Disjointed Thoughts

I am so happy about our wonderful weather! I can't remember a 4th of July that it didn't rain at least part of the day...and we're in for 85 degree weather!! Hopefully that won't add to the fire hazard but, we deserve a day to eat, drink, and be merry without a rain jacket or umbrella.

On another note, Mike and I are trying to get our little photography business off the ground. We have some friends that moved out of town about a month ago that actually did our family pictures last winter. I am sad that they left, but wishing Jen good luck in school! Now that Murray doesn't live in the same town as we do, Mike and I can enjoy our hobby to the fullest and hopefully make a little money, without stepping on our friend's toes. :-) I'll let everyone know when our website is up and running. Wish us luck!

Back in our normal life, we've had a few busy weekends behind us. Just as baseball season ended, soccer has begun. It is so fun to see the kiddos out on the field expending so much energy. If only I had half of that energy, my house would be much cleaner and I'd be more organized (including all of my half-finished projects and scrapbooks). We had pictures last night and I practically had to pry Rylee from my leg. For some reason, she has decided to be scared of everyone, except mommy, at practice. Oh well, she sure looks cute sporting her jersey!

Kenzie and Alyssa have decided that they both want to play fall soccer this year. I'm very happy that they are so interested in sports but I'm not sure I can do two teams at the same time again! Baseball was tough with two different teams, four days/week and weekend practices as well. At least all of Alyssa's games were at home and McKenzie's team travelled. Soccer, however, will have two travelling teams....Yikes! Maybe they'll let them both be on the same team, though I doubt it with the age difference.

So last weekend, we decided to go for a hike up at Staircase in the Olympic National Park. It was a 1.9 mile walk to a bridge that has been washed out. Beautiful river, nice path, and lots of cool trees to see along the way. My girls were obnoxiously loud of course :-), but they had a great time and other people didn't really seem to mind except for the older crowd of course.




Deep In Thought Writing











Mike had a four day weekend (lucky bugger) and so he took the girls out and about while I slaved away at work (big sigh....) He did manage to get a couple of cute shots though..







One last thought, McKenzie is getting so grown up that sometimes I can barely recognize my little girl in there anymore until she does something like this:



She cracks me up!! Another day in my life... :)

Just a Few...

I have a few pictures of Rylee at soccer practice that I want to share. We have a ton more, but I figured that I'll wait to get some real action ones at her first game.

Rylee and Coach Bob.....

Look at her go!!!!

Coach tying her shoes again....

Giving the kids a pep talk~~Colton deep in thought...

And Colton decided it was time to pick flowers :)

4 Year Olds and Soccer

Monday was Rylee's first soccer practice. For weeks now, we have been reminding her that neither mommy or daddy (nor sissy's) can be out on the field with her when she's playing. We will be on the sidelines cheering her on of course, but she is a very clingy, shy little girl if she doesn't know someone and I was afraid that she would refuse to go out on her own. Colton, her cousin, is on the team with her kind of as a support player :-) The only problem is: Colton plays soccer as though it were football!!! He even yelled "Yay!! I'm tackling everybody!!" LOL

As we were driving to practice, I asked her if she knew her coach's name. She did not but when I told her it was Bob, just like her papa, she said, "But I'm not gonna call him papa, just Bob." I told her that was probably a good idea.

Since we got her soccer gear i.e ball, shin guards, socks, and cleats, she has been putting them on every evening and "practicing." While we were shopping, she was almost in tears because we could not find any shin guards that were pink. She kept telling me to keep looking because she knew they were in there somewhere. Low and behold, she was right! In the very back, on the very bottom, there was one pair in her size in pink. When I held them up in victory for her to see, she said, "See....I told you they were there." (Sniff sniff) so much for go mommy! We grabbed the pink ball to match and we were set.

So anyway, when we got to practice, she surprised me by walking right out onto the field and telling her coach that she is Rylee and is 4 years old. From the second she stepped out there until the time practice was over, she was a running, giggling soccer player and I was thinking to myself, "Who is that child and where did mine go??" By the end of practice, she was hungry and tired and ready to go; however, as soon as we got home she told me she was ready to go back to soccer practice. When I told her she didn't have practice again until Wednesday, she started sobbing her big alligator tears telling me that she wanted to go back right now!! If she was that upset over the 2 day wait, I can't imagine what the whole week/weekend wait will be like! I'm so glad she likes it though and am still very surprised how independent she was out there. My baby is one of the big kids now!

Can you imagine being a coach of a team of 10 four year olds?? Yikes!!

Late Night

To bring our little league baseball season to a close, our last outing was a trip to a Tacoma Rainier's baseball game. The girls on the team were asked to be standing on the field with the players, in the position that they play, while the National Anthem was being sung. They were so excited! They also participated in the "Rhubarb Run" with the team's mascot and got their hats/mitts autographed by the players. Our whole team and their family's got a free Rainier's hat, hot dog, chips, and a soda. Our girls were chanting and cheering so loudly that they offended the snooty lady in front of us and caused her to complain and ultimately move. Last time I checked, the players enjoy hearing the fans rooting for them. God forbid our girls were excited and cheering for the team! The perturbed fan moved herself, her husband and her child to another location which opened up more space for us! LOL...some people.

Two bats were broken during the game, and amazingly, Mike managed to capture one of them on camera.

The other one unfortunately, was a more exciting break as it almost hit the pitcher, we did not get. That's ok though because we got so many other good ones.

McKenzie waiting her turn for an autograph...

Needless to say, if the game didn't start until 7:00 pm in Tacoma, we didn't get home until very late. Too bad I had to get up early for work the next morning...

As I sit here posting this, between trying to keep my eyes open and helping my customers, I am reminded of how important memories are and how quickly they can disappear if not documented. Every time I find an old picture disc or photos that were actually printed out (prior to digital obviously), I am taken aback how fast time actually flies. The time it takes our children to change and grow seems to be only milliseconds. The song by Trace Atkins, You're Gonna Miss This brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it. It's funny how some days it seems that time is running a marathon to see who can finish first and others feel like a never ending repetitive cycle in different colors.

(One of my reoccurring days though not always with a smile)

As I'm looking back over what I've written, the phrase that keeps popping into my head is "What an odd post!!" I guess I'll just blame it on sleep deprivation!

Mostly Wordless Wednesday

For a good definition of the word "butt-load,"you can click Here ~You may ask "WHY? Why would she (crazy woman) include this fairly gross thought??" Oddly enough, it is actually a unit of measurement! The reason I even bring this word up is because of the following number of pictures. Please bear with me for some Arizona pics!