Memorial Day weekend 2010 is in the books. We camped out with all the usual suspects, this time at Mississinewa Reservoir (first time there for us). I left work just after lunch, but events had conspired to prevent us from getting everything ready just on time so we worked at packing and loading the camper until Alex got home from school, and even around an hour or so past. That is, Beth didn't get the shopping done until the last minute. I forgot to sanitize the water tank. Anyway, we left around dinnertime and rolled into the camp at around 7. We were right between the Bells and Judds so Alex and Missy had kids to play with while we set up and got dinner ready. The campground is nice, we thought, but they could use some more pathways to the restrooms and some more water faucets. The bug control was excellent. The kids played and the grownups visited until probably around 10, when we started trying to get the kids down. Not easy, too wired. I stayed with them in the camper until I thought they were asleep, then went out to visit some more, only to hear the sound of Missy screaming a bit later because she woke up and didn't know where we were. By the time I got to her she was sobbing and had left the camper. That was about it for the evening anyway. The next day we went to the beach just after lunchtime for a few hours. It was truly a break in the weather we've been having lately because it was scorching hot all day, and hardly a cloud anywhere. The lake was even warm enough for the adults to swim, and hundreds were. Even me. That says something. We bribed the kids to get out with ice cream afterwards, then had a community dinner back at camp. The worst moment of the weekend came later Saturday when Alex tripped while running and fell face-first into the edge of a picnic table, putting a huge knot on his forehead, and putting him on the ground screaming for quite a while. Poor kid. He seemed to recover ok, though. Sunday was about the same as Saturday, except Boschains and our intern Ray came down to the park to visit for the day, and we took them to the beach with us. After dinner, though, it started clouding up, and some others got a weather report that storms were on the way. Everyone with a tent or popup packed up after dinner and headed out, including us. We had just about our whole camp packed up when the rain started, but about the only significant thing that got wet was the awning of the camper...I'll have to make sure to pull it out to dry before it mildews. We rolled out at about 10 or so. I heard today that they got just pounded with t-storms during the night, so leaving was a good call. Today was a cookout at the Horbetts' house, with a few of the people who had been camping until yesterday. They had an inflatable water slide thingy going on, and a go-kart they race around their yard with to amuse the kids. It was supposed to be an outside thing, but the rain continued today and drove most of it indoors. So overall, I think the weekend was managed pretty well.

Today was my very special day with Missy. She has been feeling left out lately because I do more with Alex (e.g. scouts, baseball) and she didn't want to go to Alex's game tonight. So, Beth took Alex to the game, and I took Missy out for a date night. We all ate dinner together, then I took Missy to Somethin' Funn. The place was pretty much deserted, in fact, the only other person in there was an attendant. We got to drive a go-kart all by ourselves, and the attendant let us go longer than usual. We drove until the car battery started wearing down. Afterwards, we went to Kelainey's for ice cream (she chose lemon custard) and went for a stroll downtown, ending up at Courthouse Coffee for a juice. We ran into a kid from the softball team and Missy told him and the barista all about how it was her special day out with Daddy. We were walking back to the car when Beth and Alex pulled up across the street from us and suggested we go for ice cream. We already had, so they went while we went home. Oh yes, and a fantastic Missyism: as we were walking around downtown, I saw a poster for First Fridays coming up - a downtown festival on the first Friday of each month all summer - and told Missy "we'll definitely have to check out First Fridays." She agreed. "Yeah, Daddy, I'd really like to try my first fried eggs, because I never had one before." I roared. She didn't want me to tell Beth that she thought that was what I said. Ha!

Alex's first game of coach pitch was tonight! We missed the second practice due to rain, and we were busy on the weekend during makeup time, so this was the first time with the team since the 6th. It was also picture day, which meant that a lot of the game time was taken up wangling kids for the pictures, and it was also our snack day, which meant I had a lot of stuff to lug around, and it was also Tai Chi day for Beth, which meant I brought the kids to the park myself. Because of the pictures, there were only 2 innings, but Alex was batting last so he got to hit home runs both times! One time he hit one without the tee, one time with. I am so proud of him out there.

My back is sore from all the yard work yesterday. Beth and I were up fairly early on Saturday to get Alex to his swimming lessons, and we were actually all in the car and on the way when Brian called and asked if I still needed him to bring the jackhammer he had rented over. We had talked about it at small group on Friday evening. He was breaking up a slab to get rid of a basketball hoop, and I still needed it to remove the remnant of the slab behind the garage that I never did finish a couple years ago. Anyway, I went back home while Beth took the kids to the Y, and Brian had the jackhammer over a bit later. It took maybe 20 minutes to get the slab all broken up (he did the work while I was assembling a wheelbarrow I bought ‘cuz the tractor died), we split to rental cost and he took the thing back, then I spent the next couple hours hauling broken pieces of concrete back to the back of the yard and dumping them. Heavy work. Then we moved on to digging up all the stones from the space by the southeast corner of the house, sifting out the dirt, and using the dirt to fill in the hole where the slab had been. The stones went to the back as well. This went on for several hours Saturday. I was thinking about getting back to the retaining wall, but decided not to push it. Today, my back is killing me.

