Baseball 2013

Val does not need to remind me but it's a good thing she does, that I am the luckiest Dad in the world to have a son that loves baseball as much as me! Add free season M's tickets and I think that would make me the luckiest but I admit I'm only a tiny smidgen below that ;-)

This year I coached Ty's machine pitch Rookies little league team, the Rockies. I had so many great moms and dads helping out every practice and game and considered it a great honor to have a really FANTASTIC group of boys on the team. 

What a pleasure it was just to be able to share the game I love with these boys and watch Ty as he develops skills to compare with his live for the game. I had to go buy a pitching screen this year because it is no longer safe to pitch to Ty without protection!

After the season he yard fall ball as an 8 year old with mostly 10 and 11 year olds and I was SO PROUD of him because the competition was TOUGH. He is going to LOVE farm next year and his summer select team that will only be 9 year olds playing other 9 year olds.

My favorite father/son photo ever!

Just a great looking ball player!

Perfect hitting form.

A great day at the ballpark with my Dad, the Quiggle and Allen kids!

Ty's pitching debut this fall.

Did I mention I'm a pretty lucky Dad? ;-)

Tyler is in the Asylum 2

I was checking out one of the recent workout programs we have purchased, The Asylum 2. Val and I are doing 1 right now just to get ready for it and man it looks hard. Tyler said, 'I wanna do that.' I thought he meant the single exercise but he meant the whole DVD. As I type this now he's about 30 minutes into the hour workout and still going strong!

Sibling Bonds - May they last forever

Ty and Hailey get to sleep wherever they want on vacation....as long as they don't wake US up. First night was Hailey's room and last night Ty's. of course, they slept fantastically....

Christmas season is here!

I love the little things about this season....making gingerbread houses, festive blinking noses, Ty hating the one time a year we make him wear jeans for Santa pictures, hanging the lights on the house and most of all the kids picking Christmas books each night before bed!

Bend - Ty's Day

A hijacking has occurred, Val's profile, Dave's thoughts. This year has seen some of the old but definitely some of the new. When Tyler loves something it is typically with a passion and strength that gives you the feeling he will love it that way forever. I certainly hope that is the case in regards to his parents. Note to Ty; if you are reading this years from now in a bound book like I know Val wants to make it or in some other digital format that we can't even imagine in our 2011 brains, call us right now and tell us you love us!

Ok, back to the present (have you called yet, Ty?). This year Tyler picked a day hike at Smith Rock for one of his Tyler-Mommy-Daddy day activities. He was pumped on our visit earlier in the vacation and said he could definitely make it to Monkey Face. We had our new Camelback's to keep from dying of thirst and some snacks thrown in, because he is a bottomless pit and never stops eating (seriously Son, call your parents!). We didn't quite get started as early as we wanted which resulted in numerous shady rest stops along the hot hike route but we did make it to Monkey Face where Ty promptly said, "There it is, can we head back?" The little man was a trooper and made the about 1 mile hike each way in good time.

Headin out for Tyler's Day

Getting ready to kick this hike's booty!

Keep hydrated fellas

This just looked like a good place for a picture of a Father and Son

Ty and Val cave explorers!

The thing on the right, imagine its a mouth and then, BAM!, Monkey Face!

The boys throwing some rocks into the river. Good form (later my old arm would hurt).

This boy loves his Mommy (call us!)

A hike well done! Off to Subway to feed the bottomless pit.

We have covered the new, now for the old. Bike riding at Sunriver! Could this be the beginning of tri-athlons? I am aware that we hiked and biked, which is more of a duathlon and we didn't run at all but don't forget Tyler is only six and I have not been eating good this trip! So, we packed up the bikes and hit the mean paved paths of Sunriver. Plus, we discovered that by next summer they will have finished construction on an outdoor water park that includes multiple pools and water slides. We can't wait! By that I mean Val and me, I have no idea what the kids think and it doesn't matter anyways because we are going and that is final! I wonder if I will get a raise between now and then.??? It might come in handy.

Anywho, we rode to the main tourist section and parked for some ice cream. No cotton candy ice cream to be found and the orange slice looked like creamsicle but Ty says it's not even close. How cool is it that our Son can turn down ice cream! Oh, and he doesn't like chocolate. Weird, but wonderful. We got back on the bikes and hit the park for a little playground action. I would have thought Ty would be falling down but he was still running around like a bundle of energy.

Now, something new again. On our way home we stopped and got Ty a set of gray scale shaded pencils. I know that is not the right term so picture a pack of pencils with different shades of led for sketching. He has been very artistically inspired lately and was excited when he heard about these. When we got home he promptly began sketching his ode to Captain Jack Sparrow. The most favorite movie Pirate ever for a boy who has never seen any of the movies!

The boys and their bikes.

