Even as a school teacher it always seems that summer goes by too fast. This summer we were able to pack a lot of things into 2 months of holidays. It always seemed like we were gone somewhere or the kids were doing something to keep them busy. I really should keep up with this while the summer is happening, but I never seem to be on my computer. So, I will do the best that I can to give a good summary of the events that happened this summer for the Wynder Family.
Grandma and Grandpa Wynder
We have been talking about buying a headstone for my grandparents for a long time now and finally we decided to get it done! My Grandpa and grandma have been buried out in Hillspring with out a headstone marking the grave for many years now. Kristi and I gathered the information needed and picked out the design and made it happen. When we went out to Hill Spring to confirm the spot the grave marker was gone, so we had to get a hold of a map to make sure. I was pretty sure I knew where the graves were, but we just wanted to be 100% sure. When we went out to look at the headstone marking the graves I felt like we had given my grandparents the respect they deserved by getting this done. They basically helped raise me and my brothers and we owed it to them.
July 1st
We celebrated Canada Day the same way we always do, in Raymond. As a family we go to the Raymond parade and the kids gather as much candy as they possibly can. The boys are able to see all their cousins and they have a fun time battling for the candy thrown out on the parade floats. After the parade we always go to Kesty's house and have food and games. We spend the time eating, playing basketball, riding the quad, jumping on the trap, running through the sprinkler, talking, laughing and more eating.
Finished Tattoo
Summer Softball
I was able to play in a few softball tournaments this summer. Wish I could have written down some things while the tourneys were being played, but now I will have to try to remember what happened. hahah
Mens Tourney in Cardston - We went into the final Mens Tourney as one of the underdog teams to win the whole thing. Our team caught fire during this tourney and we all hit the ball great. In our 2nd game we scored 19 runs in the top of the 1st inning which is a pretty big blow to another teams confidence. We played the Championship game under the lights and ended up winning the game 20-15. I didn't go out in the 3 games we played and hit 5 home runs and I was walked intentionally 4 or 5 times.
Okotoks Tourney - I took Haydn and Tyson to this tournament with me. We were able to stay with an old friend of mine who lives in Okotoks (Alisa Prete). She was gone camping but she let us stay at her house. Its funny because someone texted her and said that some sketchy bearded guy (Me) had been wondering around her house and backyard and was wondering if anything had been stolen from her house. haha
We had a pretty good team in this tourney and we won our round robin games fairly easy. We played well in the playoffs and over came a loss in the playoffs and came around and made it back to the semi-final.
In the semi-final I was playing 3rd base and I had a hard grounder hit towards me. The ball was bouncing nice and straight and it looked to be an easy pick up. Right before it was to my glove the ball hit a rock (the diamonds were garbage) and bounced straight up to my face. I was able to turn my head, but I couldn't get out of the way completely. The ball ended up hitting me in the side of the head and it put me right to the ground. This also was the 2nd time in the tourney I took a bad ho to the head. The 1st one went off my ear, but was not as bad. I stayed in the game and we won and made it to the final and won the tourney. Playing in the final was tough because I didn't feel to good and I was a little gun shy overtime someone hit the ball at me hahaha.
Jaffary Tourney - The Family camped in Jaffary during the ball tourney. The campground was nice and the boys seemed to enjoy the park, swimming pond, and open space. The diamonds in Jaffary were terrible and provided some interesting bounces. We played well and ended up loosing in the final. We met Travis and his family in Wasa for the day (they were camping there).
Family Ball Tourney - The family ball tourney was different this year because Justin and Ryan were both gone. Justin went to Las Vegas to visit Ryan during that weekend and go to California to some baseball games. We only won 1 game out of the 4 we played, but I did hit 5 home runs. This was Haydn's first year to play on the team and he was pretty excited. He played well and got on base a few times. He had one great hit right over the middle. I was very proud of him.
