Joel's Marathon

The day after my dad's party, Joel and I took a little road trip so he could run in the Crossroads of Northwestern Indiana Marathon.  I brought papers to grade while he had to do the hard work.  I caught up with him at a few points on the route:

While I was driving, I passed this old schoolhouse/church, and I just had to take a picture.

Lookin' strong at the finish line!  Congratulations, Joel!

Grandpa Stan's Birthday Party

My mom had the idea of surprising my dad with a birthday party for his 65th.  At first he thought his big surprise was getting to ride in this fancy car:

But the real surprise was that his friends and family were waiting for him at Alibi's.  It was a great night celebrating with everyone!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa Stan!

Reid's a Lil' Kicker!

Reid joined his first official sports team this spring at school.  The Catholic schools in our area have a pre-CYO league, which is really nice.  That way the kids get to play on teams with kids from our school, getting to know kids who may be in other classes.  We gave Reid the choice of doing T-ball or soccer, and he chose soccer.  

Joel helped out as a coach at the first game.  At first Reid was really timid--which is shocking--but he eventually got in there and played with the rest of the kids.  He even scored a few goals during the season!

Goofy crew!

Opening Day

This year we decided to do have Ryan do baseball through the Skiles Test Baseball League.  We had heard so many wonderful things about this league and also knew other SLDM families who were there, so we wanted to give it a shot.  It was smaller, which I liked as we ended up playing the same teams 2 or 3 times.  Ryan was on the same team as Ian from school, and other St. Louie boys were on 2 other teams, so we saw people we knew quite often.  I also had another reason for wanting Ryan to join Skiles Test as that is where I played when I was little.

I played for the Cardinals, the Brewers, and the Giants.  We placed first when I played for the Cardinals and the Giants, though I'm pretty sure I didn't have anything to do with it!  :)

The first game was against the Brewers.  We actually knew four players on the team: Mike, Connor, Ty, and Andy.  That made it extra fun!

Ty is an amazing pitcher!

Ian is Ryan's age (3rd grade) and did a great job pitching as well!

Connor was lighting it up on the mound!  

I later teased Ty and Connor that they could ease up when Ryan came to the plate since he was a St. Louie kid. :)

And for the first time in my life, I was saying things like, "Let's go, Pirates!"  Here's to a great season!