Nashville Sounds

Last night Brian's company had their annual summer picnic at a Sounds game.  Before the game started, there was a buffet dinner that we all got to enjoy.  While getting food, an employee found the boys and gave them all baseballs (we didn't ask but they must have been either used for batting practice before the game or were used the night before at that game).

After eating, we got out of the sun and found some seats in the shade.  While there, Booster snuck up on Carter.

Rylan really wanted to try to catch a foul ball (we were behind the safety net in our shaded seats) so he and Brian sat out in left field.  Rylan didn't get a foul ball but the left fielder for the other team threw him a ball he was using to warm up.  The other boys wanted to join him when they found that out!

Unfortunately the rain came in before the boys got a chance to get another ball.  We found some great seats behind home plate and watched as the game continued in the rain.

Eventually they covered the field and there was a 30-minute or so rain delay.

The game eventually got restarted.  Rylan caught a t-shirt during the seventh-inning stretch!  It's an adult XL but he still was super excited!

At some point we noticed Booster in the concourse above us signing autographs.  So the boys had him sign their balls.

Booster has a pretty cool autograph!

After the game there were fireworks.  As always, the show was pretty impressive!

All-Star Game

Carter made the 9/10 year old All-Star team this past spring season.  Because his team finished second in the division, they were able to choose three All-Stars.  Rylan was very disappointed because Brian did not choose him to all be an All-Star, but Rylan is playing an age group up and is the second youngest player in the league.  While he was on the short list to be picked, there were other worthy players that also deserved the honor.

Carter had an awesome All-Star game.  Jeff got to coach since his team finished second during the regular season.  Carter was still nursing the wrist he injured during field day at school so Jeff decided to not let him play catcher or pitcher (the only two positions he’d played all season).  But he did great at second base, third base, and center field.  He fielded a hard, choppy hit at second to make an out at first, tagged a runner that slightly stepped off the bag late on third, and caught an awesome over the shoulder fly ball in center.  He also had a perfect sacrifice hit to first to hit in the winning run.

We are so proud that he had such a good game and had fun!!!

The All-Star's from Carter's team - Gavin, Carter, & Braden

The All-Stars from Rylan's team - Bode & Riggins

The All-Stars that played on Jeff's team

Golfing

We have been playing a ton of golf this summer at Lightning Bug (the free par 3 course we discovered last year).  Carter and Rylan are improving and would probably benefit from a lesson or two now that they have some basics down.  However, I don't want to mess with anyone's baseball swing so we are just going to keep playing for fun and not worry about doing things exactly right.

Gray started really playing this summer.  He has a wedge and putter and has gotten as low as 4 strokes on a hole.  Though he's usually more like 10-12 strokes.

I tried to get a couple of videos of him the last time we played.  These aren't the best and he's had better hits but they give you an idea of how he's doing.

A new sport we recently picked up is disc golf.  We've only been twice so far but the boys really like it.  There is a course at Crockett Park that we've been doing.  It's been fun and even Gray does it!  I'm pretty horrible and the big boys like beating me! :)

We even have our own basket now thanks to Papa Mike!  The boys have been playing in the yard most evenings.

Summer Baseball

This summer all 3 boys played baseball with Brentwood Ball Club.  This was Gray's first official team!!!  Carter and Rylan played together on a 9/10 year old team and Gray played on a 4/5 year old team.  Brian coached both teams.

Bode and Levi played with the big boys and Hadlee played with Gray.  I love this picture of our two families :)

I think Brian and I were a little unsure of coaching little kids again after getting used to coaching big kids.  But I think we both enjoyed the little ones more than the big ones!

The little kids played 2 innings each game.  There are no outs and the whole team bats each inning.  The kids get 5 pitches and then get to hit off of the tee.  Gray got a few hits this season!

Gray did a good job paying attention.  We had a good team as there were no behavior issues ever and at least half the kids were usually paying attention (baseball is slow for 4 and 5 year olds).

Carter and Rylan were our assistant coaches (as well as Bode and Levi on occasion). 

The big kids would take the outfielders deep into the outfield and play catch with them when we were on defense (very few hits get out of the infield).  They also warmed the kids up before the game, were base coaches, and helped with anything else we asked.  They made the experience awesome for the little kids that looked up to them.  The two times Carter and Rylan couldn't come, the little ones were so disappointed.  A few parents told us about the kids having dreams about Carter and Rylan.

