St. Louis Boys Trip

Baseball is a huge part of our family life. It wasn't always that way though. It started about the time Z. started playing t-ball. From there he learned the game and we learned the game and we all loved it. Z. and Hubs are of course much bigger fans than me and out of those two it is of course Z. who has the passion. His dreams are to grow up and be a professional baseball player. When asked what happens after that he says I'll be a paid select boys baseball coach. Yeah, we'll need to revisit that one as he gets older. But out of all the teams out there, Z.'s favorite is the St. Louis Cardinals although he does love the Texas Rangers also. And his personal MVP is Albert Pujols. For as long as I can remember he can tell you more than I ever want to hear about Pujols stats. He has always begged to go to Bush Stadium someday to watch Albert Pujols play in his home stadium as a Cardinal. He was very specific about this.

Anyway, with all the travel that Hubs has done overseas we had lots of air miles about to expire. Not enough for all six of us to go to Hawaii like I wanted but enough for five of us to go. So instead I told Hubs what he need to do was take his boys to St. Louis to Bush stadium and see Albert Pujols. After a bit of planning the boys trip was on. The girls and I would stay home and do "girl stuff". So they packed themselves off over Labor Day weekend and hopped on the plane.

They stayed a half mile from the stadium and the arch. So since I gave Z. the camera to take pictures with I wasn't sure what I would end up with on the small camera. He didn't do to bad, well except that it looks like dad never made it into any of the shots and I have more landscapes and landmarks than people.


They woke up early on Saturday and hit the arch first thing. They had no line and got to ride all the way to the top. By the time they got down the line was super long so Hubs and his earliness OCDness worked for the greater good this time.
From there they could get a birds eye view of all that they really cared to see (i.e. Bush Stadium)


Then they went around the area and did some sight seeing. Since I wasn't there I couldn't tell you what one thing is from another.


Finally they headed to the game and got there early. The special promotion was for them to go on the field that day but I think it was very crowded so they didn't enjoy it as much as they thought. The boys were very excited and anxiously waited for the game to start. Did you notice Z. wearing his Pujols jersey...and it's tucked into his shorts. Seriously, I can't get the boy to tuck anything into his jeans and he tucks his jersey into his shorts.


Z.'s favorite player ever on the big screen.

Sadly, they lost the game that day. But honestly they all had so much fun that I don't think they were really upset about it.

Then it was back to the hotel and an early flight home the next day. With souvenir Cardinals shirts for everyone.

The Road to Omaha

We went to Omaha this summer with my son's baseball team. None of us had ever been and we were going up to play in the College World Series tournament they had going on. So we packed up our van and Grandmama and Pappy's truck and headed out. Naturally I got window paint for both vechiles so that everyone from Texas to Nebraska knew where we were going and why we were going there. All I can say is that it's much easier to put that paint on then it is to take it off. But it was still fun for the kids to have it on the cars. And it was amazing to see how many people wished us luck going up.

Our intentions were to play games and be done by 4 every afternoon in order to go catch some of the college games that were being played at Rosenblatt Stadium. It never really worked out for our group though. Some of the other players on the team made it to some games but by the time we would get back to hotel the rest of us were just worn out. So we would spend lots of time in the hotel indoor pool. We would then go out in groups of all sizes and walk around downtown Omaha until we found a place to eat at. Whichever place could fit us first is where we ended up. Then we would head back to the hotel and hang out with everyone there in the lobby. In the picture below, I think all 8 of the players with us at dinner that night somehow crammed themselves into that old English telephone booth. Very funny to watch them coordinate that one.


It just so happened we were staying at the same hotel as the UCLA team. They eventually were one of the teams that made it to the finals with USC. It didn't take long for our Viper boys to discover what floor the UCLA team was staying on and that is where they would run off to. That team was so patient with our boys and really made it fun for them. We actually went to Rosenblatt stadium one afternoon after our game and got some pictures of the team there.



Then we went inside only to find out that UCLA was practicing at the time. So we sat down and watched them. Amazing to see how much they can get done in a short practice time. Our boys caught the eyes of some of the players practicing and before we knew it they were passing out NCAA College World Series baseballs to our boys and started autographing them. I don't know who had more fun, them or our boys. But it was just another cool thing for these players to do for our boys.

After the practice was over we went to a local spot which is legendary for it's burgers and ice cream.

All I can say is WOW, that was a huge hamburger and no one was able to finish them, not even the dads. Grandmama thought she would get an ice cream cone to go along with her malt she shared with Pappy. I don't know where she had the room to put it, but she ate it. All 10 inches of it!! And I am not kidding, I've never seen such a huge ice cream as that before. But it was she said and just like the Frosty restaurant in Alamogordo that our grandparents owned for years.


