Rubbing Rackets with Tennis Greats

Currently in DC, the Citi Open Tennis Tournament is in full swing (no pun intended ;)) and Dave decided, what better way to experience the tournament than to be in on the action!  So, he signed up to be a volunteer.  His job was to greet each player at the airport and get them situated with their assigned driver, etc.

Here he is with Vasek Pospisil, Canada's #2 ranked player.

And Sabine Lisicki, who currently holds the world record for fastest serve for a female tennis player at 131mph measured in 2014. 

And Jelena Jankovic, a former #1 ranked player and has a Wimbledon title in Mixed Doubles under her belt.

Juan Carlos Ferrero, a former #1 ranked player and winner of the 2003 French Open.

Dominic Thiem, currently ranked #7 in the world.

And Sascha Zverev, currently ranked #8 in the world

And last and least (imo), Tennis's bad boy, Nick Kygyros who is only the 2nd person to ever beat Federer, Nadal and Djokovic in their first meetings.

So, there you have it. A day in the life of a tennis buff.

FieldTrip Friday Foiled

We had big plans for FieldTrip Friday today.  We were going to head to Sandy Point State Park where there is a beach (leading up to the Chesapeake Bay instead of the ocean), picnic area, trails, etc.  BUT, we woke up to both Lacey and Tanner complaining that their ears hurt and a forecast that called for rain starting at 12:00.  So, instead we spent the morning at the doctors office getting both Lacey and Tanner diagnosed with ear infections/swimmers ear and getting them started on ear drop antibiotics with strict instructions not to get their ears wet until the pain subsided.  So..... Sandy Point was no longer on the table.  Instead, I put drops in the kids ear, gave them both Ibuprofen and then packed the kids in the car and headed to the airport.

I had read about "Friendship Park", a park located at the Thomas A. Dixon Observation Area right next to the airport, so while you play at the park......

You can see huge jets and airplanes taking off and landing directly overhead.

I took this picture with our minivan at the bottom of the photo so you can see just how close we were to the planes as they took off.

This picture from their website gives you a better idea of the experience.

We all agreed it would have been more fun to be ON the plane heading to an exciting destination, but this was a close 2nd ;)

The most "normal" picture I got.  Thank you Lacey and Riley for cooperating.

The best memory we all had of the day was when we saw a plane starting to take off, we would all take off running down the trail right along side and run and scream as fast and loud as we could until the airplane jetted past us.

So, today, I'm grateful for pediatricians, antibiotics, Motrin and Plan B's.

Endings and Beginnings

Every single morning M-F since the beginning of June, the kids have gotten up and headed to the pool for swim team practice and every single weekend, they've had a meet.  This past Saturday marked the end of the season and their last meet.  I always tell the kids they are only racing against themselves, trying to beat themselves and improve their score.  And thankfully all three of them did that at their last meet!  What a way to end the season!

Riley got a PR in 25m Back with a time of 32.0 placing 2nd overall.

And T got a PR in the 25m Free with a time of 25.69

And little miss Lacey had her best meet of the season!

She got a PR in all three of her events!  She got 28.89 in the 25m Breast (her favorite and best stroke - in fact she placed 6th overall in that), 34.85 in the 25m Back (beating her previous best time by 4 seconds!) and 53.33 in the 50mFree.  Nice to end on a high note!

And within a day of swim team ending...... the next sport started!  

Tanner begged us to sign him up for football this year and he had his first practice last night.  Yup, practices start in July and the season goes until December with 3-4 practices/week plus games.  Heaven help me.  I'm just praying he doesn't poop out 3 weeks into the season.  But so far (one practice into the 4 1/2 month long season) so good.  At the end of the practice, I nervously asked him how it was.  The practice looked hard and hot and intense and I figured it might be like wrestling where it looks like a cool sport, but once you actually start doing it and see how hard it is, then you think "what did I get myself into?  This is the pits!!"  Truth be told, I still think that, but I hope he proves me wrong!

Anyway..... after asking him how practice was, he responded, "It was intense!  But it was really fun!" Okay, I'll take that.  Perfect answer.  Perfect balance.  Let's just hope it stays that way.

And while the kids and I have been doing all of that, this is what Dave has been doing.  Roaming around my old stomping grounds, my beloved hometown of Chicago.

He flew out Sunday morning and comes home tomorrow.  He has a 4-day work conference there at Navy Pier.  We originally talked about me joining him for a couple days, but then we realized we had the small issue of having 4 kids to take care of..... ;)  So, anyway, he's enjoying Chicago without me!

Lou's......

Where Dave and I spent our wedding night.  

Beginnings.

Beginnings without End.

