July on Instagram

~erica

 



 

1st game at the State Fastpitch tournament | Get Well Coldstone gift card to make her eye feel better (she got hit with a ball at State, it was thrown by a little sister at lunch, not by an opponent, and left her with a wild black eye for a week) | Isaac and Jonah off to Camp Hahobas for a week

 

Arin voted in as Senior Patrol Leader | Managed to get to 1 Mariner's game this summer | Ryan posted this picture on Instagram and next thing the boys are hollering cause its up on the big screen!

 

Tovah's team won their final tournament of the year! They got t-shirts (much better than a trophy) and I wondered how many days she would wear it?

 



State Fastpitch Tournament





~Erica

 

Tovah's team played at the ASA U-10 State Fastpitch Tournament in Lacey in July. I uploaded these pictures several weeks ago but they sat in a draft waiting until I took the time to journal them. Her team was up against teams that were much better than they were but they did okay, even lasted a game longer than their rival team (and believe me, we were all pretty excited about that).

 

The first day was against two teams that we wouldn't have played before to get the teams a chance to play on the artificial turf (and the games didn't count for pool play). The ball bounced differently than on dirt and the turf makes sliding into base easier or harder depending on whether its wet or not.

 

 

Warming up on the turf- the trick is to get the ball before it bounces

 

Both teams lined up with the umpires, not just the team captains. After the first set of games they also had opening ceremonies and introduced the teams and lined them all up on the field. It was pretty cool but my pictures don't do it justice.

 

Our friends came to hang out with me at the ball field both days. Reminded me why the older kids didn't get to play ball- little guys in the stands can be pretty exhausting but it was a lot of fun too. They cheered and waved and got pretty excited when Tovah acknowledged them and pretty much cleared the snack bag.

 

Sliding into home! I hadn't gotten a good picture of her sliding home before this one- I was always watching someone else while she stole home. I guess that's the point....

 

At the end of the day the little guys got Tovah-time on the playground!

 

I really need to get the pictures uploaded of the tournament they won...

 

4th of July Celebrations

~erica

We had to do our fireworks on July 3 due to Ryan's work schedule. That afternoon Ryan and Tovah went shopping for the good stuff as we still had a box of sparklers and little stuff from last year that we got tired of lighting. I'm not sure how it happened but Rush and Tovah were the primary pyros this year, the other boys did 1-2 but then went and sat back down.

 

 



Colored smoke bombs are a tradition but this year only Jonah ran through the smoke. The other annual photo is Arin and his lightsaber in the smoke. When I have my camera set slow it takes cool, ghostly images of him. I am still working on how to set my camera for fireworks. I print a tutorial while Ryan and the kids get set up. Next year I should read and practice several weeks before but I never think about it. I also want to take some cool sparkler pictures (we still have a huge box to practice with.)

The parade downtown is an annual event. It's very convenient now that we have friends living a block from the parade route (but getting away from their house as the parade let out wasn't much fun, I need to rethink where I park). It's always fun to see friends in the parade and the kids get excited to have candy thrown at them.

 

The chairs were for the adults but they got co-opted by the teens who weren't so excited about tootsie rolls and waving to people they know. After the parade we met Ryan at Burger King for dinner before he went to work and we went home.

Bible in 90 Days- Weeks 2-5

~Erica

Today I am finishing Week 5 of the Bible in 90 Days. I've gotten behind each week but have finished each week on time. It's harder to read when you are jumping through 3 books. I really thought that I would be in the flow of history in the Bible reading it chronologically, but I've found that it's choppy and it's almost like the thread is tangled. Reading straight through, yes, you get different threads going at different times but they come together and the story is stronger for those times that they are plied (I'm not sure my yarn metaphor is working but I'm not sure how to explain the disconnect I'm feeling.)

One thing that stood out to me is that David refused to sacrifice something that cost him nothing but Solomon had no problem building the Temple of the Lord that cost him nothing (it was paid for by David and the offerings of the people). There is a huge lesson in here that I am still pondering about the cost of sacrifice.

