Letters and a Cage

Jorja has been working on her handwritten letters. They are adorable. She even decorated the outside of them. They are adorable.

Jorja

I was able to get the back part of our backyard mowed. We also got the batting cage set up. I climbed into the treehouse and yelled over the fence at the Bradley girls. That sounded mean. Haha. No, I heard them outside and yelled, "Hello girls!" The twins came running! They climbed on our fence and I showed them Bear. They hung their feet over so he could lick them. Gross! I'm glad he didn't bite them. I talked to the twins for a bit, then talked to Zoe for quite awhile. It was nice.

Batting Cage

I titled this post batting cage because that is all that I have pictures of. Creative, I know.  This morning Brett and Rachel got there kids ready for 9:00 church.  They went to my dad's ward.  I met them there.  My dad was speaking in sacrament meeting.  He talked about being humble.  He talked about my mom.  That's always nice to hear him talk about my mom, even if it is sad sometimes.  I left after sacrament meeting to go to my ward.  Marie and Mina went to the class that Cathy and Sam teach.  Grace went to nursery with Anne.  I taught my class for the first time.  It went really well.  I'm not 100% convinced that Sister Liu likes my teaching style.  Oh well.  Our ward always goes way out for the 24th of July in primary.  This is the first time I've been able to see it.  They had a cool looking (pretend) campfire set up in the primary room.  The kids sat on blankets around it.  Lots of people were dressed up as pioneers.  The young women came in and told pioneer stories. They passed around dried apples, beef jerky and biscuits.

When I got back from church my dad was already there making spaghetti.  I noticed he had texted me during church, but never looked at it.  His text says, "Is it OK if I come up with Matt and Sam and bring spaghetti dinner and get it cooked so that when you get out of church it will be there for you and then there will be more time to play games according to Matt."  I'm never going to be upset if someone wants to cook us food!  We ate, played games (I'm pretty sure I won both games of Dominion, if my memory is wrong...fine by me!) played in the batting cage and just had a lot of fun.  This batting cage would have been so cool to have while growing up!  My brothers' would have loved it!  Willy is really good at sports.  He did great in the batting cage.  He tells me he loves basketball the best.

Marie & Brett

 Willy

 Brett

My dad made tapioca for us.  Delicious as always.  Willy asked who made this.  I told him my dad did.  He said, "Why in America do the men do all the cooking?"  Haha!  My dad and Mike have done all the cooking while Willy has been here.  I just laughed and said, "That's how it should be."

Best Wiffle Ball Game EVER!

We got to play with Mike's family this morning.  Matt and Sam came over too.  Lots of batting cage.  It was so fun to watch Mike and Matt in there!  My brothers would have lived in the cage if they had one!  Mike hits hard!  So fun!

Mike

 Stephanie watching the batting cage from this location

We had the best wiffle ball game today!  There were only four of us.  My brother Mike and I were on one team.  My husband Mike and Matt were on another.  Mike (my husband) bought a new wiffle bat and ball. It was awesome!  You could hit so far with it.  Anyways, Mike and Matt were up first.  We got them out pretty quickly on a double play.  (We only have two outs in wiffle ball.)  Mike and I were up next.  We stayed up the rest of the time.  Mike kept hitting the ball over the batting cage. I snuck into our neighbors yard to get a ball that had landed in their tennis court.  I am so glad Mike picked me for his team, because it was so much fun!  I don't think being in the outfield for his at-bats would have been as enjoyable.  Mike (my husband) liked to make pretend diving catches for the ball and land in the swimming pool fully clothed. He did that several times.  Sam and Anne sat by the pool during the game.

Sam & Anne

Christen went and saw her friend that moved from New Mexico and now lives here.  She stayed longer than she planned because Parker was a very good sleeper.  Right as Mike and Christen were starting to gather their things to leave their kids jumped in the pool.  They at least had their swimsuits on!  It was pretty cute.  I wish they could have stayed longer, but we were so happy to have them as long as we did.  It was such a fun day!

Maysen and Stockton came home from Youth Conference today.  They had the best time!  Even Maysen!  She loved everything about it.  They went to Lava Hot Springs.  Maysen got to ride up with Kristen, they stayed in a cool house. (They boys stayed in tents which Stockton found annoying.)  They had good food.  Maysen loved the waterslides and Stockton loved the platforms.  Stockton learned how to do a 1 1/2 off the 7 meter.  He was too nervous to do that last year.  He also did handstand flips off of the 5.  I think it was the 5.  Josh was nuts and did the handstands off of the 10.  They also went tubing down the river and had a great time with that.  Maysen was not looking forward to this at all, and she completely loved it.  I love seeing her smile and be excited about things!

Batting Cage

While I was gone to Idaho, Mike finished putting the batting cage up. Saturday he dug six holes and filled them with concrete.  He has been sore for a couple days now.  Steve came over yesterday and helped him with the net.  The kids love it!  (Maysen and I drove home from Idaho this morning.  We were able to wave goodbye to Grandpa before we left.  Nice to see him on Memorial Day, no matter how short.)

Batting Cage

 Safety net/machine

 Jorja's up first

 Jorja also loves catching with the machine

We had my family over today.  We were going to swim, play with the batting cage and have hamburgers and cake.  Too bad our pool didn't want to cooperate.  Our pool pump broke this morning.  It is probably one of the last things that we haven't replaced.  We knew it was on its last leg, just bad timing.  Mike ordered a new one, so it should be up and running soon...just not today.

Matt

 Lincoln

 Jorja practicing with Mike

 Lincoln and Max pitching

Abby's birthday is on Friday and Ella's is in a few weeks.  Ange brought over a cake.  How fun!

I was watching Bubs and Ange's kids for a few hours before the rest of the family came over.  I decided to take Abby to the book store to pick out her book.  We rode in the jeep.  She had fun with that.

 Ella & Abby

 Stockton & Anne

 Jorja, Stockton, Anne

We played a few games of Dominion before Matt left.  Maysen won the first game.  Matt, Sam and I played one more.  Matt dominated that one.  It wasn't even close.  Still fun though.  I told Maysen she could still be on the trophy because I wouldn't let her play the last game.  She needed to finish her essay.

Jorja the Catcher

One of my Beehives from a few years back is the starting catcher for her high school softball team.  She is a freshman.  She is fun to watch! Erica has been so excited that Jorja is interested in softball, especially catching.  Today she brought over her old catcher equipment and GAVE it to Jorja!  Holy cow!  It was a ton of stuff!  She wrote Jorja this super nice note too.  Erica spent a ton of time explaining everything to me.  Jorja was in the door for practically two seconds when I found her like this.  I snapped a picture and sent it to Erica.  She texted back, "This makes me SO happy!"  Adorable.

Jorja

I made sloppy joes tonight.  Matt, Sam and Anne came over.  Matt helped Mike unload the batting cage poles from the motorhome.  It was a ton easier getting them out than getting them in!

Mike's Birthday

Mike is 41 years old today.  He had the day off and made a list of things he wanted to do.  We didn't get to all of them, but we tried our best. Mike wanted to open presents in the morning before the kids went to school.  He was surprised to find out that I actually bought him some presents!

Preston, Mike, Stockton, Jorja

 Jorja with an ice cube tray and water bottle labels.

She was the last one home, so had last pick of the presents.

 Stockton with a shelf to put on top of the stove in the motorhome.

 Horrible selfie of me with a paper towel holder.
Mike looks cute though.

 Mike's main present was a gps for the motorhome

 Mike surprised me with a present he bought himself!

Some weird sandwich maker thing that he thinks is the greatest.

 Preston is so excited about his peep molds he found.

 Maysen gave Mike marshmallow sticks

Mike had projects he wanted to work on and he wanted me to make a cake while he took a nap.  This is the cake I made for him.  Jorja did not realize it was a sunflower.  Come on!  Totally looks like a sunflower!  It was delicious.  We ate the cake after the kids got home from school, before Stockton left for diving and Jorja for softball.  The problem was the cake was very filling.  Mike wanted to go to Sizzler after Jorja's game, but no one was in the mood for that at all.  Sizzler would have totally won.

 Mike

Mike and I drove the motorhome over to Steve's house.  He is letting us borrow his poles for his batting cage.  They are huge!  It was kind of tricky getting them in.  Steve rigged the back window of the motorhome open.  They fed the poles in to me, then ran along and picked up the other side.  We had to wedge them in pretty good so they wouldn't ruin the motorhome while we were driving.  We made it home, but are quite exhausted.

I'm pretty sure Mike had a good birthday.  He seemed to be happy all day long.  Although who wouldn't be happy on their birthday?  It is fun to spend it with him.  Nice to have him home.