Update on World Series & Lebanon Trip

We left for Des Moines, Iowa, on Wednesday, July 15, to attend the USSSA World Series that Zach was going to be playing in. We started the games on Thursday, and played two games that day and won both of them. On Friday, we played two more games and won both of them. So by now, we were feeling really good about the team. There were 15 teams in the series from Iowa, Nebraska, Arkansas, Illinois, and Missouri. Then on Saturday, we only played one game, as we got a bye since we were undefeated, and we won this one. So Sunday started the final games - we played at 11:00 a.m. to a team that had only lost one game; we beat them so we were still undefeated. So we played in the Grand Championship Game at 3:45 to a team that was also undefeated. We lost this game in the seventh inning (we only play seven innings) by one run. Oh we were so disappointed but they placed second out of 15 teams so I guess that was really pretty good. The boys were so disappointed but they held their heads high anyway. It was a really good game - final score was 7 - 6. The team that won it was from a suburb of Des Moines.

We had a really nice time while we were in Des Moines. We all stayed at the same hotel so we got to know all the boys that Zach played with and that was fun. We did some site seeing while we were there and did some shopping, of course. Des Moines is really a nice town. Very clean and modern. One of the shopping centers we went to was as nice, and very modern, probably better than most we have in Kansas City. So overall the trip was great. Enjoyed spending time with the family.

Here are a few pictures Jack took while we were at the games. The blog would have been over loaded if I had put all of them on it!!

Here is Zach getting his trophy:




Here is Zach as one of the captains of the team for the coin toss (he is #22).

Here is Zach getting ready to bat:

Here is the team congratulating one of the boys after his home run: (Zach didn't get a home run but came really close - the ball bounced off the fence).

Zach batting:

Zach playing right field:

Another one batting:

We got back to Kansas City on Sunday, July 19, around 10:30 p.m. It had been a long five days as we were pretty busy the whole time we were there. Then on Monday, we left to go to Lebanon (our home town) to stay with Jack's sister-in-law as she was going to have cataract surgery early Tuesday morning and we had to drive her to Springfield for that. All went well with her surgery. We stayed with her again Tuesday night and then took her back to the doctor the next morning to remove the patch and have her eye checked out. Everything went well. So then we came back to Kansas City late Wednesday night. So we have been a busy bunch the last few weeks. So now I believe we will stay home a few days and catch up around here.

July Activities - Family & Friends

On July 4th, we went over to our friends, Linda and Frank's, to cook out and celebrate the 4th. We had a nice time and then went to the Gladstone's fireworks display.

We celebrated Emma's birthday on July 10, as her birthday (July 17) we all will be in Des Moines at Zach's baseball games. She is turning 9 which I can't believe how fast she is growing up on us. Here are a few pictures from her party:

Craig, Emma, and Maggie - watching Emma open her presents:

Chad & Bronson:

Grandma Cathy & Nico:

Shannon with Emma, Maggie and Addison:

On Friday, July 10, drove to the Lake of the Ozarks. DeAnn had called us a week or so ago, and said that some of our friends we had met in Arizona a couple of years ago were coming in for the weekend and she invited us to come over on Saturday to see them. So on Saturday morning, Bruce, DeAnn, Lavon, Don, Wendy and Rick came by to pick us up in their new pontoon boat. It was great to see everyone. We took a spin out on the Lake for a couple hours and then went back to DeAnn & Bruce's condo. We had a terrific visit with everyone - we ate, visited, went to the pool, and ate some more. What great fun!!

Here is Captain Bruce:

Don, LaVon, & DeAnn (and Lindi) on the boat ride:

Wendy, Rick & DeAnn at the table:

All of us around the table:

Hope everyone has a great week. We are headed to Des Moines, Iowa, tomorrow to go to Zach's baseball world series games. Looking forward to this. Will give you a report when we get back.

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!