Another crazy thought that I had is that next summer, instead of reading the entire Bible I would read just the New Testament, in Spanish. It will either make me totally crazy or I'll spend a lot of time seriously pondering what it actually means...

Instaweek June 23-29

~erica

Finished the 3rd Doctor Who scarf before we left | Spilling Water at Grand Coulee Dam | Looking down the spillway from the top of the dam during the Dam Tour

Sonic in Post Falls, ID makes me happy even if lunch is at 9:30 | When the raft is at the red flag you can drop a quarter in the machine and it will spray the occupants | Dinner at Texas Roadhouse

Sunset over Lake Roosevelt | Dawn over Lake Roosevelt | Sunset on our way home Friday

 

We spent the week camping in Eastern Washington then home to a fastpitch tournament. We worked the tournament so I got 3 pictures before the 2nd game and that's it.

 

Fastpitch Tournament in Selah

~erica

We drove to Eastern Washington this weekend to play in a fastpitch tournament in Selah. Another mom and daughter rode over with us so that they didn't have to take 2 cars.

 

A stop at the top of White Pass for ice cream. One of these days we'll have to take the kids up to see the snow, they only get to go over passes in the summer when its all trees and dry meadows.

 

Other teammates were already in the pool when we checked into the hotel so the girls were ready to join them. It was cloudy at home when we left but it was hot when we got over the mountains. In the next hour most of the team arrived. Surprisingly we were the only U-10 team staying at the hotel, especially since it was right across the street from the fields.

 

There was no way I would be within 10 miles of a Sonic and not get a Cherry Limeaid. The other family had never eaten at a Sonic so they joined us for dinner.

 

The North Park Lodge definitely had a lodge feel. The lobby was decorated with antlers and pine furniture. This is our king room with a peeled pine bed and log cabin quilt. It had a good-sized fridge and microwave in the room and the breakfast was good too, with biscuits and gravy and waffles. The cable was limited so there weren't a lot of kids choices available outside of normal cartoon times but we had brought the mini DVD player and the laptop so we had some options. This was our first travel tournament and I didn't really know what to expect. I do know now that I need to bring a power strip when we stay in a hotel and I packed a lot more food than we wanted to eat since we ate breakfast at the hotel instead of out of the cooler. The fruit and fruit juice were her first choices, then cheese sticks. She didn't want yogurt or chocolate milk as she usually does between games. We didn't touch any of the cookies or sweet stuff that I packed. I brought chicken strips that worked well for lunch; cold the first day and reheated in the microwave the second day.

 

Downtime really needed to be rest time, playing in 90-degrees is hard work and the girls played 3 games each day. The mantra of the weekend was "water, water, water" and "shade, shade, shade."  Saturday we stayed at the field over lunch and it was hard to get the girls to settle and rest in the shade. Sunday I got a late check out so we went back to the room and ate and relaxed in the AC before returning to the field for the last game and the 3-hour drive home.

 

I made hair ribbons for each of the girls in Thrashers colors of lime and black.

 

Playing 3rd base.

 

Enjoying the shade of the new pop-up I bought at Costco. It's not much bigger than a chair when its folded up and it goes up and down almost instantly. It will also be nice for soccer in the rain.

 

Watching coach for signals, if the pitch gets past the catcher be on 2nd...

 

Some of the brothers found a great hill to roll down except they came back covered in grass and itchy the rest of the day. I'm blessed to be able to leave everyone else at home for tournaments.

 

Stealing home.

 

We ended up taking 3rd Place. The two games we lost we could have won, they were both close games. The girls have a lot to be proud of, they played well.

 

It rained yesterday and Tovah's comment, "it's nice that it's raining, we needed it after all the sunshine this weekend." She's definitely a Washington girl...

 

 

 

Rush Graduated on Saturday

~erica