Ball Season is Here

Blake had baseball tryouts last weekend and is happy to report that he was drafted my the Major League and gets to bump up to the next level.  He did really well in tryouts, but was still really surprised when he received THE phone call from his new coach a half hour before bedtime and had a hard time falling asleep that night. 

  When everybody at church and Rick's office asked if he made it and what team he was on they said he really scored big...they all had great things to say about him and other people we know who coach said he is the best by far in the valley.  When we Googled him...he has won MANY city titles and always places in the top if not #1.  He has been coaching for 20 years and doesn't have a son on the team, another plus.  Blake has a LOT of work to do to play at the same level as the boys who have been on the team previous years, but is excited for the opportunity and the chance that he will play on the same team for three years.  Unfortuntly, this means he has practice from 5:15-6:45 EVERY night of the week, with one game during the week and one on Saturday...until the end of the school year. 

 Ashlyn is happy to report that she gets to play softball this year, rather than t-ball with the boys like last year.  It is pretty funny go out and watch her practice with Rick and Blake because she is really a natural little athlete.  Now we just have to convince her to play things the other seasons of the year.  I think it will really help that they have softball and she won't have to be the only girl on her team.  She doesn't start until a week from Monday and can't wait.

This afternoon they were at the fields across the street for over 2 hours practicing with Rick and were both mad when it was time to come home - neither can get enough of it.  Here's to a REALLY long and REALLY busy next few months!

Hiking Palouse Falls

We finally had some decent weather this weekend so we were able to go check out Palouse Falls State Park that I have been dying to go hiking at but we just haven't made it out to.

Here was our first view of the water falls from the look out point, but we decided that wasn't a close enough view and decided to see if there was a trail to get to the bottom of the falls.  We didn't find one, but we had quite the hike getting down to the water fall.

 We had lots of steep, rocky points to climb down into the canyon, lots of mossy boulders to climb around, creeks to jump over and points to climb around.

 When we got to the bottom of the canyon there were a couple of college age kids swimming behind where we took this picture of Blake and Ashlyn...not only was it WAY too cold to be swimming but that water was moving WAY to fast for it to be safe.  They were nuts!

 Blake wimped out and wouldn't go out to the point to overlook the water fall, but Ashlyn was very excited to go with Dad for a closer view. 

 Blake and Ashlyn had fun crossing the creek using the rocks as stepping stones...I am SHOCKED that neither one of them slipped and fell in.

The hike and photo ops took us a couple of hours, so we were definitely ready for our picnic once we made it back up to the car.

 What a fun day of hiking!  We loved to take day trips and explore new areas, now we just need some more warm weather and another place to explore.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

(Excuse my RUDE kids and how they posed for this picture as they were eating, but 

unfortunately it was the only on that turned out.)

This morning I mentioned to Rick that it was Dr. Seuss' birthday and that I had missed celebrating it at school with my class since I was gone, but was curious to their reactions of Green Eggs and Ham that were served for breakfast.  Ashlyn overheard us and said that was gross.  After explaining it would taste the same since food coloring doesn't have any flavor...unless you are Grandma Woolhiser that is...Rick decided to make Green Eggs and Bacon with biscuits for breakfast.  I have to admit that the green bacon was a little disturbing but of course it all tasted the same and they had fun with it.

Pinewood Derby

Blake had his troop's Pinewood Derby last night and had a blast racing all of the other 21 boys, rather than the 4 he had as competition in Klamath Falls last year.

 He made it to the finals where the top 6 cars had a race off for 1st-3rd place that would win a trip to the city's Pinewood Derby this weekend....we were hoping he would place 4th because he has baseball tryouts next weekend and a basketball game.

 He is happy to report that he placed 2nd and is racing again next weekend!  He had to race his friend Braden twice in the finals, the first time they TIED at 3.5547 seconds.  How is it even possible to tie 4 decimal points!  We all saw it was a tie (to the naked eye) when the cars finished and quickly turned around for the computer readings to see who really won...only to see the EXACT times flash on the screen...everybody was shocked and the boys just laughed.  They switched sides of the track and raced again and Blake beat him by about 1/2 a car length.

So one of the younger boys won 1st, Blake 2nd and his friend Braden 3rd...all three families have the joy of sitting through the races again together next weekend.  Blake had a great time, but we are glad that it is his last Pinewood Derby.