The weekend has seemed very short, but it was good. Alex and I went on a Cub Scout campout Saturday down at Salamonie Reservoir. He had been so excited about it for several days, he was worried that he would oversleep and miss it. Like that would happen. I decided that we should have a tent and some sleeping bags if we're going to go camping with the scouts much, so we got new ones during the week (nice tent...much easier to set up than our last one). The pack all met up at the school in the morning, 9 kids, 8 adults. Just before we left we joined up with the Lemps so we all didn't have to drive separately, and we threw all their stuff in the truck and caravaned down. The youth area of the campground is just a clearing with mowed grass around a loop in the road and a pit toilet in the middle, but we had the entire area to ourselves and pitched tents wherever in one of two areas we rented. Hot dogs for lunch, followed by a hike down by the dam, down to a small waterfall and lots of mud. Alex had put on his sandals, which I didn't like at first since it was a hike, but it turned out ok since that meant he had clean, dry shoes to put on when we got back. Several of the boys were pretty much soaked and filthy when we got back. And about that time it started to rain, and didn't stop until around bedtime. It never got more than about drizzle level, and usually just sprinkling, but it was constant. Fortunately it wasn't heavy enough rain to keep the boys from playing outside, which they loved. Exploring (they all found a 'secret hideout' down by the lakeshore...just a little finger of the lake making a small cove. They built a bridge out of sticks, rocks, and logs down there. There was some ball playing, zombie tag of some sort, fishing, making tie-dye t-shirts, running through the woods, getting wet and muddy, etc. Dinner was chili or hot dogs again, but at smore time it was raining hard enough we went under the shelter and roasted the marshmallows over a propane stove. The boys played in the drizzle until about 10, when it finally started to clear up, but everyone was about ready for bed then. Alex and I stayed pretty warm and dry overnight; the sleeping bags were nice. But I forgot how confining they are for grownups. Alex's sneakers were soaked so the next morning he wore his slippers out and about, getting them soaked too. We packed up in the morning and were all gone by about 9:30. We beat the girls home from church.

Once again, the weekend has not cooperated with us.

Alex had his first practice for coaches pitch this evening. He is on the Reds this year. So far it looks a little like last year, where he likes batting, and he likes drawing pictures in the dirt. But what I was most concerned about was his batting because of his depth perception, which we're still not sure how good it is. But he did pretty well. He hit a couple of balls pitched from the coach without using the tee, and used the tee a couple of times. I think the rule is you get 3 swings to hit the ball, then they bring out the tee. But he seemed to be having fun. He wants to get a bat of his own, we'll have to see what we can do about that.

Today I got Missy to ride without training wheels for the first time, by lying to her. I took the training wheels off and asked her to try riding without them. She agreed, but ONLY if I would hold on to her and not let go. "Don't let go, daddy!" "I won't." She rode in a straight line down the road by herself! Yay!

Tonight in softball I just couldn't quite get the feel of my swing. Don't know why, but I was popping up and fouling out and it all felt awkward, until the last at-bat, when I clobbered one straight up the gap and had a double. Rounding first and heading for second, knowing you will probably make it, is a great feeling.

The McCoys had a cookout at their house this afternoon. It wasn’t particularly warm, but somehow the kids wound up putting swimsuits on and playing with the hose for most of the afternoon. There is a lot of mud at the farm. Most of it was on Alex and Mayson. The quote of the day came from Alex, who, when slattered with a handful of mud from Mayson, turns around to face him, and says "Oh, it's on." Mud...everywhere... and Travis has been taking a look at my dead tractor, and according to him, it is dead dead dead. The engine is just totally shot. But, he happens to have another lawn tractor engine that he will replace it with, so he's going to keep the thing for a little while. We have a new push mower anyway. Yesterday we took the kids (and their bikes) to the Winona Lake Fat & Skinny Tire Festival (or Bike Fest for short). There were a bunch of events for kids, which was all we were really interested in. They had a bike decorating contest which Alex won a prize for, mostly because he brought on of my old car license plates from home to put on his bike…it happened to say something like 43X6547 on it, and he told the judges it was a math problem. They liked that. He and Missy added a bunch of streamers and assorted creative junk. Missy also won a prize in a coloring contest. There was a parade for the decorated bikes after that, then the kids could ride in an obstacle course. Then we left because it was just starting to rain. Overall, I gotta say it was not well managed. Nobody seemed to know exactly when or where anything was supposed to be happening, not even the organizers. There was consequently a lot of standing around waiting for someone to tell us something.