What do Tyler and Garrit Cole have in common? And no, it's not they both got drafted in the first round of the MLB draft right out of high school by the NY Yankees. They both pitched awesome games but due to fielding errors lost the game.
Tyler pitched the first game. They lost 0-10 after 4 innings. The second game, SL 6 ELC 7, Tyler played all 3 innings at second base. The highlight of the game was Tyler's batting performance. With bases loaded, Tyler hit a sweet line drive out to center field for a double and brought in 2 RBI's.

Tyler and Chloe shooting their water guns at the tree. By the looks of it Chloe's shirt must have already gotten wet.
Chloe loves to follow her big cousin Tyler.
Rich went "old skool" and fixed burgers over the open fire.

After a week of the computer being on the fritz I'm finally back posting. Good thing Tyler's friend Dimitri came over to press one button and fix it for me. Otherwise, Uncle Rich about had to work over the 4th;) Father's Day weekend we went camping with our family at Saylorville Lake. It was our first time camping there. It's been a while since I've showered in an out building but I'd have to say it was pretty nice and spacious.

The first game, SL 5 Sheldon 0 Tyler caught all 5 innings. It was the first shut out win for the team this year.
The second game SL 5 Sheldon 6, Tyler played left field. He caught a fly ball for an easy out.

The Sheldon games were on Tuesday in Sheldon and Thursdays games were home vs Spencer. Tyler pitched the first game vs their ninth graders. They lost 0-5. The second game vs. Spencer's eighth graders they won 16-4. After the game, Tyler's coach, told the head varsity coach, "next year you'll have to work with him when he pitches for junior varsity." Quite the compliment for an eighth grader. After wards, grandma usually treats us but since it was her birthday we treated her for ice cream at Villager.

Today Tyler and I attended a memorial service for a friend of ours. Kelli was 46 and she left behind a 15 year old son, Sam. At one time Tyler and I were quite close to them. This past week since her death has been a hard one for me but especially for Tyler. He can't imagine what he would do without me. He said "He'd go psycho" if anything ever happened to me. I'm writing this because I want everyone to take a minute, put down all your baggage that we as human beings carry around and remember that we are only put on this earth for a short while. The things we do and say have a tremendous impact on the people around us. So the next time you feel like life can't get any worse and there seems like no light at the end of the tunnel remember Tyler's friend Sam. The 15 year old that too quickly said good bye to his mother.

Tyler had his best pitching game ever!!! Even though the score doesn't reflect it, SL 2 Cherokee 12. Through 3 innings the score was 2-2. Tyler had no walks, 3 strikeouts, and our fielding was almost perfect. Then came the fourth inning. Tyler hit a kid with a pitch and then too many to mention fielding errors occurred and that started the 10 runs for Cherokee. Coach told the team after wards that was the best pitching the teams had all year we just had too many errors.
They won their first game!!! It was a blowout as you can tell by the scoreboard. Tyler caught the last two innings. He made the last out of the game by throwing the runner out at third base when they were trying to steal. Way to go team!!!

In the first game vs Spencer this afternoon, Tyler came in to relieve Jay 2/3 the way into the 2nd inning. He finished out the third inning and the game. He only allowed 2 runs. SL 2- Spencer 10 (3 innings.) The second game he caught the whole game for pitcher, Jack. He had a sweet play when he threw the ball down to Charlie at third base to get the runner out. SL 6- Spencer 11 (4innings.) Tyler went 0-4 batting:( Yes Grandma he had his contacts in;)

Last night while Tyler and Steve had guy night, I was a guest at Mom's Employee Recognition Banquet. Mom received a pin for her 5 years of service and dedication to St. Luke's. We had a wonderful time. The night started out with 2 margaritas, meeting her coworkers and a delicious meal (which we ate the dessert first.) The evening ended with a comedian/speaker talking about laughter. Boy did he make us laugh the whole hour! Laughter truly is the best medicine. I'm so happy I "took the evening off" to attend with mom.

Tyler's batting has much improved this year. Today he hit the ball all 3 times at bat but only got on base once. He scored the first run of the second game which ended up being SL 4 Spirit Lake 12. The first game he started pitching and did a much better job. The ump wasn't giving him any corners and the field behind him was having an off day. He only pitched 1 2/3 innings. SL 0 Spirit Lake 13
The play of the day was during the second game when he was playing short stop. Tyler, Charlie, and Ross got the base runner into a pickle and got the out. They had just practiced "pickles" in practice so he was quite excited to use it in a game and see it work.

Yesterday, Jason, Dalton and Josh aka (bloody knee) came over for a little 2 on 2 basketball.
Taking a time out for a ginger pic;)
This afternoon Tyler played short stop for the first game. SL 13 Sheldon 17. He had 2 sweet throws to first for outs. The second game, SL 2 Sheldon 9, Tyler made his high school catching debut. He did a great job.

The first game of the season versus Cherokee was a great day to get all the baseball jitters out. Tyler started out as pitcher and struggled. He was relieved and played a bit of center field and would later finish up playing short stop for the remainder of the innings. The first game was called in the third inning due to the 15 run rule: SL 7 Cherokee 22. The second game of the double header was called at the end of the third due to lightning. SL 5 Cherokee 7. Tyler's highlight of the day was his on base percentage: 80%. He is the second batter in the lineup. He had two beautiful hits in the first game. The second game he was hit by a pitch, walk, and struck out. I'm supposing the batting clinic I signed him up for and the contacts I bought AND he's wearing have something to do with it.
After the games Grandma treated us to an early bird supper at Villager. It was such a nice treat to have Aunt Hollie with us for the game and post game supper.