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.

Ice cream With Friends

Love this picture of Scott with two of our favorite little people!  

Kam's Team Gets Second!

Kam's softball team is building momentum!  They continue to do better and better each tournament.  Kam is proving her abilities and gets more playing time each game.  Here is her team after getting second in the Moreno Valley Tournament.

River Party

We continue to feel blessed to be a part of our church here in Redlands.  A few weeks ago we took an evening to celebrate the staff and interns from our church.  Can't believe how much we have grown to love and appreciate these people!  Here's some of the fun.

Sea to Sea

This summer Scott's mom is doing something ambitious.  She is taking part in a bike ride across the country.  She and others are doing this to raise awareness of some issues like poverty. Their first stop after beginning their ride at the beach just happened to be Redlands!  We were happy to see what camp looked like and attend the meeting on the first night. Although there have been some injuries and bumps in road, the tour seems to be going well.  This is the camp set-up at Katie's highschool.