Summer Sunshine

 This week was full of sunshine and time spent outside.  Early in the week we had back to back baseball games.  This week marked the last games Merrick will ever play at Field's Bridge Park.  Next year he will be too big to play on those fields and it's the end of an era.  Tuesday's game was particularly special.  First, a little backstory.  The summer after Merrick's 10u season he played summer ball for the first time.  The league didn't have anyone to coach the team so they recruited  two boys who had just graduated high school and played on the varsity team.  The season was a bit of a rough go, but Merrick loved it and especially one of his coaches.  Coach Caleb was just like Merrick, a tall, lefty pitcher.  He took Merrick under his wing and even gave him his old first baseman's glove (which Merrick still uses today).  Fast forward back to earlier this week when Merrick got the news that Coach Caleb had been drafted by the Colorado Rockies.  Merrick was over the moon!  He texted with Caleb a little bit and invited him to come see him pitch for the last time at Field's Bridge that night.  He did and Merrick pitched 3 shutout innings.  Afterwards, Caleb took pictures with some of his old 10u players and signed the glove he had given Merrick.  It was a great night.

This week we also spent time out walking our neighborhood and hiking on trails by our house.  Millie had more fun than anyone on the trails coming home very muddy and happy.

The girls and I also picked marionberries and made ice cream and jam and have marionberry lemonade coming up today.

Yesterday, we finally had a chance to take out our paddleboards out on the river for the first time.  The river has been too cold and fast and this is the first chance we have had with the right conditions to get out there.  We all had a a great time, except for when Jeremy and Carrigan tipped over in the shallow water and got pretty beat up on some rocks.

Because we know life can't always be the good times, this week also brought about some big changes for our family that I am not quite ready to talk about on a public blog.  I am sure I will be ready to talk about it soon, but in the meantime we would take your positive thoughts and prayers.  I have faith that all will work out as it is supposed to.