Grandma Elaine Memorial and Campout.

Well I know it is a couple of weeks late but here are some pictures from our recent trip to Washington DC, Maryland and Marblehead for camping. On Friday we went to the DC Temple in the morning and then went over to Spencer's Air Force Base to participate in his sports day. The weather was perfect and playing basketball and softball on the bank of the Potomac River was a great way to spend the day. It was also nice that we won both games and did so quite convincingly.


Jennie and I in front of the Washington DC Temple. The weather was quite different from the first time we were there. No snow flying horizontally in front of us.


Nolan holding the program for Grandma Elaine's memorial service. It was a very nice service and great to hear all the stories and memories that people have of Grandma Elaine. She was a great person and touched many peoples lives. We are glad to have been a part of her life and will miss her very much.


Addysen, Kenzie, Brynnley and Brooklyn sucking down some Diet Coke in Uncle Ken's backyard. We are grateful to Ken and Helen for opening their home for everyone to hang out for the weekend. It was nice for all the kids to spend time with their cousins and aunts and uncles. There is never a dull moment when everyone gets together.


A family outing wouldn't be any fun without some smores.


Abe, Brooklyn, Maddux & Nolan at the cemetery where Grandma Elaine's service was held. What a good looking group.

After spending the weekend with everyone in Maryland we came back to Ohio and headed up to Marblehead to go camping. All of Jennie's brothers and sister were in town with their kids and weren't sick of each other yet. Despite a couple of minor delays due to weather and some malfunctioning lights we finally made the trip to the banks of Lake Erie and continued the fun. Due to some other commitments, Jennie and I actually never camped out but the kids were able to spend 2 nights with all their cousins. Jennie and I thank those that watched over them and made it possible for them to spend time with everyone. I know they had a ton of fun. I think the highlight of the trip was the setting free of Angie. You had to be there to get the whole story but the kids were given a mission to help set a little girl, who was tragically killed years ago, from the evil spirits. They got to go on hikes, hunts and various other missions to help set her free. It was a lot of fun for them and kept them quite busy. Outside of the bugs it was a very good trip and something that I wouldn't mind doing on an annual basis.


All the grandkids (minus a couple of babies and Emmy) at the boat dock into Lake Erie.


Brooklyn trying to make the biggest bubble that she can. These kept the kids quite entertained during the day.


I love this picture. This is during the kickball game and I turned around to see where Payton was and she was laid out on the towel taking everything in. I couldn't have staged it any better.


Nolan absolutely loves the sand and spent the whole time at the beach rolling around in it. It didn't seem to phase him at all as he had the time of his life. I love the expression on his face. He is such a character.


Payton and daddy on our nature walk. I just wish I had someone to carry me around on their shoulders.

Even though it was a very busy week it was great to spend time with the whole family and get out and do stuff. We are so fortunate to have such a close family and treasure the times when we can all get together. We just wish that everyone lived closer so we could get together more often. Thanks to all of those that helped make the week possible. We had a blast.

Beard Highlight Videos and Pictures.

Now that school is out and the soccer season has ended it is time to turn our attention to summer and baseball. I am working on getting Jennie to take some more pictures and video but did manage to get a little bit out of her. Maddux is doing very well in baseball and turning out to be quite the player. He has gotten much better at fielding and throwing and has always been able to hit the ball. The following are two of his at bats from this season. I think he has only gotten out once and that was because I threw him 2 horrible pitches in one at bat and he swung at both. He is not gazing out into the outfield anymore and has gotten a lot better at paying attention to the game. We have a very good team this year and have been putting the hurt on the other teams. It will be fun to watch him and the rest of the team progress over the year. I love coaching and am thankful to have the opportunity to work with these boys.


After this game Maddux had the quote of the day. He was talking to his Grandpa Kerr and he asked Maddux how he hit today. Maddux replied, "good". So he then asked him, "well what did you hit" to which Maddux replied, "BOMBS". I wish I had audio for it because my typing doesn't do it justice. It was one of the funniest things I have heard.


