Baseball Update - State Tournament

This is a short update on Zach's state tournament.

Zach's team played Friday, Saturday, and Sunday - two games each day. Out of the six games, they only lost one game. On Sunday they played the championship and won!! So his team, the Oak Grove Heat, was the winner of the state tournament.

Zack played great during the games. He got some good hits at the right time, and he made some great catches in right field. Manner of fact, he caught the last fly for the third out, that won the championship. Grandma and Grandpa are really proud of him.

We are going to go with them to Des Moines on July 15 to play in the USSSA World Series.

Winfield, Kansas Country Music Roundup

Main stage at the Winfield Country Roundup:

Doug and Mary enjoying the concert: (above)

Charlie Daniels on stage:

LoCash Cowboys performing:

Enjoying the campsite: (Jack, Cathy, & Mary - and "Happy")

Jack and I celebrated our 44th wedding anniversary on June 12. Can't believe we have been married that long - most of the time it doesn't seem to be more than 15 years but when we look back and see our children I guess time flies when you are having fun!! We went out to dinner at McCormick and Schmidt, a restaurant at the Country Club Plaza, and had a wonderful dinner and it was a beautiful evening to be out and about.

On Monday, June 15, we left with our trailer to go to Winfield, Kansas, to the Country Music Roundup. We had never been to it but some friends of ours, Mary And Doug, had called us and told us about it and invited us to go with them to it.

Winfield is about 35 miles southeast of Wichita. We camped right at the fairgrounds where the concerts were taking place. They had music entertainment some days for 12 hours. So we got our music fix. Here are a few of the acts that were there: Country Gold Tour - Leroy Van Dyke; Jim Ed Brown; Moe Brandy; LoCash Cowboys; Charlie Daniels; Outlaw Junkies; Cowboy Crush; Ronnie Milsap. In addition, to the headliners they also had another stage with amateur talent and they were good too.

They also had a burger contest as to who could cook the best burger. Jack and Doug decided they wanted to enter it and believe it or not they did win a prize. They received third place in the uniqueness category. Whatever that means!!

We were there until Sunday, June 21, and we enjoyed every day. We are thinking we might go back next year.

Our friends, Jeannene and Warren, came up on Tuesday, June 23, and stayed with us for a couple of days. On Wednesday, Jeannene and I met some of our former work friends for lunch - DeAnn, Sheila, and Diane. We had a great time with them - visiting and catching up with our families.

Our grandson, Zach, starts his baseball state tournament today. It is being held here in Liberty, which is close, and hopefully it will cool off some before it is over. Will let you know how things come out next post.

Bennett Spring State Park

Zach eating between games. He plays a double hitter on Tuesday nights.



He got a inside the park home run at this game.



The coach giving him some advice. He is as tall as his coach.

Grandpa and Emma fishing:

Breakfast of champions!

On June 1, Monday, we left Liberty for Bennett Spring State Park. This park is about 180 South of the KC area. It is close to the town, Lebanon, where Jack and I grew up and went to school, so we know the area real well. We both still have relatives that live around there.

Emma, our granddaughter, went with us on the trip. She loves to camp with us so we thought this would be a good trip for her as they have lots of things to do and see at the park.

We arrived around 2:00 p.m. and got checked in and set up. Emma was pretty excited as she had been riding for about 4 hours and just wanted to get out of the truck for a while. They have a nice campground and the park where we camped is right by the Spring and River so you can walk or ride bikes to about all the things you wanted to do.

Jack and Emma went fishing a couple days. As you all probably know, I'm not much of a fisherman - don't have the patience for it. But they both love it. Jack actually fished a day more than Emma. As you can see by the pictures, Emma actually caught the first fish and showed "Grandpa" how to do it!! But I believe he ended up with more than her.

My brother, his wife, and my niece and her family all came down on Wednesday night for a cookout. We had a great time with them. My niece has three little boys all under the age of 5 so they definitely kept us entertained!!

We had a really nice time and the weather was pretty good all week except for one day it was cloudy and cooler with some rain but other than that it was ideal weather for our trip.

We have been going to our grandson, Zach's, baseball games. He is playing about two to three times a week now. Jack got some really nice pictures of him at last week's games.

On Monday, we had our little grandsons, Bronson and Nico, for the day. They are both so cute and are a pleasure to keep.

Next week we are going with our friends, Doug and Mary Christenson, on a camping trip to Winfield, Kansas, to a Country Roundup at the fairgrounds at Winfield. Will tell you about that trip when we get back.

Have a good week!!