The tourney was a fund raiser for one of my friends who had a son die as a small baby. They were going to donate all the profit from the tourney to the Hospital. We had a good Round robin to start the tourney. We won our first game 11-0, then we tied our next game 7-7, and then we lost our last game 26-20. We were seeded into the tourney and won our next 3 games to win the championship for our division. The team that we beat in the semi-final came back around and then we beat them again in the championship game. All 3 playoff games were on the same diamond and all 3 games we were hitting straight into the wind, which was like 100mph. Every ball hot in the air was an adventure to try to catch. Balls that you thought were hit well into the outfield would end up in the infield.
Seattle Trip
Well we have been promising the boys for a while now that we would take the to Seattle to see some baseball games. So when we finally decided that this was gonna be the summer, they were extremely excited. Poor Tyson and Lennon had to stay home with Grandma Sudo though, sorry guys haha.
It is a 12 hour drive to Seattle, so we decided to try to break up the drive to give us a rest and to probably save our sanity. We decided to stay a couple nights in Couer D' lane and go to the big amusement park "Silverwood". Just before we got there I was eating some beef jerky and when I took a bite it felt like my front tooth was loose. I didn't think this could be so I took another bite of the beef jerky and my front tooth fell out into my mouth. I couldn't believe it. Kristi and the boys didn't know whether to laugh or wait for me to be mad, but when they saw that I was kind of laughing about it they busted out laughing for so long. So here I am in the USA with no front tooth. The tooth was a crown that had broken (I think because of the hit in the face from the softball). We tried to find some dental cement to put the tooth back in just for the trip, but nothing worked. We even found a friend that knew a dentist in Couer D'lane and he couldn't do anything about it. So for the rest of the trip I just went with a missing front tooth, which is not the easiest thing to do (especially during corn on the cob season). Oh and one more thing, that tooth stunk so bad inside when it fell out---just wanted to make sure I remember that part haha.
The next day Justin and Jo decided to meet us and go to Silverwood together. This was a great surprise for them to make the drive. The day was not very warm and the forecast was calling for rain later in the day. We got to Silverwood and Haydn and Brody went straight for the rollercoasters. I had no idea they loved rides, because I get so motion sick on them. They were able to ride a few on the rollercoasters and we went on the Tube ride a few times and then the rain started. It started small at first, so we decided to go to the Waterpark part of Silverwood. Just as we got there it started to pour and I mean Pour!! They had to get everyone out of the pool because there was lightning, this also shut down many of the rides. Our day was over and it had just started. We were able to get a few free passes because of what happened. We spent the rest of the time at an indoor waterpark that was in town. The kids still had a blast.
We had to leave Couer D'lane around 6am so wee could make it to batting practice for the 1pm Mariners game against the Blue Jays. The boys were so excited to be a real MLB game. The game went into extra innings and the Mariners hit a walk off home run in the bottom of the 10th to win the game. The next 2 days we went to the Mariners playing the D-Backs. The kids really seemed to enjoy the games and loved going to the batting practice to try to get baseballs. Haydn and Brody both were able to get a couple baseballs from some of the players. They both got a ball signed by Mariners player Mark Trumbo. Brody was able to get a ball that was being used by the D-Backs bullpen. I was able to catch a home run that was hit during batting practice. I was in the right field seats and the sun was right in our faces. The ball was hit up into the sun, and I Knew the general direction the ball was going and I knew that it was towards me. hahhahaaha I was able to find the ball and catch it right into the palm of my glove!!
The Sunday Game had a special promotion that anyone 14 and under could run the bases at Safeco field after the game. The boys were pretty excited that they were gonna be able to run the bases on an Actual MLB diamond. We waited in line for a long time, but it was worth to see the boys run not he same base paths as the Pros. While we were walking out of the ball diamond, Kristi was talking to one of the ushers and she was able to talk him into letting us find him the next game so he could get us better seats to watch the next game. The Usher let us sit right down the 3rd base side for the next 2 games. It was awesome!
My Mission buddy Justyn Chris was in Seattle at the same time and him and his family hung out with us one of the days. We Spent the day hanging out and walking around down by Pikes Place. We went to a place called the "Gum Wall", and this is just outside a comedy club where people would put their gum on the wall before they had a cigarette. This caught on and now the walls are covered in chewed up gum. We went to the baseball game together to finish off the night. It was great to see him again. Even though we hadn't seen each other in 8 years, it was just like we were back on the mish laughing and joking again.