Our boys went up to play baseball and we weren't sure how they would do competing against all these other teams from around the country. They didn't do to bad at all and won enough games to put us in the middle bracket. We were soon out of the tournament and done. But we were so proud of how all those boys did playing their hearts out. So we packed up and headed back home and got ready for the AAYBA World Series Tournament held in Flower Mound a week later. No rest for the weary or so we thought, we ended up getting rained out of a lot of that so I am extra glad that they played so well in Omaha. It was a fun trip and we have some great memories.

Spring Break Fun

It's been Spring Break this week. So I decided to take a few days off from work to be home with the kids. They spent the first two days with Grandmama and Pappy so they were already a bit spoiled. But it worked out well since the three youngest had all been sick the last week and a half. So once we got them on the way back to being healthy we were able to start in on a little bit of fun.

Z. got invited to go camping with one of his baseball teammates so he was gone for the first part of the week. It was great for me, he got to sleep in a tent and camp and I got to sleep in a bed and not freeze. He had fun but he admitted it was a bit to cold still.

We went bowling later in the week and met up with some friends for that fun. Then Z. went off for another sleepover and a Stars game. K. went for a sleepover at Grandmama's house and Hoss had a friend over for a sleepover. So lots of shuffling around of kids later and everyone had a good time.







We went and celebrated a friends birthday party. The location was at a church which had converted it's old sanctuary into a playzone area for kids. With a bounce house,play scape, and dress up area and small climing wall. A. spent most the time playing dress up it seemed but she liked the play scape as well.


Hoss had a good time until Elmo tried to eat his head...





We finished out the week with a day of shopping and ice skating. Z. hadn't been ice skating since we lived in Finland. He didn't remember any of it so had to relearn it but had fun. Hoss took a while but finally got it and was enjoying himself (although his pants were wet from the ice) and K. took to it like crazy. She was going fast and enjoyed it but for some reason insisted on holding on to mine or Hubs hand most the time. A. did not care much for it. She would go around once and then want to sit down. She was ready to take off her skates much sooner than everyone else. But she was a troooper and waited patiently until we were all done.







We finished out the day by stopping for popcorn and going to the Skatepark and watched all those boys in there doing wild and crazy tricks on their skateboards, skates and scooters. All I can say is thank goodness none of my boys are into skateboarding. No way would I want them doing that.

Tommorow is technically the last day of Spring Break but we don't have anything planned for it. The temps have dropped and it's snowing again so I may just pack the kids up and take them to the movies tommorow. Then after that it's back to school and work until summer vacation.

The Last Drop

It is the last week of summer for us here. And I have finally convinced Hubs to take some time off from work. So this week we are trying to do some fun things with the kids close to home since we technically didn't go any where for vacation.

Yesterday we took the kids to Six Flags. It was not that crowded but very hot. Also, it was just me and Hubs and the kids. And for the record, I don't do roller coasters. They make me sick so I stay away from them. Hubs does some but they eventually make him sick as well. The boys rode a lot of the rides together and K. got in on a lot of the action. A. and I well we took it easy and got on all the rides with a mild rating. We stopped for lunch and went out to the car and had our picnic. No way was I going to spend that much money for food. Thirteen dollars for a refillable all day drink was more than enough of their prices. But it was still a lot of fun. And we did get a few pictures in here and there. Mainly of the characters. For whatever reason, A. wanted a picture of every character she saw so we have more than enough of those.


We stayed until almost closing time which for us was a major feat. And crashed into bed with dreams of motion sickness affecting any one who rode a roller coaster.

Today we did it a lot more tame than that. We had heard of a Pizza Place with go carts, bowling, mini golf and bumper cars. So we piled the kids in and got in on the Tuesday special of drinks and buffets along with cards loaded up for the fun to be found. So we ate and played. Then the kids wanted to eat again and play so they did. Then I had enough of the fun and said it was time to go so we went to redeem the dreaded tickets. (We had 52 between all 4 kids) The guy behind the counter realized real quick that my four would not be very happy so gave us an extra 2000 tickets just to keep peace in the family. (Thank you to that boy's mama for raising such an observant son who is generous with those darn tickets). So all the kids got to pick out something and they were happy.

So here it is the last week of summer and I'm trying to squeeze out every last drop of fun I can out of it. Summer is almost over and I'm so glad and sad at the same time.

S-P-A-N-K-E-D

We spent this past weekend in the lovely town of Ardmore,OK. Where the sun shines brightly and winds, well they blow...and they blow big time. No really, it was so darn windy. Why were we there? An out of town baseball tournament for Z. We decided that since we had a game Friday night, two on Saturday and one on Sunday to make it a weekend with the whole family.

