Haydn, Tyson and Brody in Raymond at the
1st of July Parade. Kristi made their shirts with their
own hand prints. She is so Crafty!

Summer 2012

     I was doing so good in keeping up to date with this Blog. Every month I was updating on what our family was up to and what was going on in our lives. BUT then summer hit and I stayed far away from my computer. So how do I summarize everything that went on this summer? It probably would have been more detailed if I would have kept up month to month, but summer was crazy and I am doing the best I can "Get off my Back!!!". I think the best way is to use a lot of pictures and let them do the talking. A picture is worth a thousand words right?

Backyard Projects

     We had a few projects in the backyard that we wanted to accomplish this summer. One of them Kristi came up with while she was visiting the house of one of her friends. We tore up all the big cement squares we had in the back yard and leveled the area around our fire pit. We then broke up all the cement squares into smaller parts and spaced them out around the area. We then hauled tons of sand to the backyard and filled the paces between the now laid out broken cement pieces.  Kristi was the visionary and I was somehow roped into being the grunt labourer. Good times.

     We  also had Troy Stewart build a shed in our backyard this year as well. Haydn has had 3 bikes stolen since we have lived in Cardston, so we thought it was finally time to build something that we could store the bikes in. We also have way too much stuff in our house and it would be good to have a good reliable shed that we could store stuff that we don't need in the house all the time. Of coarse the boys we so excited about the new shed, and we decided to have a celebratory sleep over in the new shed. This was at the very beginning of summer, so the nights were still pretty cold and I froze my butt off. Haydn says he was warm, but thats because he had like 4 blankets to cover him and I had 1. Haha. It was fun though, we brought out a little TV and watched a movie with some treats. 

July 1st Festivities 

     All of Kristi's family is from Raymond, so the July 1st parade is a Huge deal. All of Kristi's family sits together at the parade and catches up on how life has been for the year. After the Parade we had a great time hanging out and eating at Kesty and Katie's house. Haydn and Brody rode a motor bike for the first time. Haydn was a little scared at first and so Brody did it first. This would not sit well with Haydn, so after he saw that his little brother could do it, he had to. 

Camping and Not Camping!!

     I think we started a little tradition last year of pulling the trailer to Fort Macleod to stay at the Daisy May campground. The boys absolutely love it there. It is a pretty simple campground with a park, a free (old) mini-golf coarse and a swimming pool. The boys just bring their own putters and from the minute they wake to the minute they go to bed they are at the mini-golf coarse. This with a few trips to the pool and bike rides around the campground make for a great place to stay.

Kids can't leave their gadets
at home

This is one of the hail stones. This was
not even the biggest one that hit the
ground.

    

      So camping season was on and we were ready to roll!!! BUT it was very short lived. Cardston was hit by a massive hail storm that demolished all the houses, cars, trailers and yards. The windshields of our van and truck were cracked so bad that we could not see out of them, the shingles on our house were all wrecked, and our trailer was destroyed. So camping was out of the question for the remainder of the summer. BLAH!!! The Town looked like a war zone after the storm. Windows smashed out of houses and cars, trees everywhere, water flooding the roads, and everyone in town out in the streets surveying the damage. STORY -- When the storm hit, I was at the junior high doing some photocopying. just as I was leaving I could see that it was starting to hail. I pulled out my phone to start to video and I walked out the door of the school. As the door slammed shut I quickly realized that I had locked myself out of the school. So here I am stuck out side with golf ball to tennis ball hail bouncing off the ground and hitting me. I quickly called Corallee Williams and asked her to come and "Save Me" and let me back in the school. She waited till the storm was done and helped me back into the school. 

Trailer that looked like it was hit with a thousand
golf balls. Broken window and the roof was
really beat up.

How it looked while I was locked out of the
school during the storm.

Softball in Canmore

     We took a weekend away from the kids to play in a softball tourney with Ryan Harris and his team from Edmonton. We had never been to Canmore before so we thought it would be a great way to spend the weekend with out the kids. Haha. We had a blast with Ryan and Brandi playing ball and hanging out. We Stayed in a great 2 bedroom suit, and had a blast playing cards and hanging out in our robes....Hahahaha. After the tourney was done we took a day and drove up to Banff to see the National Park there. It was a beautiful place! We took a hike to a waterfall.

