Taylor, Matthew & Brayden: Summer 2023

Summer has come and gone, and I am very behind in updating the blog. In fact, many aspects of summer are already a distant memory, but I'll try to recap here...

June 20th: Scott and Mandy arrive in Seattle to help Alexa move! The 20th was also the kids' last day of school.

June 21st-22nd: Alexa and Ethan move into their new apartment in Seattle near Magnuson Park. In a strange coincidence, Matty is offered a spot on a new baseball team next year that will practice at Magnuson Park.

June 23rd: Taylor leaves for Washington DC and NYC with her 8th grade class. I was so excited for her to go but this was the first time she has gotten on an airplane with me. My mom anxiety was pretty high until I heard she had landed safely in DC.

June 23rd: Scott, Mandy, Alexa, Ethan, Tommy and I enjoy a nice dinner at Cantina Monarca and drinks at Ascend in Bellevue. I am still in disbelief that my niece lives here!

June 28th: Taylor returns for DC/NYC. She had an absolute blast but was a complete and total zombie from not sleeping for days!

June 29th: Brayden has a track meet in Auburn. He did well but cried after the meet because he missed first place in on of the events by a smidge. This is the first time I ever see a competitive side of him. Mimi and Baba arrive in Seattle for a two-week visit.

June 30th: Casey arrives in Seattle after his original flight the day before was cancelled. Our family plus SMACe go to a Mariners game and have a blast. There was a fireworks show after the game that was outstanding.

July 1st: We host dinner for SMACe + Mimi + Baba + Grandma + Pop Pop + Brian and Kristen and the girls (who also arrived on June 29th). It was chaos but fun to have everyone together. Brayden built a bonfire in our firepit in the backyard and Baba walked by the window from his bedroom naked. It was a funny night!

July 2nd: Matty's (and Tommy's) first All-Star game. The team won in a walk-off run. I have already blogged about the All-Star run so I will not go into much detail here.

July 3rd: Scott, Mandy, Taylor, Brayden, Casey, Alexa, Ethan and I floated the Snoqualmie River. We came back to our house for dinner after before hugging SMC goodbye. They flew home on a red-eye.

July 4th: All-Star Game #2. Another big win, thanks to Matty's triple in the bottom of the 6th. We had the Hobdays, Crumpackers, Parks, Beppus, and Sherlocks over for dinner and walked up the golf course to watch the fireworks.

July 6th: All-Star Game #3: A tough (and truly unfair) loss to Issaquah.

July 7th: I picked up Harper from the airport. She flew in at the last minute to spend some time with Taylor.

July 7th: All-Star Game #4: A win! Tommy and I met Brian and Kristen for drinks at the Roanoke after the game since we saw so very little of them during their visit.

July 8th: All-Star Game #5: A very sad end to what could have been an amazing run. Our boys lost to Issaquah again. Issaquah won the district and advanced to the state championship, where they lost to Northeast Seattle, who eventually made it to the Little League World Series and finished in the Top 3 for the US. Matty will play with most of the boys from this team next year. Our LL All-Star team tied Northeast Seattle in a warm-up tournament in June, so I know Tommy will always agonize over "what could have been..." Tommy and Matty consoled themselves with Sam and Lucas Park with Diamond Club tickets to the MLB All-Star Celebrity Softball Game.

July 10th - July 14th: Brayden spends the week at Sambica (Sambica = Sammamish Bible Camp), culminating with his baptism on July 16th.

July 10th: Tommy and Matty go to the MLB All-Star Home Run Derby

July 11th: Tommy and Matty go to the MLB All-Star Game

July 11th: Ashley Brown arrives in Seattle after her work trip to/from Australia to pick up Harper. She spends the afternoon at our house and joins us (with Harper, Mimi, Baba) for dinner at the Blazin' Onion.

July 12th: Mimi and Baba return to Arizona. It is always sad to see them go. This time was especially hard because I am not sure they will make the trip up here again. My sweet daddy is declining and the travel is hard for him.

July 14th - July 15th: Matty and Tommy go to a baseball tournament (with the Liberty team) in Portland.

July 16th: We celebrate Pop Pop's 75th birthday at the Bligh's house before heading to Lake Sammamish for Brayden's baptism.

July 20th: Tommy and I celebrate our 16th Anniversary! We went to Woodinville for a wine tasting and dinner at the Barking Frog.

July 21st - July 24th: Taylor goes to Elite Dance Camp with her drill team. The camp was at the Marriott by the Seattle airport. I was very hesitant to let her go after I realized that the drill coach would not be there and the girls would be largely unsupervised, but Taylor did great and checked in with me daily. On the last day of camp, there was a "showcase" for the girls to perform the routines they learned. Taylor won an award for being an outstanding dancer.

July 22nd - July 23rd: Matty and Tommy have baseball tournament (with the Liberty team) in Puyallup.

July 28th: Tommy's aunt and uncle, Janice and Gary arrive for a visit. We have dinner at the Bligh's.

July 29th - July 30th: Matty and Tommy have another baseball tournament (with the Liberty team) in Puyallup. Janice and Gary came to watch Matty with Tom and Elaine.

July 30th: Taylor danced at the Bellevue Arts Fair. I raced from her performance in Bellevue to Matty's championship game in his last local baseball tournament with Liberty. Tommy was ejected from the championship game for motioning that the ump made a bad call (it was utterly ridiculous), and the team lost the championship game. It was a very bitter ending to Tommy's run as a coach.

August 1st: I took my three plus Lauryn and Carsen Brown to Wild Waves for the day. We were there from 11:15 to 6:30. The kids had fun but it was expensive and exhausting. Hoping we can skip this adventure next summer. :)

August 5th: Taylor left for Wyld Life Camp in central Oregon with the Cougar Mountain Middle School Young Life Group. After sending Taylor off, Tommy and I went out on the Crumpackers boat for Seafair Saturday.

August 6th: We went out on the Crumpackers boat again (this time with the boys) for Seafair Sunday. It was so awesome to watch Brayden jump into the lake after missing out last summer.

August 9th: Taylor returns from Wyld Life Camp. She made some new friends that will be going to Liberty High School with her, so she is feeling much better about starting high school

August 11th: We all leave for New York. I'll write a separate post about our time in New York City and Cooperstown.

August 20th: Taylor and I return from New York.

August 21st: Taylor has an all-day leadership retreat for ASB, followed by her first drill team practice.

August 23rd: The boys return from New York.

August 26th: We hosted my high school friends, Greta and Lisa, and their men for dinner. It was great to see them and catch up. I always love when I can say that I am having friends from high school over for dinner (rarely happens since I did not grow up here).

August 28th: Taylor has high school orientation. Brayden meets his teacher.

August 29th: First Day of School.

Are you tired yet? I am. It was a busy summer, but it was much, much improved from the summer of 2022.