An All-Star Break

This week was Kevin's All-Star Break....4 days off...in a row!!!! Seven of his players made the team, 4 of them as starters and Kevin really wanted to go to show his support. With Nana and Papa so graciously watching the girls, Kevin and I headed out Monday morning to the Dallas area.

The first thing on the agenda was stopping for lunch at Chick-fil-a. We don't have one in Wichita, so we had to get our fix. We made it to the hotel 4 pm, and were at Six Flags over Texas by 4:30! We were so excited to ride roller coasters, only to realize that we aren't as young as we used to be! The first coaster was called the Titan and dropped 24 stories and reached 85 mph!! We followed that one up with a wooden coaster and almost went home after it!! After a couple more coasters, we hit the ultimate thrill ride, Mr. Freeze. You got ejected from the station, flipped and turned and then finally came to a vertical stop before going through the whole thing backwards. It is literally a 45 second ride, but delivered the biggest thrill of the day!

Tuesday I was lucky enough to go to lunch with a childhood friend who now lives in that area. Allison and I met at Montreat, a church camp after we finished 7th grade. She lived in Paducah, KY while I lived in Virginia. We made visits to each others' homes all throughout high school. As we were talking we realized that we don't think our parents ever met, yet they allowed us to fly solo and stay at each other houses numerous times. So crazy....can't imagine letting my girls EVER do something like that!! Anyways, it has been 6 or 7 years since we last saw each other, so it was great to play catch up. Hopefully Allison and her husband will come visit us soon!!

Tuesday evening was the All-Star game. It was crazy actually sitting and watching a game WITH Kevin. His division won the game, and all his players did great!

Wednesday we headed home to our much missed babies. Of course we stopped and had Chick-fil-a again for lunch!!! We came home to 2 happy girls, one who now rides her trike around the house...so needs legs for walking when you can ride.

It was so nice to have a break before the long haul the end of the season will bring. Kevin plays home until the end of the next week, and then heads off for 17 days. Thanks Mom and Dad for taking such great care of our babies...I know they had a blast!!

Beach Bummin'

Kevin has been gone every weekend this month. Home Monday thru Thursday, gone Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So the girls and I have taken to bumming on the beach at Nana and Papa's. Papa puts up big shade tents, blows up jumpy things for the water and we just have a BLAST. Lucy building sandcastles.
Laney surfing on the kayak.

Papa, Lucy and I returning from our jungle trip. Lucy was pointing out all sorts of jungle animals for us to see....monkeys, elephants, hippos, parrots...so much fun!

Laney loving life. Sand, shade and a snack...does it get any better. Actually for Laney if we took away the sand, it would be better!!!

Oh my..HAIL

Today started off as a nice, typical day. All four us slept in, went to Walmart and had a nice lunch together. The girls and I went to the pool with Nana, then came home to take naps. After I fed Lucy and Laney dinner, we headed to the Y and from there to the ballgame. On the way from the Y to the ballgame it sprinkled a little bit and I checked the weather. Checked the radar on my phone...nothing. Went into the ballgame, watched maybe an inning and then it started.

Started raining a little.

Then a lot.

Next came little hail.

Then big hail.

Then bigger hail.

All in all, it hailed for 30 minutes. The girls and I were in the stands with some other wives and thankfully my parents. (Thankfully as in I stay calmer when dad is there, not thankfully that they were exposed to this too) We watched and thought there is going to be some damage, but I was not prepared for what I saw when we finally made it to the car. And making it to the car meant running with Laney in my arms in the rain through massive puddles. Dad carried Laney and Mom carried our stuff and we all got SOAKED. This was the damage.

The hood of my car.

Kevin's windshield. The little circle is a crack.

The passenger side of my windshield. At least eight separate cracks where hail it. The driver side also has a big crack but it didn't photograph well.



The front of my car.

Pillow Party

For the 4th of July the girls and I threw ourselves a pillow party. The weather was cloudy, Kevin was on a road trip and we were just plain bored. So I gathered up every bed pillow in the house and piled them up in the family room.

Lucy did about a million forward rolls and Laney would just walk and dive. We had so much on on Saturday that we did the same thing on Sunday.

Hot Dog Race

Every night one of the promotions at the game is the QuikTrip Hot Dog Race. Three people dressed as a hot dog, a taquito and an egg roll race across the outfield from the third base side to the first base side. Lucy is afraid every night that we will miss "the race." When watching the video, look at Lucy's eyes. She is so intense. And this was on a mellow night.

Last night we arrived late to the game and were getting out of the car right when the race started. Lucy could hear the over the PA system that the race was beginning and was yelling for the hot dog to win in the parking lot. And yes, it is always the hot dog. The mascots usually walk around the concourse after the race and Lucy either tells the hot dog "Good Job" or "You should have run faster."

Also every time we pass a QuikTrip in the car, Lucy shouts, "Mom, it's the hot dog race place!"