It's Baseball Season!

In addition to our love of watching pro baseball, we also love local tball.  Especially when Joey is in it!  Now, I don't want to brag, but I will.  Joey kind of landed on a team full of riff-raff, so maybe it's not that hard for him to stand out.  But he does.  Every hit is in the outfield, where nobody is there to catch it, first of all because nobody else hits it that far so the other team doesn't put anybody out there; and second of all, almost all of the kids are too busy rolling around in the grass and dirt to stop the ball before it gets there anyway.

Joey won a hitting and throwing contest at his last practice.  He is the only one on his team, besides the coach's son, who pays even the least amount of attention.  He is the only one who hasn't eaten grass and dirt (and then thrown up - yep, a kid on his team actually did that), climbed the fence, shoved someone's face into the ground, thrown dirt, sat down in the infield, not listened to the coach, or done anything inappropriate with the tball stand.  He is just plain awesome, and he just loves to play the game.  He can't stand anyone else on his team, but he loves to play anyway.  Hopefully next year will be better luck with the teammates.  By the way, I think Coach Will deserves a medal or something for putting up with these kids!

Joey also likes to help out the other kids by showing them where the base is.  He sometimes has to tell them what to do, because they're too busy poking each other in the face or picking their noses.

As you look through these next few pictures, just tell me who is ready to play the game?  Yep, that's right.  Mr. Major League himself. 

Okay, okay, so nobody's perfect.  He does dance a little -- but only between batters!

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Grace did a sweet little Mother's Day Celebration at preschool.  They sang three songs, and we ate the tiniest muffins I've ever seen.  They were made for elves, I think.  She had been really nervous about getting up in front of everybody, but she sang and tapped her foot anyway.  She did a great job, and also gave me a hand-painted jewelry box (which is now in her room with all her stuff in it -- maybe I'll get it back someday).

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The boys bought their own cap guns at Shipton's.  They have been dressing like cowboys & shooting up the neighborhood all week.  I think we are out-of-town people.  We'll probably get kicked out of the neighborhood sooner or later.

One Long Week

It has been one long week.  Ben was out of town from Sunday to Friday, and we missed him terribly.  Although, I have to say: absence really does make the heart grow fonder.  All I can do when he's gone is think of how much I love him, miss him, how great of a person he is, and how lucky I am to have him.  And when he's home, all I can do is nag him to close the shower curtain when he's done so mildew doesn't grow.  I'm so impossible.

Also, it was Opera week, and we managed to pull off two great shows despite a remarkably horrible final dress rehearsal.  Honestly, I was having nightmares that we were going to crash and burn.  But as usual, we managed to pull it together at the last minute.  There's nothing like searing adrenaline for three solid hours to get your heart pumping.

And to add to what was on track to be a particularly horrid week, my Grandpa Bob passed away.  I was lucky to have been with him the morning he died.  I kissed his forhead and said good-bye.

He was truly one of the last real cowboys.  He gave us an exceptional childhood.  He taught us to work hard, ride hard, and play hard.

We did things from taking long pack rides up the Beartooth mountains to fishing and ice skating on the pond in the front yard.  We learned to barrel race, sort and move cattle, brand, and vaccinate animals.  We swam in ice cold mountain creeks and in tepid cattle watering holes.  We went to rodeos, we lit off fireworks, we rode in the back of the pickup all the way through Yellowstone Park (while he continuously pretended the breaks went out).

We drove heards of buffalo, made up songs, listened to him yodel and whistle, and learned to spot wildlife when bribed with money.

We chased bunnies with salt shakers in hand, because he convinced us that if you shake salt on their tail, they would be paralized.

We woke up with deer on our front lawn and the smell of mountain rain.  We learned to garden, muck out stalls, plow fields, and saddle a horse.

We jumped for joy every time he called to see if we could spend the week with him (which was often).  But he wouldn't let us get in the truck unless we had practiced our piano (to perfection).

We learned to eat giant plate-sized pancakes at 5 a.m. even though we weren't hungry because we were in for a very long, tiring morning of work (that we absolutely loved).

We learned to finish all our meals, because he wouldn't let us be excused from the table unless all the food on our plates was gone -- even though he is the one who filled our plates full of more food than we could handle.

He was one of a kind, and I love him.  I'm gonna miss that guy, as wiley as he was.

