Frustrating

June ended with an anti-climactic trip to CWH and an electrophysiology study. 

In pre-op we got to watch the women's national team beat France in the World Cup. Really must have been a dream come true for Bryan...

 

Done and waiting to be allowed to eat once again!

Milkshake of joy! Onward!

Cousins

Chad and Kim chaperoned a trip to Europe for a couple weeks and we got to have the cousins over!

Our kids had been looking forward to Cousins Camp for months...and it did not disappoint! We enjoyed a day of water fun at SlideWaters,

dinner by the lake, 

a stopover at Dry Falls, 

and lots of baseball "watching" during Mitchell's final all-star tournament.

Post-game fro yo was clearly a must!

 Aside from swimming at our pool, we ventured out to SplashZone for a fun afternoon!

Avery and Shan were being stalked by some dangerous characters...

 The girls enjoyed VBS for 4 days.

 Why does this seem frighteningly realistic?

The kids were treated to two movies: Aladdin and Toy Story 4.

One evening we had a major thunder and lightning storm and enjoyed watching it. 

There was lots of playtime, neighbor time, games, Cousin Councils, and fun to be had. On the final evening, we roasted hot dogs and s'mores and played tennis under the lights.

Then we had a big breakfast and the kids enjoyed playing with Aunt Rachel before the cousins went to Spokane. All in all, a great week of time together! Hoping this becomes a summer staple!

Anniversary Fun

I'm competitive. Saying we've been married 13 years irritates me because we've been together for way longer than that. We started dating 22 years ago this month. Yeah, there was a break in there, but one could legitimately argue we've been in love for more than 2 decades. However you count it, we celebrated with dinner at Tendrils at Cave B and it was lovely!

 The view was lovely and the food delicious!

 After dinner we wandered around a bit through the vineyards

and were dopey happy. Cheers to decades more to come!

All-Stars

Mitchell was part of Ephrata's U-10 All-Star team this year. Our team is comprised of several boys selected from the little league teams (after try-outs) and they practiced and played together for about one month. 

Coach Vasquez and Coach Morford were the team leaders, and Bryan and Rod helped as well. We played in 3 tournaments: Chelan, Ellensburg and Moses Lake.

Mitch had a great on-base percentage!

He played a lot of third base, holding down the hot corner!

He was the only leftie on the team and did a great job - even laying down a perfect bunt in one game!

He did some pitching as well.

His dad is pleased with his form on the mound. Our players all got rocked when they pitched, but they threw strikes and improved each time!

The teams we played against are tournament teams, playing together for months. One team even played 50+ games! They travel and do this baseball thing year-round. It's a strange reality. As a result, we did not win any games. However, we did improve mightily and our final game was a 4 run loss to a team that beat us by 20 earlier in the month! Coach V did a good job of keeping the boys' chins up in the face of this "learning through adversity"!

The coaching styles were very different - and sometimes very funny! We appreciated the positive encouragement and the enthusiasm. Here, Mitch steals second with Coach Morford's vocal encouragement.

He stole third as well - and steals his mama's heart each game!

Last day of School

We made it through another year!!! End of 3rd and 1st grades.

 One was really excited and one less so...can you tell which is which?

 Both had good years and enjoyed their teachers and classmates. 

One was REALLY excited for the year's end...Welcome, summer vacation!

Chelan

We enjoyed a couple nights in Chelan!

Cool weather and wind? No biggie!

These two were in the water immediately! Bryan came much later as he had graduation, but we enjoyed our room at Campbell's as soon as possible!

We were right on the water and nature's fireworks welcomed us.

Mitch had an all-star tournament in Wenatchee so we had less time on the lake this year, BUT we enjoyed every bit of it!

Some enjoyed it a bit too much... 

Sandcastles, swimming, baseball, and beach time. We are ready to end this school year!