- Katie’s been playing T-Ball every Wednesday night and practicing every Monday night since late May. She’s finally wrapped up her season after a tournament and a picnic this past Wednesday. If she could just hit all the time and not play the field, she’d love it. She usually doesn’t look forward to T-Ball just because of the fielding part. To her credit, she’s been paying more attention in the field lately. She’s been an on-base machine lately too – she hits her little grounders towards third and somehow the fielders can’t make the throw to first accurately. Here are a couple videos from the tournament –
- Becky had to go to New Jersey for work the week before July 4th. It wasn’t much fun as most work trips aren’t, but an interesting story came from it. She was to stay at a Radisson in Piscataway, NJ, but when she called me up on the Sunday night at 10:45 she didn’t know where she was. She kept telling me she’s on South street near a Hampton Inn. I could find a South street near where she was supposed to be, but it didn’t have any of the same crossing streets. I couldn’t find any Hampton Inns near a South street in New Jersey either. It took about fifteen minutes, but I finally saw that there was a Hampton Inn on a South street in New York, on Staten Island. She turned the wrong way on the Interstate and ended up in the wrong state. It was pretty easy to get her to her hotel from there, but it was a long night of driving for her.
- Over the fourth of July, we headed back to Becky’s hometown and packed in two busy days. We drove out early Friday morning and went right to the Missouri River to go boating for the afternoon. Amelia has been getting scared around boats, so it was tough to get her going, but once we got out there she even signed up to go tubing. I couldn’t believe it when she said "Go Paasta daddy" (Go faster). We grilled out that night and the next morning we took family pictures and headed to the local swimming pool. We ate at Becky’s favorite restaurant and headed home Saturday night.
- Katie had a busy two weeks after the 4th as she took part in Dinosaur Camp, Pirate Camp and Swimming Lessons. She had a lot of fun at the camps getting a chance to color, learn about the topics and spend time with friends. She also did great at swimming lessons and is proud to tell you she’s passed Level I of swimming lessons.
- I had to go to Toronto for work the week after the fourth. Not much of significance happened there except I got to go to a Toronto Blue Jays game. I can’t say I loved the Rogers Centre – it felt an awful lot like the Metrodome there.
- We got to visit Sawyer Ashton Newell the following weekend – so that was cool.
7. The next weekend took us back to the Cities as Katie and I went to a Twins game with our friends Uggie and Luke. The game was a downer – a 1-0 loss, but since the game was so short, we took the opportunity to have Katie and Luke run the bases after the game. Here’s the video of their run.
8. Last weekend took us back to the Cities for the third straight week to go to Parker’s 3rd birthday party. My brother Marc and his wife got the ultimate kid toy out for the weekend – a blow up, bouncy thing. The girls bounced themselves silly over the two days we were there. My brothers and dad and I went to play a local private golf course on Sunday morning, so that was fun.
9. Throughout the month we’ve been going to the swimming area in town about once a week. The girls have really enjoyed getting in the water and Katie’s been showing off her swimming skills. She can float on her front or back and she has no fear about jumping into the water off the dock.
Time to get to bed – we’ve got a big Newell reunion going on tomorrow, so just another busy day this summer.
Eric's space 