What a great backdrop while playing in a
Softball tourney.

Family Softball Tourney

     This years family softball tourney had a different feel. Uncle Mark passed away earlier in the year and it was the first year we have played with out him in about 5 or 6 years. We decided to get shirts made up with uncle Marks nickname on the back, "Wally". We had a great time playing with family and playing for Uncle Mark this year.

The Beach in Wabamun Provincial Park

     Well our Trip to Spruce Grove to visit Ryan and Brandi lasted an extra 3 days because of problems we had buying our Van. We had bought a 2010 Dodge Caravan and took it out on the highway and the brakes were shot. We had to take the Van back and we test drove a 2011, and it had problems as well with the brakes. So we had to stay a couple of extra days to get the Van fixed. The best part was that we got the 2011 van basically for the same price as the 2010. During the extra days we decided to go to a lake that was near by with a good size beach. The kids (and parents) had a great time building sand castles, swimming and hanging out with each other. We had so much fun the first day that we decided to spend the next day at the beach as well.

NSA World Softball in Calgary

We took our Lethbridge team to NSA Worlds in Calgary this year to play softball. This is one of the biggest tournaments in the counrty. Teams from all over Canada come and play. This year there was over 200 teams in total playing all over the city of Calgary. I have played in this tourney before, but we have never taken the team we play with in Lethbridge. The Tournament runs during the Labour Day weekend from Friday morning to Monday night. It was alot of fun playing with the team and we played pretty good. We went 6-2 and ended up 7th place out of 112 teams that were playing in the Rec division. At night we would sit and watch some of the "Open" division games cause the players were so good. The girls on the open teams would be putting it over fences that were 290 feet.

Jeff, Perm, Kent, Tim, Mike and Jordan
Amy, Jakki, Jodi, Kristi, and Erica

Back to School

     Well the summer flew by, and I probably missed a lot of the little things that we did in the summer, but that was the summarized version. Kids are now back in school and we are back to a normal schedule, which is also kind of nice. Haydn is in grade 4 and Brody is in Grade 1. Brody has to be bussed up to the old Grandview Nursing home (which was converted into a school) to attend school while the elementary school is going through new renovations.

Me and Donny working on his driveway

Other Random Pictures

Tyson at his Birthday Party

Haydn working the Slackline

Mom and Brody after climbing
Bear's Hump

Me and Tyson after a long day

Tyson helping Uncle jeff and Uncle Jimmy
do some work

Papa Craig and Tyson watching
a movie

 Minors Division 2nd Place

     The Championship game did not go as we wanted it to, but the boys had a great season. We were playing a great Magrath team that probably had the best pitcher in the league pitching againsts us. We gave up 4 or 5 runs in the first inning, but the boys shrugged it off and played great defense for the remainder of the game. We started to get some good hits around the 3rd or 4th inning, including a line drive from Haydn that happened to go right to the 3rd basemen. We ended up loosing the game 7-1, but we were so proud of how far we came in the playoffs. We finished the regular season as the 6th place team out of 8, and we finished the playoffs as the 2nd best team in the league. The boys were so excited to get medals and have that to show for their hard work. We had a young team that will just continue to get better at the game. Some of my most important positions were filled with first year players. Haydn was my back catch, Briggs Holland - first base, and Graedon Woodward was 3rd base. These boys will be great players.

Haydn, Brody and Cousin Jake

     This was Haydn's first year in minors and he did great. He was my main back catcher through out the year, and improved on his game everyday. He had a good eye at the plate and was able to draw a lot of walks, but was not scared to swing the bat when the opportunity presented itself. He will be a great player if he keeps his love for the game and the willingness to continue to practice. Haydn is always asking to go into the backyard and pitch, take out the pitching machine and hits some balls or to come and shag balls while the big boys are hitting softballs. For a Dad who loves the game of baseball this is enough to warm my heart and bring tears to my eyes. haha. No seriously......haha. I am very proud of him and they way he has played this year.

Women's Softball

     Kristi's ladies softball team was the #1 team through out the regular season and had its final tourney last weekend. Kristi played great through out the weekend and the team easily won the entire tournament.

