Sad time for Kayla

(Sara, Kayla, and Danielle)

It's been a year of painful losses and growth for Kayla. On President's Day, her close friend, Danielle, was killed in a car accident near Alexandria, MN. She and 3 friends were heading back to college in North Dakota. On Sunday, Kayla lost her friend Sara, too. Both girls graduated with Kayla and both were on the danceline at Minnetonka High School.

Working at Sunrise has helped Kayla learn how to handle loss and grief, but she commented that is so much easier there because the people at the nursing home have lived full lives. Sara's funeral will be held at Westwood Church on Saturday. Please keep Kayla and her friends in your thoughts and prayers. They've been through a lot lately.

Baseball ends.

Dylan's final baseball game of the season brought the team and some of the moms to tears. They were the Red Sox. After their first game, we raised our eyebrows and winced slightly with concern. But they proved us wrong. They became a group of friends who supported each other and played well together. One made an unlikely catch to win a game and grinned awkwardly as his team mobbed him. Another dusted off his goggles and crawled over the plate when his slide at home fell short. He was safe. The crowd went wild.

The Red Sox coaches gave them nicknames like Voodoo for Vukovich and Hawk for Hawley. Jake referred to Trapnell as Shrapnel. Bong didn't need a nickname. There were 5 younger siblings who attended all the games and ran like a pack, without any quarrels.The parents and grandparents enjoyed a camaraderie I have rarely felt. So we all had high hopes as the Red Sox entered their single elimination tournament last week. The 3rd game of the tournament, it was cold and they played in a steady rain. They were up 9-8 in the 4th inning (of 6) when the game was called due to lightning.

Three days later, the Red Sox were allowed to pick up where they left off. Again, the rain fell steadily. Two players were uncharacteristically absent. The teams were small and it was understood that they needed all of the players or subs. When the two families were contacted, both had received emails that the field were closed due to rain. Both had soccer players, too. The soccer fields were closed, not the baseball fields, but they have the same name and the email didn't specify. The 2 families hustled to get their sons to the game.

At 7:10 pm, the opposing team's coach forced the Red Sox to forfeit. At 7:11, Bong arrived. The opposing coach refused to relent and brought out his Little League Rule Book. That's when the Red Sox' eyes filled with tears. But they still wanted to play.

So, Dylan's team entered into a game they knew they couldn't win in a tournament that was over for them. They played hard, got behind, rallied and took the lead in the 6th, but ended up losing by one point in the pouring rain. By this time, the game had spanned two evenings and 4 hours of play. That's when I got choked up. It was an unfortunate way for such a good team of 10-year-olds to end their season.

During all of this drama, Maya waded into 6 inches of standing water, filled her rain boots and soaked her clothing. So she had to sit in the van. Three of her baseball sibling compadres joined her for a van party, oblivious to their brothers' demise. And the next night, everyone attended the team party at the coach's home. Again, all the kids were drenched. This time, when Voodoo got ahold of the hose. We had fun, Jake made great food, and the coaches talked about how winning was easy and the important thing was to be able to lose gracefully, which the Red Sox had done.

I was trying to show comments and accidentally deleted all of them. So, please, send some more. But I still don't know how to show them.

School's out for summer!

Summer has been busy already. Kayla is working 6 days a week at Sunrise Assisted Living and has been promoted to Shift Leader.

Maya graduated kindergarten. On "I Can Do Anything Day", one student brought her sugar glider. It's a marsupial that makes machine like clicking noises and soars. Another student brought a bow and arrows, one brought fishing tackle and cast off in the classroom, one told a dirty joke. Maya danced in a homemade toucan costume to "I Wanna Party" from the Rio soundtrack. She refused all suggestions of choreography.

The weekend after school let out, Jake & I got to get away to Bayfield, WI to see Trampled By Turtles at the Big Top Chatauqua tent. Thanks to Becky & Leif for babysitting! We had so much fun.

Luna proves that she really is a Mountain Dog (right). Dylan quickly realized that she is a chick magnet, on our recent walk into Excelsior.

Anna has her driver's license! She's been driving herself to work at the dry cleaners and around town. We're sharing the '98 Camry with 272,540 miles on it. She's broken a door handle and scratched the rear bumper, but that kind of damage on a car like that is barely noticeable. Except when I have to roll down my window to reach the outside door handle to get out of the car.

 Maya's loving summer! Pictured here at the Excelsior beach, Grandma and Grandpa's pool and in her own pool. You can see someone's arm on the left in Maya's pool, but no one can prove that it's Dylan:)

New garden and solar powered globes. Not done justice here.