Sunday's Game

Sunday was Host Family Appreciation night. It was fun to see our host family on the field. Jeff has the orange and white stripes shirt (he's waving) and his wife Cindy is to the left). We are so grateful to them, for many reasons.


It was also Kids Sunday Starting Line Up. I signed Isaac up to be a first baseman with his favorite player, Ryan Krill. Isaac had his name called along with Ryan's at the starting line up and got to run to first base with him.

When they got to the base, Ryan took a knee and had a conversation with Isaac. My heart melted. He idolizes Ryan and I am so happy that Ryan is good to Isaac.








Back to bat boy duties.


Piper has fun jumping in the bouncy house.


Isaac practiced his sliding after the game.


With the game getting over at a decent time, we were able to talk with Cindy and Jeff when we got back to their house.


Piper was pretending to be selling "ice cold beer" with our cooler!


It was a really short trip, but a good one.

Surprise Visitors & Heading Out

Piper and I were planning on leaving for Milwaukee mid-morning, after I got a run in on the treadmill. I had talked with my sister earlier in the morning; she and her family were at her husband's cabin about an hour south of Duluth and was disappointed the weather was crummy. After my run, I was on my way upstairs to take a shower when the doorbell rang. Piper said "Jason!", but I thought she was teasing...she wasn't! The Menards came for a surprise visit!


He is so yummy, I could just eat him up!


She loves her Auntie Lindsey and Uncle Paul!


Such an awesome family!


They stayed for about an hour, and then Piper and I hit the road. She is a great travel companion.


We cuddled at the ball game while Isaac kept up his bat boy duties.








Eddy arguing with the ump.

Last Day at Home

Eddy was home on Wednesday, so came to watch Isaac run at Wednesday Night At The Races. I love that he was looking for us!


And Eddy and the kids practiced their soccer skills.


Eddy had to leave by noon on Thursday to meet the team in Green Bay. He surprised Isaac by letting Isaac come with him! He got to be the bat boy at a couple more games and have some good daddy time! Watching Eddy (and Isaac) leave was hard, but knowing Piper and I would meet them in Milwaukee in a couple of days made it easier. We had a great time having him home.

Pictures

On Tuesday we booked a session with our neighbor who does freelance photography. I had talked with her earlier in the summer about taking some family pictures. But now with us (eventually) leaving Duluth, it meant even more to me to have some pictures taken at a couple of our favorite places.
We met her at St. Scholastica. This place has so much meaning to Eddy and I. Of all the special memories it holds, the most significant is this is where we met; where our story began.
On our wedding day, the photographer got ONE (and ONLY one!) photo of Eddy picking me up in front of Scholastica. I thought it'd be fun to recreate that scene ten (!!) years later, with our kids. I think it turned out great!








Piper at age 4.




Isaac at (almost) age 7.








My sweetie pie.




A Duluth landmark, the lift bridge.




Our kids.




We are really pleased with how the pictures turned out, and one of them will likely be out Christmas card picture, so forget you saw them!

Daddy's home!!

Eddy was planning on coming home for the three days over all star break, but my 99 year old grandfather died and I was feeling really overwhelmed with everything going on in our lives, so he was able to come home two days early. I'm so grateful.

We headed over to Papa and Grandma Judi's pool...


...and then went to Dairy Queen (yes, this is what she wore!).


Beyond excited to have him home!


He was able to see Isaac's last baseball game. Isaac wanted to show Daddy how he can be the catcher.


Playing first base.


Having fun with Daddy.





At bat.

Fun at Home

Over the past few days, we've had fun being at home.
The kids are AWESOME helpers at the grocery store. They LOVE scanning the food in the "fast lane" (which is anything but fast) and bagging the items (with a FEW to many bags)!




Matching girls at the boys' baseball game.




Isaac has taken a liking to being the catcher.




A base runner!




A robin is making a nest next to our kitchen window!

Chinooks July 8-14

We left the cabin on July 8 and watched the Chinooks play every night for the next six nights! Even though our nights were filled with baseball, we had some other kinds of fun during the day.

We checked out a local park.







Isaac LOVES getting his picture taken with Gill.


Look who came to watch too!


Love these kids.


One night Isaac got to race Gill to home plate in between one of the innings!





He even slid into home!


Getting high fives from the team.


On autograph night, Isaac was sure to get his favorite player's autograph, Ryan Krill.


Grandparents





Isaac spent two hours making a figurine of Ryan Krill. He put rocks in the bottle to keep it from tipping, drew a face on a baseball, used pens for arms, and taped wood chips on them for fingers.


He was SO EXCITED to give it to Ryan!


As the season went on, Isaac got to spend more time being a bat boy. He started just bringing balls to the ump and then gradually started getting the bats.


Hanging with Daddy.


He took his job very seriously.


My sweet girl.


The kids and I went to a community pool one afternoon.


He's getting the hang of swimming!


Papa came down for a game.


Isaac wanted to win a shirt that Gill was throwing SO BAD.


Family photo op.


We went to Milwaukee's children museum and now are members. The kids loved playing in the kid-size town.

Driving the bus...


...working at the grocery store...


...fixing a car at the car shop...


...doing "what Mommy does at work". They had fun!


At our last game for this trip, Isaac had to stop being bat boy because he "got too sweaty".


The kids wanted to run the bases with Daddy.








Time to head back home....