Matthew found my dad's grave.  The kids really had fun playing at the cemetary.  We've always found it to be a happy place, and I really love spending time there.  We used to have picnics there for Memorial Day.

My Grandpa's casket was really something he would have liked.  His niece, Bonnie, is a very talented artist.  She is skilled at burning wood, and she and my uncle Dusty decorated his casket perfectly.

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 On Saturday we went out to the stables to visit the horses.  Gracie really liked this new mother.  Her colt was just the kids' size, and he was just as wild as they are!

Andrew curried old Red Man before he rode bareback.  He did a pretty good job.  I think he could have kept riding all day long.

Now this is one good-looking cowboy:

Haley and Red Man got along famously.

 

And Zip Cat was his usual naughty self.  He was constantly trying to steal the camera, rip off Eric's pockets, run off with the curry comb, and sample everything: including Joey's hat.

When Grace is overwhelmed, she plugs her ears.  It wasn't loud at the stables at all, but this is the way she separates herself from reality.  We thought it was extremely strange and hilarious.

Eric and Zip Cat parted with a smooch.

One More Outing...

We couldn't give up on our weekend just yet...

The kids had Monday off from school, too.  I had a ton of stuff to get done: music to practice, vacuuming, funeral preparations (Grandpa Bob), Costco run, etc.  But the vitamin D to be had was just too good to pass up.  So while at Costco, we grabbed some sandwiches and chips for a picnic lunch.  Also at Costco, Matthew decided to close the door to the van all by himself, which resulted in a smashed hand.  He cried for about a minute, then decided that his purple mangled fingers were fine, and that we should get on with our day.  I'm kind of glad (almost) that it happened, because now at least I know that he does feel pain.  I wasn't sure before.  Now I know that he's just incredibly tough.

We then hiked our little tushies over to the zoo (which was super crowded - for our little "zoo"), so we found a quiet spot under my favorite tree to eat our lunch.  Then we went to the barn for a little goat smooching.

Haley was babysitting, so it was just the four kids for this pic:

We had to check out the horses.  One of them is named Jake, and the other one we're not sure, but the kids decided to call him Jack.

Matthew just couldn't pet, scratch, and kiss these little guys enough.  I'm sure he received some great bacteria.  But I guess it will just make him stronger, let's hope.

Grace looks unhappy in this picture, but she's really just hot.

It didn't take her long to get in on the action, with Andrew's help.

We rounded the corner and they saw the playground.  It didn't take them long to split!

I was trying to get a good picture of Matt for Grandma's wall.  I was surprised he actually smiled, seeing as how he had just screamed for the last half hour because we had left the playground.

The river otters were the crowd pleaser.  They were very playful today!

Even though our little "zoo" isn't much, my kids love it.  And it was just good to be outside.  We spent the rest of the day playing in the backyard with our new water guns.  We even filled up the little baby pool!  Let's hope this weather sticks around.  Grace even got a sunburned face.  The boys just got dark tans.  Sometimes I forget that I'm not the only one who needs sunscreen around here!

Easter Weekend

We had a 5-day weekend for Easter, and on Friday it was freezing cold and snowy.  We had plans to go to the zoo, but thank goodness some friends called and wanted to meet down at the gym, set up the volleyball net, and let the kids go at it.  It was a marvelous morning, and the kids got out enough energy to actually be quiet for a few hours.  We had a blast.

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Easter morning was a success, even though Matt didn't want to wake up.  He's not very good at waking up unless it's his idea to do so.  The boys were bestowed with water guns (big ones), Grace got "Tangled", Haley got Just Dance 2, and Matthew was finally happy with his new drawing pad.  It lights up and everything.  We followed with the annual Easter Egg Hunt in the living room.  Matthew was very pleased, and everybody found all their eggs, although one last egg wasn't found until after church.  There's always that last one, right?

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Joey has had wiggly front teeth for quite a while now.  By the time we needed to go to church, it was just hanging there.  I could see the top of it, and it was sideways.  But it hurt to pull on it, so we thought we'd corner one of the dentists in our ward and have them yank on it a bit.  But right in the middle of the passing of the Sacrament, Joey (who was sitting one row in front of me with Momma Harris), jumped up and exclaimed, "Mom!  Look!"  He held out that tooth for all to see, and we had three rows of patrons very quietly cheering for him.  I'm sure Daddy (who was presiding today) was so happy that his family was the cause of all the irreverence today.