Gracie's Past Month
So much has happened in the past month. I needed a different post for each kid. After the conclusion of the McNary reunion, Nick, Owen, and I head back south leaving Gracie for a week with the DuRochers. She had a great time helping out with their last round of campers at Spring Valley. She got to help with activities, man the canteen, serve food, clean, and go to worship with them. She got some quality cousin time, too What a great way to spend a week!
Gracie and Lucas hanging out with the dogs
She loves Atlas (Tony's dog)
Ryleigh and Gracie in the canteen.
Stephanie gave the girls a fun day of shopping at Coral Ridge Mall near Iowa City.
Their faces are great. I love this dress on Gracie, but I think it is a bit much for taste.
She looks pretty happy though.
So, this happened before we left.
Nick went to park the mower in the garage when the door was up and forgot there was a roll bar on the top of the mower. Oops. At least he was able to get it down to close up the garage. I'm just glad there was no damage to the Lexus that was in the garage at the time. I don't know if that little car can take much more. Since then, it has since been fixed. Still need a new opener, but at least the door will roll up and down again.
Gracie shooting
Free throws
Shooting again. This is a pretty good pic.
Three pointer. I have no idea if it went in.
Here is a follow up pic from the Blyth weekend.
My mom sent it to me.
Annie, Mom, and me.
When Gracie returned from Iowa with Deb, we sent Owen away to camp. The following day was fall sports parent meeting and then on Monday August 7, high school sports practices began. Nick ran the HS softball parent meeting and I attended the middle school parent meeting. The inaugural season of dad/daughter high school softball. It should be a fun season. Their coach scheduled 6am practices for the first 2 weeks. So early... The third week was interesting because of the weather. They were supposed to have a jamboree this past week, but it was canceled due to extreme heat. No one wanted to be outside during the day. Over 100 degrees and 110+ heat index every day. I know they wanted to play, but that would have been miserable for everyone. They also switched some of their practices to the dirt field to prepare for their first games, which would be on a dirt field. Ironically all of those would end up being canceled. More in a minute...
The day that Owen spent with Talleys on the lake, Gracie went floating with Kate and her family, and a few other friends/families. Nick and I were unable to go, but I'm glad it worked out that she could. It was a fun day with friends.
Fun group of kids
Gracie and Chase floating on the river.
Gracie, Kate, Sadie, and Adah
Sitting on the raft
I think this was on the way home with Kate.
After the long day on the river, they went to eat at Woody's. Gracie decided that she needed to come home earlier than the rest of them because of early morning practice, so I went and picked her up. It was a good day and everyone was tired. I had been helping Nick for a little bit after work, then went for a short run in the heat and we all called it a day.
Despite the heat there have been some beautiful skies in the past few weeks.
Lots of sunsets
And some really pretty sunrises...
I found some time to repaint the front door and trim.
It looks so much better
I probably had many other things that I could have been doing, but I think painting is my coping skill for stress. I did this the weekend before the first week of Mizzou classes. I also painted the trim in the pantry... finally. Lots on my mind and this is such an easy thing to do that requires very different thinking.
Softball season starts
School sports pics
Gracie's sophomore season
These two are going to be fun to watch this year.
Gracie with her teammate Lainie.
Open scrimmage
Haley pitching, Gracie catching
Gracie at bat.
It was a pretty uneventful scrimmage; not many hits at all.
After, we all had lunch together and took about an hour to clean up the field and sports complex. It was pretty rough after some really heavy rain a couple weeks prior. A lot of gravel and dirt had flooded onto the field and in the stands area. It was a fun day and a lot of people contributed. After three weeks of practices, they are ready to play!
First year high school softball head coach.
It's going to be fun.
The past week was a little rough, with the weather, changes in practices and cancellations. Like I mentioned, it has been sooooo hot! I didn't even want to go outside to do anything, and I usually love the heat. Their jamboree on Tuesday was canceled, and then practices adjusted to adapt to the weather and fields. It finally cooled off a little bit Saturday, when they were supposed to play in their first tournament of the season, but not before storms went through and made play on dirt fields pretty impossible. Disappointing, yes, but they'll just have their first game at home on Tuesday instead. Nick arranged a scrimmage with some Southern Boone Alum for tonight to give the girls some more practice.
After a long day and much debate about the rodeo, Nick and I decided to drop the kids off and spend the evening at home by ourselves. Nick has not felt good all week and I think I worked well over 60 hours in the past 7 days. I just wanted to stay home. Nova stayed with us and Nick was nice enough to go pick them all up from in town a little before 10pm. Everyone was happy.
Gracie and Nova at the rodeo.
On the way into town.
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