9AA National League Champs!!!

The season was down to one final game. It was the championship game, or World Series, between the Warriors Black team and the Eagles Silver team. The previous meetings between the two team were split with the Eagles winning the first one 9-7 and the Warriors taking the second one 7-6. We knew it was going to be a tough game between two good teams. 

The league went all out to make this a special game for the boys. The introduced each team...

...including all the Warriors' nicknames. 

They played the National Anthem.  

And then it was game time. Each time the kids would come up to bat, the announcer would introduce them using their full names (including nicknames for the Warriors) like a real baseball game. It was pretty cool. 

It lived up to expectations and was a nail bitter. The Eagles got up early to a 2-0 lead but the Warriors came back to make it 2-3 in the bottom of the first. Then the Eagles had a stellar inning and brought it up to 6-3 the top of the second. The Warriors couldn't get their bats going but was able to play good defense so it was 6-3 going into the bottom of the fifth. Then, their base running came alive and the Warriors pulled ahead 6-7. With a runner on third for the Eagles and two outs, the batter hit it right to second, who threw it to first for the final out of the game making the Warriors the 9AA Champs!

Of course the boys went crazy (ok, I did too). 

They gave each of the boys a trophy to commemorate the achievement. 

And them we had a party in the outfield complete with a club soda shower (no champagne, they are only 9)....

..and a coach doggie pile. 

It was a very exciting evening. 

Congratulations Josh! We are so proud of you and your team. You guys played through adversity and came out on top. We can't wait to see your future accomplishments.

New hairdo

Josh has been playing with the same baseball team for over a year now. Each season there is at least one boy that shows up at the first game with a mohawk. This season, as they kept winning there games, more and more started showing up with the hairdo. Finally, by the end of the season, all but four boys had the hair style. Josh kept asking if he could get one. We told him if his team got the #1 seed in the tournament, he could get one. Well, even without playing the final game, they clinched the #1 spot. So after one game on Saturday, we took him to cut most of his hair off. 

He was pretty excited.

We had talked about doing it ourselves but after watching the hair dresser making the straight lines on the top of his head, we decided it was a good idea to have a professional take care of it.



I have to keep reminding myself that it's just hair and it will grow back.






Plus, it does look pretty cool with the uniform on.

And now the whole team has mohawks. Its a fun group of kids (and parents).

They are a crazy group. Go Warriors!!

Linden Family Reunion

Every two years, the Linden family gets together during the summer instead of gathering over Christmas. The location changes each time and is "hosted" by a different member of the family. This year, it was held at Mahoney State Park in Nebraska. We drove out Thursday afternoon and arrived late Thursday night. 

Friday morning, we got up, had a nice breakfast buffet in the hotel, and headed out to tour the Strategic Air and Space museum. This has always been something we have see on our many travels between Colorado and Iowa and said "we should go there sometime" but never had the time to make it happen so we were really excited to finally make it into the building.

The museum houses historic aircrafts, missiles, and space vehicles. The boys loved running around the hangars looking at all the planes. 

They also had a few activity areas. Patrick spent a lot of time at the earthquake table. You were supposed to build a structure and then turn on the "earthquake table" to see if your building could withstand an earthquake. He just enjoyed pushing the buttons and making the table shake. 

They also had domino tables with patterns to help you set up tracks. The parents enjoyed this one.

After the museum, we had lunch at the marina and watched the fish and paddle boats. Then some headed back for naps and others went to go horseback riding. 

Daniel and I were joined by Aunt Jeni, Aunt Kerry, Uncle John, Shaylin, Olivia, and Charlotte. Daniel rode "Danny" and I rode "Sarge". I was right behind the wrangler in the front with Daniel right behind me. His horse kept stopping to eat grass and he would have to pull his head up. It was quite the feet. I guess he got the horse that likes to eat so it happened a lot. And every time he would squeal "Not again" and have to stand up in his stirrups to pull his head up. The rest of the riders found it very entertaining. 

We ended the evening at the campsite where we had a bar-b-qua and finished the night off with s'mores. My favorite!

Here is Dad instructing how to roast the perfect marshmallow.

Saturday we spent most of the day at the building we had reserved for our reunion. There were plenty of activities planned for the day.

It was right next to the observation tower. It is a 70ft tower that overlooks the park. It was quite the hike up. I only made the trip once (which was good because I was feeling it the next day).

They had organized games for all the kids to compete in the "Olympics". It was fun to see the kids team up and try out all the fun games.

We also celebrated Grandpa Linden's 90th birthday this afternoon. (His real birthday isn't until July 10th but we figured this was a good time to celebrate since a lot of the family were there).

Here he is with most of the kids from this generation that were at the reunion. 

And with his kids.

And his grandkids that were able to attend. 

I had to leave shortly after this to take Josh back home for baseball. (He was missing the first playoff game Saturday night but we wanted to make sure he was back for the game(s) on Sunday so we flew back that night). I'm told the rest of the evening was spent at this building or the campsite. Patrick and Daniel enjoyed playing the games outside and running around catching lightning bugs (something we don't see in Colorado). 

It was a fun weekend and great to see so many family members. In total about 60 people were able to attend. See you in two years, Lindens!