It's Time to Play Catch Up

I have been really bad about updating with what we have been up to, so here is a quick run down of what has been happening the past few months...

The flu hit our house...

Jill was the only one who was hit with the flu and she was down for an entire week. The poor kiddo was miserable. 

My nephew Avery came to town to play baseball. Aaron and I were able to catch a double header.

Aaron loved being at the field all day and meeting some of the other players, but obviously Avery is his favorite. 

Speaking of baseball, that started up too.

We also lost a couple of teeth...

We raced our pinewood derby cars...

We made our first diorama (YAY!)

We ran a 5k by the lake as a family...

Scott was called every name under the sun while umpiring and these signs were put up as a result...

I made cheesecake for the first time...

My honey and I also visited an amazing wine bar for a fun night out...

We went on some fun family adventures including a bowling day...

But most of all we are having fun...

Now that we are caught up, I will try to be better about posting. 

The House Divided

For Tay Tay's third day we went to the White Sox - Rays game. The house was divided between Rays and Sox fans, but it was still an awesome time. It was also father - daughter day at the park, so we sat in a section with a bunch of father-daughter pairs. 

Aaron was really in to the game and was pretty happy that we were in prime foul ball territory. I was pretty pleased that they had Reds Ale on tap. 

The Sox lost and Tay Tay and I kept trying to guess at which point our Dad changed the channel. Since it was a family day at the park the kiddos were able to run the bases (I seriously love this). 

And since it was father-daughter day Jillian received a special baseball and we all received hats (except Tay Tay, she politely declined). 

The game was a blast, but I think all of us were still a little tired from the day before. 

We still have another day with Tay Tay, so check back!

We've been busy...no really...

We've been busy and it's finally starting to slow down (God bless the end of the school year!).

Let's see... My sister sent me this awesome package for marathon training...

By the way, I'm training for a marathon. I may have forgotten to mention that at some point.

We completed another 5k as a family.

My office had a 5k for our foundations and we all ran the race, just not necessarily together. My friend Chelsie was there (she is now Aunt Chelsie to the kids) and she ran with Jill. Scott ran on his own and Aaron and I brought up the rear. Aaron took off like a bat out of hell at the beginning, so that last 1.5 mile was pretty rough.

We finished another season of baseball.

Aaron did so well this season and I cannot wait to see what happens in the fall.

We've done a whole lot more, but I'll be honest, it's all blurring together. I hope you are doing just as well as we are!

My Nephew the Fastest Baserunner in the World*

*I mean, maybe not the world, but the kid is crazy fast.

Sunday we spent the day at the ball field watching my nephew, Avery, play his first college baseball game. He's down here with his team for a tournament and we were able to spend the day cheering him on during his double header. Avery is a freshman, so we weren't sure how much he would get to play, but we wanted to cheer him on and Aaron was beyond thrilled to see him!

Seriously, look at that face!

It was a great teaching experience for Aaron, too. He was able to see "older kids" play ball and watch their form. It was also a great teaching experience for him as a catcher. 

Look how into the game he was! He also spent a good chunk of the game at the fence. Avery's team won the first game, which was their first game of the season.

Between games Avery came out and introduced the kids to some of the players. I think Aaron about died when he met the catcher from the first game.  Avery also told us a little bit about their program. This is only the second year for the team and it's a pretty young team.

Another funny thing to point out is that each time a player slid or dove for a base, Aaron would shake his head and say, "His Mom is going to be so mad. She'll have to clean that." I politely responded with, "They're in college. Mom's don't clean those."

The second game was pretty intense. They were behind until....they put Avery in to pinch run. Now, it should also be noted this is actually the first time I have EVER seen Avery play. When he was growing up I was already away at school and then here in Florida. I digress...so they were down by one and the coach put my wonderful nephew in to pinch run. 

Here he is leading off on first...

There's the pitch...swing...heading for the fence...drop...drop...it drops! He's gone! 

At some point I was on my feet screaming, not cheering, screaming. Aaron, Jill and Scott were also on their feet. The kids were jumping up and down on the bleachers. 

He rounded second, headed for third and then....

Holy sh!t! He was heading home!

Yes my friends, that is MY nephew scoring his FIRST run as a college player. And yes, my nephew tied the game. Proud Aunt y'all, proud Aunt!

