Spike & Dig

This weekend is a big volleyball tournament called Spike & Dig.  I reconnected with one of my college friends, Karen, to play in the tournament.  Karen has never met the twins...they loved her!

We were roomies at Gonzaga!  Go Zags!!!

Emma was being quite the photographer today; she set this picture up and everything.

This is Jill...I work with her.  We basically put our team together; neither one of us has played in years.

Marc also played.  He played with a co-worker and his family.  Nice Hit Marc!

The kids were so good.  We started at 9am and finished at 6:30pm...it was a long day.

Emma took a lot of pictures...here's me playing.

Even Marcus got into the volleyball action.

Emma did too, here she's playing with one of Marc's teammates.

Olivia also played for a while...they do love this sport :-)

There was a 3 hour break for us in the afternoon so I took the kids to play in the splash pad at the sports complex...this was so cool!

Nice teamwork!

We didn't bring swim suits so their clothes were wet.  However no big deal; it was pretty hot and sunny today; quite a change from the rainy yesterday.

Marcus warmed up on the concrete.

More water play.

Then more games.  Another nice hit Marc.

This is Marc's team.  They were called "5 Jerks and a Squirt".  As you can see Marc was the Squirt :-)  They are all related except Marc...he felt pretty honored to be a part of this team.  They won every game they played today.

This is my team...our name is "I'd hit that"...which didn't turn out to be so original; there were 7 other teams with the same name.  We are having lots of fun!  The tournament continues tomorrow...more games to be played! 

Spirit Lake

Yesterday I took the day off with Marcus and the kids.  The idea was we were going to meet some old friends and spend a day on the lake...unfortunately it rained all day!  We were there for quite a while but Olivia couldn't stand it any longer...she didn't care about the rain...she wanted in the lake!

I stayed under the covered porch and took pictures from afar.  I love zoom on the camera :-)

Emma decided to join her sister in the exploration.

And also getting into the water...they were pretty wet.

The boys decided to join in too.  Tanner is our friend's son, Marcus is in the green.

So out came the swim suits...the kids had a blast.  Tanner and Marcus stuck together.

The girls took turns jumping off the dock...go Olivia.

Jump Emma Jump!

This is the beautiful house.  Our friends came over from Washougal WA with their neighbors who own this house on Spirit Lake.  It was amazing!

We had a great dinner and lots of visiting time.  It was great to catch up with Cindy and Leon...it's been a while.  Thanks for inviting us up for the day!

Bowling Birthday

The girls were invited to a Bowling Birthday party by one of the boys from school.

As you can see, they were the only girls invited...the only other girl is the birthday boy's little sister. 

They fit right in though.  I made a comment to the birthday boy's Mom that the girls were worried they would be the only girls there.  The Mom said, "yes, but all the boys really like them"...I think we might be in trouble with these two.

It ended up being a blast.  The girls were pretty good at bowling...I think we might have to try this bowling thing again soon.

Gabefest

Ryan and Marc played in the 5th annual Gabefest this year.  It is a 2 on 2 basketball tournament played in the memory of Ron's (center) son Gabe.  The tournament is put on by Ron's family and all proceeds go to the Ronald McDonald House...great cause!

The kids had lots to do.  There were chickens to play with after all.  The girls loved that.

The games started around 10am.  The first game was pretty physical.

The boys did very well but unfortunately lost their first game.  It was a close one though and the guys they played against were professionals...one played football for the Minnesota Vikings!

This was the official cheering section..Marcus, Olivia, Emma, Cruz and Kadin.

Cruz wants to do everything Marcus does...cute.

The girls got into the basketball action too.

Their game got a little physical as well.

Nice shot Olivia!

They played a little 2 on 2 as well.  They had a blast!

Then they cooled off with snow cones.

There was even roasted pig!  Oh My!

The hammock was lots of fun.

Then game 2 for the boys.  This time Marc and Ryan played Ron and his brother-in-law, Frank.

It was pretty physical too...all in good fun :-)

The house was right along the river so the kids decided to cool off.

What a great set up.

Fun times for everyone!

Even Richie Frahm, a Gonzaga alumni, made an appearance and Ron's team got to play against him. 

The big boys cooled off too...what a great event for a great cause.  Thanks for inviting us Ron...we'll be sure to be there next year too!