Life with the Ball's
The Adventures of Randy, Mel, and the Boys
Sunday, October 20, 2024
Sometimes I have Fun
Thursday, October 3, 2024
Three Weeks with Marcus
We had three short weeks with Marcus home from his mission before he left for BYU. We played so hard! We ended up spending the first couple days he was home with the Walker family. Their son Jacob returned from Brazil the day before Marcus. As soon as Marcus was released from being a missionary, we went to lunch at his favorite place, Q-Doba, then took him to see Jacob. They were basically inseparable after that. I think they both loved having someone else to help them navigate all the weird feelings of being home. They worked out together, saw friends, got caught up on movies, and played hard. They both spoke in sacrament meeting together (Marcus gave a great talk about how his mission was the best decision he'd ever made and how God is in the details of our lives) and we held a joint homecoming party at the Walker's house. So many people showed up and there was a ton of good food and of course swimming on the lake.
The next day we were on Lake Washington watching the Blue Angels. It's the best day of the year in Seattle. Randy also managed to get pulled over not once but twice by the Coast Guard police. Luckily we weren't given a ticket. I think the cops were sure that a boat with 17 people in it must have some serious partying going on.
We squeezed in a temple trip after boating and before dinner and the homecoming party. |
The only picture of the homecoming party
Elder Snell, Marcus's bestie from Utah was serving here and got permission to hear Marcus speak
Summer This and That
weekly park day in Seattle and we were the only ones to show up |
Cold summer weather meant lots of hot tubbing |
Henry got to play some lacrosse for the first time |
Henry hanging out while the family did baptisms in the temple |
Swimming as the sun sets on Pine Lake = heaven on earth |
Henry having fun for once Free Slurpee day! Marcus did it right! |
Sunday, September 15, 2024
Colorado Springs
This is me catching up on summer happenings. One big event that will be forever seared into my brain was my first trip to Colorado. Landon and Parker were both scheduled to play in a huge tournament there and since I have never been, I was the unlucky parent to go on this trip. It was bad news from the start.
Flights were insanely expensive. Like we could've flown to Europe for the same price. I tried to save money where I could and found us flights that arrived later than I would've preferred at 11:30pm. Not great but to us it would feel like 10:30 so I figured it wouldn't be terrible. I was so wrong! Our flight left late and then landed late after circling around Denver twice. Pretty sure we had a new pilot in training. He was the worst. And by the time we landed and got all our luggage at a baggage claim over a mile away, I was in a terrible mood. Then we had to get a rental car. And the line to pick it up was so slow and all the while the clock was ticking away and my boys were still awake and about to get no sleep before their games the next day. We finally got our rental and drove 90 minutes to our hotel in Colorado Springs. We arrived at 3am. I think the last time I stayed up that late was my freshman year in college. My contacts were glued to my eyeballs and I was just so thankful we made it to the hotel without any mishaps. Luckily Landon and Parker slept in the car because Landon had to get up at 6:30am for his game. Poor guy. I literally prayed that both of us would be able to function on no sleep and it was a serious miracle because we did!
The tournament was not great. Are you noticing a theme with this trip? There were teams from all across the country and the venue was enormous! It was at the Air Force Academy and there were thirty fields. It was massive! Naturally the boys teams never played anywhere near each other so I walked back and forth in the hundred degree weather, trying to find them. Yes, you heard that right. There was a crazy heat advisory. Gatorade was sold out at the grocery store, it was that bad. We saw several players get loaded up into ambulances for heat exhaustion. It was miserable. But we persevered and lost a lot of games.
That evening we managed to do a little sight seeing and we were pleasantly surprised with the red rock beauty of the Garden of the Gods. We ate a delicious BBQ joint that someone recommended and the boys and I filled ourselves on brisket. We slept great that night and were like a well-oiled machine as we packed up our stuff, got plenty of ice and water, and checked out of the hotel in record time to get to early games. By the time Parker finished his last game I was so done with the sun and lacrosse. I applied countless coats of sunblock and somehow managed to escape without a sunburn.
So much brisket! |
hot and tired and ready for a shower at the hotel that we spent a total of like ten hours at |