June Adventures

I cannot believe that all of these pictures are from the same month.  There has been so much and once again, I think it's too much for just one post, but here we are.  After the first tournament in Texas, Gracie had three more days of practices before the next tournament in Kansas City.  This is the 4th year of Team 1 tournament and camp.  This year, Gracie helped at the camp as a committed player.  She was very happy to be in that position, driving a golf cart around instead of performing to impress college coaches.

Fun in Texas

I think they went mini golfing after dinner in Texas

I think these are more pics from Texas.

It was a pretty good weekend for the girls. 6-1 over three days.

Back in KC

Gracie and Emma at the Team 1 Camp

Gracie and I stayed a couple nights at a teammate's house during the tournament.  It was cut a little short after elimination on the first day of bracket.  3-2 in pool play, but lost in the first round of bracket.  It was a little disappointing especially with the last play and how it ended.  

Keira and Gracie

Emma and Gracie

After we lost, we went to a different ballpark to watch some of Gracie's friends from Southern Boone.  They won their game and got to play again much later that evening.

Gracie with Brook

Silly girls

Abby, Gracie, and Brook

So, we went home and slept in our own beds.  Gracie had not been home for 2 weeks, but I'm sure would have preferred to be playing again on Sunday.

Shifting plans...instead of spending father's day at a softball field, we went to the lake.  It wasn't a great day, but we got a short boat ride before it rained.  It was nice having a day with my family.  

Ruby got to come along

Happy father's day!

Dad and me 

It ended up raining most of the afternoon, unfortunately, so we spent most of it at the dock and went back to their house.

We debated leaving Ruby there because we were scheduled to go to Iowa the next weekend, but I drove her down again later that week on Thursday since it was a holiday and I didn't have to work.  I took mom with me to Bath and Bodyworks and spent a couple hours with them before heading back home.

Gracie had a couple days of being at home before going back to KC for practices.  Their coach was not impressed with their performance over the weekend, so back to DeSoto, KS they went.  Luckily, Hannah was driving over and able to take Gracie with her and they both spent another night at Kali's.

Before another round of softball practices, Gracie made it to weights a couple days and played basketball with her high school team in Eugene.  I think they had fun.  She also went over to KC on a separate night to meet with Kirsten Dell to hit for a little while.  I think they had a great session and it was good for both of them.

On the road again... to Iowa.  Gracie got back from KC later than expected on Friday, so we didn't get to Annie's until after 8pm.  But I'm so glad that we got up there to see River play baseball on Saturday.  We spent the morning at their house and drove to Altoona a little early so we could go to the outlets for about an hour before his game started.  It was a pretty hot and windy day.    

Driving to Iowa

Someone looks pretty tired

At the baseball game.

We were a little windblown.

Next... We celebrated Tony and Morgan with a reception for their marriage, which happened about a year ago.  We saw a lot of family, and it was also very hot there.

Lucas and Owen...Owen might catch him in height eventually.

Gracie and Ryleigh with Charlie and Caroline.

Just Gracie and Ryleigh

The oldest cousins

Gracie and Ryleigh with Callie

Gracie and Charleigh

The whole big group

Just cousins with Grandma Deb

Girls

Gracie took lots of pics

Gracie having fun with Tony

Late that evening we made our way back home to Missouri.  Nick and Owen had one day before leaving for Nebraska Team camp for wrestling.  I don't even remember what we did that Sunday, but I'm sure there's a high probability that we did laundry and mowing.  Nick and Owen left fairly early Monday and checked in for a week.  It was great that I got to watch a couple of Owen's matches through streaming on Facebook throughout the week! They took a lot of kids from Southern Boone for the week, and unfortunately there were a couple injuries, both in Owen's class.  One of his teammates injured his shoulder and had to go back home.  The other had a possible concussion.  He stayed, but didn't wrestle the rest of the camp.  In this picture, Owen is wearing a knee brace, but only because of some road rash after falling off a scooter.  There is always something.

Owen and Grant at the camp

Owen is now weighing in at around 175-180.  He took it very seriously when he decided to not try to go to Fargo and compete at 157, and had a goal to get bigger this summer.  He is constantly hungry and eating everything.  I'm not sure if he has grown taller, or not, but definitely filling out.  All for a good cause, right?

A few of our kids made the all-star dual team

Next... Colorado

While Nick and Owen were in Lincoln, I worked a couple more days and Gracie got things done at home before our 12 days in Colorado.  We left to pick up Kali early Wednesday morning.  We made it to Loveland by 6pm or so that evening.  We took turns driving across Kansas.... let me tell you - it was great having two other drivers!

Checking in to our VRBO

We're here!

My girl and me.

Out for a walk in our hood on the first night

I just love it here.  I could get used to this.

I don't think the sunsets can get much better.

