Olivia's T-ball Season

For the past month and a half, we have been spending our Saturday mornings at the ball field watching Olivia play t-ball. This is the first sports team (or any type of extracurricular activity) that Olivia

has done. I have to say that the overall experience was a positive one. For her age division, there are no winners or losers. Everyone gets to bat and run the bases. The focus is on teaching sportsmanship, teamwork, and the fundamentals of baseball ( like throwing to first base after fielding the ball). Of course, there were some days where Olivia would have rather dug in the dirt than play ball, and there was one particularlly frustrating day where she refused to run the bases so everyone had to wait while she strolled leisurely from one to the next. Even though she got in a funk sometimes, she enjoyed it. I could really see growth in her skills and in her confidence from the first game to the last one. After the last game, all of the players were presented with a trophy- Olivia's first. I laughed when I saw it because it was a bobblehead trophy. I didn't know they made those. Here are some of the pictures that I took of her playing during the season.

Wild Adventures

Brian was on vacation this week, so we decided to take the kids to Wild Adventures. We spent the first part of our day riding the rides. Owen and Olivia take after their parents in that they like to ride. The height requirement for most of the children's rides was 36 inches. Olivia easily met this height. Poor Owen, though, was right at the 36 inch mark. We tried to get him on the 36 inch rides, but he always had to be measured- and the outcome was not always the same. You could see the conflict in the workers' eyes because Owen's height could really go either way. After an internal debate, most of the workers decided to err on the side of caution. So, Owen only had a 33% success rate at getting on the 36-inch rides. I think it upset Owen a little to watch Olivia ride when he had been turned away. He carried on though. We tried to hit all of the little-kid rides so that both kids could participate, and Owen was tall enough to ride on his first rollercoaster (which he loved).

Around one o'clock it was starting to get really, really hot. The park even started giving out free cups of iced water because it was so hot. We decided that we would go to Splash Island Waterpark (which is attached to Wild Adventures) to cool off. Owen was standoffish and would not get in the water. Brian, who did not bring a bathing suit, spent his time with Owen. Olivia was my responsibilty, and she turned out to be a handful. She literally ran away from me and Brian so that she could get to the water-play structure. She was all over that thing, and she LOVED it! Keeping up with her turned out to be a real workout. Unfortunately, we were only able to stay in the waterpark for about 40 minutes because lightening was spotted in the distance, and they had to shut down the water rides. Since we didn't know how long we would have to wait to get back in the water, we decided to try the waterpark another day, and we headed back to the theme park.

After leaving the waterpark, we rode some rides (those that weren't shut down due to weather) and we spent some time looking at the animals. I really liked the tiger show and was happy that we had a chance to see that. The petting zoo was a big hit with the kids (as always). It's always fun watching those kids try to pet the animals. Some of those animals today just didn't want to be petted. That didn't stop Owen and Olivia from trying. It was like watching two border collies herd sheep. The kids would come, and the animals would run. They did manage to get their hands on several of slower ones, though.

We had a great day at the park. The kids are at the perfect age to enjoy it. I'm thinking that we might get season passes- but we'll wait til next year when Owen is a little taller.

Memorial Day Picnic

Here are some pictures from our Memorial Day picnic and Laura Walker State Park. After eating their lunch, the kids had a great time playing on the playground equipment and watching the skiiers and jetskiiers in the lake. We even got to see some wildlife (note the picture of the big snake that I nearly stepped on). We stayed at the park for about two hours, and even then, the kids did not want to leave. Everyone had a great time, and it was a fun way to kick-off summer.

Gators

I went to Wild Adventures with the Junior class on Thrusday. I haven't been there in about two years. There were quite a few changes. When you enter the park now, there are animals at the front gate to greet you. Look what little cutie I made friends with. I think I'm going to frame this picture and put it in the classroom of my new school next year (their mascot is a gator).

