentist is awesome and decided to make him temporary false teeth AT NO CHARGE!  Best. Dentist. Ever. (Randall Capener)  Anyway, they aren't very sturdy so we made frequent trips to the dentist to fix them.

Is this not the cutest picture?  Can you tell he loves T-ball?  He's wearing an Orioles hat with his Giant's shirt.  Of course picture day was the only day we couldn't find his hat!  He loved it though and asked his coach if they could do an Orioles cheer instead of a Giants cheer.

Another walk around town, headed to practice baseball.  Holden was spoiled this day.

Ally started voice lessons in January.  This is her passing off one of her songs.

Walking to church with my family is one of my favorite things.

A beautiful rainbow over our Willard mountains.

More irrigation fun!  So many fun things about this picture!

My childhood tricycle finally bit the dust. :-(  It lasted for 31 years and lots of rides!

And last but not least was Girl's Camp!  I went with Ally and had a wonderful time.  It was Stake Camp and our ward was assigned Mexico.  We were the largest ward and had the reputation as the "party" ward, I think.  We knew how to have fun!  Our campsite had colored lights, a piñata, tons of colorful decorations and an always open chips and salsa table. Fun times!!!

Whew....that was a lot!  So glad I'm getting caught up on this blog.  Sorry I've been so busy, it kind of took a back seat for a while.  Now that the kids are back in school, maybe I can get caught up.

Maybe...

 

School House Rock Live, Jr

We all know that Ally has found a real love and talent for performing in plays.  So when it came time for the school play, she decided to try out.  She ended up getting call backs and ended up as one of the Homeroom Kids in the play Schoolhouse Rock.  The director didn't like the script that came with the music so he wrote his own script to give more kids parts.

Ally ended up with the part of "Kathy", the new girl that moves from California.  It's her first day at Spilled Milk Middle School and she gets to meet her class mates and have a chance to come out of her shell.

She had so much fun walking (or calling me and begging for rides) to the High School after school with her friends.  They also got to perform for the whole school on the High School's stage.

This was her solo song "The Great American Melting Pot".  Her friend Abby was Lady Liberty.

Interjections!

This is when the football player scores points for the opposite team.  The girl in yellow is rooting for the other team!  Then they shout some interjections. ;-)

Another picture of her solo song, singing with Abby.

Ally with her picture.  Good job, Ally!