Father's Day/Grandparents Roper Visit

We were lucky enough to have Dad and Susie come visit for Cole's baptism. It being Father's Day weekend made it all the better!

Cole was supposed to have a game on Friday night, but it got rained out. REALLY rained out - it was pouring buckets, and not just for a few minutes like I had thought it would. So we did the natural thing and went to Hu Hot instead! I tried to get a good picture of these two with Grandma, but as seems to be the theme of this trip, there was always one kid making a face or something.

Father's Day was good. In Primary our chorister did a game where 4 dads came in disguise (wrapped in sheets with paper bags over their heads, and crazy faces drawn on the bags) and the kids had to ask questions and guess who the dads were. The dads were told to disguise their voices, but this backfired in junior primary because some of those kids FREAKED OUT. One little sunbeam was so scared she had to leave the room!! This was hysterical and sad... but mostly hysterical. Tess finally guessed that one of them was Lance, and she was right, but Lance scared her so bad when he took off the paper bag that she started to cry and had to sit on my lap for the rest of the game while I played piano. Good times.

At home we had steak for dinner, per Lance's request. Can't go wrong with that! I tried to get some good Father's Day pictures, but as per usual not everyone complied. Josh was hiding behind the couch and generally misbehaving.

And then Cole decided to hide.

I probably took 30 of these pictures, and these 2 were the best. *sigh*

On Monday we decided to take advantage of the lovely weather and go back to the art garden in Indy. It was a GORGEOUS day - low humidity, mid-70's, a lovely breeze.

But despite the great weather, Josh was In. A. Mood. It started with me making him sit with Tess and Cole in the back seat of the van so Grandma could have a captains chair and not be squished in the back. THE HORROR. How dared I??!?! You'd have thought we were torturing him. Perhaps we were. Still, he didn't need to be such a pill. (10 year old boys = very emotionally unstable)

Despite Josh's grouchiness, we still had a nice time. Yet another group picture with Josh hiding in the background - if you look reeeeaaalllly close you can see a glimpse of his orange shirt in the upper right. He was ducking so he wouldn't be in the picture. Stinker.

We eventually had a picnic lunch and then everyone seemed to mellow out for a bit. Maybe 20 minutes? Then Cole started to complain that he wanted to go home. Oh well, it was a lovely 20 minutes.

They all seemed to have a grand time scampering around this giant skeleton art piece.

There was also a little maze that led to this bench. Cole FREAKED out because we wouldn't cheat to get to it! Also, Tess and Spencer decided to scowl.

Then just Tess.

We walked for a bit through the forest and even ran into a couple of elders who we stopped to chat with. (One was leaving for home in 2 days!) We had time to take this picture and then it started thundering and raining and Cole got his wish to go home!

That night we had THREE little league games to sit through enjoy. Cole was in a tournament, and I have to admit we were kinda hoping he'd lose his first game so he wouldn't have a 2nd game. But wouldn't you know it, they won!

I honestly don't think he would have been that sad to lose. Baseball did not quite become a passion for the boy.

We enjoyed Costco hot dogs and some local root beer between games. Perfect ballpark food.

The boys lost their second game, which ended their season. I think they were all okay with that. They got to get their medals while being cheered on by parents.

Cole was so thrilled to get a medal! I'm pretty sure getting a medal was one of the reasons he decided to play this year!

His coaches were so patient with him. He is not an easy child to teach or coach. (Don't I know it!)

One last team cheer for Earl McCoy Law!

Right after this was Josh's game. It was an exciting game, way faster than Cole's. Josh did great and the team won, even after a rain storm that lasted a good 20 minutes in the middle of the game! I was thankful I had listened to the promptings of the spirit and had not taken the umbrellas out of the car as I had originally thought about doing right before leaving for the ball park! We all huddled under umbrellas and shivered while cheering Josh on. Dad and Susie were pretty good sports about it. (Dad lurves baseball in all shapes and forms and Susie loves Dad and her grandkids. It's a good combination that worked out well during this trip!)