My day on the Plaza

The bigger boys are spending some time with Granny and Grandad, so Coleman was able to attend the preschool function at church today. We had a great day singing and playing in the pop fountains. Cousins Hallie and Hayden were there as well as Coleman's good baseball buddy Maddox. It was Maddox's 4th birthday and I think he had a great time, as did everyone else who attended! Aunt Stacie was singing and dancing on stage and my hat goes off to her and the whole children's ministry for pulling together such a fun event!

Family Party

the three lone girlies in the crowd...
the ryan cousins minus our james...
little miss walker!!
hudson and hayden waiting to attack wesley (such a good sport)
chocolate hallie...

We got a chance to celebrate Casey's 10th and Cody's upcoming 8th birthdays this past weekend. Most of the family was able to come and we had a great time together...what a blessing to live near family. We were missing James and Joy and Greg since James was battling a fever that day and had to go down to MDA instead. Remember to pray for him faithfully...he is one of my links on the sidebar if you need updating. July marks the one year anniversary of his diagnosis with leukemia. He is doing remarkably well and is such a champ, as are his mom and dad!

Ringling Bros

We went to the circus for the first time since the bigger boys were like 2 and 4 years old. Grammy took Stacie and I and all the kids. Everyone had a great time. It is really pretty amazing what those circus performers can do. That old Christian song by DC Talk stuck in my head with the phrase shoveling elephant dung, since we actually saw a guy doing that. Nice. Guess there can be an ugly side to most things, even the brightest and most amazing things! Could be a life lesson. Oh, but this is really not meant to be a deep thoughts post, but rather an update on summer fun post. Just watching the little ones sit on the edge of their seats and clap their hands was enough for me!

Double Digits

It is hard to imagine that it has been a whole decade since we were first blessed with your entrance into the world and into our family. Looking back, we were so inexperienced and young when we became your mom and dad. It is a good thing you are forgiving. There is nothing in this world that is more important to us than fulfilling God's call on our lives to be your parents. We look forward to the years to come with great anticipation. We love who you are and who you are becoming. If I was ten, I would want to be your best friend.

HAPPY TENTH BIRTHDAY CASEY!!

9AA World Series!

USSSA WORLD SERIES 3RD PLACE

TEAM EXTREME KINGS 9AA

Coach Chris

The family

picked off...and ticked off!

the Ryan boys

after scoring during a rally...


a comeback celebration...



rally cap!

the go ahead run comes across the plate!

And it's Casey celebrating the victory!

the team prays before a game...

in the dugout staying cool...

SAFE!!

Dogpile!

he tells me this one was a ball, oh well, it looked cool to me!

Ironically, the last out of our final game was Casey...the agony of defeat (and one tired boy after nine games in the hot sun!)

Casey's baseball team is made up of some boys who played together as long ago as last spring in little league and all stars, as well as a few who started in with us at the beginning of the fall kid pitch season, and one or two who came aboard just early this spring season when we began as the Kings. They were fortunate enough to not get moved into the AAA class before world series, and were able to compete in the AA bracket that was well suited for this team this year! They did an amazing job during pool play and secured the #1 seed for the bracket/double elimination tourney. Our first game ended up being against a team that hit the ball well and was not an easy victory. We lost our second game to team that should not have beat us, but came from behind to beat us in the last inning. Something happened in the hearts of those boys after that loss. They became determined to never give up. At this point, it was win or go home. Our very next game was immediately afterwards and they had to fight from behind with time expired and score 5 runs to win the game. The next day they played three games to continue to the final day of the tournament and play in the semi-final. Two of those games were time expired, last at bat, come from behind battles. We called them the Cardiac Kings because we were all just dying that they could not just get a comfortable lead. In one of the games, the other team scored 9 runs in a 30 minute first inning and they still fought back to win it in the end! So needless to say, even when it our journey ended up at third place, we couldn't have been prouder of all that team accomplished. They had trophies for third place too, and third out of eighteen is not too shabby!

7 AAA World Series

The whole team waiting on a rain delay

Opening ceremonies...dancing crazy and the skydivers...


fun times with friends...

our star left fielder...

one sad boy after our final loss...

Cody's team, the seven year old Kings, started playing together for the first time in January of this year. Many of the select baseball teams they faced this season have played together for almost two years. The Kings were bumped from AA ball to AAA ball in May. This was a challenge for our boys to compete at this level being such a newly formed team. At first they really struggled, but they really started to click as we headed off to World Series. They hung in there with the best teams in the league. Of the three games they played in pool play, they only won one. The teams they lost to were probably the best two in the tournament. The team that went on to win it only beat them by 2 runs. They played well as a team defensively, but could not get their bats going. For a first year team, they certainly made a name for themselves and I feel sure other teams will be watching out for them next year as eights when they have another year under their belts!!

What? No more Baseball?

We have officially finished baseball season 2008 in the Ryan home.

It is such a strange feeling. What on earth are we gonna do with ourselves? (no worries, folks, tackle football starts in a few weeks...Chris is at the draft as I type)

I wanted to share a little bit of our "grand finale" with you guys here on the blog. I probably have too many pictures to share on here, so I will split it into separate posts for each week. It rained quite a bit the first week, and I had my cameras tucked away safe and dry too much of the time. So I have more pics from the second week to share. Hopefully, another parent was more brave than I during all those wet games and got some good ones to share with me. To end the season, both boys' teams earned a trip to the USSSA World Series. Cody played in Sulphur, Louisiana the week of July 6-12 and Casey played in Baton Rouge the week of July 13-20. We loaded up the suburban and left early Sunday the 6th. We pulled in and unloaded late last night, Saturday the 19th. We couldn't have asked for a better two weeks of family "vacation"!

Happy Third Birthday Coleman Jack!

At the last minute, we ended up with a free evening for Coleman's birthday. We put together an impromptu family celebration for whomever could attend on short notice. It's hard to believe our littlest man is three! He is such a joy to be around...always making us laugh in one way or another!

Tough Guy

This weekend in our final game as the sun was setting, poor Cody was playing left field and lost a line drive in the sun. The result was a hard knock to the upper lip/nose that sent him to the ground. The coaches from both teams surrounded him (as the two runners on base just kept running to score). After a long examination by a guy who was a paramedic fireman on the other team, our coach scooped him up and carried him to our dugout where he asked me to join them. We iced it down with a sno cone and cleaned off the majority of the blood, then gave him a dose of children's motrin. Thankfully, a father on our team is a pediatric dentist, so he briefly examined the bone structure and damage on his gums up front. When the sno cone was gone and the motrin had kicked in, or one inning later, Cody rejoined the game! We were proud of him for getting right back in it and so grateful that the injury was not as bad as I imagined!