We were missing a few players at the last game, but we attempted to get a team photo!

Carter and Rylan's team included some of the kids from Rylan's spring team and then some of our other friends (like Mac and Reed).  I took absolutely no pictures of those games as I was doing GameChanger on my phone.  But the boys had fun and did well after a rough first couple of games. 

NSC 2019 - Games 6, 7, 8, 9, & 10

We've had several Nashville Soccer Clubs to go to the last couple of months.

NSC played the Swope Park Rangers on Saturday, May 11th.  The big boys did stripes across their faces and Gray did whiskers :)

The next day was Mother's Day so we got flowers (which Gray totally destroyed, of course).

NSC won 5-1!!!

On Saturday, May 18th, NSC played the Charlotte Independence.  It was a beautiful night to watch soccer!

The boys played a little cornhole on our way to our seats.

Cutie with some crazy hair!

The game ended in a 1-1 tie.

On Saturday, June 22nd, NSC played Ottawa Fury F.C.  The boys painted their faces again.

And they all caught their second mini-soccer balls with the new MLS logo!

That game also ended in a tie but the score was 3-3 so there was a lot of exciting moments!

NSC played New York Red Bulls II on Wednesday, June 26th.  Unfortunately it was one of those summer nights with summer storms.  The game was supposed to start at 7pm.  But at 8:45pm when the game hadn't started and there was still a lot of lightning in the area (though it still hadn't rained at the field), we decided to go home.

Though we were entertained as we got to watch the Vandy baseball team take on Michigan in game 3 of the College World Series on the big screen.  And when they seemed to have secured the win, the stadium switched over to the US vs Panama game in the Gold Cup tournament.

NSC had these cool temporary tattoos for Pride Month with their new logo.  Rylan was game enough to put it on his face.

The game finally got underway after we got the boys to bed.  Brian and I got to watch the first half on TV.  NSC was up 2-1 at halftime when the storms started up at the stadium.  After another hour or so, the game was called off.  The teams will play each other in a couple of weeks but have to start the game over from the beginning.

NSC played against Indy Eleven at Nissan stadium this past Saturday (July 27th).  We have already purchased our season tickets for next season when NSC will be an MLS team and be playing at Nissan Stadium until their stadium is built.  Since we are also current season ticket holders, our seats were the same as they will be next year.  And they are pretty good!  We are on the front row on the goal side of the visitor's bench (we had planned on getting the goal side of the home bench but there were issues the morning the tickets went on sale and it took almost 30 minutes before it was figured out).

We got on the jumbotron before the game started.

Rylan had me paint his entire face before the game.  But once we were in our seats, he was not happy about it.  So before the game actually started, we spent 10 minutes trying to get it off.

Our view ...

We loved being on the sideline again.  The boys pay much more attention to the game.  Plus it's fun to hear the players talking during the game and we get to see their footwork up close.

NSC won 2-0!  It was a fun game to watch!

Championship Swim Meet

The boys finished up swim season at the end of June with the county-wide championship meet.  Both Carter and Rylan set some new PRs which is awesome!  Carter swam Friday afternoon (June 28th, Rylan's birthday) and Rylan swam on Saturday afternoon (June 29th).

Rylan's events and times:

Boys 7-8 Years Old - 100 Yard Freestyle Relay AAAAA - 1:16.96 (2nd) - Best time by 4.89 seconds

Boys 8 & Under- 25 Yard Butterfly - 29.82 (18th) - Best time by 5.46 seconds (Rylan got a heat ribbon in this event!)

Boys 7-8 Years Old - 25 Yard Backstroke - 24.76 (23rd) - Best time by 1.92 seconds (Rylan didn't swim this event all season so this is improvement from last year) 

Boys 8 & Under - 25 Yard Breaststroke - 31.93 seconds (31st) - Best time by 1.69 seconds

Boys 7-8 Years Old - 25 Yard Freestyle - 20.32 seconds (15th)

Boys 7-8 Years Old - 100 Yard Medley Relay AAAAA - 1:34.24 (2nd) - Best time by 7.58 seconds

Carter's events and times:

Boys 9-10 Years Old - 100 Yard Freestyle Relay AAAAA - 1:06.83 (3rd) - Best time by 6.26 seconds

