Are We Coming or Going?

We have done a lot of traveling during the past couple weeks.  We have made two trips to Iowa and fit in a softball tournament in Palmyra, MO, which is near Hannibal.  I'm posting pictures for now and will update with narration soon.  I'll also try to put them in chronological order.

This picture seems very fitting to describe the past couple weeks.  Sometimes I feel like we are living out of our car.  This happened to be on our way to Iowa on June 13, I think, and this is how the kids fell asleep.  We drove up to see my Grandma right after she was admitted to Kavanaugh House in Des Moines.  It was so good to see her.  We only stayed one night and drove back the next day.

Softball Tournament in Palmyra, MO

We went to Palmyra, MO for Gracie's last tournament with the Galaxy team this year.  She has had so much fun playing with these girls.  Both days the games were delayed due to overnight rain.  The girls went 5-0 on the weekend and earned the title of champions for this tournament.  The championship game was such a good game and came down to the last 1/2 inning.  We were down 8-4 in the bottom of the 5th and our girls came back to win!  It was so good to see them win this and it means so much more when they hadn't done well in tournament play until now.  I didn't get all that many pictures because I usually take stats for the game.  But here are a few.  

Gracie at bat.

Gracie taking fly balls in the outfield.  This was how we all spent Father's Day.

Warming up pitching.  Gracie didn't get to pitch, but wanted to be ready if they happened to need her. During this tournament she mostly played catcher, shortstop, and third base.  This is what she has done most of the year for her Galaxy team.  She usually gets to pitch for her Lightning Little League team.  The girls had a great day of ball.  

We spent the night at a hotel in Hannibal, MO.  The girls had a lot of fun!

More pool time!

1st Place Medal!

Gracie, Dad, and Owen after the win.

Gracie's Galaxy team

I'm so happy for these girls!

Owen and Mom.  We spend a lot of time together watching softball.  He plays with his friends a lot, too.  When he sits with me, he tries to learn how to keep stats.

Gracie finally cut her hair!  She donated 9 inches, but probably had about 10 inches total cut off.  She was so happy afterward.  She believes that less hair will keep her cooler when she is catching.

Look at all that hair!

The stylist had to divide her hair into 6 smaller sections to cut it all off.

Who is that?!

Another trip to Iowa!

I took the kids up to Iowa to visit my Grandma again over the weekend.  We left Friday morning and came back Sunday.  We visited with Grandma each day that we were there.  She even gave us permission to use her pool!

Gracie is telling Grandma about her softball games.

Enjoying the nice weather outside.  It was very pleasant; highs in the 70's.

Enjoying the pool.  Luckily it's heated.  Otherwise, I think i might have been a little chilly.

The kids swam for about an hour.  After that we went out to eat and made our way to the mall to shop for a little while.  It was a good evening.

The next day I went running with my friend Traci and then we headed up to Ogden to watch the Fun Days Parade.  The kids chose to go watch a baseball game instead of going to the carnival.  I know I shouldn't be surprised, but wow.

Owen found the track.  I think he might be our little runner.  He ran around it 6 times, stopping in between each lap, but never walking while he ran around it.  Each of his 400 meter laps were under 2 minutes.  I can't believe he can do that at 6 years old.  He said that his calves hurt the next day.

Watching all the tractors at the parade.  I should have counted them.  There were a lot.

There's uncle Jeremy!

Another visit with Grandma.

On Saturday afternoon, we spent a few more hours visiting with Grandma.  She had a lot of company; Jay, Mary, Ali and her family, and Nick.  This is Clara with Grandma.

Home again!

After a brief stop at the Kavanaugh House on Sunday morning, we headed back south to Columbia.  I took Grandma some flowers from her hydrangea bush and chatted with her a little.  We got right to work when we returned home.  Here are some updates on the progress of our house.  I was a little frustrated when we got there, as it seems the crew is moving about as fast as a snail.  They have also messed up some more framing, which will have to be fixed.  We made more progress on the porch while we were there, but not as much as Nick would have liked, I'm sure.

The approach to the garage has been poured.

The front windows have been installed.  However, the back windows are still not in place.  I thought all of the windows would have been in by now.  The shower and bathtub are on site, but have not been installed yet and the plumbing is still not done.

About half of the front porch decking has been attached.  It turns out that the framers did not attach all of the joist hangers to the front porch, so Nick had to nail all of those in before putting the deck boards on.  The kids and I went out to help, but I felt like more of a hindrance.  I'm glad Nick has a good sense of humor about my lack of construction/building abilities.  I think the kids were also testing his patience yesterday.

Owen was practicing his hammering skills.  He told me that this is a spaceship.

And here's Gracie.  She built me a "table."

Notice the windows.  They're not where they're supposed to be.  They were sitting there a week ago.

View from the driveway

View from the back.  As you can see, none of the windows have been installed.  They are just sitting inside the house.  The roofers were also supposed to start last week, Hmmm...I don't see any shingles yet.  I hope we see more progress this week.  At this rate, August 15 does not seem very realistic.