We started in Loveland at the Patriot games; 4 pool games between Thursday and Friday, then bracket on Saturday.  The girls all had a great tournament with no losses.  Gracie did great behind the plate, catching in five of the 7 games.  The fields were over 240' at centerfield, so she only had one homerun, but had couple deep doubles and a triple that hit the pole and bounced back in.  We did a lot in between, as well.  I took the girls up to Estes Park after the first day of games.  We learned a lot...

The girls learned to leave wild life alone.

Kali made a meme with ChatGPT.

Getting a little too close

The video is hilarious.

I don't think they will do this again.  I have not seen them run so fast...ever.

Better to watch from a distance

Kali loved the elk

Gracie and Kali with the elk in the background

Kali, Gracie, Addy, and Ella in Estes Park

One of the exhibits at Estes Park

After games on Thursday we spent the afternoon/evening in Estes Park walking through town and had dinner at one of the many restaurants.  We made it back to Loveland by sunset and the girls had practice the following morning before games later in the afternoon.  I was very thankful, again that they can both drive, so my chauffer skills were not needed in the morning.  I got to go on an excursion of my own by foot.  There are so many trails!!!

One of the trails

Friday  morning run

While we were carrying on with our softball day on Friday, Owen and Nick were finishing up wrestling in Nebraska.  Owen had a pretty good week, winning most of the matches he had.  I think he only ended up with two losses; one in the all-star dual and the other on Friday.  Southern Boone did pretty well as a team and finished undefeated.  I think they had a few other wrestlers from an Oklahoma team join them to make a complete team.  Grandma Deb picked them up after the last dual on Friday and they headed west in her RV.

Nick and Owen riding in style

Nick was able to watch the softball games and score on AGL.

They didn't make it in time for the games on Friday, but we were able to go pick them up from the campground after dinner to bring them to our VRBO.  We celebrated Nick's birthday a little early with some ice cream cake!

Happy Birthday, Nick!

Sharing his cake

Annie sent this to me.

The fields at the Patriot Games were amazing and the had their own production crew to stream the games.  All of the analytics were available, as well, which was really awesome to see; pitch velocity, spin rate, exit velo, distance, etc.  You can see our family in this picture!

We played Select again and I got another pic of Gracie and Ava.

So fun to watch them!

We had a really good run at the Patriot Games.  We didn't lose any games and tied one in pool play.  Gracie caught all three games in the bracket on Saturday.  It was hot and they were all tired, but we beat a really good Texas Glory team.

Gracie during one of the Patriot Pool Games.

Aces 18u up in Ft. Collins

Championship banner and new t-shirts

Girls are pretty happy after the championship win!

Gracie with the trophy

Players and coach

We went out to eat after this and celebrated Nick's birthday with a few other families.  Then we got packed up and ready to move on to the next destination.  I ran again the following morning before we left for Aurora to see Beth and her family.  We gained another girl, MJ, for the night, which was great! They had a good time going out to a country bar for "family" night and line dancing... We needed more space for all of the people and luggage, though, so it was a good thing we could use the RV!

Nick driving the girls to the next destination.

I got to ride with Owen.

Gracie, MJ, and Kali heading to the GrizzlyRose for some country fun.

They were all pretty excited to go out!

Beth's daughter, Maddie told them about it and said that they should go, and I'm glad they did.

At the Music Hall in northern Denver.  MJ, Kali, and Gracie

The girls drove separately from Maddie because they needed to be at practice fairly early the next morning and Maddie had no morning obligations.

Next up was rafting in Idaho Springs.

We headed up the mountain around 1:30 for our 2:45 appointment for the white waters.  It was a fun time, but very cold.  My feet felt like blocks of ice for about 30 minutes after we were done.

The girls ready to go rafting

White water rafting was so fun, but really cold, especially my feet.  Gracie did this last year when it was 90 degrees, but it was only 75 and cloudy on the day we went this year.  So thankful for the wet suits.  Owen had never been before, so I'm glad that we all got to go together.  We didn't get any pictures because no one took phones, but we all ended up really wet, but on one fell out of a boat.  It's a great day!

After rafting we went to down town Idaho Springs to shop and eat.  About 20 of us had Beaux Jo's Pizza, which was really good.  Then back to Aurora for the rest of the evening... more softball the next day for the Super Cup.  

Super Cup in Aurora

I guess this was technically July 1, but we did a one-date 8 man bracket with some of the top teams in the country.  We were 1-1, getting beat by a really good California team; OC Batbusters.  Oh, well.  They hit the ball really well.  

Ella and Gracie in-between games.

Kali is peaking behind them.

Gracie wants Ella to be a tiger. :)

Back at Beth's... Owen made friends with their Golden Retriever, Louie.

I think he misses Ruby.

This gets us through the first of July... One more tournament in Colorado.  We stayed at Beth's for a couple more nights, then moved again to Boulder for the last leg of the trip... Four more days of softball.  Stay tuned for the Colorado finale.