If you haven't heard by now, my beloved school- Ware Magnet- is closing. I feel so fortunate to have taught there for nine and a half years. Although I am sad about my school shutting down, I am happy that I was able to be placed at another school in the system and that I still have a job. Teaching at a large high school will probably be a lot different than my small, K-12 school, but I am looking forward to the challenge.

May Flowers

The flowers are in bloom at the field down the road from the house. I was so happy with the way last year's flower pictures turned out, that I took more this year. Here are some of my favorites.

Grad Bash 2010

I was able to chaperone the Senior trip to Grad Bash at Universal Studios again this year. I love going on this trip because there are a lot of perks. First of all, I get to visit both parks (Universal and Islands of Adventure) for free. As a chaperone, I get to use the express entrance for all rides, so I don't have to wait in line for anything. The park also provides chaperones with a free hot breakfast, snacks, and unlimited coke products all night. I wanted to take a lot of pictures this year since it is probably my last year going (the fate of my school is still unknown), but I found out once I got inside the park that my camera is on its last leg (I dropped it last week). Since my camera kept messing up, I was only able to get a few pictures. Even though I don't have the pictures to prove it, I really had a great time. My co-workers and I were able to ride everything that we wanted- including the new Rip Ride Rocket rollercoaster (behind us in the picture). I loved this coaster because there are speakers on each car, and individual riders gets to pick what song they listen to while they ride the coaster. I picked "You Can't Touch This" by M.C. Hammer. Being able to listen to music while riding added a whole new dimension to the coaster-riding experience. I think that I want every new coaster to have this feature. Riding rides wasn't the only thing I did, though. I also got to hear Sean Kingston sing (he's a reggae singer). The new Harry Potter World is opening this summer, and I climbed on top of some type of structure and peaked over the fence at it. It looked awesome! Hogwarts castle is HUGE, and the town is cute. I really wish that it would have been open for Grad Bash. I guess Universal felt bad that Harry Potter wasn't open becasue they are giving everyone who went to Grad Bash a free ticket to come back before December so that they can see it. I plan to use my ticket, so you all may be seeing a "Sanders Family goes to Universal" post sometime in September.

Hiking in the Smokies

On day six of our Smoky Mountain vacation, we woke up and prepared to go home. Before beginning our long journey back home, there was one thing that we still wanted to do: hike the Laurel Falls Trail in the national park. We had been enjoying the beautiful mountain scenery all week long, but we had not spent much time in the park itself. The reason for this is that three of the more popular driving tours were closed (they were repaving the roads before the high season began), and that was about all that we could do with the kids in tow. I wanted to hike at least one trail, but seeing as how most of the trails were long and uphill, I had a hard time finding one that the kids could do. Finally, I found a great website that provided lots of information about the trails in the park, and I found a trail that I thought we could do. It was a 1.3 mile trail called Laurel Falls Trail. As the name implies, there was a waterfall at the end of the trail. So, after leaving the cabin on Saturday, we headed to the Laurel Falls trailhead.

The path was narrow and steep in some places, so we really had to watch Olivia to make sure that she stayed safe. Owen was in the stroller the whole time- we weren't even going to chance letting him walk up on his own. The trail toward the falls was all uphill, so I had to push Owen in that stroller uphill for 1.3 miles. I never realized what a chunck he was until I had to do this. At least the path was sort-of paved. I say "sort-of" because it looked like it had been paved many years ago and had not been re-paved since. It was bumpy. I got off easy, though. Brian was in charge of Olivia, and she decided that she was too tired to walk about halfway up the trail so Brian had to carry her part of the way.

Olivia did manage to walk all the way back down the mountain by herself on the return trip, though.

The payoff for our hiking efforts was a beautiful waterfall. You can see part of it in this picture, but it was actually much larger. Seeing the falls definitely made the hike worthwhile.
The kids didn't get to get down and play around the falls because there were still lots of steep drops in the area. Olivia did get down once because she wanted to "touch" the falls, and so Brian took her close enough so that she could. After spending some time at the falls, we hiked back to the car and drove home. All in all, we had a great time in the mountains, and we look forward to returning someday.