Last day of baseball camp

Gunnar had a great week! He got a ball signed by a bunch of the WSU players. A highlight of the day was tackling his "coach" named Cory, who is the starting catcher for the Cougs.

The family at Moses Lake.

Baseball pics

These are also from the tournament last weekend; Gunnar is hanging out with Miles Miller on his right and also Camdyn Hurn, Ollie Spencer and his batboy brother Hewson (who was one of Zane's buddies in his first grade class this last year), and Colton Conk. I guess one thing we can be thankful for is that Nick didn't really get knocked out by the pain until after all the games were over, and before we left Moses Lake where he could get some pain management help! I think I passed maybe 10 cars total in about a two hour stretch of driving through Eastern Washington that night. Civilization is sparse.
Nick's back around his left kidney is slightly sore and he is a little lightheaded as the narcotics wear off, but otherwise he is almost normal and went to batting practice tonight. The boys are working hard to get ready for the Idaho 9U All-Star tournament next week, where they will play some really good teams from places like Boise and Meridian that have hundreds audition for a spot. For the first time ever the tournament is in Moscow (by our house!) and not southern Idaho - which is a great bonus.

Hanging out with my cutie patootie before swim lessons

But don't let Karsten overhear you call him that! He is adamantly NOT a cutie patootie. Sorry, son, but you are.
Zane and Karsten are in their second week of swim lessons, while Gunnar is getting a workout for 4 mornings this week at the WSU baseball camp (and enjoying some nice facilities there!).

Nick update

Looks like he has about a 5 mm kidney stone he needs to pass in the next couple of days, but it has almost reached the bladder so the worst should be nearly over (and there were no more stones visible in the scan). The pain was excruciating; he couldn't move, talk, or even roll over when asked. It was crazy to see him so incapacitated. But the paid meds have worked wonders and he is functioning more normally now. Hopefully we will be heading home soon; it is a about a 2 1/2 hour drive back to Moscow.


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Nick is in PAIN...

and the kids are worried.
Right when Gunnar was going up to bat during the second game Nick had to lay down with great nausea and kidney pain. He seemed to recover with lots of Gatorade, but just before hitting the highway he got bowled over with pain again. He collapsed at the urgent care, and was ambulanced to the hospital. We have heard that kidney stones are brutally painful, and the fact that Nick can barely respond to questions seems to bear this out. He's about to get a Cat scan.

Cooling off in Moses Lake

Blue Heron park is only a couple of minutes from our hotel, and is a popular place to cool off on a hot Saturday afternoon!

At the Latah County All-Star teams potluck

You can't tell these boys just got crushed 2-15 by an all-star 9U team from Olympia! We only have one game today because another team was a no-show, and that's a bummer because these boys obviously have extra energy to burn, even in the heat. Gunnar already changed after the game, and Zane was eager to join the dogpile.
Gunnar didn't pitch well during his only 2 outings of the regular season, but a retired pitching coach from WSU helped at one practice and gave him a bunch of pointers that seem to be helping a ton. Last weekend he pitched 2 innings of 3 up, 3 down with 4 strikeouts. Today he pitched 2 innings with 3 walks and 3 hits (and a final out strikeout), but there were 5 errors in the field and they scored 9 runs in one inning. So it was a tough inning, but overall he didn't do that badly from the mound.

More Moses Lake hotel silliness

Karsten was fascinated by the old phone, because he had never seen one before! He kept picking it up and listening to the dial tone.
And for Gunnar, the more mismatched neon he can wear, the happier he is. (Maybe he isn't getting enough attention???). We were sad that Oregon State was losing their final CWS game today after a stellar season.

Moses Lake baseball tournament

Gunnar is on the 9U Latah County All-Star team this year (although he is already 10, but his birthday is 16 days after the April 30th cutoff date. He was very sad in 2nd grade when we told him he couldn't play with some of his buddies because he was too young). Nick is an assistant coach.
At last week's first tournament in Moscow they played three different 10U teams and were beat pretty badly, but then they played two other 9U teams and won both games. This weekend we are in the middle of Washington, where it is cookin' in the 90's! They won their first game 12-7 last night vs. the 9U Moses Lake All-Stars, and Gunnar was 2-2 including a beautiful little bunt for a hit.
Our hotel room was a hilarious little discovery, since we got the reservations from someone else and have only two doubles, not queens, and it hasn't been updated in decades (the little TV is a relic). The little boys slept on a sleeping bag in the corner. But hey, it is clean - and at least we don't have to stay in Spokane or tricities like some families who couldn't find a place to stay!

Brrr!!!

If you want the pool all to yourself, go when it is only 60 degrees out! I was helping Karsten practice swimming, so he can be proficient enough to start the Frogs swim class next week. Another year of Turtles would be too easy. He doesn't last long (although the water is warmer than the air), but I have to practically drag Gunnar and Zane out when it is time to go.

The Dragons

Gunnar got his baseball pics today, and he and Nick are headed down now to the fields for the second game of the season-ending Cal Ripken minors tournament (if his face looks a little dirty in the pic, it is because they had just finished defeating the Bulls on Monday.) The Dragons finished 4th out of 10 in league play, and won the first tournament game Monday. If they win today they play in the championship game tomorrow, but it will be tough to beat the undefeated Timber Rattlers this evening.
Gunnar's season isn't over though, and we have another month of baseball! Gunnar got on the 9U all-star team for Latah County, so he will have 3 weekend tournaments. Nick will help coach. He's pretty excited about it!