I love when Tony forgets his laptop...

Then I can post during the day instead of the middle of the night! Yay!
Gage's T-ball ended last week, and I must say, he had a case of the saddies. He so enjoyed playing with all his little buddies, making new friends, and getting a treat after the game. Learning basic baseball skills was obviously secondary to playing in the dirt. His sweet coach made them all little treat bags and medals on their last day, and Gage wore it for the rest of the day and took it with us to Washington.But no worries, now soccer has started! Gage has no clue. I tried to explain to him about kicking the ball into the other teams goal, passing, out of bounds, not using his hands. I obviously got WAY too technical. He was running around asking for the ball, and no one would pass to him. Maybe I should say, no one could pass to him. The kids were thrilled if they kicked the ball in the right direction. But that's okay- I think that Gage will learn alot and it was only their first game.
"Hey Coach- can I be the goalie?" "What, we don't have goalies?" Seriously doubting whether or not his mother has a clue about soccer.

For the 4th we were in Washington. We had such a wonderful time. A special thank you goes out to Verdene, Vard, Jodi and Matt for all their effort in making the trip fun for us. Thanks to everyone else (ecspecially the cat) for putting up with all those extra little fingers and voices that made the place a veritable mad house. My kids already want to go back.

Joss and Lauren squished in a tube at the Moses Lake sand dunes beach. This might have been their favorite day. This was the afternoon of the fourth- the BBQ and fireworks later were a total blast, but my memory card filled up and so Jen has pics of that for me. (I had already deleted the non-adorable pictures. Shoot.)

The Basin City Parade the morning of the fourth was actually much better than we were expecting. Lauren had a good seat. She loves her Daddy.
There were so many treats we had to leave most of them in WA. Jossy loved the float with the dancing girls (junior miss or something) and Gage did not like being sprayed with ditch water. Lauren's favorite was anything horse related. I was reading other people's blogs and apparently this parade was a hot spot. How did I miss seeing all of you!?! We were parked in front of the Napa auto store- probably yards away from cousins and friends that we didn't get to see. I'm so sorry we missed you. Still, we had a fabulous fourth and the kids had a blast.

Funny story: the day we were supposed to leave, I was sitting in Verdene's kitchen chatting while the kids played outside with the new kitties. Gage comes tearing in the house yelling that Lauren had killed a kitten. I'm horrified. I run out there and sure enough, there is a little kitty lying on the step, totally unresponsive, lying in its poop. I'm sure that she has broken it neck, because she claims to have "hugga kitty SOOO tight." All the other kids instantly dub her the kitty killer. I'm asking myself if we should hit it with a shovel- it's obviously suffering (how horrific is that?!?) and decide instead to put it by its momma and check on it again later. (I secretly asked Vard to put it in the trash after we leave.) Anyway, after lunch I go out to finish loading the car and to check on the kitty, and wouldn't you know that little kitty traded in four of his nine lives and was just fine. Apparently she just put it in a killer headlock and knocked it out.

We had promised Jossy and Gage kittens when we sell our house. I don't think our family can handle kittens. Or fish. Birds seem to not have great luck either. Do we dare try a dog?

Happy Birthday to Dave, Detton, Sawyer, and Mom Rees! Busy, busy July!