Along the River(s)

Several weeks ago we went on a roadtrip to Salem, Oregon and I just haven't gotten around to showing y'all! It was a beautiful drive along the Columbia River... once again, please ignore the bug guts on the window!



Because there's not many trees over here in the desert, it can be very windy... therefore there are a lot of windmills. They're huge!





We had a gorgeous view of Mt. Hood almost the entire way.



Here's a close up.



My favorite part of the trip begins here... you're just riding along the river...



And you're beginning to come around the corner...



and you stumble upon this beautiful sight!



The Columbia almost turns into a lake and it is beautiful.



There are lots of cool bridges along the river.



You know you are getting out of the desert when you start seeing these trees.



It was a beautiful drive and of course we had to make a little detour through Portland!



I definitely did not take pictures like I should have in Portland (Nordstroms was calling our names!) but I will tell you it was a really cool city with a TON of bridges! Salem on the other hand was pretty, but nothing to write home about so all I really have is this picture from one of the games... this is when Lyndsey was with us. We miss her!



So there's Oregon for you!

Moving on to the Yakima River... the one behind our apartment.



We had an off day on Tuesday and the boys decided to do some fishing. Aren't their farmers tans irresistible?



Aaron was definitely in his element!



The only thing holding Belle back was her leash. She wanted to go swimming with Brad so bad! She such a little daddy's girl.



Poor thing doesn't get out much (due to our unusual schedules) so she was in heaven!



To be such a little diva, she sure did love jumpin' in the mud puddles! Emily had to carry her back... this picture cracks me up. She's such a little priss!



It was a beautiful evening...



The water was clear so you could see all the little round rocks at the bottom.



And the sunset was picturesque of course.



After all the traveling we've been doing, a relaxing off day was just what we needed! Have a great weekend blog readers!

Just Tryin' to Make it...

Hi Folks! I realize that I have not blogged this week but that's because these precious, adorable HOOLIGANS have been keeping me busy!



Their names are Marcus, Logan, and Troy... They are obviously all brothers and their dad is our hitting coach. He needed me to watch them everyday for this past week and a half and trying to blog while answering 20 questions, refereeing WWF smackdowns, or eating a hamburger happy meal at McDonalds Playplace, is virtually impossible! Coming from a family of all girls- and not having much experience babysitting more than two boys at a time- my eyes have been opened and I have learned A WHOLE LOT.

#1 Boys like to compete and are VERY physical. On the first day I called my mom and asked her this question, "Where do you draw the line with knowing 'boys will be boys' and 'oh my gosh they're gonna murder each other'!?" After two bloody noses, I figured out when to draw the line. Live and learn!



#2 Now this goes for kids in general- the more you give them, the more they want. But how do you resist these precious faces? Yes, I spoiled them rotten... oops!



#3 They forgive and forget unusually easy.



They will punch the livin' daylights out of each other one minute and then be laughing about it the next! I couldn't believe how fast they get over things!

#4 They are WILD. I thought of every way possible to wear them out and I don't think I even hit the surface... we went to the pool, the park, McDonald's Playplace, the ballgames, etc. They even made me drop them off at the curb so they could race home, and I was thinking to myself, "Oh Lord, bless their mother's soul."



#5 But most of the time they are very, very sweet.



The youngest, Troy, had my heart. He's still kind of a baby... Even after a wrestling match, he always wanted me to hold his hand, he loved to play with my hair, and sit in my lap... You know, how little girls are... but he's a little boy and I know he won't be like that for long... I guess that's a good thing! :)



Here are some other lessons I have learned that I will apply to parenting when the time comes:

~ Being a stay-at-home mom will be just as challenging as a "real job"!

~ Aaron and I WILL be dropping the kids off at the grandparents and having date nights...or weekends... or maybe even a date week! :)

~ I will make time for myself... and my sanity.

~ I will do my best to stay in shape so that I can attempt to keep up with them... Boys or girls!

You know, I've practically grown up with Aaron as far as our teenage years go... and I've always "known" how boys are in general, but actually experiencing THREE under the age of nine all at one time for an entire week and a half made what I "know" really hit home.

Overall, it was a very fast-paced, somewhat stressful week, but I sure did learn a lot! I miss them already and it's only been two days!

We've been up to a lot of other things too so I'm gonna catch y'all up in the next post... Until then!

A Wives Week

This past week, Emily, Lyndsey, and I have been hanging together here in Tri Cities while the boys have been in Eugene, Oregon for a roadtrip. I have to admit, I do miss my hubby a lot when he is away, but when you have such fun girls to keep you company, it's really not that bad! Here are some things we've been up to:

~ Cooking and eating a LOT of mexican food... we have decided that we are turning into mexicans... we call each other the "sombrero sisters".. It's really good and really CHEAP!

~ Becoming addicted to the show "Bethany Getting Married"... it's on Bravo and it's hilarious.

~ Planning our meals around Applebees' happy hour... once again, it's really good and really CHEAP!

~ Discussing our husband's careers and therefore our future, and of course, arms... (We're all married to pitchers).

~ Helping Lyndsey pack up her life here in Washington because she found out they would be leaving and going to the next team in California... so exciting for Josh! But we are really going to miss her... That's one of the hardest parts about this baseball life we live.

