Ashton's First T-Ball Game

Ashton was real excited to get to his first game.  He saw the coach and started running!

Mark Helped him warm up.

Ashton started off at First Base.

The boys are waiting their turn to bat.

Ashton's turn was coming!

Determined to make contact.

Made it to first base.

Heading towards second base

Made it!

Third base coach is telling him to head home! Go Ash!

Time to get out in the outfield again.

 Ashton Dancing in the outfield:

Game over.  No winning. No Losing in T-Ball.

They end with giving high fives to the other team. "Good Game!"

Hannah's tennis

Hannah is doing great and having fun this season!

Our beautiful tennis player.  She is one of two Freshman Varsity players! 

Jackson High School Timberwolves team - 2013

Jackson Girls Varsity Team 

Hannah against the Snohomish team

Hannah was mentioned in the Everett Herald Newspaper today. Her last name is spelled wrong, which happens often.  I did call to let the paper know. Perhaps it will be corrected in tomorrows paper.  Hannah played a tough match. It was great to watch. So far she has only lost 2 matches this season. A couple more weeks left to play. Perhaps they will make it to playoffs.

This was in the paper:  (You can see the whole article here  http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20130423/SPORTS01/704239737/1007#Panthers-double-up )

The Timberwolves' second victory of the meet came from freshman Hannah Meitzner, who won a back-and-forth battle at No. 3 singles. Meitzner beat Snohomish's Emma Studley 6-4, 7-5.

"That was as tough a match as she's played all season," Montgomery said. "I thought she just played very sturdy tennis."

GO HANNAH!!


Just some added humor to add to my blog tonight. I saw this on Facebook and it made Mark and I chuckle! The boys in the family sure love their bacon! 

Ashton's T-Ball Picture day!

Ashton's T-Ball team are called "Mariners"  He was decked out with his Mariner gear before we left for Pictures.

He is starting to read simple words now. This photo looks like he was trying to see what the order form said. 

The boys had a lot of fun waiting around for their turn. They all seem to get along and have fun!

Photo Book

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A bus ride and Snakes this week. Oh my!

This last Monday Ashton's class was able to ride a school bus. The school was trying to get the Pre-K class ready for Kindergarten next year. Most will go on to Public schools and ride the school buses. They wanted the kids to mentally start preparing for it.

Waiting patiently to get on the bus.

"Hi Mom!"  He was able to sit with his friend Cooper.

The bus went around the block with the kids and came back to drop them off.

He was smiling big when he got off.

After the bus ride, one of his teachers came up to me and said Ashton looked at her and said "I'm loving this!".   Too bad he can't ride a bus for another year.  

Toby and Alice came for the day!

Ashton and I picked up Toby and Alice on Tuesday. The Seattle Schools have spring break this week and we wanted to hang out with them.  They both like snakes and reptiles, so we decided to head to Monroe to the "Reptile Zoo".  I had mentioned going there for a few months now with Ashton, but he kept telling me he didn't want to. He seemed better with the thought of his cousins with us.

This place lets you hold snakes, and Alice was very excited!  I even held one. Brought back memories of bringing Ben and Hannah when they were younger. Ben loved this place.

We all had a lot of fun. Glad I was able to spend time with them this week!

They have a couple big alligators! 

I was surprised that Ashton decided to pet the snake. 

Toby has pretend snakes at home but he was scared at this place!

Ashton

                             Ashton's t-ball practices started!

The night prior to his first t-ball practice, it was pouring cats and dogs outside. I was pretty worried what the field was going to look like because last year when he did t-ball through the YMCA, their fields were extremely soggy even on the sunny days.  When we got there, it wound up being decent. We were surprised when we followed the directions to the new field that it wasn't very far from us. We use to walk everywhere in the Mill Creek area and thought we new most parks around. This one was somewhat hidden. I think Ashton would have enjoyed this tiny little park area a couple years ago if I had known about it. 

You don't see any kicking of the dirt here, but I did see Ashton scooping up dirt with his gloves a few times.  

