Summer Sports

Our summer consisted mostly of this:



And a whole lot of that:



Basically we spent a lot of time with sports this summer and new sports to boot. Jane and Mitchell thought they'd join in on a very popular sport in our little hometown: baseball and softball. I had no idea how seriously this town takes America's favorite game. Mitchell had had a brief t-ball session last summer, but this was essentially a new experience for the kids. This year they learned just what it was like to have practice and games at least three but up to five days a week for two months. But since we spent so much time hitting balls outside I suppose it was kind of a nice treat that we had to wear sweatshirts to three-quarters of the games because it was rather chilly well into July, although the consequence of this was that it made summer feel far too short.



But not to be left out, we had soccer as well. (I think we're getting to the point that there isn't a season that goes by without some sort soccer in this family - we have yet to see if William or Mitchell will be joining an indoor winter league but I'm fully anticipating it.) Mitchell had a British soccer camp, which I think may have been the highlight of his summer, and William played on the company team. For William this was his first foray back into playing for some time and I think he had a great time, when his body wasn't falling apart.

So all in all, the summer baseball sports were somewhat of a success but I think as we've headed into fall we've seen that the kids are falling into the things they really love. Mitchell is back at soccer with William coaching his team and Jane has started Irish dance and singing classes....and Luke is feeling bored because he thinks he needs to be in every sport Mitchell is into. He'll get there soon enough.

The Sabbatical is Over

After my brief, but lingering, sabbatical
Its time to once again become fanatical
And resume my role as family record keeper,
Instead of lazy journal sleeper.
So in that vein I commence to log
Our summer adventures on this family blog.......



So we last left off at Jane's 9th birthday and while that certainly was a highlight in our summer our adventures did not by any means end there. No, we went on to have many excursions including a trip to Yellowstone on the 4th of July. Now you might wonder why we went to Yellowstone instead of staying in town and watching the parade (which, by the way, I participated in by helping to build a float) or barbecuing or taking in the local fare on our first July 4th in this town where they take this holiday very seriously. Well, William was in need of a little more quiet and time away from our nice little town. So we headed off further into the tundra on a very chilly July 4th.



So chilly was our day that we encountered this:


But the hail (I know it looks like snow, but it really was only massive amounts of hail from a huge downpour) left us with few hiking options and even fewer animal viewing options. These large creatures were about the extent of what we saw:


But after a long day with lots of sitting in the car we did feel like we ought to return to warmer weather and get home in time for the fireworks display. And luckily William was able to catch a couple of pictures when Luke wasn't screaming like crazy and covering his ears because he was terrified of the fireworks because now we can remind Luke next year that he was actually outside of a car or building for a couple of minutes while the "explosions" were going off and maybe next year he'll be convinced to watch for a full minute before he screams and hides.

And with this first summer log on the family blog I must sign off to run Jane to an activity that surely will make it into the category of something we must record.