P. S. As you can see I'm still having problems getting my pictures moved to the right place. They transfer fine but then when I try to move them it is like they are locked in place. If anyone has any suggestions, would love to hear from you.

End of May

For some reason I couldn't move these pictures down. They belong at the bottom of this blog. Sorry!

Where does the time go?? I don't know what we have been doing but we seem to be busy all the time. Let's see what been going on......

Since I last blogged - On May 13, we had DeAnn and Bruce Hoover; and Donna and Bill Rinne over for a night of eating and talking!! We had a wonderful time with them. We had a lot to catch up on and just enjoyed their company. Here is a picture of them and ,of course, Miss Lindi (Bruce & DeAnn's little dog). Lindi came to see Brandy, too.

On May 15, we had our card playing buddies in for a night of cards and dominoes. Linda and Frank Wilburn came over, our other friends, Dora and Marlin Ragain, didn't get to come as Dora has been having severe back problems. Also, this same day, we had severe thunderstorms and got over five inches of rain. All this rain came in about three hours so there was some big time flooding. In Liberty, which is the small town we live in (really just a suburb of Kansas City), there were over 10 intersections closed due to flooding. This is the first time I can remember having this much rain in such a short range of time.

On May 17, our granddaughter, Emma, had her first piano recital. She has only been taking lessons for about 8 months and she is doing very well. She loves playing the piano and has always liked anything music. Her father loves all kinds of music so I guess she got his gene for this. She had a nice presentation.

Our friend, Dora, had back surgery on May 18. She has had severe pain for over three months and it took almost this long to get the surgery scheduled. Jack and I went to the hospital to set with her husband during the surgery. It turned out to be over a five hour surgery but there were not any surprises and it turned out good. She got to come home the next day (can you believe how fast you get out of the hospital these days)!! I took some food over for them on Wednesday and was surprised to see Dora up and walking pretty good. She seems to be progressing along pretty good. She of course has some pain but it seems to be getting better each day. I do hope and pray she continues to get well and gets back to her ole self real soon.

On May 21, I met two of my previous co-workers, Kathi & Lois, for lunch. We had a great time talking and eating and catching up on our lives. It is always fun to see my co-workers as I really miss them (but not the work). Then on May 22, I met Shirley Duello, an old carpool member) for breakfast. This was definitely the week to catch up with my friends. We had a great visit.

Over Memorial Day weekend, our grandson, Zack, was in a competitive baseball tournament. So we were busy going to his games. There were over 60 teams here from all over the Midwest. It was a fun time and Zack did very well. He got a inside the park home run along with other good hits. We enjoy going to his games - it reminds us when our sons played baseball. (Sorry LaVon Jack forgot his camera but we will get some of Zack playing before summer is out).

Here are a few pictures of my flowers around our patio: (see picture above)

Here is a picture of next door neighbor - Doris and her dog, Sophie. Brandy and Sophie are the best of friends. And we are very lucky to have Doris as our neighbor. She is like our adopted Mother. Thank God for great neighbors. (see picture above)

Well, that catches us up for another time. Have a great week!!

Happy Mother's Day To All

Here wishing all the Mothers a Happy Mother's Day. We celebrated yesterday with our sons and their families. I had proposed to the boys that we celebrate on Saturday so that way the girls could have their day at home to do what they wanted and it worked out well.

We have been busy with trying to catch up with our doctors' appointments and getting to the dentist for checkups. I have one more appointment this week and hopefully we will be done for a while. Jack has been fighting a cold ever since we were at the Lake three weeks ago. He thought it was getting better then it would come back so he finally gave up last week and went to the doctor to get some different medicine. He got a Z-pack and some other pills and finally he is getting over it.

Last week I got back in my routine of volunteering at our local hospital. I volunteer in the Surgery Waiting Room. Our surgery schedule was really light the day I was there but I'm wondering that things have not been as busy because of the economy. It sure has affected a lot of things around the KC area.

Our oldest grandson, Zack, has started his summer baseball season. We have been going to some of his games. I can't believe how much the boys have grown over the winter. They are 14 and 15 year old and that is definitely the years they grow up fast. We are enjoying going to the games.

Last Friday, I went with Emma on a school field trip. She is in the third grade and they went to Union Station. It was a fun trip. We toured the Station; went to a section called Science City which is a great place for wondering minds of children; attended a 3-D movie, "Fly Me to The Moon"; and saw a live theatre performance. It was definitely a full day but a fun way to spend time with my Emma.