Haydn found a Turtle down at Softball Valley last night.
He was pretty excited!

Kim, Katey and Kristi at the Ladies Fest Run
in Lethbridge

Ladies Fest Run

Going to the "Ship"

     Haydn's baseball team will be playing in the championship game this week. The team finished the season 6th over all out of 8 teams, so our first playoff game was against the number 3 Magrath team. This team had beat us both times that we had played them during the regular season, so they were coming into the game pretty confident that they would beat us. The game was on a Tuesday, so the only way to have a pitcher throw on Thursday (the next playoff game) was to only pitch them 35 pitches in the game. I was not looking forward to Thursday, I decided to focus on getting the win that day. I used my best pitcher almost the entire game, so he would not be able to pitch Thursday. Magrath had a different approach to the game. They felt like they could beat us and only threw their best pitcher 35 pitches. we scored a few early runs and Magrath could not make up the difference. The boys hit the ball well and played great defense to get out first playoff win. You would have thought that we won the world series with the way the boys celebrated. I was happy for them. Our 2nd playoff game had a bit of a twist to it as well. On the other side of our bracket the #2 Magrath team was playing the #7 Raymond team. Magrath again went into the game with the belief that they would win the game easily and did not throw their good pitchers enough to win the game. So our 2nd playoff game was against a team that we had beat in the regular season and finished lower than us in the standings. I pitched my 2nd best pitcher in that game and he pitched almost the entire game. We won the game easily 11-0, and the boys had finished their unlikely run to the championship game. The boys were so excited, and again they celebrated like they had just won the world series. The final game against the #1 team in the league is today (well, maybe.....it is raining as of right now). This will be a tough game, but the boys are so excited to play in the championship.

     Haydn has had a great year in baseball and he is turning out to be a great little player. He seems to love the game and he is always asking to go out into the backyard and pitch or hit off the tee. This of coarse is music to my ears because I love baseball so much. He has played back catch most of the season and does a great job behind the plate. He also pitched for us as well, and does a good job. He has had some great hits and has improved every game through out the season.

      I have been coaching Brody in coach pitch this year as well as coaching Haydn's Minor team. Brody has been playing great in his coach pitch league. He has improved a lot in catching the ball this year. He has a few of his close friends on his team this year, so he is having a lot of fun. He is always in the back yard with me and Haydn hitting and throwing. He can chuck a ball pretty hard for a 6 year old. Tomorrow is the last day for  Brody and coach pitch. It has been a tough year for them because three of the nights have been rained out. It is fun watching the young kids learn the game and how happy they are when they make a catch or get a good hit. Haydn and Brody both love the game and will make good ball players as they get older. It will be good for Tyson to have 2 great older brothers like Haydn and Brody to teach him how to play the game. I have a feeling that I will be coaching and running the Cardston Little League for many years to come.

      Haydn had Track and Field a few weeks ago and did a great job. He was 2nd place in high jump, and was so proud to do well in an event that I love so much. High Jump was always my favorite event when I was growing up. School is quickly coming to an end and we are excited to get out camping and spending time together as a family. The last few months have been so busy with all the baseball, softball and working. It will be good to just relax in a few weeks.






















Family Fun Run

     Well.......Somehow I was sucked into running another race after I swore not to run again. BLAH....Here is how it went down. Haydn and Brody wanted to run in the Cardston Family Fun Run. How the words fun and run go side by side is beyond me. Anyway.....people could run 5k or 5miles. Kristi wanted to run the 5 miles and the boys wanted to run the 5k, so naturally I was volun-told to run with the boys. Haydn did a great job and left me and Brody in the dust. He finished the 5k in 33 min. Brody ran the whole way and had a great time running around the town. I again hope that this is my last run that I will ever do.

      Well I had my 33rd Birthday yesterday (June 18)......WoW...33 years old. It was a good day. Kristi brought me some delicious B-day cupcakes to the school and I was able to play softball. Softball is a great B-day present for me. I had a great game for my birthday. I hit 2 home runs and made one of the best catches I have ever made in the outfield. After the game, my brothers came over for DQ cake (my favorite). So overall it was a great B-day.