Tee-Ball

We recently bought Wyatt a tee-ball set and he loves it. He appears to be quite the natural, although I think he hits the ball even better with live pitching. Sam tried to get in on the action too, at first simply putting the ball on the tee and knocking it off with his hands then then picking up the bat to tap them off.

Here are some recent photos and videos we captured duing their batting practice sessions.

Line drive after line drive after line drive...

You'd think Sam was helping here but he was in fact hitting the ball off the tee before Wyatt could get a swing in...

Cheers from little brother...

Samuel's First Haircut

Samuel had his first haircut today from our friend Johnnie and Sam did a really great job holding still and not getting freaked out. Johnnie went easy on him and just used the shears after seeing the look Sammy shot him when he turned on the clippers.

Before...



During...





After...

Afterward, Wyatt and Elia played in the sprinkler, while Sammy preferred to hang out with Harley the dog on the deck.

Thomas the Train

We rode the train in Snoqualmie today and it was pulled by non other than Thomas. Wyatt loves trains in general but has a soft place in his heart for the "Thomas and Friends" television series in particular and so we were all really looking forward to this event.

Our timing was perfect as we arrived to the depot just as Thomas pulled into the station and he rode right past us. Wyatt was thrilled, although he had expressed to me earlier that he'd rather ride on James or Gordon. Once the train chugged past him, however, I don't think he cared who was pulling it.



We were fortunate enough to get one of the only seats that had an open window so Wyatt was able to poke his head out of the car for the best view on the train. When the train started down the track Sammy started to blow goodbye kisses to the people watching from the platform. I tried to get it on camera but was a little too late. This video is cute nonetheless.



By the end of the ride Sam was sound asleep in Ross' arms and Wyatt said that he had a lot of fun on the #1 engine. We will have to take the kids to ride Thomas again next year.

Lewis-McChord Air Expo

No, North Bend is not under attack. These are the Patriots, which are four high performance L-39 aircraft that closed out the Joint Base Lewis-McChord Air Expo yesterday in Tacoma. We attended the event with the boys yesterday and had a blast. We weren't sure how the kids would handle all of the noise and excitement but they did great and really enjoyed themselves. The occasional explosion and illusion of impending doom didn't even make them bat an eyelash.

Ross stopped at Walmart on the way there to pick up some ear protection for the boys and they actually enjoyed wearing it. Wyatt even wore his on the car ride there.

We quickly discovered the secret to a good air show with little ones is 1) ear protection, and 2) popcorn. You will see this same Ziploc bag of popcorn that I brought along in most of our photos throughout the day and you'd have thought it was full of happy pills. As long as they were munching away life couldn't be sweeter in their eyes.

The first demonstration we saw was L-O-U-D and this was the reaction from the boys...



...pure delight. They were laughing out loud and saying "Wow!" over and over again.





























Ross and Wyatt stood in line to look inside the cockpit of a F-16 fighter jet. Wyatt thought it was neat but really just wanted to sit inside of it and take it for a spin.

We met up with Julie and our nephews and niece for a bit and the kids ran in and out of the parked jets for about an hour.















It was a great day and we hope to take the boys to see the Blue Angels perform at Sea Fair next month.