This next week, on Wednesday, we are having DeAnn & Bruce Hoover and Donna & Bill Rinne over for dinner. We are looking forward to that as we haven't seen Donna & Bill for a long while and we always look forward to visiting with DeAnn and Bruce. Hope everyone has a good week!

Lake of the Ozarks and Branson Trips

I can't believe it has been three weeks since I blogged but we have been busy with one thing or another.

We have got the taxes figured, sent in and all is taken care of for another year. Sure glad to get that chore done. We celebrated Easter - didn't celebrate too much. We went to church and then out to eat. My sister went with us. The boys and their families went to their in-laws for Easter so we celebrated with the grand kids on Saturday.

The week of the 13th we baby sat the two little grandsons a couple times. We haven't had them all that much since we have been home. Our schedules have been full and they have not been feeling well. They have had ear infections and colds - it will be good to have good weather and hopefully get rid of all the bugs...

On Thursday night the 16th we met our good friends, Linda and Frank; and Dora and Marlin for dinner and then went to Linda and Frank's to play cards. We taught them how to play Wizard. This is a card game we learned to play while in Florida. Had a fun time.

On Friday the 17th we drove to Columbia, MO.., to stay the night at our good friends, Jeannene and Warren. Our granddaughter, Emma, was having her state competition in gymnastics in St. Louis on Saturday, so we were going to drive on there on Saturday. She did very well and got a medal and five ribbons. She loves her gymnastics. After the competition was over we drove back to Columbia to stay the night. Then on Sunday we drove on to Lake of the Ozarks.

On Tuesday the 21st, Jeannene came by the condo and picked me up and we went to Branson for three days. We had a wonderful time doing what "girls" do on their day out. Went to Silver Dollar City one day; saw a music show - "Six" - which was very good; did lots of shopping, eating, and visiting!! Here is a picture of Jeannene in front of the Fish House - a restaurant at the Landing Shopping area. This restaurant is owned by the Bass Pro Company. It had some very good food - would recommend it.

Jack stayed at the lake and did lots of fishing. He caught some big bass - a 7 pound one; a 6 - 3/4 pound one; and a lot of smaller ones. He was in high heaven.....here is a picture of the big one.

We got back to KC on Friday, the 24th. Jack caught a nasty cold while he was at the lake and is not feeling the best.

Today my nephew, Todd, was in KC with his baseball team playing at a local college. Todd is the head coach of the baseball team at the Missouri University - Rolla, Missouri. So we went out to the local college to watch his team play. It was a good game and they won.

So you can see we have been busy with lots of different things going on in our life. This next week we will be busy with doctor appointments; volunteering; having lunch with a couple friends.

Have a good week!

Back Home in KC

On Saturday, March 28, we left Lake Placid, Florida, to start heading back to Kansas City. The weather was wonderful there when we left and was hoping it would be nice by the time we got home......WRONG! Today we had snow showers and it is to be 26 in the morning.


We didn't drive that far the first day, just North of Tampa. We wanted to look around this area, as we didn't make it up there while we were in Lake Placid. We have always liked this area.


The next morning we left for Navarre Beach, Florida. We had been told by a number of people that this area was a nice place to visit. We hadn't been there before so we decided to spend a couple nights to look around. We stayed at the Navarre Beach Campground which was all right but we think next time we will try the Emerald Beach Campground down the street. We visited the Navarre Beach, Destin, and Fort Walton Beach areas. This is a very nice area and has beautiful beaches. Here are a few pictures:












Here are a few pictures of the Destin Beach area:

These beaches are beautiful and the sand is so white. The weather was pretty good while we were in this area. The forecast for the day we left was to have rain and storms coming in that night. We were very lucky to make it through the area without any severe storms.

The next day we traveled over to the Gulf Shores, Alabama area. We had been there about eight years ago and it has changed quite a bit since we had been there. We stayed at a nice RV park (Gulf Breezes) - thanks to Don and Linda for recommending it. We stayed only one night since the weather was rainy and cool the next morning, so we decided to go ahead and leave for the Memphis area.

In Memphis we stayed at the EZ Daze RV Park in Southhaven, MS., and it was a really nice park. It is only about two years old and the office manager/owner was so friendly and gave us all kinds of information for the area. We highly recommend this park.


Then Thursday we drove on in to Kansas City. Overall, we had a good trip home and we missed all the severe storms, thank the Lord for watching over us. It was great to get home. We have been busy catching up with family and friends since we got here. Emma, our granddaughter, stayed all night with us last night and today we went to visit with our two youngest grandsons. So we are back in the swing of life in KC!!