Another solid swing and line drive into the outfield. The only thing I need to work on with Maddux is getting him to run after he hits the ball and not watch it. He likes to see where his ball is going to go before he runs. I told him that once he starts hitting it into the trees he can then stand and watch it. He has a couple of triples this year that could have easily been homeruns if he would have ran right away. He hits the ball very hard and is my best hitter on the team.


I also managed to get a little video of Maddux's last couple of soccer games. He had another very good season and continues to enjoy the game. He is a goal scoring machine and very exciting to watch. It will be interesting to watch him play in the fall on a regular size field and one with goalies.



This was the last game of the season and even though the video doesn't show it Maddux dominated this game. This is the team that they played the first game of the year and lost 8 - 2. Maddux had a bad game and they had one boy who took over the game. Well this game was a much different story and Maddux's team won 10 - 0. Not only did Maddux score 9 of the goals but he also get their good kid from doing anything. I made sure that Maddux shadowed him everywhere he went and didn't let him get any kicks off. Maddux truly frustrated the kid the entire game and didn't let him do anything.

I wasn't able to get any video or pictures of Brooklyn's last games because she did not play in them. She was sick for 2 of the last 4 and didn't play. The other 2 were played on Sunday so she didn't go to those either. They did finish in 3rd place and had 6 or 7 wins this year. A huge improvement from the 2 wins in the prior 2 seasons. So while I don't have any video of that I am posting a video of her cupstacking during a family talent show while we were in Maryland.


The kids love these cupstacks and they have gotten tremendously better in the couple months that they have had them.


I couldn't leave Nolan out and love this video. I was sitting at the table downloading all the sports videos and Nolan was just sitting there eating an apple and watching TV. His facial expressions were priceless so I turned the camera on for awhile. He is such a funny boy and does some of the funniest stuff.



Thanks to Tacie I now have some decent pictures of Maddux playing baseball. Just thought I would post a couple so you could see him in action.


Here he is just after contact on one of his two triples last night.


On his way to third base. I love the kid standing in the background just watching. That is so typical of these boys at this age.


Standing at third, instead of home, waiting for the next batter to drive him in.


Great action shot of Maddux hitting his second triple of the game.


Maddux playing first base (looks like we may need to refocus on the game and not the crowd). He has done a much better job this year and is a lot more into the game then he was last year.

Well I will continue to work with Jennie to get some more pictures and video up of his games. If nothing else we will continue to invite Tacie to his games.

Brooklyn's Baptism.

June 18, 2010

This past Friday we were able to celebrate Brooklyn's decision to be baptized. The timing couldn't have been better as Jennie's whole family was in town after remembering her Grandma Elaine in Maryland. We decided to do the baptism this weekend as everyone was going to be in town. Brooklyn has been very excited to get baptized and had a wonderful time. It was an honor for me to be able to baptize her on her special day. The day was perfect and we appreciate all Brooklyn's friends and family who came to show their support for her decision.


Our whole family just after Brooklyn's baptism.


Addyssen, Brooklyn and Cannon waiting in line for some ice cream cake.


The whole family (minus Donovan). It was so great to have everyone in town and I know that Brooklyn really loved spending the time with her cousins and aunts & uncles. We are grateful for all those who participated in the ceremony and are blessed to have such wonderful family. Now we will look for Brooklyn to be an example to her siblings and friends. She has made the decision to be like Christ and we are grateful for her dedication and faith. She is truly a great person and developing into a fine young woman. We are so blessed to have her as a part of our family.

School Field Day.

This past Friday was the kids field day at school. They do this at the end of every year as a way for the kids to blow off some steam and have a little fun. This year I got to be a team coach for both of the kids. It is a lot of fun and a good way to start the weekend. The whole day is filled with different relay races with the kids going against all the kids of their same grade. The kicker is that the team coaches also get to participate in the races. There is everything from a sack race, to carrying balloons, carrying a plunger with a rubber ball on top, to putting on extremely large clothing, just to name a few. It was a perfect day with the sun out and shining. We didn't win but did make a big improvement from the year before. We ended up finishing in 4th place for the day; last year we finished 7th (out of 8 teams).


