Beach Camping

We were invited to join some friends who were camping at the beach for a little get-a-way recently.  It was a great time of setting up tents, hanging out with friends, laying in hammocks, eating wonderful food, looking out over breath-taking scenery, and more hanging out with friends. Such fun!

A Tough Ending

I have mixed feelings in writing this post tonight.  Troy's team lost the championship game tonight in the super regions.  This means their summer All-Star season is over.  It's been a big commitment this summer.  We invested time, money, energy, and emotion into this endeavor.  There have been many miles driven, many uniforms washed, many practices attended, much time spent at batting cages, many late nights, some early mornings, some team drama, but lots of fun spent watching a great group of boys play the game of baseball with some great parents.  I asked Troy this afternoon who his friends on the team were and he said, "Mom, we're all friends." The team had a successful season.  It got a little more intense as the team advanced through more and more tournaments.  They never made it easy on themselves, but they pulled it out and came in first or second in most tournaments. Tonight the winner of this game was to advance to the "World Series" tournament in San Jose. Troy was pretty excited about this opportunity and took the loss (7-6) pretty hard.  But it was not to be.  Lots of lessons learned this season.  Not always easy or fair ones.  Lots of pressures to parent well through some of these life experiences too.  Now on to the rest of our summer...   

(I took these pictures at earlier games in Garden Grove.)   

Troy and his sweet friend, Ethan.

Boys and Baseball

Troy continues to enjoy playing on his All-Star team this summer.  The boys are fun.  The families are nice.  The games are exciting!  Couldn't ask for much more. :)  I shot some of these today.  Love it when            I catch their interactions that show them just having fun with each other.

 I had to document this because getting this roller bag was a huge deal to Troy. :)

 Wonder what this discussion was about during the pitching change.

A Fabulous Fourth!

We continued the tradition of pancakes at church the morning of the fourth. We then made the trek up highway 99 to one of our favorite places (although very HOT places)-Visalia.  We spent time catching up with friends and then continuing our Grimmius celebration complete with a fireworks display at the end.  Some friends were gracious to host us (in their new guest room) for the night. Troy was not feeling the best, so we made our way home pretty quickly the next morning.  So thankful for these continued friendships and traditions.

 Katie and Ashlyn have been good friends since kindergarten.