Livingston to Yellowstone

It must get cold in Montana - I've never seen a hotel advertise this as an amenity before!
This morning we drove an hour south of Livingston to the north Yellowstone entrance, and I hopped out to take a pic of the line of cars waiting to pay $35 each to enter the park. We only spent a few hours traversing the northeast corner of Yellowstone with intermittent thundershowers and hail, so we avoided much of the crowds. It also meant we missed seeing Old Faithful and other geysers (guess we will need to return someday!).

Pit Mine

Dinner in Butte

We had pizza last night, then before heading out to the hotel in Livingston we stopped to see the toxic metallic stew at the Berkeley Pit Mine.

The many faces of Signe

She has provided some entertainment this trip, including the creepy open-eyed slumber (Karsten does it too) that has unnerved me since she was a toddler.

Butte

On the road the truck passengers are listening to the audiobook Fire and Brimstone, about the mining disaster that killed 162 men in 1917. We briefly stopped among the thundershowers to visit a memorial above the mine site, which referenced the men we have been hearing about in the book. I would have loved to have time to visit William A Clark's Copper King mansion after reading Empty Mansions (he is also referenced in this book), but we only have time for a picture (sorry Nana!). I love learning about history with the kids, and then exploring the places we learn about.

Road trippin’ to Nebraska

Grandpa and Grandma drove in from Hood River yesterday, and this morning we headed out, with the plan to arrive in Nebraska in 3 days.
First stop was the Cataldo Mission east of Couer d'Alene, from 1850 the oldest building in Idaho. Signe served as tour guide, after visiting a couple months ago with her 8th grade history trip.
Lunch in Kellogg, and dinner in Butte.

Summer softball

While Gunnar has a tournament in Pullman, Signe is playing for the Moscow Maulers 14U in a huge Spokane tournament. Her team's main pitcher had a shoulder injury Wednesday and can't play, and the Maulers only have 1 other girl who can reasonably pitch, plus Signe - which meant Signe had to pitch the entire game last night. She doesn't have much velocity so they hit her pretty hard, but she toughed it out. Combined with a lightning delay and thundershower we didn't wrap that game up until well after 10 pm.

Today's game against a Calgary team was pretty close. Signe had to come in to pitch again for relief (with bases loaded and no outs) and it took her a few batters to get warmed up. But then they got 3 outs in a row on 3 pop ups, so good way to end the inning!

And as a bonus - without any boys to complain about it, the ladies can enjoy a peaceful lunch at Panera.

Lunch in Lewiston

Signe has a game last night and two this morning for her end-of-the year softball tourney for her Parks and Rec team. We headed straight to Lewiston from Pullman to take advantage of Shopko's 90% going out of business sale, hit Costco, and finally check out the Main St Grill downtown.
Signe is supposed to play in 2 travel team tournaments next month, but she keeps hurting herself... bruised wrist, pulled groin, sore arm, sprained ankle, etc... that we mind need to keep her at home and bubble wrapped.

Signe at bat...

Grounder to 1st base. Played first, played well.

Swim lessons in rainy 45 degrees

Mom is freezing under a shelter dressed in winter gear, but at least Karsten has a heated pool. Risky weather is the chance you take when you sign up for June swim lessons in Moscow.
Zane and Gunnar are busy at a week-long basketball camp at Troy high school.

Bozeman

Two weekends ago Gunnar and Nick had a rainy tournament in Bozeman, Montana. Nick flew to Bozeman on Thursday night straight from a business trip in Montana, while the grandparents of Gunnar's teammate Makhi drove out Gunnar and two other teammates in Nick's truck. They had some struggles at the plate (everything they hit went straight at someone), but an early tourney exit meant that Nick didn't have a late night for the 7-8 hour drive home. He did have 3 sleepy baseball players in his truck.

Baseball!

Our friends Mike and Kathryn  Church own Kestrel  Reality here in town, and they sponsored Zane's and Jerome's Cal Ripken minors team this year. They created this great little video you link to on YouTube.

Zane is the catcher #50 (not quite making the tag at home), and you can see Gunnar's neon green shorts and blue shirt observing from the background at one point. Jerome is playing catch in front of the dugout.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=qltzE70Osnc

Sent from my iPhone

Grandparent’s Day

Both Grandpa and Grandma and Nana and Papa drove over from Oregon for the weekend for Logos's elementary Grandparent's Day on Friday. Zane made a float of Alaska after spending the entire semester researching it for his 3rd grade state project. Gunnar has been busy with sports after school, but I woke up at 6:00 am one morning to hear him using power tools in the garage below (Dad helped instruct him), to finish up his 6th grade project - the Aztec weapon "macahuitl".

9U wins tourney!

There were only 5 teams in the 9U division (and 15 teams in the 11U, where Gunnar's team was seeded 4th after pool play). But Zane's team put on a dominate display to handily win all 4 of their games.
Can't you tell how much Gunnar loves cuddling with his siblings on the drive home from Spokane?

Cinco de Mayo tourney

The 11U Generals crushed their 2 opponents in pool play, but then succumbed to one of the teams they beat earlier after they had a rough 1st inning. Gunnar crushed 2 balls out to right field - unfortunately one was right to the fielder, whose coach had just told to back up quite a bit.
And we joined a bunch of the 9Us for lunch at Mod Pizza yesterday.

Heading to the Cinco de Mayo tourney

Both Zane's 9U and Gunnar's 11U Generals are playing this weekend in a big Spokane tournament. We are heading to an AirBNB before Gunnar's 8pm game.
Karsten quickly passed out. He looks dead.
He inherited his sister's creepy eye-open sleeping habit.

Birthday beer

It's only a wee-heavy.