Come Sail Away

You know what's cool about living in Annapolis?  Sailing Camp!  Yup, that's right.  Where I grew up, there was basketball camp and soccer camp and such, but here there is sailing camp!  I mean really, how cool is that?!  I never would have thought of it, but the mom of one of Tanner's friends called me and said she was signing up her son and would Tanner want to do it too as her son would love to do it with a friend.  T jumped at the chance.

I'd say his "camp" has a fairly nice view....

Yesterday was his last day of this week-long camp, so I stayed for a while after dropping him off so I could see him in action.  Here he is setting up his sail boat.

It's a 2-man boat and it's up to the two of them to put it together.  I had fun listening to them spout off all these sail-boat terms to each other while setting it up.  Words that meant nothing to me, but that now mean something to my 9 yr old Annapolis-born son.

All set up and ready to sail!

And off they go on their Opti!

What an awesome week!  They had a great time and learned a lot too.  At the end of the last day, Tanner was presented with a certificate that he was now an "Opti Seaman" and that he has now successfully completed the program for Small Boat Sailing and Basic Seamanship.

Now all we need is a boat......

24 Hours

We arrived to Medford ~4pm on Sunday and left ~2pm on Tuesday, which meant we only had one full day in Medford, which meant we had to maximize our time there!  This is what we did....

We went to Grandma's ~9:30 in the morning and visited with her and took her out on a couple errands she wanted to run.  And I presented her with things that the kids gave to me to give to her:

Lacey: Dear GG, This is for you.  I love you so much.  Thank you for the cards!  This butterfly took about 2 hours to make and effort for you. Love, Lacey B. Strom.

Dear GG, I miss you! I haven't seen you in so long!  This toy car will remind you of me.  From, Tanner

Ella sent her her pre-school picture.

Dave and I have a similar map that I gave to him during our engagement.  I got the idea from my Grandma and I love looking at it every time I visit her.  She may not move much now, but a few decades ago, she sure did!

After a nice morning together, JoEllen and my mom stayed with Grandma visiting and looking through pictures and reminiscing while my dad, Riley and I met up with my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Jim in Grant's Pass.  We boarded the Hellgate on the Rogue River and boy, were we in for a treat!

We started out nice and easy looking at bald eagles in tree tops and soaking in the scenery...

And then he took off!  We started going super fast back and forth over and over, doing 360's and having the water splash us and cool us off.  It was pretty thrilling!

Riley and Papa Mitchell

Every time I've gone out to Medford (I think this is my 5th time), I see my grandma and then I leave. This was the first time I've really ventured out and soaked up Oregon.  And there is A LOT to soak up... 

it is breathtakingly beautiful.

What a great day for a boat ride!  Everything from the thrills and spills and speed to the slow and steady and mountains and trees and eagles was awesome.  Such a great way to spend the afternoon!

After our boat ride, we hurried back and got changed and then went to pick up Grandma.

But before we left for the restaurant, we took pictures.

This is my favorite.  I love how my grandma just rested her head on Riley's shoulder.

Grandma and her firstborn

Love her smile here!

 I had this idea to get a 4-generation picture all holding hands.  But Grandma couldn't let go of her walker and my dad's eyes are closed.  Oh well, it was a good try ;)

So, this is what we got instead.

Four generations.  From 97 to 6. 

And then we went out to dinner at Larks and Riley grabbed my phone and started taking random pictures.

And we surprised dad by celebrating his 70th birthday a couple weeks early.

It was a great evening!  A memorable dinner with a toast to grandma, singing to dad and fun family conversation and memories.  Grandma even asked to say something at the end of the dinner and I videoed her speech.  I'm so happy with all the video I got of the weekend.  I know it will be a treasure to our family.

So, that's what we did with our 24 hours.  We soaked it all in.  Literally and Figuratively.

The next morning (Tuesday), we went back over to Grandma's for more visiting.  And we face-timed Lacey and Tanner and Ella and Maret and her boys and Lindsay (Ryan and Ricky were at work).  And I recorded most of it, so that we have those memories recorded as well.

She absolutely loved the "face-time."  She got such a kick out of "seeing" everyone.

And then, we said our good-byes.  We hugged and cried (mostly me) and kissed and then parted ways.  And we all had the same thought in our head.  Will we see each other again?  None of us know the answer to that question.  If we do, that is wonderful.  If we don't, the memories of this weekend will be even more treasured.

Right before we parted ways, Grandma started talking about Riley.  She said with misty eyes, "Before this weekend, from all the cards and pictures, Riley was in my head.  But now, she's in my soul." I'll never forget her saying that and how she said it.  That right there was worth the time, the expense, the effort.  Everything else was just icing on the cake.  But thankfully, there was a lot of icing too.

💝💝