Birthday party!!

The boys had a super day at camp. Karsten's highlight was going up in front of everyone to have them sing "Happy Birthday" and getting a Canyonview pin. We played a few games with lots of giggling, including one where the "boss" tries to find out who stole his paper clip, while the "employee" behind him makes faces while trying not to get caught and fired.

My cutie patootie is SIX!!

Karsten is spending his birthday at the first day of Canyonview Camp with his brothers. He's pretty excited to join them for his first time ever! Signe has gotten too old for day camp, so she gets to hang out at Nana and Papa's house. Nana is now making her popular carrot cake for his birthday party tonight, which is what he asked for.

Classic Woodburn.

Friday night in Hood River

Swimming and playing by the river, then ice cream at Mike's.

Arlington Oregon

Whenever we drive to Hood River on a hot summer day, it goes without saying that we will make a pit-stop to jump in the water.

Video of the boys cliff jumping...

Video of the boys cliff jumping into the Snake River at Granite Point, WA. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEjwc_1-xOA

Good reads...

I'm leaving these links to a couple different pastor's blog posts as a reminder for myself to read these again in the future.

Why post here and read again? These are very good thoughts on fighting Christian warfare as men and why fathers and elders need to guard those given to them.

https://dougwils.com/s7-engaging-the-culture/the-size-of-basketballs.html

http://www.tobyjsumpter.com/pastoral-ministry-pink-hair-and-the-gospel/

Both of these assume the truth of the Bible and the veracity of the gospel of Jesus as revealed in the Bible.

Boys swimming the distance and an extra of Karsten.

Gunnar and Zane swam from the far point here on the Snake River, near Granite Point, WA.

Holloway boys cliff jumping.

Labradoodles

Signe is puppy sitting our neighbor's litter of 7 labradoodles. It is a lot of work, but the cuteness payback is well worth it.

Labradoodles

Signe is puppy sitting our neighbor's litter of 7 labradoodles. It is a lot of work, but the cuteness payback is well worth it.

Floating down the river...

My kids were very excited to return to beautiful Orofino, after checking it out on Monday for the first time. It is about a 1 hour and 10 minute drive SE of Moscow, and I suspect we might return often (possibly even tomorrow!). The 11U and 12U Moscow teams also played today and planned a big group river float and barbecue afterwards. Our second game finished long after all the other games and Nick and I get zero cell reception in Orofino with AT&T. That means we never did figure out where to meet up with everyone. We did receive a bunch of hours-old texts about where to meet and get in the water after we were most of the way home; much too late to be of use.

Nick had bought two floats yesterday, so he tested out a short float on the Clearwater with just the kids while I drove down the highway and waited for them. The three oldest had a blast and could have spent all day in the water. Karsten got cold fairly quickly, in spite of the 90ish temperature outside, and he was ready to quit much sooner.

The last day of baseball!

Enough players did not want to end their season yet that even after the Orofino tournament was officially canceled we scheduled 2 games with their 9U team. The Blue Devils had beat them 12-10 last month with a final inning comeback, but today we weren't as fortunate as boys played new positions and a couple new players joined the team. Gunnar, however, did a decent job pitching a little in both games and went 3-5, including a double. That nudged his final post-season batting average up to .428; he was .478 during the regular season. These pics show him at first base, where he usually played, and pitching.

Abby enjoying the scenery on the middle fork of the Clearwater River.

Signe's at Camp Alacca on the south fork of the Clearwater River... middle of nowhere, aka Harpster, Idaho

In the bottom pic, the boys and I went cliff jumping at Pratt's Bluff on the south fork of the Clearwater River about 2 miles south of Stites, Idaho. I dove off the 20-25 foot cliff, while Abby watched and Lucy did her swim-splash. The boys were able to climb down to an 8 foot cliff jump that put them in a swift current that quickly back-eddied to a still area. Lots of fun as the cool river temps were perfect. Even Karsten jumped!

9U All-Star Tournament: Latah County Blue Devils

We had a HOT but fun weekend of baseball! Grandpa and Grandma left HR early Thursday morning to make it to the first 11:30 game. We lost both games that day to Nampa and Meridian. Last night they played Twin Falls, and had to win and hold them to only 2 runs to continue in the tournament. The Blue Devils were winning 8-2 until the last inning, when Twin Falls scored 2 runs that kept us from progressing (but we still got the win!). Gunnar played 1st base and had a great game, hitting 2-3 with an exciting triple. (I didn't see Zane standing there with his new snow cone and my demonstrative yelling sent it flying. I bought him another one).
Including all 12 post-season games, Gunnar ended up with the second highest On Base Percentage (.620) and batting average (.391) on the team, behind only Camdyn Hurn.

This morning Signe and Gunnar volunteered with me to keep the scoreboard and pitch count for the 9U Meridian vs Co-County game (mostly kids from Caldwell and Jerome). Meridian crushed Co-County; we wished we could have played Co-County because I think we would have had a great chance to beat them.
Sadly, last night was unexpectedly the last game of the season, because we just got work that the fun end-of-the-year tourney in Orofino next weekend was canceled.

Cockpit of B-17, top turret, and more