~ We decided to have a girls day and go tour this wine country we live in... the vineyards are beautiful!







We started our afternoon with lunch at one of the most popular wineries here, Tagaris.



Aaron would say we were eating "chick food"... I had a Caprese Flatbread.



Then we were off to the wineries.





One of the wineries had a huge barrel room that seemed 30 degrees cooler than the miserable heat outside. We hung out in there for a while...





Some "photographer man" insisted he take our picture and we actually didn't mind, considering he made us all look 6 ft. tall!



Then we decided we needed to take some pictures together because we always forget to take them... and Lyndsey is leaving... :(







A week away from our boys is not always the easiest thing to endure, but when we have each other it seems to go by a whole lot faster! I am so thankful for them and we will miss Lyndsey so much!

Hope y'all are having a wonderful start to your week and Happy Monday!

Little Victories

So I realize that I have not updated you interested readers on the status of Aaron's arm lately. The last update was to let y'all know that Dr. Andrews had cleared him to start his throwing program and that meant starting out tossing at 45 feet. We have had a few bumps in the road since then but most of the process has gone pretty smoothly. I have come to find that since we don't know the future- whether Aaron will really come back from this surgery or not (meaning, be the hard throwing strikeout pitcher he has always been) - we have to take each step of this rehab process one day at a time. Some days he feels amazing and some days he is in pain... At this early point in his throwing program, feeling great one day and being in pain another day is totally normal and to be expected. On the afternoons I get a phone call and he's really excited about how great his arm felt throwing that day, I count it as a "little victory" for that day, because regardless of how he felt yesterday and how he will feel tomorrow, today was a good day!

The past few days he has been throwing at 75 feet and is feeling great. His shoulder has been pain-free, his fastball is getting back the movement it used to have, and the trainer has had to calm his velocity down a time or two... which makes me think he's getting back to his old self! Yay for little victories! That's what our lives have come down to this year and that's alright... I don't think we will ever take for granted his arm's ability to throw a baseball pain free, much less, "toss" 45 feet ever again. So now you have the full "Aaron's Arm Update".

If you have any more detailed questions (since I don't want to discuss every little minute detail of his life on the world wide web) feel free to ask me anything in the comments section or in a facebook message or phone call and I will be more than happy to privately answer your questions. I know some of you are curious and means so much that you care! Oh and prayers are still greatly needed but I will tell you one thing, they sure are workin! Thank y'all so much!

Now onto another set of "Little Victories".



The Ralencotters, Aaron's dear and precious host family from a couple of summers ago, have 2 pugs that just had little babies! Lyndsey and I went over there to meet them and we fell in love. How could you not?



They are teeny tiny little munchkins.



I think this little guy was hungry... look at his little tongue sticking out!



Well I've got some yummy to my tummy banana bread baking in the oven and the smell is a huge distraction to my blogging so I think I will wrap it up for now. I hope y'all are having a wonderful week and thanks for reading.. It really means a lot!

Birthday Celebrations!

Well folks, I am officially 23 years young. And it has been so much fun celebrating! It all started off with a "Happy Birthday Jill, Josh, and America!" party on the fourth with a mexican fiesta, birthday cake, and fireworks... followed by a fun day of riding jet skis and eating really really good food with my hubby. Yes, my birthday happened to fall on Aaron's one day off of this month!

Josh's birthday is on the 5th, and mine is on the 7th, and of course we had to celebrate America's birthday, so we had a triple birthday bash to celebrate all three!











Lyndsey decorated the apartment with festive balloons and fireworks...



The dogs got in on the fun too!



Belle was mad the birthday hat was messing up her hair.



This is Slider... you can tell by his name that he is the son of a pitcher. :)



We- the girls- made tacos, salsa, and guacamole and it was delicious.



The cake was equally good!



We even blew out our candles as they sang Happy Birthday.



And then we opened presents!





And then we all loaded in the back of Brad's truck and drove down the road to do our fireworks.









We had so much fun!





The former Auburn cheerleader came out in Lyndsey!



We were having entirely too much fun! Is there such a thing?







Josh and Lyndsey's sparklers went crazy on my camera.



You could officially say that fun was had by all.

On my birthday, the 7th- which happened to be a day off for the month, a group of us rented jet skis for the day and rode down the Columbia River. It was so much fun!





After a few hours of riding, we ate lunch at Anthony's on the water.



For being the birthday girl, I got a Molten Chocolate Lava Cake with vanilla ice cream and rasberry sauce. It was DIVINE!



Later that evening Aaron and I had a romantic date at, once again, Anthonys... can you tell we love this place? They have a different menu at night which is a little on the pricey side so we decided we would splurge on my birthday.

Aaron had to have the raw oysters of course... you actually eat oysters with "oyster crackers" here instead of saltines. Who knew? :)



They serve amazing seafood... My dish was made up of salmon, cod, mussels, and clams in a tomato basil sauce. Delicious!



Aaron got the halibut served in a lemon beurre blanc (butter sauce) with chive oil on top with potato gratin on the side.



Fun friends, delicious food, and quality time with my boy made for a perfect 23rd birthday!