Off we go....Actually this was near the end but we forgot to take pictures so pretend its the beginning.

It's not a toothy grin, because he is down a tooth. It's not a toothless grin cuz he still has plenty. What do you call this handsome smile?

I would never have let him do this at 5 or 4.



Tyler's artistic gift is unique to him and something Val and I love all the more because we don't have it ourselves.



Yo-ho, yo-ho, a Pirate's life for me!

Smith Rock Park

It's me, Dave, just in case you got confused about the change in style or content. Now that we got that out of the way, this is my first blog of our 2011 Bend vacation. It has been an altogether different experience this year with Tyler and Hailey turning into little people rather than toddlers. We have had a trip full of firsts and new experiences and I am excited for what the years will hold in our future. I envision outdoor sports, hiking, skiing, golfing, and our trip to Smith Rock Park was the best indicator of that. In fact, today we went out and got the kids camelbacks to make sure they don't dehydrate and die on us on a future hike!

Val and I planned on taking a shot at an adult hike at Smith Rock and figured a little toe dip into the proverbial waters with the kids would give us a clue about what we were getting into. We have been coming to Bend every summer for all of Tyler's 6 years and then some. Some years we have made multiple trips. We have driven by Smith Rock a few dozen times at least and never got to experience the breathtaking beauty. Even Tyler remarked at how amazing it was and has requested his special day include a hike there, rather than the annual bike ride in Sunriver. Bring it on little man, you got your camelback so lets hit it!

As for me and Val, on one of these mornings we are going to fill up our camelbacks and head out to climb 'Misery Ridge'and then get a good look at Monkey Face. During our hike we looked at Misery Ridge and while both of us have been eating slightly too much on this trip felt we could kick it's you know what! Then, we looked at the map and saw that what we took for 'Misery Ridge' is actually called 'Picnic Lunch Wall'. Stay tuned for how that hike works out!

As for our day, the kids did great. There was a pretty decent descent and ascent (I hope I spelled those right) and we quickly found out that two kids nalgene water bottles is not enough for a hot, dry, dusty landscape and hike as this (thus the camelback splurge). Nature is a wonderful thing and it is becoming more and more evident that our kids were meant for the outdoors, regardless of their paleness!

We don't know what we are getting into, do we?

The path down and up.

The view from below. I am a speck in this photo somewhere, poor choice to wear all tan.

We got this, Dad!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame...

The Quigglekids at the Ballgame!

It happened and it couldn't have been better. We have been slowly introducing baseball into the kids lives, picking up speed this year with Ty in t-ball. Today was Little League Day as the Mariners took on the Rays of Tampa Bay. The kids kept telling me that they were excited but I don't know if they were more so than me. I had not been to an M's game for several years because of; kids, poor play, money, kids, and they weren't very good. However, we have been watching some M's on tv lately and the kids seem to enjoy it in spurts....But what about a 3-4 hr game?

Game time 1:10pm. Parking garage next door, a breeze and the same $15 it was to park 6 blocks away so. Also, arrived at 12:45 pm. Unheard of for those familiar with Quiggletime!

Score: Quiggle's up 1-0 (I am not sure who/what to name our opponent).

Purchase #1, Mariner's Kids Club. Hailey and Ty each select Griffey jersey t-shirts, pink for Haze and blue for Ty. They unknowingly bypass the Ichiro shirts and I can only say that they know true hitting involves power and not slap hitting. This is one father who will never point to Ichiro and say to my children, 'Their goes a great hitter, be like him." Apparently my kids understands this in their cores, in their souls, because I was going to buy them whatever they picked out.

Score: Quiggle's lead 2-0 (fate sounds like a good opponent now)

Purchase #3, three Mariner's dogs, 1 cotton candy, 2 dipping dots and a beer. Prices have not only gone crazy since I was a kid but have gone up just in the 2-3 years since I last came to a game. It's ok though, I worked my OT the night before so I got it all covered!

Score: Quiggle's still lead fate, 2-1 now.

The game. What will the ids remember? I know they will remember the m's won. But for posterity's sake it was an AWESOME GAME! Bedard didn't have it early but after giving up 3 runs early he went 7 strong and gave the guys a chance. We saw timely hitting, a sacrifice bunt and when the M's got down a run in the 8th and Olivo cranked a 3 run bomb to go ahead for good the place exploded! Ty and Hailey were both cheering and I am so glad they got to be a part of something fun. When I asked each afterwards what the best thing was they said in tandem, "That the Mariners won the game."

Yes, I know, winning isn't everything, and we are instilling that in our kids every day. But this is just baseball, not life, and winning is everything because it's way more fun. To quote Ebbie Calvin 'Nuke' LaLoosh (see Bull Durham), "Man I love winning, you know? It's like, better than losing!"