Boys 9-10 Years Old - 25 Yard Butterfly - 26.03 (37th) - Best time by 10.41 seconds (Carter didn't swim this event all season so this is improvement from last year) 

Boys 9-10 Years Old - 25 Yard Backstroke - 23.90 (44th) - Best time by 0.55 seconds

Boys 9-10 Years Old - 25 Yard Breaststroke - 28.04 (36th)

Boys 9-10 Years Old - 25 Yard Freestyle - 19.04 (43rd)

Boys 9-10 Years Old - 100 Yard Medley Relay AAAAA - 1:40.17 (8th)

Utah Trip 2019 - Day 3

This is what we woke up to on Monday (May 27th).  There was probably 2" of snow on the ground.

We spent a little time in the tent playing games getting ready to brave the cold morning.

The snow continued through the morning and into the afternoon.  We got about 4" at our campsite and about 7" at the higher elevations of Bryce Canyon.

Once we got brave enough to leave the tent (which wasn't warm if you got our of your sleeping bag), we cleaned off the tent and then had breakfast in the warm car.

We drove over to Sunrise Point to check out the hoodoos in the snow and take a few pictures.

With the snow getting heavy again, it was hard to get good pictures!  Plus my lens kept fogging up!

We knew before leaving for our trip that there was a chance of snow.  But we were already flying with a lot of gear and didn't want to pack another whole bag of snow gear (it was hard enough carrying all our other duffels and the kid carrier through the airport!).  So we had to make due with lots and lots of layers and raincoats as the outer layer to stay dry.

Since we didn't have awesome hiking attire, we decided to drive through the park and stop at some view points.

Natural Bridge overlook was pretty awesome (when the snow slowed down enough to see it!).  It's really hard to tell in these pictures but it's massive (85 ft tall).

We made it to the end of the road through the park and Rylan and I checked our Rainbow Point.  The roads were getting rough so we only stopped for a couple of minutes.

It was pretty much impossible to see anything!

On our way back down through the park, Gray had had enough!

And the snow just kept coming!

You may have noticed I was taking pictures from the back seat.  By this point in the trip I was sitting in the back between Gray and Rylan while Carter sat in the front seat.  There was no more fighting and driving was so much more pleasant!

We stopped by our campsite and cleaned off the tent again (snow is heavy!).  Then we ate lunch in the car again - we shared hummus, pretzel chips, and fruit.

Then we went to the visitors center to finish the boys Junior Ranger booklets.  We went through the exhibits and watched a film about the park.

The snow was finally slowing down so we decided to do a hike.  We parked at the General Store near Sunrise Point and hiked the Rim Trail north.  While at the visitors center we learned about a program called "I Hiked the Hoodoos" challenge.  To complete it, you have to hike at least 3 miles on specific trails and take pictures at 3 benchmarks.  So our goal was to reach one of those benchmarks.  Goals are always good to keep the boys going!

The hike was very muddy (and cold) but beautiful!

We made it to a benchmark!

It was about 1.25 miles to the benchmark so we did a total of our 2.5 miles.  We had planned on doing a lot more that day but we so glad we still got to do something!

We decided with the weather that it would be a good day to eat dinner out.  We drove over to Tropic (only about 10 minutes from the entrance of the park) and had dinner at Pizza Place.  The pizza was so good and we had way more than we could eat.  Brian and I got the chicken bacon ranch and the boys got a cheese pizza.  We were so stuffed that we decided to do a short hike before heading back to camp. 

Closes to Tropic is a hike that is part of Bryce Canyon NP (but not behind the entrance gate).  Mossy Cave Trail is off of Highway 12 and is a short hike to a cave and waterfall.  We probably did about 1.5 miles round trip.

This hike was at a lower elevation so it was a little warmer and there was no snow.

The hike followed this water to the waterfall.

There were a few cool arches along the way.

We were also able to get another benchmark for the "I Hiked the Hoodoos" challenge!

The waterfall ...

The arches from the other side of them ...

The view from the top of the waterfall back toward the trailhead.

And upstream of the waterfall ...

The cave (we weren't overly impressed).  This is a natural spring and the icicles are supposedly impressive in the winter.

This was a great easy hike to end our day!

We headed back to camp for one more cold night.  Luckily we figured out how to stay a little warmer each night!