The kiddos were so thrilled. They kept jumping up and down and then the woman in front of me smiled and said, "Oh that's sweet, they are excited about their brother."

Um, no, and now you have me questioning if I need to purchase wrinkle cream. 

Anyway....

Avery's team won the game in the end and we were thrilled. The kiddos ran over to the dugout to wait for their star player.

I don't think they even noticed any other player that walked by. After Avery grabbed all of his gear he came by to chat with the kiddos. Look at these faces!

I am so proud of Avery. He's such a great kid, well not really a kid anymore, and I am so happy I was able to see him play. I cannot wait to see what future seasons hold for him!

Friday Night Lights

Aaron had a baseball game on Friday night and it was quite possibly the most exciting baseball game I have ever been to. Not only was Aaron catching again, but the entire team was on fire. Kids that normally do not get hits or get thrown out at first, were making it on base.

At one point I was certain that the coach's head was going to explode. You could see how excited he was and his wife even said, "There's no living with him now."

Sometimes there truly is nothing better than a Friday night under the glow of the lights listening to a group of 6-year-olds play their hearts out.

What Haven't We Done?

It's been a busy few weeks and I finally have a minute to sit down and write about it, so grab your cup of coffee (or if you're reading this at night, your glass of wine) and hunker down.

Last week we joined Aaron's Cub Scout pack at Animal Kingdom Lodge for an outing. That is a definite perk to living so close to Disney. And can we talk about how handsome he looks in his Cub Scout uniform for a second? Ugh! Melts my heart!

Anyway, the outing was a whole family event and we were able to learn about the art in the lobby. Did you know, Animal Kingdom Lodge has one of the largest collections of African art outside of Africa? I didn't realize how much art work was in the lobby until we actually walked around to look at some of it.

After the art we went outside and met with Justice from Botswana. He taught the kids 10 words from his native language. I have to say, looking at the sheet of paper I was convinced they just threw letters on a page. The kids all did great guessing what each phrase meant and they were able to use some of the words when they played a game that was native to Botswana.

After the games we went down to the savanna and looked for some of the animals. Now, it was pretty dark by this point and they only had one or two pairs of night vision goggles. We will be going back to check this out.

That whole outing was pretty cool and it was great to meet some of the parents. I'm definitely looking forward to more of the outings and I know Aaron is just beyond excited for them.

Aaron has also been playing baseball...well, that is when it's not pouring down rain. His first game was supposed to be on Monday and was rained out. So was his practice. He was able to play on Friday and did amazing!

Aaron went to bat three times and singled all three times. Look at that face! That is one excited kiddo!

Unfortunately, I missed the game. Why did I miss the game? Well, Jill decided that after school she would play on the playground in just her socks. Can you guess where this story is going? Needless to say she slipped and landed right on her arm.

When we went to pick her up they told us she probably just bruised it, but I wasn't so sure. She had a bump and her fingernails had a purple tinge to them. So we dropped Aaron and Scott at the fields and headed to the ER. Ahhh ER's on a Friday night, nothing better than that.

We waited for an hour and half and she told me she felt fine and that it didn't hurt. I figured we were
fine and went to check us out, but the receptionist persuaded us to stay and put us on the fast track (which begs the question, why were we not on there in the first place?).  We went back within minutes and the nurse and I were convinced it was not broken.

X-rays were taken and we waited some more. When the physician assistant came in I was confident I was about to pay $200 for an X-ray and go on my merry little way. Not so much. She definitely has a fracture, a buckle fracture to be specific. Apparently these are fairly common with kids her age and she will heal up just fine.

They put her in a soft cast and a sling until we see an orthopedic doctor. At least we made it 6 years and 5 months before needed any kind of cast. She's out of commission as far as PE and other sporting activities for 3 weeks. Good thing we didn't sign her up for softball this fall!

After all of that excitement we were all set for another day at the ball field on Saturday, but the rain from the night before caused them to cancel, again. Hopefully I will be able to see him play at some point this fall.

That's all of the excitement over here (thankfully!).  Scott and I have some races coming up, so we are in full on training mode.

I hope all is well with you in your neck of the woods and if you're up north, stay warm!