Echo Lake Trip
Echo was one of our last trips of the summer. The boys were excited to do some boating on the lake and have fun with friends. The 2nd day we were there Brody was being pulled behind the boat on the tube with Haydn and Kato Aneca. It was not a fast crazy ride, but the tube tipped sideways and the boys fell off. As we turned the boat around, I could see that Brody was crying. My first thought was that he was probably over-reacting a little and needed to calm down. Then I could hear Haydn panicking a little calling my name to hurry up. As we got closer in the boat I could see a large amount of blood coming out of Brody's mouth. I quickly got him into the boat but still could not tell where he was bleeding from. As I wiped the blood off his face I could see a hole in the side of his cheek cause from his braces. He had hit Haydn in the head and his braces had went right through to the other side of his cheek. Also, his braces were completely stuck into the side of his cheek. Kristi and Jo took him into the hospital in Kalispell where he got 3 stitches inside his mouth and 4 on the outside. 
Brody was sad because he would not get to ride the tube or knee board again for the rest of the week. He did find ways to have fun by using the paddle board and swimming with his head above water haha. BUT, that was not all the discomfort for the poor boy. The next couple of days his cheek was very swollen and red. It became quickly obvious that his cheek was infected, especially went it started to ooze out fluid. And let me tell you it stunk to high heaven. So they had to make another trip back into Kalispell to get some antibiotics to get rid of the infection. So Brody had a pretty rough trip, but he kept a pretty good attitude.
Besides Brody and his rough couple days we had a great time hanging out with Just and Jo and Ryan and Brandi down at the lake. The kids fished like crazy (especially Tyson), tubed, knee boarded, surfed and swam like crazy. It was a good way to end the summer.
Other Summer Activities
We had a few other things during the summer that could use a quick mention:
Kristi and I were able to see Mumford and Sons again this summer. It is one of our favorite bands and we were very excited to see them again. We were on the floor for the concert, so we were able to see the band up close.
Kristi had some cousins from Japan come visit for a few days. We showed them around the Junior High School (because one of them was a teacher) and we took them to Waterton. In Waterton, we took them to Red Rock Canyon and then had a lunch in the town. We walked around and showed them some of the sites in Waterton. There were 2 kids close to Haydn and Brody's age and they played so good together even though they really could not communicate with each other. One of the Japanese relatives knew english and we just used her to translate to the other 3.
We took the kids to the Zoo with Ryan and Brandi and their family. We stayed over night at a hotel in Calgary with a waterslide and let the kids swim like crazy. When we were at the pool I had my phone wrapped up in my shirt under a towel. One of the kids grabbed the towel to dry off, but grabbed my shirt as well. When they lifted the towel up my phone flew out of my shirt right into the pool. Luckily a lady saw the whole thing happen and quickly got the phone out of the water. We bought some rice and stuck the phone in there till the next day. The Phone still worked like a champ.
We bought a Waterton pass this year and used it a lot. The kids loved going to Waterton for day trips. It was a great purchase this year.
Other Pictures from Summer
1st Day of School
Well Summer is over and its back to school already. It is always quite the adjustment going back to work after having so much time off. Brody is going into grade 4 and Haydn is going into grade 7. I can't believe how fast the boys are growing up. Brody is playing football this year and he is so excited. He has been looking forward to playing football for a long time now. I can't wait to see if first game. Haydn is playing volleyball and this will be his very first real school team sport. Haydn ran for grade 7 boys rep in the student council, but was beat in a close race. So things are busy busy!!Tyson started Pre-School last week. He has been so excited to be a big boy and start school like his older brothers. He looked so cute on his first day of school. He also got a "time out" on his first day of school as well. He pushed a girl because she wanted to play with what he had and he wasn't done yet. Im guessing this may be the first of many "time outs" in Tyson's school career. haha. That boy has a lot of energy!
No comments:
Post a Comment