Brooklyn running down the course carrying a balloon without using her hands. Everyone had to do this and then the coach would run down and had to sit down and pop the balloon to end their time.


Brooklyn, Meghan and Alex making their funniest face. These three girls have done soccer and basketball in the past and have become very good friends. They are all going to be athletes and will be fun to watch as they get older.


Payton just catching a ride from Meghan. What a way to travel.


Brooklyn doing the sack race. I choose to save myself the embarrassment and not post the pictures of me doing this (not a pretty site).


Maddux running the "Statue of Liberty" race. Not sure what he is looking out and how he managed to keep the ball on the top while not paying attention.


Maddux in a flat out relay race. Notice how far out in front of the other kid Maddux is. They both started from the concrete but Maddux is quickly a good couple of strides ahead of the other boy. That is quite the burst of speed.

Well we have made it through another year of school and are ready for the summer. I know the kids are ready for a break and really did a great job this year. As much as they like school I know they also like to play and are excited for some of the plans we have set for this summer.

Memorial Day Campout.

Last weekend some of our friends invited us to join their annual Memorial Day campout with their family. Little did they know that the invitation would add 20 people to their campout. Not only did we bring ourselves but we also brought Jennie's parents, Greg and his family, and then some of our friends and their 3 kids. While there was a lot of people there it turned out to be a lot of fun. At times I bet there was close to 50 or more people there. This is a family campsite that they meet at 3 times a year and I am just glad that their family opened it up to us and welcomed us in. We all had a lot of fun and it was a great way to spend the weekend. There was lots of good fun, fun on the lake, games and perfect weather. We couldn't have asked for better weather as it was mid 80's the whole weekend and lots of sun. Here are some of the better pictures from the weekend.


Nolan got caught watering the lawn. Him and Tristan were not afraid to drop their shorts no matter where they were or who was watching.


Here he is getting ready for the water fight. I just love the expression on his face. Cannon would throw and bucket full of water at Nolan and he would try to fight it off with his stick.


Breakfast at the campfire. I think they may have worn their bathing suits the whole weekend.


Here are the kids playing in the small pool that was brought to help keep cool. I think it was used more as a watering hole to refill their cups and buckets but did help the kids stay cool during the days.


Jennie cooking lunch (hotdogs) in the campfire.


It may have not been the healthiest weekend for eating but the food was so good. Saturday night was fried chicken night. They had two huge cast iron pans that they use to cook all their food for the weekend. The next morning we cooked bacon and eggs in the same pans. I think we had 5 pounds of bacon cooking at a time. We cooked the bacon first and then used the bacon grease to fry the eggs and then even experimented with a little fried french toast. It was a heart-attack waiting to happen but tasted so good.


Brooklyn displaying her Chinese jumprope skills.


The kids playing "Hands Down" waiting for dinner to be done.


Maddux jumping ship to go join the "pirate ship".


Grandpa and Nolan going out in the "pirate ship" to wreak havoc on the lake.


A look at one half on the campsite. I think at one point their were 5 trailers, a bus, and 4 or 5 tents set up. Every night people would leave and more would show up.


Addysen pulling Brooklyn from the algae covered lake. It wasn't like this everywhere but there were spots with lots of moss. I was really surprised that Brooklyn didn't mind being out in the water and algae. I would have thought that she would have freaked out.


Brooklyn, Addysen and Brynnley going out for a cruise on the lake.


This was probably the hit of the weekend. There was a raft that they could go out on and jump off into the water. Thank you to Shad for being willing to take them out and spend hours out there with them.


Jennie and Payton watching the kids on the lake.


Nolan hanging on for dear life. He loved hanging out in the water.


Ty with the boys going for a little boat ride.


Payton standing in front of the camper just taking it all in.

Well we had a great time and again appreciate the Nye's hospitality for inviting us to join them. I guess we will wait til next year if they had as much fun as we did. If we don't get invited back we will know the answer to that question.