June 2010

I am not organized enough to have pictures ready, but I thought I would document pieces of summer this year. June was busy with the boys attending baseball camp and swimming lessons. Jefferson was moved up into the big boys' class because he spent most of his time in the pool under water while the other kids his age nervously stayed on the steps. Diving boards and starbursts at the bottom of the pool were not much of a challenge for his no fear love of the water.

The older boys enjoyed swimming, but also had fun at baseball camp. When they finished their first season of machine pitch ball, they tried out for the all-star team. Truman, who was playing two levels up on Lincoln's team, made it into the top fielding group even though he was 5 and other kids were 8 and 9. Lincoln was the only kid we saw hit every ball he was pitched. They are both way smaller then most kids out there, and this was their first experience playing, so we had a great time watching and can't wait for next year.

Baseball camp was their dream come true - three hours of ball a day with people who have to play with them! When I went to pick them up, they were always the last kids on the field still pitching to each other, hitting it and running the bases. The coaches were amazed that they would be out there all day, rain or shine or oppressive heat. Truman also became a celebrity for his uncanny talents as a 6-year-old. On pitching day, the coaches could not get over him throwing strikes consistently from the pitcher's mound, just out of kindergarten.

His surprising athletic ability has made him older friends at school, and the first day of baseball camp the boys came home bragging that some fourth grader had shared gatorade with them. Brian wondered what fourth grader would share with a random kindergartner and first grader, so the boys explained that this kid knew Truman from before school pick-up football games.

After that I would watch Truman be surrounded by kids of all ages as he arrived at practice, "Truman! Hey, Truman!". He got so much attention that one day Lincoln came home saying he didn't like baseball that much because Truman had so many friends and he had none. "They all like him because he is better than me at baseball." Fortunately the last day Lincoln impressed them all with his hitting skills and he came home saying, "Now I have the same friends Truman does!" Many more years of this ahead!

McKinley had no swimming or baseball so we sent her to Princess Camp with her friend Sophie and cousin Ashlynn. She has not stopped talking about it all summer, and even sat with the Princess who put on the camp (Nicole Sedlacek in our ward) on Sunday and fell fast asleep. McKinley is 100% princess/fairy with her tiny frame, gigantic smile and flowing golden hair.

Reagan follows suit as well, but she is more of a stout little princess. As soon as I put her tutu on she begins spinning around and singing "So This is Love" from Cinderella. You would never be able to guess she was "singing" without having seen McKinley perform this song over and over in the past few months, but we can tell.

She is adorable and has loved having Libbi and Emily around to dote on her. All the kids love their aunts, but no one gets the attention that Reagan does - we all want to eat her up.