Hot Tub Week

We got a hot tub Monday, and Tuesday morning before school (as soon as it was warm enough!) Josh hopped in for a quick soak. 

He was in the tub 3 times that day -- before school, by himself after school, and with Luke and me before bed. 

Friday we drove to the cabin for a quick one-night stay. The Mission Mountains were so pretty in the almost dusk light. 

Josh drove my car the last mile or so from the turnout to the cabin.  He did a great job, and was appropriately nervous for the skinny roads. 

Seeing the place without snow has us dreaming of summer already. 

The boys love throwing rocks of the dock. 

I'd love to know what they're talking about!

They came in for a quick game of Crazy 8 before bed. 

The next morning Mike and I woke up to catch the morning light and make the most of our 12-hour visit.  

Sleeping so sweetly

Josh talked me into letting him sleep in my bed because he had to play lacrosse Saturday.  Also, I would do just about anything to avoid a bedtime fight between the boys, so I slept on the loveseat and Josh got to cozy in my bed with Daddy.

The boys had about 20 minutes to hang out before we left and they went straight to the lake for more rock throwing. 

Saturday Josh had two games in Missoula, so we met my parents there.  Grampa Wright brought another haul of pencils!

Saturday night we had a team dinner at Iron Horse, and these boys were in 7th heaven in their own room. 

Sunday Josh had one more game.  He played attack (his most common position this year), defense, and even a bit of middie.  Here he is waiting on a face-off.  

Is it Spring?

The first flowers in the yard popped up!  Hooray for these brave little beauties. 

Thursday night we took a nice, long bike ride.  Josh isn't going to give a straight smile unless we specifically ask for it. 

After the bike ride and after dinner, we went to the backyard to play baseball and lacrosse.  W/hen I asked him if I could catch for him, he said "you???" to which I said "yeah me!"  It cracks me up to surprise them. 

Luke is so good at avoiding going to bed.  This night he chose to show me how cool the Harry Potter " The Goblet of Fire" looks when it's fanned out.  I asked him for a picture with his face in it, and this is what I got. He's seriously a master at stretching the rules. 

Friday after school, Luke and his friend Rogen met a bunch of neighborhood kids at the Harvest Creek park.  They had 8 kids so they decided to play Capture the Flag.  They were intense -- so much yelling and running and guarding.  It made me happy to watch kids be outside and happy in the sunshine!

Luke was really proud of his "dirt line" at his ankle.  The sign of a fun time at the park! 

Saturday was a big sports day for us! Josh had 3 lacrosse games and Luke had 1 baseball game.  We had to miss one of Josh's games to catch Luke's game, but we still had plenty of good watching.  
Josh is the one with the ball in this picture, white head on his stick. 

He wore #92 because his #2 jersey was in his closet.  It's pretty early in the season, not quite all dialed in on our routine just yet.

Luke's first game was against the other Emily Dickinson team.  So fun to watch so many boys we know!  Luke got to be pitcher for the first 2 innings.  

Hustling off field...

He's solid back there, getting in front of tons of low pitches.  This is the first season that they can steal bases, so he was hopping busy back there making sure they didn't have an easy job stealing. 

I love this picture of Rogen batting and Luke on deck. 

Luke was at bat twice and struck out twice.  This is the first season where it's kid pitch, and it's a rough learning curve

He's got a great little swing!

I only put this picture in here to show you that he doesn't think he needs to wear special cup undies, he thinks he can just put the cup in his undies and it will be fine.  But apparently it moves around a bit. Ha ha ha

Luke pitched for one inning, and he did a great job!  He walked 2, gave up 1 hit, but he had three strike outs! 

Isn't he so cute!?

His tongue was out for this entire pitch, from warm up to follow through. Ha!

We ended Saturday night with the first backyard fire of the season.  

Luke made us a special dessert, a twist on Smores.  It had graham crackers as "the base"as Luke calls it, and then chocolate syrup, mini marshmallows, snickers bites, butterscotch chips all sprinkled on top! 

Sunday morning we watched the MSU lacrosse final home game. Toby is the silly face friend!

The bobcats are undefeated -- they're very funny to watch!

Sunday afternoon we hiked to the M.  We went up the steep way, at the boys' request.  They did great, it nearly crippled me, but they were billy goats!

The town is just about to turn green.  I bet the rain in the storm that was blowing in will help! 

We took a quick break on the bench to talk about how far they've come as hikers.  Remember when you couldn't make it up here going the easy way?

Ruby loved her hike, but isn't great at posing. Her timing is shit.  My smiley boys make me happy! 

April?

Finally, after a long, long winter, we were able to ride bikes outside. Luke was showing me some great tricks. 

Thursday was free ice cream day at Sweet Peaks, it was their birthday. The boys were out of school, so why not? 

We moved some furniture and played balloon volleyball in the living room. Mike came home and played, and he really brought the intensity level a lot. 

This was after his first spike. 

Show no mercy!!

Friday morning Ryatt and Josh dyed their new lacrosse head.  They were so excited about the dye project. 

Checking in on the progress. 

Friday morning was Luke's teacher conference, and so he got to play at Rogen's house.  They had a great nerf fight with the neighborhood boys. 

Here's the end of lunch, after more friends joined. 

Yay lacrosse season is underway!  It's so fun to hang out with these families.  Weston, Sammy, Toby, and Josh are good friends and teammates. 

Kyler is playing for a different league this year, so we lucked out and caught a half of a game of his.  Afterward, he went to see Josh and then compared shoes.  Some things never change. 

Poor Luke watched two games, and it wasn't super warm or super fun for him. 

Josh was tired after his two games.  He scored 3 goals and had 4 assists, so he was tuckered out! 

These two got to go skiing on Bridger's last season.  

Nachos outside at the Grizzly...life is great!

We found a few early spring flowers, yahoo!