awwww...those Sum - um - er niiiiiiights (and days)

This was actually the first of the summer, but I think I forgot to post George's "lipsync battle" victory.  We were attending a 30th birthday party for a friend and he got nominated to do a lip sync.  He "sang" Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore and was a big hit (and even won 1st place...woot, woot)!

Another one of those times I should have checked Erik before he headed out the door - church pants, dino PJ top, and Cowboy vest.  This was at pack meeting.  Oh well, what do you do?  Austin saved his money to buy a cub scout hat that he was pretty proud of.  He fed a neighbors dog for a week.  Good job buddy!

Lucy took a lot of tennis lessons.  She's getting better and better.  

busting dino eggs

 I tried a new bread recipe.  It was pretty yummy and not much effort (but it does have to sit there for a day before you bake it).  It was especially good when it was fresh out of the oven.

One of our friends invited us for a picnic at their family campground.  Isn't this a fun place?!?  Her dad built the whole thing.  There is a ski lift on the other side that they use in the winter.  I was praying that the good ol van would make it up the hill and the kids cheered at the top.  We spent the day on kayaks and playing on the little beach there.  Lots of fun!

 We were excited to have Lacey and Mark come up and spend some time with us.  We hiked Green Pond while the boys were at Lego Camp and Lucy was at Girls Camp.  Juriah was out cold for the first of the hike and not so happy to be awakened, but everyone really did pretty well.

Elise was Chloe's special helper the whole way

 We headed for our annual movie at the Drive-In and saw Cars 3.  We barely survived a melt-down over who sat where, but other than that, it was a lovely summer evening.  I think cute little Clara slept through the whole thing and Geo may have snuck in a few winks too.

 Random drop in at the splash pad.  {That's why everyone is still in clothes.  ha!}

Austin "demonstrating how cone volcanoes work" to his brothers

 Clara's favorite activity - soaking her head!

 We were so very happy to have our good Hawaiian buddies, the Tuitele's come up for brunch and a visit.  How we love and miss them!  

We missed George who had to be the grown-up and go to work.

cute girls - Lucy and Sarai

And we got to celebrate Shannon's big 40th at the Gville City Park...yay Shannon!

Nights at the Ballpark

 Another great season of baseball and softball has come and gone...we spend half of May and all of June at the ballpark.  It's a short season, but we are there Mon-Thurs, with some practices on Sat.  By the end, the little kids are so done.  But the concession stands help.  They bring their money and think its the greatest thing in the world to buy treats.

kids got bored during the game so they started doing push-ups...ha!

Cole #8 played on the Yankees and did a great job!  Mo's dad was the coach and great with the kids.  And George filled in with assistant coaching here and there.  I think Cole is ready for machine pitch next year.  He's also very interested in the game.  He'd rather watch than play at the park during his siblings games and asked lots of good questions.

 These little rascals filled up Cole's hoodie with rocks while he played ball.  We got a good laugh when he tried to pick it up...hahaha!

Lucy did really well with softball and was happy her buddy Audrey was on the same team.  Lucy actually volunteered to play 1st base a few times, which I thought was big (she kinda hangs back a bit and is not real assertive).  Her team kinda struggled.  And didn't win very many games.  It was frustrating to play the other Morgan team at the first of the season and lose in a really close game and then lose terribly at the end of the season to the same team.  We had a few loses due to strange rules (like when we didn't get our last bats or our runs were capped on the last inning and the other team was allowed to score as many as they could, which meant we got beat), but a lot of games were reffed by high school players and it just wasn't consistent.  That part was frustrating.  Also, this was kid pitch so there were a lot of walks.  boo.  But Lucy got some great hits, improved in her confidence in fielding, and is getting to be a good little player.  We're hoping we can convince her to try for pitcher next year. :)  I attended most of her games (since Cole's were at the same time and George helped out there) and Clara was usually my little sidekick.  I really enjoyed road tripping with my friend Maria too.

 Elise and Austin played machine pitch on the Mariners.  Their coach was our neighbor down the street and lots of fun.  At the end of the first practice, he taught them a very important skill in baseball --- spitting sunflower seeds!  So they practiced that and thought it was hilarious.  Elise vowed to have seeds at practice and games.  Until she threw up at practice choking on seeds.  *sigh*  Elise is pretty hot and cold when it comes to sports.  HUGE difference when her head is in the game.   And although I think she has skills, she loves the social part the best.  Austin did much better in hitting.  He still likes to watch things happen rather than make them happen, but is getting better all the time.  I'm not sure if we'll ever make it an entire season with his baseball hat still in his possession. For some reason, I can't find a ton of pics of these two.

Anyway, the Mariners were the Bad News Bears.  For sure.  They lost every game. And usually by a lot. I took this picture (below) at the end of the season to show we were TIED at one point.  And it wasn't the first inning.  They did get better and better as the season went on.  There is a tournament at the end and George went to that game.  I had something going and was planning on coming late, but wasn't real hopeful.  He called me amazed that they were actually ahead.  And playing well!  Austin caught a fly ball and our fans cheered and cheered and cheered.  George said he was actually embarrassed at how excited everyone was...but it was so RARE for our team that it probably deserved some rah!  rah!  Anyway, we were ahead at the bottom of the 3rd.  There was 9 minutes left and they decided to play another inning.  The other team got a bunch of runs but the game was called before we got our last ups.  Dang it!  Our coach protested to the score box and they admitted they were in the wrong and our team needed to bat before the game was called, but by that time the other team was warming with their next opponent (game was immediately afterwards).  Too late to fix.  Anyway, coach called it a win and everyone agreed with him so we celebrated our one and only "WIN" at J's with most of the team showing up to celebrate too.

Three cheers for BASEBALL!

Dinos at the Treehouse

Lucy went to Girls Camp this year (more on that later) so naturally we tried to do all the things she's "too grown up" for.  Treehouse museum in Ogden was top choice so we went there a few hours after she left.  

Elise saving the day at the puppet show ;)

fav pic.
This little tea party was so fun!

 It was a Monday afternoon and not crowded at all.  LOVE.  And when we went to the partici-play, Austin was chosen to be the star of the show - Big Al.  He was thrilled about it!  It was about a dinosaur who wanted more friends so he did things (that didn't work) to be less scary.  The kids thought it was hilarious.  In fact, every kid in our family got a dino part.  That made the whole thing lots more exciting!

 Then they made their own dino-rama.  The dino's were made out of clay and our helper showed us a nifty way to make them.  Elise and Austin thought it was especially cool.

fake smile, but real joy :)

Awww... these littles just melt my heart!  It was so fun to hang out with them and play.