Today's Pic

One of summer's highlights...

Up to Bat

Danielle had a good day batting today. Here is a video of her beautiful bunt.

She is F A S T.  At her next at bat, she hit a grounder to the 2nd baseman. The 2nd baseman fielded the ball cleanly and threw it to 1st, but Danielle still outran her. It was awesome. I have a video of most of it, but I got a little excited when she booked it down the baseline and got a little wild with the camera. Plus I kind of cheered a lot and it's a bit overpowering. :)

Playing Hard

Our travel team played in another tournament today. Today's games didn't matter much other than to determine our seeding for tomorrow's single elimination tournament. It made sense to save our starting pitchers for the "big" games tomorrow, so Danielle finally got the chance to pitch in travel ball!

She started taking pitching lessons in May and has been going regularly. Her ultimate goal is to pitch for her travel team, but her goal for this year was just to pitch for her rec team. At the rec level, the coach comes in and pitches after 4 balls, so there is a little bit of a failsafe. In travel, you pitch strikes or you walk them! Danielle was hoping after pitching in rec and practicing over the winter she would be good enough to pitch for her travel team next season. She was excited to get the chance much earlier than she anticipated.

She did a really good job. She doesn't pitch fast yet, but for the most part she was accurate. She struck a couple batters out, walked a couple, and pitched hittable balls that the rest of the team fielded. She also got to make a great play at home by tagging out a runner who was trying to steal home. She still has a ways to go before she'll be a starting pitcher, but she had fun and did a great job.

I've received a few texts from Tyler, and he seems to be having a great time. He has really enjoyed his dives and has seen lots of interesting things. Dad sent me this picture today.

Feeling rather proud of both my kiddos tonight.

Oh Deer!

When I went out to take pictures on Wednesday, I decided I was only going to take macro shots. I couldn't resist taking my telephoto lens, too...just in case. I was on my hands and knees on the boardwalk when a noise behind me finally registered. It sounded like a snort. I turned around in time to see a deer leap over the weeds and disappear. I continued down the boardwalk, stopping to take pictures, and heard the noise again. I looked up and a good distance away was a doe standing by some weeds and watching me. I acted like I didn't notice her and knelt back down on the boardwalk to switch cameras. I stayed down on the boardwalk and snapped some pictures of her. Then the coolest thing happened. She walked over to check me out! Slowly she made her way through all the brush and right over to the boardwalk. There was no doubt she was checking me out. She walked directly toward me. I have to admit that briefly I wondered if deer get rabies and attack lonely photographers, but I think she was just curious. She got to the spot where she was almost too close for me to use my telephoto lens and finally stopped. She stared at me for a few seconds and then turned and walked away just as slowly. She wasn't in any hurry. It was the neatest experience.

Look a Little Closer

There's more than just a boardwalk and some weeds...

Tyler's Trip

Tyler left for his diving trip with Grandma & Grandpa on Monday. We've texted a couple times, but that's about it. From the looks of the pictures I've received, I think it's safe to assume he's too busy having fun. I'm so glad!

Selfie before leaving for the airport

 

Ty sent me this picture after they arrived.

Today's dive. Good to go!

Pics from the Park

More Softball

Today Danielle's travel team participated in their first tournament. They won both games and play again tomorrow. I'm glad they won, but I am more pleased with how much Danielle enjoyed herself today. There was no doubt as we watched her today that she was having fun. It's easy to get caught up in the winning and losing and competitiveness, but this week we talked a lot about just enjoying the game. I feel like she really did that today. Ultimately she played better because of it, too. She had a great play in the field, got on base every at bat, made some beautiful textbook slides, and did it all with a smile. She also got nailed in the chest by the ball. It was a terrible sound, but she dropped her bat and ran to base with barely a pause. (She has a nice, red mark in the shape of a softball on her ribs!) I couldn't be more proud of her today.

 

Today's Pic

Seriously?!!

This Week's Summer Fun

I told my dad Happy Father's Day in person.

We went shopping.
 Danielle and I went out for lunch and a little shopping on Monday. Tyler and I went out for lunch & shopping on Tuesday. They each had a few things they needed & I wanted some one-on-one time with each kid. It was nice.

We watched Danielle play softball. By Sunday evening, she will have played in at least 10 softball games just this week.

We entertained ourselves while Tyler got a much needed haircut.

We visited the bookstore to get a couple new books and to browse for other books we want to read this summer.

Danielle continued to work on learning how to pitch.

We also went out for ice cream, played with friends, had a hitting lesson, stayed awake all night listening to a storm, watched a movie, and cleaned the house. I felt like we didn't do much this week, but I guess we didn't do too badly. I have officially lost track of the date and only know the day because I'm keeping an eye on the softball schedule, so I guess we're having a pretty good summer so far.

Today's Pic

Danielle was disappointed I didn't get a picture of her stealing home at her game tonight, so I told her I'd take a picture of her dirty behind. (She had a beautiful slide into home.) This was the pose I got.

Happy Father's Day!

I hope Tyler will follow in his footsteps, and I hope Danielle will settle for nothing less when she's looking for a husband.

Today's Pic



Wedding selfie



Father's Day Fishing

Ron loves to fish but we rarely get to go. Tyler doesn't have the patience for it, and Danielle would rather wander around & look for critters. A softball dad told us about a pay lake he goes to sometimes. They only have catfish, but most of them are huge. We thought the kids might have better luck and therefore enjoy it a little more (which would allow Ron to enjoy it a little more), so part of Ron's Father's Day gift was to try this lake today.

Unfortunately, the fish weren't really biting. It's been a couple years since we've tried fishing with the kids. I don't know if it's because they are older now or because they knew Ron really wanted to fish (or because I packed snacks), but they stuck with it for the entire 6 hour period...even though neither of them caught a thing. I didn't catch anything either. Ron is the only one who had any luck, but I guess that's fair since this outing for was him. His catches were small compared to the lake's average size, but he still enjoyed it.  We had a really nice time hanging out together.

Strawberries!

Today we finally made it to the strawberry patch. Other than being muddy, which we anticipated, the weather was perfect - overcast and a little cool. Strawberries have been in for a little while, so it wasn't too crowded. Our biggest problem was avoiding the berries that had started to over-ripen.

We picked a little over 10# of berries. Holding with tradition, Tyler ate waaaay more than he put in his bucket. (I picked most of the berries in his bucket.) For whatever reason, Danielle seemed to find all the odd shaped berries. We finished off our trip with slushies on the porch. This is our 9th year in row of picking strawberries, and the kids still look forward to going. They got along nicely and we enjoyed each other's company. It was another successful trip. (There is a link to some pics of years past in last year's post.)