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KC T-Bones Sizzler Tournament Champions

The weather has not been very cooperative so far this season. We have had several games and a tournament canceled because of rain, snow, and cold. This past week we had our first enjoyable regular season game on Thursday and then the weekend was our first baseball tournament. The weather was almost perfect, the boys were in it to win it. It was an awesome weekend. I really enjoy watching Matthew play. We stuck gold with this team we are on now. It is exactly what we were looking for. The head coach is awesome with the boys, he is knowledgable, consistent, level headed, good natured, good all around person. The other coaches are great too. The boys are a great fit for Matthew. They are helping him come out of his shell a little more. They all LOVE baseball, they are all talented and work hard to get better at it, they are good natured and have fun but listen when it is time to get serious and want to be competitive. The icing on the cake is the parents and families are pretty much all on the same page supporting the team, being positive, and fun to hang around with. For the most part we are all similar in our goals for wanting the boys to have fun playing baseball while learning some important life lessons like; hard work, applying yourself, dealing with success and failure, friendship, teamwork, dedication, self discipline, having confidence in yourself, etc. All these things make spending 12+ hours at a basball field enjoyable and fun. The girls have each made friends with some of the other siblings and have their snacks, toys, other items they want with them down to a science. They watch a little but then go play at the park, or explore around the fields with their friends. I had the pleasure of Ryan’s company for Fall Ball, but he has now become one of the assistant coaches so he can be in the thick of everything more. He loves doing baseball with Matthew. I think we are making some great memories.

The pictures above were taken by one of the moms who is a photographer. She takes some great pictures of the boys during their games and then shares them with us so we can have them. It is pretty awesome.

So the tournament was a great time, everyone watching was full of peanuts, popcorn and icees, a little sunburned, very dusty, emotionally drained, and raspy voices from cheering so much. Matthew and Ryan could easily recount every play and at bat for the entire weekend but I will summerize by saying by the end all the coaches and players were full of sunflower seeds, bubble gum, water, a little sunburned, covered in dirt, sore from bumps and bruises, physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausted and over the moon excited that they won. Matthew played 2nd base for all the games except for a few innings they switched things around and he did short stop, center field, and pitcher. He had some great pop fly and line drive catches. With the exception of one game all the boys were pretty much on point and doing great in their positions. Matthew had several double hits, of course singles, several walks, and luckily only one hit from the pitcher to advance to first. I believe his batting average was 500 at the end of the tournament. He is still dying to get a home run, he did hit one to the fence but hasn’t made it over yet. He is excellent at stealing bases, and just running in general. He loves that one of his nicknames is Cheetah. He proves he is the fastest one on the team regularly in practice. Allison added another nickname to the list by calling him Cheetoh instead of Cheetah. When other people started using it too sometimes she was very proud of herself. I have to agree it is a funny thing for a sister to do.

 

FAT Adventures LLC is born.

A few years back we were on vacation in Island Park, Idaho. For part of it we went camping with Kenny and Sherri in Yellowstone National Park. While we were there Ryan noticed how many RV’s were around and started making a business plan with Kenny. At the time the French’s were living in Idaho so we were trying to get logistics worked out for having our own RV Rental business. There were some hitches in how we wanted things to work, and then the French’s moved to Florida. RV Renting fell to the wayside for a few years. We still talked about it and Ryan was ready to do it if it was ever possible. When we went to Florida in March he and Kenny were joking about finally starting the RV business when we came to visit. One night we went to dinner without the kiddos and started talking about it. We quickly started thinking that we had a pretty ideal set up to start it. Kenny and Sherri have a big lot they could keep it on and Kenny could service and turn them over. So we decided to do it. When we got home we all started working on different things to get the business underway. A week later we had our LLC submitted and approved and an RV bought and listed to rent with supplies on the way to get her ready for renters, and the month of April completely booked with more bookings coming in almost daily. It has been a pretty crazy process. I am glad there are four of us to split the work load. I am focusing on our website/social media/accounting stuff.  Our first one was booking so well that we decided to get two more right away.  So a little into our second week we had three RV’s, a website, Facebook Page, logo, and software for booking and accounting rolling out.  It has been pretty exciting to work on too. Every time things start to settle it seems like we think of more things that need to be done or we want to do. I am going to flat out pat myself on the back for the website.  I impressed myself that I managed to get a fully functional pretty decent website up and running! That is not my wheel house at all. Ryan and Kenny are now talking about how to get this growing even more.

We named our little business FAT Adventures. Which has a few thoughts behind it. One is a play on words that we want to help people have a FAT adventure using the slang meaning of the word Phat. Another is the acronym with French and Terry. We also wanted a name that wasn’t specifically for RV’s because eventually we hope to expand and have homes and storage facilities for rent too.

