I have been terrible at taking pictures lately! My one and only photo, even though we had a lovely dinner with my parents and an Easter egg hunt in the backyard, was from the breakfast treats Hubby and I made. That's it. Then, I forgot to take pictures on Natalie's actual birthday because we were so busy trying to make it a special day even though she had school and track practice. We had even talked about recreating a picture from her 1st birthday party with all the children since they are four teenagers now. But we didn't! Natalie was kind enough to do a bit of a recreation the next morning before school with the dessert she wanted instead of cake and the birthday crown her friend gave her. What a good sport. Speaking of sports, I do have pictures from some of those!
But first, on Easter my mom told me a lovely story about when they lived in Huron, SD. Before my mother was born, my grandparents built a house in a new neighborhood and purchased the empty lot next door for a huge garden and became good friends with their neighbors. My grandparents both grew up on farms so they knew how to do just about everything. So if the neighbors needed anything my grandparents would be happy to help with handy man type things or shared canned goods from their garden. When my mother was born she actually got her middle name, Ann, from the next door neighbor. Ann only had sons so she was very excited when my mom was born. She and her husband owned a department store and when she would see cute clothes she would hang them on hangers and leave them on the fence for my mom. My mom felt like she was the best dressed little girl in town. I love this neighbor relationship between the two families but the part about the garden became my favorite. My mom's older brother would manipulate the vegetables while they were growing to create funny little creatures for his little sister. She would then decorate them and submitted them to the county fair and won a ribbon. She loved that because she knew it was really her brother's doing but he wanted her to win. My mom told me she didn't even know fruits and vegetables could be stored in an aluminum can until they moved away from that house because her parents were so good at gardening and canning. To me, knowing this all happened in the early 1950s, seems picture perfect to me. I am glad she shared this with us.
Michelle has been hiking with both the high school club and did another, much bigger hike unofficially with people she knew were up for a bigger challenge. Above are a couple photos from Green Mountain the day after her birthday party and below you can see the stats from the Boulder Skyline Traverse hike of almost 18 miles with 6,000 feet of elevation gain. Even without a broken ankle I don’t know if I would have survived that one! And she manages to do all this during tennis season. I am amazed.
I am also very impressed with Danny’s ability to have a new PR every time he runs the 100m at a track meet. He is now down to 11.74 seconds. The 4x100 team was also able to create new season’s best time of 44.24 seconds. Wowzers. And how cute was his promposal? We know have a lifetime supply of battery powered tea lights at our house. Danny is also the one that noticed the evergreen tree in our front yard got blown over by a gust of wind. We are so sad to have lost the tree but so grateful it didn't land in any other direction. It fell in literally the only direction that wouldn't have taken out fencing or our porch or our neighbor's garage.
Natalie participated in her first track meet running the 110m hurdles, 100m, and long jump. I came straight from work but missed the running so here is the one photo from long jump as proof she was there. She had more spectators for her softball tournament. We were so happy it was by our house! On Saturday it was a 10 minute drive to where she learned to play. It was nice to see they finished the building we and many people we know donated to when our children were younger. Day 1 pool play: A solid loss to a solid team, followed by the tough loss to by only two runs after our girls had been in the lead most of the game, and then a deserved win, placing our girls in the silver bracket for the next day.
Day 2: single elimination less than 15 minutes to fields Danny, Hubby, and Natalie have all played baseball or softball at before. Natalie's team went out there and won and won and made their way to the silver bracket's championship game. Although they did not add another W to the day, they were happy to come home with bling that was identical to the other team's. It's always more fun to be recognized for never giving up than going home empty handed.
And once again, I neglected to take a picture, but Natalie and I made gift bags and brought cupcakes to celebrate her birthday with her teammates. I love how much she loves her softball team and what a good experience she is having.
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