Lake Maria

Even though Lake Maria State Park is relatively close to the Twin Cities, I have been hesitant to reserve a cabin there, because it is a bit of a hike from the parking area. But, having visited about half of Minnesota's state parks, we're getting to the ones that are a little off the beaten path.  Reggie decided to be a tough guy and carry probably half of our stuff himself - and then proceeded to brag about it the entire weekend.

It turned out the journey was worth it.  The cabin was so secluded that we barely saw or heard another person while we were there.  It was on a little pond.  

There wasn't electricity, but there was a little wood-burning stove.  And thankfully, a large stack of firewood was provided at the cabin.  We did have to carry in our water, though. There was an outhouse that we shared with a very large spider.

I am not an adventure seeker or even a nature enthusiast. I just like the peaceful simplicity and beauty we experience when we camper cabin camp. So I'm proud that all my kids can effortlessly start a fire with newspaper and a lighter, cook over the fire, and have taught themselves the basics of fishing. And I love it that we get this time together.

The park is known for it's unique turtle habitat, and we saw a lot of them.

Our Memorial Day Weekend trip turned out to be the only camping we did all summer.  All the more reason to cherish it.

spring picture post

Reggie got his driver's permit.

Our homemade hot cross buns have become an Easter tradition.

Brett and Lydia dressed up for the premiere of Minecraft.

I love this picture of the brothers.  They both had games at the same time at East Ridge.  Brett's adapted softball was in the activity center, Reggie's baseball game was in the fields behind the school.

Mother's Day

All dressed up for another year of umping.

Bryan and I went to an Atlanta Braves game to celebrate our anniversary.  It is our 15th ballpark.

Lydia was inducted into the National Honor Society.

Reggie's Freshman Baseball Season

The bats start crackin' in about a month, so it's time to wrap this up!  This is the last sports highlight post before I post pictures from summer trips! 

Reggie's baseball season was interrupted by a hip flexor injury. He sat on the bench for half of the season.  The injury happened from his off-season football workouts and was probably related to a stress fracture in his femur that was discovered in an x-ray after it had healed on it's own. Yeah, you read that right. He broke his leg at some point last fall or winter and wrestled through it. This kid won't stop.

There wasn't much footage from the Freshman season.  So, I included a full uncut at-bat in it.  Reggie operates under the mantra "Get on base, any way!" One of his baseball skills is driving up the pitch count and rattling the pitcher.  In this particular at-bat, he drew it out 7 pitches for a walk, then managed to turn that walk into a run.  Another skill he has is leaning a little into the pitch and taking the hit.  So when you're coming off injury, the swing's a little rusty, and you're running a little slow, use what you've got!

One fun hightlight was Reggie played against a friend he has had since preschool!  They play in a backyard wiffleball league in the summer!  

Here is a link to his highlight video.

Lydia's flag football highlights

Flag football was so much fun!

Flag football is just starting to catch on as a spring girls' high school (and college) sport.  It is getting a lot of promotion from the NFL and the Vikings sponsored the 51 high school teams last spring. (Which means we paid $0 and did zero fundraising!) Lydia joined the Royals' inaugural season!  Usually, it's tough to be competitive in a sport that you're new at - but in this case, everyone was basically new! So that really leveled the playing field!

But that doesn't mean it wasn't competitive.  I'm sure most of these girls had brothers, dads, or cousins throwing footballs around with them since they were little, and all of them played other sports.  Lydia had experience playing flag football as a unified partner with Special Olympics.

Here is her highlight video: