Hannah's Sunset Photo Shoot

 Hannah is really our only kid who's interested in posing for a series of pictures.  So I try to take advantage of it when I can.  The lighting was great tonight, and she was in her normal smiley good mood, so I snapped a few pictures of her.

Father's Day With Some of My Kids

As is my tradition now, on Father's Day I go for a bike ride.  Last year I went the farthest I've ever gone, with a 22-mile roundtrip.  I was determined to go farther this year, which isn't necessarily logical, as I'm only getting older and not riding very often throughout the year (and mostly slow-paced family rides when I do).  But I'm too competitive to not compete with myself, or in this case my past self, so when I got to my turnaround point last year (the 3.5-mile marker; I start at the 14.5-mile marker), I kept going.  I went all the way to the end, which is effectively the 0-mile marker.  That made the roundtrip 29 miles!  It's hard to think I went 29 miles in anything other than a car, but I definitely did.  It was near my limit, though, as I was having to press really hard on some of the way back, and I had to walk up two or three major hills.  But I'm really satisfied that I made it.  I'm not sure what I'll do next year to top that, since the trail doesn't go any further.  But I'll figure something out.

Earlier in the day we had our Father's Day celebration. Unfortunately, Clara had a total meltdown, so she wasn't able to be in the picture.  It was disappointing to have to take my Father's Day picture without all three of my children, but that's how it went this year.  She calmed down later, of course, and everything was fine.  But I love my three little guys so much (even when they throw tantrums), and I'm so blessed to be their father.

Paying Attention is Important

We had tee ball again today. At this age, they allow as many parents as would like to do so in the infield when their kid's team is fielding.  Because I have two kids on the team, and because they have issues focusing on the task at hand, I'm always out there.  Coach Scott tries to rotate the kids around so everyone gets to play in different locations on the field.  Because every kid on the team (14 kids) plays in the field at once, there aren't really positions.  Someone has to be the catcher, and someone has to be on first base to field "throws" from the fielders, but other than that they pretty much just get spaced evenly.  So Scott rotates them around so everyone gets a chance to be in the front, which gives them the best chance to field balls.  At one point Clara and two other kids were in the front row, which is nearly even with the pitcher's mound (even though there's no pitcher).  Clara was messing around in the dirt, so I cheerfully reminded her to pay attention.  That's ended up somewhat being my role as one of the field coaches.  I try to make sure all the kids are paying attention and in the ready position.  Joshua is one of the biggest culprits, but mostly because although he likes playing, he gets distracted by the infield dirt and how you can draw in it and play in it.  Clara cares less about the game itself than he does, so for her it's mostly to pass time and to address her boredom. So for both of them, as well as for many others, I'm constantly reminding them to pay attention.  It's partly so they can have the opportunity to field the ball if it comes toward them, which almost all of them like to do.  But it's also for their own safety.  At this age no one hits with power, and they're usually weak grounders, but it's still a baseball being hit off a tee, albeit by a 4- or 5-year-old.  Today I specifically told Clara when she was in the front row, "Clara, you have to pay attention.  Otherwise the ball could hit you in the face."  She ignored me and continued to draw in the dirt with her shoes.  I again asked her to pay attention, and she again ignored me.  Well guess what happened right after that?  An opposing hitter hit a bouncer, which doesn't happen often.  And sure enough, it went right to her, and because she was looking down in the dirt, it popped her right in the nose.  She started crying, so I ran over to her to pick her up.  I held her and walked her off the field to console here.  But then I looked at my shoulder, where she had been resting her head, and I saw my white shirt was covered in blood.  I then ran her to the bathroom, all the while blood is pouring out of her nose and dripping on my shirt, which looked like a crime had been committed near it.  I got her into the bathroom, where she was still crying, but I was able to clean her up.  This is what she looked like before I cleaned her up, which is one of the saddest faces you'll ever see:



Another parent had seen what had happened, and she happened to have an ice pack, so she gave it to me to use on Clara.  The game was almost over anyway, so we sat out the rest of it, and she was good as new by the time we got home.  But I'm hoping, though not terribly optimistic, that she learned a lesson and will remember that, and next time she'll pay attention.  But we'll see.  I'm just glad it wasn't a more serious injury.

The Red Mustang

I had another business meeting in Oklahoma City today.  It was in a board room with a presentation setup that I'd never seen before.  Our slides and presentation were projected on two massive screens on the outside of a group of three, and a remote attendee's video feed was projected on the middle screen.  The customer was Life.Church, so his shirt makes sense.  Like my last trip down there, it just made more sense for me to rent a car and drive back, and like last time, I got upgraded.  This time it was to a sweet Ford Mustang convertible.  I needed to return it to the airport (my car was there, because I flew to OKC), so I stopped by our house which was right on the way.  The kids were super excited to see the car, and they kept asking if I'd gotten a new car.  Sadly, I had not.  I explained that I got to borrow it to drive home from Oklahoma.  They were already bored with my story and just wanted to get in it, which I let them do.  They wanted to go for a ride, but I reminded them that they needed car seats, and it wouldn't be safe to drive without them.  I was beginning to think of my next defense for when they asked me to just put our car seats in this car, but they didn't think of that and gave up on their dreams of riding in it and were happy just to sit in it for awhile before I told them I had to continue on my trip.

Second Week of June

 For awhile the kids were really into their camp chairs. I really don't want them in the house, but this time I let them. This is Clara telling an extremely dramatic story.

 We have played with water balloons a couple of times. At first they just liked smashing them on the rocks, but then they got the hang of it.

We "camped" in a tent in the living room. I wanted to see how it went before moving it outside and, eventually, potentially away from home. The kids liked playing in the tent, but afterward they asked if next time they could have a normal sleepover so maybe it's not in the cards. We did glowing water beads as a fun "camping" activity.

We try to go to the pool most days if not every day. The kids love it.

I took Hannah to Black Hoof park for a festival. At the same time, Jason was there with the other two. They did a lot of fun activities that Jason will post about later. Hannah, true to form, was more interested in doing her own thing.

We went to Zoey's third birthday. It was a tea part and the craft was painting planters that looked like tea cups. All the kids loved this and are excited to watch the flowers we brought home grow.

A Mowing Spectator

When I was going out to mow the yard today, Hannah said she wanted to watch me. She asked if I could get out her "baby sled" for her. I wasn't sure what her plan was, but then I saw that she just wanted a place to sit in the middle of the grass. She grabbed her water and just relaxed and sipped on her cold drink while I mowed.

Ron and Peg: 15 Years!

In 2011, to celebrate their 10th anniversary, Mom and Ron flew everyone out to Las Vegas for a huge celebration that involved everyone.  This year is the 15th anniversary, and while there was no particular event planned, Joanna decided to take it upon herself to leverage her newly accessible location (she and Kirk just moved back from Houston) to organize a surprise party for Mom and Ron.  She coordinated with all of us to come up with a plan that would work, which was no easy task, since it needed to be a surprise.  But she, and we, pulled it off, and today we all showed up at their house to surprise them.  Joanna had coordinated with us all to have us write messages to them, and she put them all in a nice book.
Joanna also was in charge of all the decor, and it looked great.  We even had a cake ready.

After we ate cake, we enjoyed the nice weather on the back patio and back yard.  Their expanded patio makes it easy to host everyone without anyone feeling cramped.

The most recent additions to the family, Lucy and Daniel, arrived ready to party!

The older cousins were a little more energetic.  And somewhat amazingly, they were all willing to stand in a line so we could get some pictures of them.   It was a really great party.  Joanna did a great job as lead organizer of coming up with the plan and then making it happen.  And we were all excited to celebrate the anniversary of the couple who made this awesome blended family happen.