Our Second Grader

Today was Mitchell's first day of second grade at Grant and he was ready!

Not thrilled about having to tame his hair before school, but not angry enough to really let me have it.

Mitch has Mrs. McNeill this year and we think it's going to be a great experience for him. She's ready to challenge him already, for which we are grateful!

The day went well, he has a great friend in his class, and we capped it off with ice cream at DK's. Here's to the 2nd grade!

Wedding Weekend

The wedding weekend is over and we all survived! Rachel and Kevin were happily married, the weather was perfect, the park looked lovely, and we had lots of time with family. 

Baby Sarah was a trooper!

Friday after the rehearsal and dinner we had an after party. Laying in bed that night, Bryan and I tallied 39 people who had been over. That includes 7 overnight guests in the house and an RV out back. Suffice to say, it was busy! We very much enjoyed getting time to visit.

Saturday we had lots of work to do to set up, feed the masses, and the bridal party got ready at our place. The kids were all flower girls and ring bearers. They posed for lots of pictures looking dapper!

Our two

Here come the Cotters! It was a pretty ceremony and the reception involved good food and dancing into the night. Afterward, we had a "fight party" at our place to watch a much-hyped boxing match. Another two dozen + folks crowded into the living room - it was quite an experience!

When a wedding gives you lemons, these Johnson-Pakulski women make lemonade (without the help of a juicer!)! We enjoyed the Sunday crew's help picking up the park, as well as some swimming, a BBQ lunch and some kayak and lake time.

Grandma Dianne is always a helper! Bryan's sweet aunts re-made the guest beds for us because they wanted to be busy. Wonderful ladies! 

We loved the chance to see family and are eager for another boda in October in Arizona!

Solar Eclipse

Not since 1979 has their been a solar eclipse in the U.S. so today was special indeed! The moon's path went through Lincoln City, Oregon and across the country, leaving swaths of central Oregon in totality. Mom packed up our children on Saturday and prepared for "carmagedon" as they traveled to Salem to view with Russ and Julie. 

Happily, their trip south had normal traffic! 

Monday, August 21 was the first day back for teachers in Ephrata so I could not join the kiddos. I did, however, don my solar glasses and enjoy the 93% totality from Parkway's parking lot. It got dusky and cool, and the sun's shifting shape was incredible to see.

  

Meanwhile in Salem, the kids were ready!

  The viewing party consisted of friends, family and neighbors. Our kids were great and didn't look at the sun without the protective lenses.

This is a shot of totality! That light on Shannon's hair is from a street lamp at 10:17 am! There were about 2 minutes of totality and then the moon continued its trek. Such a cool event! Thanks Grama and Allstots for making it happen for our kids!

Babe Ruth World Series

Ephrata hosted the 16-18-year-old Babe Ruth World Series from August 5-August 12. Our boys arrived on the afternoon of the 3rd - all SIX of them! We got to host players from the Tuscon team and it was a full house and a fun time!

   Smoke from wildfires rolled into town and created a hazy blanket for the entire tournament. Opening ceremonies went well and Mitch got to be a bat boy for his Grandpa Johnson's River Dogs.

 Bryan and other players from the 1998 champion River Dogs were honored and Bry threw out the opening pitch to Doumit.

Dave was also honored with an award. The field looked beautiful entirely as a result of his hours upon hours of work there.

Three generations of Johnson baseball men.

In fact, Mitch had many roles over the course of the week plus. He helped keep score in the booth and ran the radar gun.

He got to see friends like Cale in the crowd.

And he was a bat boy with Blake for every River Dog game. All the games were played at 8pm, which meant there was very little sleep.

Some tried to catch up on missing sleep during the late games!

 Our boys had a rocky start but did make it out of pool play. On their bye day, we took the team to Deep Lake for some cliff jumping.

 These boys were typical teens with voracious appetites, late night habits, sleeping in, video games, and phone addictions. However, they were also extremely polite and wonderful with our children!

 Some cliff jumping spectators.

 Bryan joined the boys in taking the plunge from the 40-footer!

They had a great time and no one was hurt!

 The drive home was a very quiet one.

 We enjoyed lots of evening meals together, sometimes with the neighbors and their boys, sometimes with a few cleat chasers, but always with good food.

There were several cornhole tournaments with lots of trash talk.

Home run derby in the park was common, as were late night tennis games or whiffle ball on the courts.

 

They played Legos with Mitch, too.

Our kids were very sad and sorry to say good-bye when we took the boys to their bus in the early hours of Sunday morning. What great memories!

Drake, Sean, John, Addison, Mark and Adrian rounded out our family for 10 days. We love our Tucson boys!

Mitchell turns 8!

Mitchell has completed 8 years on this earth and we are enjoying his growth! We celebrated with a set of parties last week and it was a full day of fun!

 We began with a family lunch, including LaVine cousins and Aunt Kim, the great grandparents, and grandparents. 

 For the first time, he read all of his birthday cards himself and, as usual, was gifted many wonderful things!

 Baseball cupcakes and a blueberry pie rounded out the celebration.

 Then kids began to arrive. They congregated in the living room with Legos until all were present.

 Then it was time for snacks and gifts outside. So funny to watch the opening process with friends as the circle of little kids just gets tighter and tighter around the opener!

 The poor pinata didn't last long!

 The ensuing sugar scramble was a wild one.

 Mitch isn't a big fan of cake lately (he claims he doesn't like frosting) so I went with a simple ice cream cake. From the store. It was actually hard to let go of the yearly tradition of cake "masterpieces" so I'm hoping he'll like cake more when he's 9!

 The kids enjoyed a very hot game (2 innings, really) of baseball in the park before completely melting.

 Then it was time for pool fun! There were 15 kids in the water and lots of vigilant lifeguards.

Cannon ball!

  The Wendys Peffercorn arrived. 

No sunbathing for these dynamos!

Mitch was worn out but said it was a great day. His year has been a full one here in Ephrata and he's really become a strong, smart, and big little boy. He loves Legos, baseball, reading, watching the Mariners, and playing with his neighborhood friends. We love him!