Last year was the first Father's Day without our beloved Rick so we wanted to honor his memory in a special way. All of us thought about what we might want to say to him, we wrote letters, rolled them up and placed them in helium baloons. We went out into the fields by the house and one at a time released them. It is very moving. Kirk and I agreed that this would be our way of remembering him each Father's Day. It's hard to believe a whole year has passed but we kept up with our new tradition and released the baloons Sunday afternoon. Happy Father's Day Rick, we miss you so much!!!

Happy Father's Day!!!

Father's day was spent at home with family. This was a perfect way to celebrate the day since we never seem to be at home enough. It was nice to BBQ and have the family over for dinner. The kids had fun giving Daddy and Grandpa their gifts.

It ain't over til it's over!!!

"The Yanks"

Well fortunately we ended our regular season in first place but placed second in our league's tournament of champions. It was pretty dissapointing to lose because we lost to an underdog team that has been on a lucky winning streak. The boys received 2nd place medals and then these top two teams go on to play in the district's Toc. (These are all teams in Placer county.) The field we get to play on is inPlacerville and it is a single elimination tournament so we play until we lose. Grandma Loreen was happy, the little league field is only 10 minutes from her house!. We traveled up to Placerville on Saturday to watch one of the best comeback games we ever saw. It was the 3rd inning and we were down 7-1. The boys were hot, tired and looked defeated. We were still down at the bottom of the sixth and final inning. The score was 7-3 and somehow we managed to fight back and score 5 runs to win the game. It was incredible to witness. We all thought for sure that was our last game together. We will play again on Monday and will continue to drive up there every day next week until we lose. Then All-Stars begins until mid July. Wow 6 months of baseball!!!!!!

All-Stars 2006!!!!!!

Well It's no surprise anymore, the cat's out of the bag. A.J. made All-Stars again this year!. The coolest part is the 11 year old team is playing the tournament out at Richard's, which is our home field. The bad news is that it will be interfering with our Tahoe trip. We are bummed about that but we will do our best to enjoy it all!!!

My stiches itch!

One thing that our kids have not had to do up until now is get stitches. The kids were all playing in our neighbors backyard and somehow they threw a rock onto the other side to get the attention of some other kids. Unfortunately these kids thought it would be fun to throw rocks back and A.J. got blind-sided in the four head with one of them. So Kirk and I took him to his doctor and he had to receive 5 stitches. The doctor he saw is not his regular doc and the last time A.J. was in to see him was for another emergency. Do you all remember the broken toe incident? Ironically it was during baseball playoffs, so it was the exact same time as last year. Although he had a little bit of a headache he was fine. The Doc said see you same time next year!

Yankees are in!!!!

Well I have to say this was one of the most exciting games I have ever watched in Little League. The winner of this game determines who will play in the Championship game this Thursday. So let me set the scene for all of you. We are playing against the Cardinals, great team. We are home team which means we are last to bat. In the major division you play 6 innings. So first inning -Cardinals score 2 runs, we score 1. Second inning- Cards score 1, we score 2. So the score is now- Cards-3, Yanks-3. Third inning remains the same. Fourth inning they score 2 more runs, we score 0. Score is now Cards-5, Yanks-3. Fifth inning remains the same. Sixth inning we change pitchers and we tie it up to go into extra innings. Seventh inning they bring A.J. in to pitch, he does awesome! A.J. has two outs and a ball is overthrown to third and then an error at second is made to help the Cards score in 2 more runs. Cards-7, Yanks-5. Here we are at the bottom of the seventh, our last chance to score. The Cards have to change pitchers. We end up with bases loaded(A.J. is on first) the kid batting has not really hit well this year. The pitch is perfect and he blasts it. One run in, two runs in,WERE TIED! Here comes A.J. rounding third,(even though his coach told him to hold off, he new he could make it home) It felt like a scene from some baseball movie where every move was in slow motion. He slid right under the tag and the ump yells SAFE!!!!! He stole home to score the winning run for the Yankees!!! His teamates went crazy, lifting him up and cheering. I don't think my Dad has ever been so proud. Kirk and I were practically in tears. We were so happy for A.J. Final score- Cards 7- Yankees- 8!
We play Thursday night for the championship title. Way to go Yankees!!!!!

Thursday, June 8

The Mariners season ends with 7 wins, 1 tie, and 8 losses. That's pretty good to end your first season as a coach with equal wins to losses. We were so proud of Kirk for staying positive through many difficult situations. Believe it or not he wants to do this again next season. Austin was highly rated for being one of the best in the league and one of the youngest at that. He owes alot of his talent to A.J. for constantly dragging him out to the back yard to play ball. The only thing he would like to change next season is his name!!!!! He would prefer to be called A-U-S-T-I-N instead of "A.J.'s little brother". I reasurred him that there were worse names to be called!
Great job Austin and Daddy!!!!!!!!!

As for A.J. we took first place overall in his division and we won our first tournament of champions game Weds. night. He plays tonight and if we continue winning we will be traveling to compete with other area teams. Way to go A.J.!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, June 7

We had alot of fun in Austin and Alyssa's classrooms. Both had pizza parties and both got to play water games outside. We had alot of laughs! Our favorite was the water baloon toss. It was a great year at school, but we are certainly ready for a fun, relaxing summer break!!!!!!!

Last week of school!!!!!

A.J. with Ms.Reidt/5th grade

A.J. and his awards


This was the last week of school and there were lots of activities planned. We were very proud of A.J.! His teacher had a reward program for kids who always turn in their homework. The first Monday of each month she provided breakfast(bagels,donuts,muffins,fruit,juice) for those kids in her classroom. Only one child in her class earned every breakfast club this year. Yes ....that would be my son..... so he earned a special breakfast out with his teacher, very cool. To top that off there was an awards assembly which his teacher informed me to attend and to bring the video camera. A.J. won three awards including an academic achievement award (for perfect grades) This award was only given to 17 students out of 260! Way to go A.J.!!!!!