We and the other players families all rented cabins and planned on a long and busy weekend. We get there Friday night ready for our first game. We went into this tournament knowing our team stinks compared to a lot of the teams that would be there. But we also had the bad luck of the draw. Our first team to play against was in what is called a major classification. It's the best there is when it comes to little league and in fact just returned from Florida where they competed and placed 5th in the nation. We did not realize this until we got to the game. Just to share our pain with you we only played about 45 minutes of the 90 minutes allowed. They called the game when we reached the mercy rule of being ahead of a team at any time by 20. Not only that, we only batted the first 6 players in our lineup, yep, that's right, 3 up 3 down each inning. We were glad to provide them with some batting practice. It stunk! But the other team was amazing.

Saturday we were hopeful for a better game. Z. was having a good game with his pitching when his worst fear was realized. He threw a ball and it ended up hitting the batter in the head. The batter ran to first to take his base and said he was okay. But then the first base coach noticed all the blood dripping down from his helmet. So they stopped the game to check him out. Turns out he was bleeding from his ear and at first they thought if was from inside the inner ear. Instead it turns out he had a defective helmet which cut int the cartilage of his ear. He was deemed okay by everyone and continued to finish his turn around the bases. ( I saw him the next day where he proudly showed me his war wound) We played better but still lost.

Second game was pretty similar but without the blood. So we finished up early and went back to the cabins to enjoy our down time. We had a cookout with everyone where pretty much everything had to be bolted down or it would blow away. Lots of playing around with lots of 10 year old boys and siblings was going on. And us parents, well we were busy supervising...well okay I admit it not much supervising going on. But we did get lots of talking done, and a little bit of cow tipping. Just kidding! No talking involved, it would have alerted the cows we were there. Then we all went back to sleep in our cabins with some of the biggest spiders ever seen.

Sunday's game was good, we had them and our boys were playing well. But a few bad calls by refs and some good hits by the other team and well we were packing it up and heading home.

All in all, we were S-P-A-N-K-E-D this weekend in baseball. But the boys enjoyed themselves and the parents enjoyed themselves. And now I'm home and trying to wash out half the state of OK. out of my laundry. There is sand everywhere but at least I'm not out in it anymore.

It's Hot

It's hot here in Dallas. What do you expect in July? Which makes me really miss our way to short trip to Ruidoso, NM and the mountains. Where it was much more cooler. So much cooler...sigh.



But maybe if I pray like the original Franciscan monks did at St. Joseph Mission, the weather will cool off a bit.



Or maybe I should take a lead from my kids and go wading around like they did in the small creek by our cabin. Then at least it would be cooler.



But if I can't do that, then maybe I will just stare at this picture of running water and imagine myself cooling down a bit. It's worth a shot isn't it? Or maybe staring at all this cool running water will have a different effect. Instead it may make me have to go to the bathroom...who knows. And that my friends is a small glimpse into my warped mind. I've turned a pretty picture of running water and somehow twisted it to bathroom talk. I'm sorry...really I am.

I miss the desert

Most of the time, I am very happy living in the Dallas area. Until July and August hit along with all the humidity. Then I really begin to miss living in the desert. I grew up in El Paso, where there was never any humidity. No matter how hot the summer days were, you were always guaranteed relief in the evenings when the sun would go down. You could sit out on patios with friends or family and whatever beverage you chose and enjoy yourself. I also really miss the Mexican food from El Paso. It just isn't the same here in the Dallas area. And although I have found many great Mexican food restaurants (usually small family owned ones) it still is not quite the same.

But besides that, I miss the beauty of the desert. For those of you who have never lived in the desert you may not realize how pretty it really can be. You just have to look a bit harder to find it. And if your lucky enough to be in the desert after a rain shower then you will find lots of different colorful blooms on all the different cactus. I got to enjoy a bit of the desert scenery on the drive to New Mexico on our vacation. And since we had our kids in the car, we also made lots of pit stops. It was on one of these pit stops that I just had to grab my camera and take a picture.


Isn't it beautiful. But in case your still not sure what it is I was so excited about, here is a closer look at it. And FYI, I didn't do any editing on this picture. This is all Mother Nature at work here.


Quite a beautiful cactus don't you think? Or maybe your just thinking that I was stuck to long in the car with four children and had to many pit stops along the way. Either way your going to be right. And either way, this cactus really did make me miss living in the desert just a bit more. But then again maybe I'm wrong, maybe you have to have lived in the desert to actually find beauty in this picture.