In the beginning of practice, most kids would run really fast for the ball that was hit in the field. It was survival of the fittest. I think Ashton was hesitant. But towards the end he was trying for them too.  I am guessing Mark was trying to talk to him about it while they were standing there watching.  Ashton is one of two 4 year olds on the team. Most are 5 (almost six) and then a couple 6 year old boys. I bet by the end of the season he will have learned from these kids, good or bad, and he will be more assertive in trying to get that ball!

The practice was a bit cold, but the rain stayed away. It was fun for Ashton to meet new kids, and Mark and I recognized some of the parents from the area. 

Running the bases and having fun!


Ashton's Art work at school

Everyone in the class chose something to draw about. The teacher wrote what they were drawing. The day prior to school we had all seen a pretty rainbow outside.

I absolutely love this photo!  It has just been recent that he is coming home with some pictures that aren't just scribbles. He isn't into coloring or drawing, so at home I never get to see his artwork.  I asked him which one was me and while he was pointing to the smaller figure on the paper, he said "you have long hair".  Ahhh... of course and daddy is bigger.  Nice crew cut dad!

For those of you who do not know, we have decided to place Ashton in Kindergarten this coming September. The cut off date for school is August 31st, so he will be the youngest in his class. Because of this reason, we are doing private Kindergarten and then at the end of the school year we will decide if he will repeat kindergarten in the public school or be placed into 1st grade. We feel that academically he will do great, but socially he can use some growing time. We feel that there are more advantages to keeping him back and having him be the oldest.  He has started to read simple sentence now, thanks to Kumon.  http://kumon.com

This week Ashton is back into StarWars Wii games again. They saved up enough to buy ghost Yoda on his game, and he is enjoying playing that character on the Wii.  He has even been playing with his StarWars lego characters. He thinks it is hilarious to change all the body parts around and make silly guys. He cracks himself up! 

He hasn't played much of his Mario K'nex track, which means I haven't had to charge a battery in 5+ days.  That is a record. This is a good thing because those rechargeable batteries are not going to last much longer.  Knowing him he is just taking a break and will resume again in the future. 

Oregon Trip

(Ben and Hannah were enjoying the sunshine in Hawaii during spring break. We thought it would be nice to get away for a little bit too)

Day 1 - Heading to Cannon Beach

We left the house around 10:45, and it seemed like as soon as we were on the freeway Ashton asked if we were almost there. The car ride must have been dull at first because he took a short nap before lunch. After stopping for lunch, we went on our way and I think every 15 minutes or so he asked if we were there yet.  I tried to see if he wanted to play with any electronics or toys, but he only wanted to listen to music and ask if we were almost there.  What a long car ride!  I was lucky enough to tune him out a bit because I was wrapping up a good book, but Mark seemed to enjoy every minute of Ashton's question of "Are we there yet?".

We finally arrived and it looked like home with all the dark clouds and the rain.

We found a local grocery store and came across some benches. We thought Aunt Cynthia and Uncle Brian would appreciate him sitting on this bench and not the one in the other far corner that said Democrat.

We took a drive into town and had dinner that evening. We decided to look at a few of the shops that were opened later then 6pm. There weren't many.  We found one that was the BEST CANDY STORE EVER!  You'd think we had never been into a candy store before. Perhaps it was that we were on vacation and could validate buying and eating candy. Maybe for Mark it was all the old school candy that he remembers from his childhood. Perhaps for myself it was all the flavors of Salt Water candy they had to choose from. And I think for Ashton it was the excitment that he was able to walk around and pick out some candy for himself. That is rare since Momma normally says "No touching" or "We are only looking, not buying today". I think we were all like "little kids in a candy store". (as the expression is well known...)

Day 2

The rain and wind kept on coming. It just didn't want to stop. We decided to head south to Tillamook and check out the Cheese factory. Ashton seemed to find it interesting that it was the same cheese that we buy. We told him they were wrapping the cheese up to sell to Costco so we could purchase it.  Of course his favorite part of the tour was the cheese samples and the ice cream that were bought afterwards. The most amazing part of our ice cream experience was that we were able to eat the ice cream before we even had lunch. He thought that was funny.

When we came back to the hotel, the wind and rain was still there.  Mark insisted we take a stroll to the beach since we are here on the coast and check it out. I am glad we all brought our winter coats, because it was definitely needed on the beach.  It was so cold, windy and wet that we pretty much had the beach to ourselves. No one was crazy enough to be out there.  Mark finally caved in and said he had enough when it started to hail.  I told him that Jesus is looking after us because he made it hail! I just don't think Mark would have agreed to leave the beach otherwise.

