Exhale

I have a another whole post with pictures in it that I never narrated, but since this is fresh in my mind I'll start with this and get back to the stuff that has happened in between.  The past couple weeks have been crazy busy with so many things.  Yes, these pictures are just from the last two weeks.  We have had a LOT of baseball and softball games, camps, and a dance recital.  We also threw in a little patio project just for fun.  This post doesn't even include our trip to Oklahoma for softball...

 Owen has continued to have baseball games every Tues/Thurs in Columbia.  We are in his last week of playing.  He does a lot of catching, pitching and first base.  He will still tell you that he wants to play outfield, but there just aren't a lot of balls hit out there yet.  He has a lot of fun with his team and seems to like playing.

Cute catcher is what I like to call #12

State ASA in Jeff City

  This year we decided to do a dance recital and softball tournament during the same weekend, and although it didn't go quite as planned it worked out.  We also added a football camp for Owen the same weekend.  Yes, this is self-inflicted, but so worth it! 

Gracie catching

After looking at this a little more closely, this is definitely not Jeff City... I can't even remember where this was...

Batting

Not sure how to caption this one except "Ouch.  Look at her sunburned arms."

The next pics are Jeff City ASA State.  We had originally entered the tournament as a 14A team, but there were only 2 other teams in that division, so we moved up to 16C and ended up winning that bracket, but took the long road to get there.  We were planning on winning all games, but lost Saturday morning...the only game that Gracie's recital conflicted and she was about 15 minutes late to the game.

Here is Friday night under the lights.

Coach Nick with his awesome bucket hat, brim flipped up.

Gracie after the game.

She hit another homerun this game. :)

Catching and letting everyone know there are 2 outs.

This was a pretty late game that was scheduled to start at 8:30, but it might have been later.

Then, the next morning... Dance rehearsal in Columbia immediately followed by game in Jeff City.

Run through of the routine

I'm just going to include all dance things here.  After the next game (they lost) dance recital was at 2pm, followed by another game at 3:30.  Lots of driving that day.  If they had won the morning game, they wouldn't have had to play again until  8, I think.  Oh, well.  3 more games and 3 more wins.

Gracie's jazz

This is the only class she took this year due to time constraints with all things junior high track/softball.

I had forgotten that she is also good at this, too.

I can't believe she can do this.

More poses on stage

She's very animated and a true entertainer.

Sadie came to watch her and I think she enjoyed it!

post-recital pic with the Grandma's before heading back for another softball game.

I was hoping she would stay in her costume, but wasn't that lucky.

Back at it on the dirt.

Her team won 3 more games on Saturday to continue playing in the semi-finals Sunday morning.

Foul ball...head back

Sliding into third - she was safe.

Talking something over with Dad/Coach

Winning the tournament is fun!

So is ice cream afterwards!

Brandon, their other coach, promised them all ice cream if they came back and won the tournament.

Dad/Daughter pic.

I have a lot of these.

And this is why I didn't get to stay for the last game of the tournament... Luckily Deb was with us so she took the pics for me.

Owen participated in the Tyreek Hill football camp in Columbia that afternoon.  He was pretty excited to see Tyreek and give him a high-five.  I didn't get very close, but here are some not so great pics of some of the drills that they went through.

Southern Boone boys that went to camp.

Running cones

More running.  I think he was pretty tired by the end of the afternoon.

Then there were more camps...Gracie had her Mizzou camp for softball and Owen went to baseball camp for Southern Boone.

Gracie talking with the Mizzou coaches after camp workouts.

And more baseball games.

Owen pitching

More pitching... He has done a pretty good job this year and has even picked a few runners off of first base.  

Gracie and Grandma Deb watching baseball

Ahhh... I do like sunsets, as well as sunrises

We made time to get a patio done, also.  No more mud hole down below.

We had to dig up and replant all of the hostas that were down there.  When I say we, I mean Deb.

She did a lot of work while she stayed with us.

Looks much better!

Nick decided to extend it even more and plans to put pavers out there eventaully.

He volunteered Owen to help.

It was pretty hot, but they got it all leveled out.

Another tournament...this time at the lake!

Grandpa Tom bought a yellow 'vette!

And Owen was pretty excited to go for a ride in it!

Owen is smiling!

Last softball tournament with the Galaxy team.

Nick has decided that this is his last year coaching a Galaxy organization team.  He has not completely given up the idea of coaching, but it will be different after this year.  Not exactly sure what that means yet, but I believe that part of it is the fact that Gracie needs more than a DAD coach at this point in order to get to the level she has goals for.  It was such a fun weekend and these families have been unbelievably great!  I love all of the girls and the team has really worked well together.  This was our 5th season as a Galaxy family and a few of the girls were there during Gracie's first season in 10u.  Crazy!!!

Gracie stealing second

Catching

Playing a little shortstop

Fun at the lake

We had a game on Friday afternoon and then the first two games on Saturday morning, so that left a bit of time to have fun with the team on Saturday afternoon.

Lunch with the team

The Grandparents were invited, too!

Then some pool time!

Owen had some time with his Dad, too!

More fun in the pool

This did not last very long.

Championship Sunday!

The team was 2-1 in pool play and won their first two games on Sunday to get to the championship, which was awesome!

They all had the goal of willing the last game/tournament together, but sometimes that just doesn't happen.  It was a tough loss, but that doesn't change the fact that these girls are still awesome.

They have a lot to be proud of.

Father's day pic with all the dads in attendance

Gracie's last at-bat resulted in a triple.

She had a pretty good last day; two triples, two singles, a double and hit by a pitch.

Getting a hug from her dad after her triple.

Raw emotions here.

She is always so sad after the last game of the season, win or lose.

I know how much she loves this game, wants to be great, and wants to win.  It's so hard watching your kid come up short and not reach their goal.  That's life, though.  The next step is learning from mistakes, setting another goal, and working your ass off to accomplish it.

The best is yet to come for all of us.

Just breathe and trust the process.

Let us RUN with perseverance, that race that is marked for us.

Hebrews 12:1

There is a plan.