Road Trip-Part2

Our next leg took us to Rock Valley, IA.  We are always blessed to stay with my cousin and her family.  The kids experience MidWestern freedom!  They ride quads, roast marshmallows, chase dogs, and get spoiled. 

Road Trip-Part 1

This summer we were determined to get a way and take a break.  Since Katie was not able to come home, we decided to go see her.  Since flying is not in our budget at the moment, it was decided that we would drive the 2,000 miles to Michigan.  We rented a smallish car and prepared ourselves for adventure.  For the first leg we ended up in Denver, CO to visit family there.  It's always fun to reconnect with cousins and to enjoy the beautiful CO scenery. We were thankful for RedBox and great gas mileage and no problems along the way!

Beginning of Summer

Random pics of stuff we did...

Kam played in a summer basketball league with her high school team. Tons of fun to watch them and imagine what future games will look like.  Kam loved it!  

 We got excited about World Cup Soccer!  As a little summer assignment I had Troy find all the venues on a map and draw them.  So creative! :)

 I planted another little garden.  I'm happy if I get some good tomatoes and basil.  Everything else is a bonus.  

Serve Week at Church-2014

Not the greatest pictures, but wanted to document SERVE week at our church this summer.  This week is always a blessing to those who benefit from the work and those who do the work.  We attended the annual beach day and Troy and Kam took part in the sports camp at our local public school.  So thankful for this opportunity.

Yankees Finish Well

Troy and the Mustang Yankees finished another great season.  We enjoy spending time out at our community baseball/ softball fields watching the kids play.  We have gotten to know many families in our 4 years playing.  This team was another great group of boys and families.  They finished 1st in regular season and just lost out in the playoff games.  Many character building moments and lifelong memories.  They celebrated with a pizza party at a local restaurant and received a nice trophy and kind words from coaches.

I'm doing a quick blog update of the many pictures that I have gotten behind on...These are from May...

Love the fact that we can swim here in May already!  Troy and his buddies.

 Scott and Troy went on the Cadet campout to the desert.  It rained...There are too many stories to tell here...It was an experience they will never forget!

 Fourth grade wax museum.  Adorable!

 Finished up another good RBY season.

 Played well in his piano recital.

 Troy and Kam attended and coached at the Christian school basketball camp.  Troy liked hanging with the big boys best.

 Sweet friends.

Looking forward to summer!

Exciting Baseball!

We had some fun outings to the ballpark this week.  (Since the kids are done playing RBY, we were going through withdrawal!...Not really!)  Scott has a former youth group member who recently got called up from the minor leagues to play on the Oakland A's.  We saw the A's were playing in Anaheim and decided to go.  Long story short, we ended up purchasing an extra set of tickets, so were at the ballpark two different nights of the three game series.  The first game we attended we sat on the first base side and got close to Steve, but couldn't get his attention before the game.  He played great and was fun to watch.  The second game we attended turned out a little differently.  At first we were disappointed because the tickets we bought online ended up to be on the third base-side far from the Oakland dugout.  We thought our chances of saying hi were shot.  Scott and the kids tried unsuccessfully once, but made their way back to our seats.  However, later while watching the Angels warm up, Scott noticed Steve was on the field greeting some fans.  Scott and the kids jumped out of their seats and made a mad dash around the entire stadium to try and catch him.  I kept watching to see them come down the other side of the stands, and make their way toward Steve.  Finally after brushing past a kind-hearted stadium usher, they got their chance.  Scott called out and Steve called him and the kids over.  Scott said it was kind of surreal when the crowd parted and they made their way down to the field. :)  Steve is a great guy and was so gracious.  He chatted with Scott and the kids for awhile.  So fun!  Although we hadn't been the die-hard A's fans like my dad and brother, we now have a definite tie to the team.  Steve went on to play another great game catching and then hitting a 2 run homer!  Great memories!  Thanks, Stephen Vogt!