The dad behind the pitcher!

Here is the Dad behind our wonderful pitcher Emily. Without a dedicated dad to do bucket duty Emily would of had a hard time gettting to where she is. They spend many hours a week practicing.

Practice in the back yard! Carle made a pitching mound for Emily to practice on.

Don't blink it only takes 4 secs and the pitch is done~!

Spring is Finally here!

This morning the weather was so beautiful I took a walk with the dogs around Lake Wilderness.
The trail and the lake were beautiful and a wonderful way to spend the morning. A beautiful 73 degrees today!
Lately every sunny warm day is a holiday around here because we have had to endure such a bitter cold Fall winter and into spring! Washington is such a beautiful place to live on days like this. We sure appreciate and don't take any of it for granit. It's just beautiful around us here in the foothills of Mt. Rainer.

Walking the trail near our house.

The lake was beautiful! and there was the mountain~!

My tulips are beginning to appear!


The mountain just stuck out and looked beautiful all day today. I took this picture from the Pinnacle Neighborhood in Maple valley looking South! So beautiful an absolute perfect day!

Jonathan's Fishing adventure Saturday.

This last Saturday was a great opportunity for Jonathan to do some fishing at Papa's lake. We suspect they stocked it on Friday. So While I was doing some high ladder painting in Carols entry way, Carle was there installing a new Garage door opener and moving the ladder around for me Jonathan was at the dock fishing!

On his second Cast he caught a 12" Trout! Very exciting. Here he is smiling for the camera.




You can't tell in these pictures but it was a beautiful sunny warm day. It seem to not matter how warm it is Jonathan still has to ware a hood. So I think you get a better look at the fish than Jonathan.

At the end of the day, Jonathan released the fish back into the lake to be caught another day. I'd say we all had a very successful day and got a lot accomplished.

Our Brittney Time!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Recap of Easter

Easter was wonderful!

WE brightly colored our eggs the night before. After church Easter morning we came home and made some rice crispy treats Nests to bring with us for brunch at the Kaatz house along with other treats! The food at the Kaatz was fabulous as always! It was a nice relaxing time with family! With the exception for the rain unless we had the egg hunt in the house or the kids would of been bobbing for eggs in the yard! It was a pretty wet one this year. But it didn't dampen our spirits whats so ever! Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

They kids eating together on Easter


Fabulous colored eggs the night before.

Carle getting in on the act

Got to love it!

Oliver earned his keep today!

Well Oliver earned his keep today by catching a mouse that some how mysteriously got into our home. We believe it was Dexter's unfinished business. Apparently Dexter (our cat) is now a humanitarian and likes to hunt but it is the catch and release kind of hunting. We have had two live birds in our house and they were not the pet finch type but the wild kind.

Anyway this explains why the dogs were in a wild tangent last night at about 2:00 am they woke me up barking in their crate uncontrollably. I thought they just got spooked so I let them out to prove to them that there was no one in the house. Oliver ran around and around looking for something in the room but finally, when he had calmed down, I put him and Cricket back into their crate. I have a strong suspicion that it was the mouse last night that had them in a tangent.

Yorkshire History of breading http://www.breederretriever.com/dog-breed-history/233/yorkshire-terrier.php
Yorkshire Terriers were breed to hunt and kill rodents back in the1860's. These were all working men’s dogs, used to keep the vermin under control in the textile mills and coal mines.

But this afternoon Oliver and Cricket (Cricket was mostly just observing Oliver) began tracking a mouse and running after it. After several attempts to loose the dogs in the pantry and then under the fridge the mouse finally met his match when Oliver scooped him up in the chase and held him in his mouth. Jonathan scooped Oliver up and Oliver dutifully dropped the mouse and The kids trapped it. Very exciting....

Because we take after our cat Dexter, being humanitarians as well, Carle let the mouse go by the rockery in our back yard for it to flee another day.

Freak Hail Storm after Easter

I guess it shouldn't be a surprise to me that we had a freak hail storm today. The day after Easter. Thought I would show you pictures of the how big these Ice pellets were and how it just poured off the roof in the back of the house and piled up at the bottom of the gutters.
It was all over the roads and it felt like you were driving on gravel! Crazy weather here in the NW. I should of known when we had snow on the ground on April fools day! Enjoy the pics.
Oh, and yes that is a dime in the picture to show the size of the hail.

Best Day Of My Life!!

Have a blessed Easter!

Our Trip to Tri-cities

Well we survived our first traveling tournament for Softball. Now we are officially one of THOSE Parents that travel with the team. But I have to say....It really was a bunch of fun for the whole family! Here are some picture highlights of the trip.This was our hotel in Richland along the river!~ It was beautiful and perfectly located. There was a park adjacent to the hotel that we walked to and had our team picnic and the kids and I walked there quite a bit with the dogs and they played on the playground and walked the river bank.

Emily's team did fantastic for the first Tournament of the season. They won 4 out of 6 games and Emily won every game she pitched so she is 4 out of 4! There was no trophies or hardware for this tournament it was just a Get to know you tournament hence the name Icebreakers.

The dogs were so happy and the kids were to! We found lots of stuff along the river and loved the sun on our faces! Nathan has announced that he want to live in Eastern Washington now.

The boys are standing on the back side of our hotel and the park is in the distance where we walked to everyday and played.

The play ground was a hit with the boys!

This was the teams picnic lunch in honor of Allie's birthday, one of Emily's team mates Allie pitches as well.

The girls had so much fun and during the 2 1/2 hour break between games played Red-Rover

in the field next to the covered eating area

After this we decorated our cars and headed out to play two more games that day

It really was a great time and I am truly proud of Emily's accomplishments as a first class pitcher! You can double Click on the Fugitives icon on to the side here and see the scores and stats. They will soon be updated on the site.

Ice Breakers Tournament!

Okay - wish us luck! and ....sun. We are off to the land of the Sun for a Softball Tournament in Tri-Cities, Richmond this weekend! Emily's Team plays several games both Saturday and Sunday... May I emphasize the SUN in Sunday again. Dogs and Kids loaded up and we are on our way!