Ashton was trying to escape and go back to the hotel. 

You can't see the rain and you can't feel the wind, but believe me...IT WAS FREEZING!

Day 3

When we woke up this morning, the sky looked decent. We headed for the beach after breakfast.  More people were there, and the sun was trying hard to shine through.  Mark and Ashton ran a lot on the beach and then started to play on the small walking trails on the hill with the long rolling grass.  Ashton thought it was funny to sit and fall down the hills. It was still a cold day, but without the rain it was much better.

Is that sun up there? Nope, it is just a bit brighter then a second ago.

After the beach we decided to head north to Seaside. We went searching for the aquarium, but we were disappointed that it was a tiny room with fish tanks. I think my local pet store had more fish then that.  But it was something to do, and some of the fish were interesting. Ashton enjoyed making a game out of the photos and seeing who could spot the fish in the tanks that were on the photo.

We then proceeded to walk the streets and check out the shops. I was excited to find THE SECOND (which we decided is the first) BEST CANDY STORE EVER! This place had even more candy and goodie selection. The Salt Water candy flavors weren't as grand, but it was still an amazing candy store.  They had chocolate covered bacon, chocolate covered pringles, chocolate covered twinkies, chocolate covered rice crispy treats and Chocolate M&M cupcakes.  Old school candy and New school candy. :) The list could go on, but I think if you named it they may have had it.  Of course we didn't buy all those items I listed, but if we didn't care about our "empty calories" intake (ask Ashton about empty calories) then we would have spent a fortune there!

I think I have found a pattern in Ashton's candy likes and dislikes.  He dislikes chewy candy, but he really likes plain old sugar candy like PEZ and Smarties. He seems to choose that over anything chocolate like his daddy.  He still wants some of daddies chocolates of course.  Perhaps he is smart enough to realize he can pick his candy and then know that daddy will always share his chocolates because he is so proud his son loves it!

Stole a moment to get a photo with my boy! 

Then I stole a kiss.  (which he doesn't like to get or give) He isn't too thrilled in the moment of it, but it's done and he can't take it back! He can wipe it IN all he wants after that!

Ahhhhh......the memories are just floating back to Ashton has he plays with Thomas. Years of his tiny toddler life must have flashed before his eyes.



While in Seaside, we did find bumper cars and a fun merry go round. It was a fun afternoon spent on a cold day.

Because the days were wet and cold, we hung out in the hotel room quite a bit.  Ashton loved it. He was sad the day we left. We told him he should be happy because he has school tomorrow and can see all of his friends. His reply was "I want to go back to the hotel room".   There was a lot of male bonding there.  Mariners were on and the final 4 basketball game. Life couldn't get better then that for them.  What was I doing? Oh no worries! I was in heaven. I think I finished 3 books while on this mini vacation, and I was able to eat so much Salt Water Candy I was loving it! So sad to see it all end. 

Day 4

Our travel day home was uneventful.  Ashton was either having a growth spurt or he realized that if he said he was hungry we would find a spot to pull over and use the bathroom and have a snack.  It probably would have been a much quicker drive home if we could eat in Mark's truck, but I guess it is a clean looking vehicle for a reason. 

Ashton did nap at one point and then said he could stay up until 8:00 tonight because of it.  We wound up ending the day with the "Cars" movie. 

Mark and I call this trip "Vacation" but Ashton calls this trip "Daddy all day long for 4 days".  So precious!  I guess I should be happy it was a nice break for me from everything. Ashton wanted to sit by daddy at all the restaurants too (which meant I didn't have to help with anything while enjoying my own food).

So what was our favorite things on our vacation?  Mine was the Candy stores! Mark's was the mere fact that he was away from work and with us (can I get a tissue......ahhhh...  I wish mine was more than just the candy stores, but nope- the candy store was pretty darn cool!)  Ashton's favorite part was the hotel room.  I told Mark that we can save money next time and just rent a room somewhere local. Ashton would love it! (preferably by a candy store and we'd all be happy)