Monday, July 30, 2012

Montage of the Week

We continue to keep busy doing things around Redlands this summer. This week we...

Spent a beautiful summer's evening watching a performance of Oliver at the Redlands Bowl.



Made homemade salsa for the first time. (Love having friends with wonderful gardens!)
Hung out with some pretty cool little girls.

And got to swim!
(Michael Phelps wanna-be.)
(On a side note...Those who are concerned, yes, we are feeding Troy. He eats ALL THE TIME, but never sits still long enough for the food to settle! At least that's my theory. :)

Sunday, July 22, 2012

The River Olympics

In gearing up for the real Olympics, our church hosted the "River Olympics" this past Friday. It was a fun night of friendly competition. There was an Olympic torch, expanded knowledge of unusual countries, new friendships formed, silly games to take part in, and great fellowship. We're definitely in the Olympic Spirit now!
Scott decorating himself in his team colors.
Sheila getting everyone registered.
Whose daughter is this?!
Katie contemplating her next move as team captain.


Serious business!
Trying to pop balloons tied to peoples' ankles.
Troy gearing up with the orange team.

What Kam's Been Up To

This summer we've stayed close to home for some different reasons. Troy's been busy with baseball, but I wanted to find something fun for Kamryn to do. She really enjoys and has a talent for art. We found a class in a little gallery downtown that seemed to have what we were looking for. For two weeks, Kam spent time with these kids expanding their creative horizons. "Skip", their teacher, had some interesting viewpoints, but Kamryn enjoyed challenging him on some things and learning from him. Here are Kam and her friend, Clara.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Trip to the "World" Series!

Troy's All-Star baseball team was honored to be invited to play in the "World" Series this weekend. Although they haven't won many tournaments, they are beginning to play much better together and have improved tremendously. (Thus the invite to play in this series, we reason.) So yesterday Scott, Troy and I made the trek down to San Marcos to watch Troy take part in the first big game. One thing we quickly noticed was that in this "World" Series, all the teams were from locations within a hundred miles of San Marcos. We renamed it the "Local" Series. Anyway, Troy's team did not put on their best performance. I think the boys were a bit nervous or maybe just focused on going to Legoland the next day as some of the families are doing. :) They are seven and eight year-olds and the focus is not always there. Troy (who is quite focused) in usual fashion was upset after the game. In his words, "Mom, we stunk!" He perked up pretty quickly, however, when we agreed to find the nearest Ruby's Diner for dinner. (A cheeseburger and milkshake seem to cure anything!) Since we were so close, Scott humored me with a beach stop to watch the sunset after dinner. We enjoyed sitting on the beach watching some guys do some awesome skim-board tricks, laughing at silly people we saw and literally were able to watch the sun disappear on the horizon... On a side note, Scott has become somewhat of the unofficial team chaplain. We had a father of one of the boys on the team hit with a sudden illness recently. This has kind of brought the team parents together in supporting the family. Scott was also asked by some team moms to lead in prayer before the game yesterday. Interesting, but good.















Saturday, July 7, 2012

More Baseball

We enjoyed watching Troy and his team play out in Murietta today. They lost, but put up a pretty good fight.
I think there are like two kids following coach here. :)




Beach Day!

To escape the heat the other day, Kam, Troy and I headed over to the beach. For me, hanging out at the beach is the perfect way to spend a summer day. We missed Scott and Katie, but they'll have more opportunities, right?
Kamryn looking good in her new shades.
Troy pondering life.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Fourth Festivities

We had a great day here in Redlands on the fourth of July. This is the first year we've actually been around for the holiday. It had a festive, small town feel as we enjoyed several different activities with friends. We began our day with the pancake breakfast at our church. Here is Scott and our friend, Katelyn.

Then we headed down to watch the parade. Here's Kamryn holding her bag of candy. (You're never too old to dive out into the street and fight off little kids for candy!)
A view of the parade under our overcast skies.
It was fun to meet up with some friends and watch the parade together, especially since they have so many cute little kids!

As we've experienced in the past, the parades in Pella have tractors...But in Redlands we have trucks advertising Mexican restaurants! So cool!
While watching the Redlands parade, you could also observe members of a local church riding on a trailer holding Lady Liberty and Uncle Sam...
And if you keep looking closely, you'll see there's a man portraying Jesus walking behind the trailor, complete with Roman soldiers and patriotic army guys wearing fatigues following behind! (Where else can you experience that?!)
After our parade excitement, we went to some friends' for pool time, great food, lots of laughter and fun!

We ended the day by deciding to forgo the crowds at the U of R and just pull up lawn chairs at the end of the street to catch the fireworks display.
Now if only I could still get my kids to wear those cute matching Old Navy 4th of July t-shirts... Ah, the good old days!