So, as I mentioned it is pretty exciting. I have learned a ton already. I am excited this is something I can work on from home too. Even though all my kids will be in school next year all day, I still want to be home when they come home and get to be with them during that time. So far this seems to have the potential to grow and really take off. We are all crossing our fingers it will be a success. We also named our RV’s so it is easier to keep track of them the picture below is our first one. We call it Cowboy, we have a slightly smaller one we call Li’l Sebastian, and a big one we call Moose.

 

Spring Break Part 2

Wednesday was our beach day. As I mentioned it wasn’t really hot while we were there.  We went to the Ft Desoto Beach. It is a beautiful beach, white sand, blue water. It was freezing though. It wouldn’t have been to bad but it was windy so once you got wet it was even colder. The kids still got in and played for a bit. The wind made some bigger waves so they thought that was cool. There wasn’t really anyone else there which meant the sea shells hadn’t been picked over for a while so the girls found some nice sea shells. We finished our beach day by building a sand castle then hurried back to the car to get warm. We were only at the beach for about an hour so we had time to go to the power plant by the ocean called TEKO. It pumps out a lot of warm water so it attracts hundreds of Manatees. They have put in a really nice boardwalk area to see them and the Mangroves. We saw lots of cool fish, a couple sharks, and tons of Manatees. They look like giant potatoes floating in the water. After we got home and cleaned up and ate dinner we watched the movie Coco together and called it  a night.

Thursday was another one of my favorite days we were there. We went to a place called Weeki Wachee. It is a natural spring that they have made a big swimming area with slides and a beach. They have a live mermaid show we went to first when we got there. Alli especially was very excited to see it, she loves mermaids. We all decided it was a big flop though. I think it is the same show they have been doing since it opened decades ago. They could make it really awesome but it was not that good. We went over to the swim area afterwards and once again had the place pretty much to ourselves. Once we got in the water it wasn’t bad at all. We had goggles so we could swim and see all the fish and other animals that were in the bay. When you held still for any period of time  dozens of fish (we called them zebra fish because they were black and white striped) would come and surround you and it looked like they were just starring at you. There were lots of other fish, including a very active flying fish that much to our delight liked to show off his flying skills. There was a turtle or two swimming around too. We all were pretty impressed and thought it was awesome. The girls took turns burying each other in the sand too which they had wanted to do at the beach but didn’t.

After we played at the beach area for a while we walked over to the kayak rental area. Sherri and I and my kids rented two tandem kayaks and then went down the  river on a 5.5 mile float trip. It was BEAUTIFUL!!  It was breathtaking. The plants and trees around the water were thick and it felt like you were floating through a gorgeous jungle. The  water was clear so you could see the bottom and all the plants and animals in between. It varied in depth from a few inches to around 20 feet deep.  There were many places along the way where a little beach area opened up so you can pull over and stop for a bit if you want. We did it once or twice to stretch our legs. The hope is to see some manatees but there is a lot of other animals to see too. We saw a raccoon, tons of different kinds of fish and birds (the ones we knew the names of was a wild turkey, black vultures, crane and an Egrit) a snake (gross), far to many spiders and other bugs, and the last mile or two we saw two manatees! We paddled along side the first one for about a half mile or so.  Against Matthew’s protests and best attempts to sabotage our efforts those of us that wanted to were able to touch him. They feel like potatoes too.  It was pretty awesome, we just followed him along and he swam back and forth and underneath us. Eventually he slowed down and we went on ahead. When we started out it was about 70 and nice and warm, it took several hours to get down the river so it got a little chilly by the end. We were very glad to get home and take a warm shower. It was a pretty awesome day though.

 

Friday morning it was time to pack up and restock snacks and load the car up. We took our time getting ready. Kenny put new brakes and rotors on my car too. We left early afternoon and drove to Nashville the first day. We got home about seven on Saturday. I was supposed to pick Ryan up from the airport at midnight but his plane was delayed and I didn’t pick him up until 3 am. Today has been our recover from vacation day to be ready to get back to real life tomorrow.

It was an awesome Spring Break. We did a lot of fun cool things but I love just getting to see my sister and her family. I felt the same way when I went to see DeAnna. I love staying up late and talking about whatever and being there and seeing what their lives are like. I don’t know if we will ever live by each other which makes me sad because we would all  love it. For now I have to take advantage of the times we do get to see each other and enjoy them as much as possible. I always have a bit of a mourning period after I leave from seeing one of them. We of course talk on the phone and text pretty often but it isn’t the same. We always pick right back up like we saw each other yesterday when we do get together. I am glad that all of our husbands are pretty good about helping us work out opportunities to see each other. It will never be often enough though.

Spring Break Florida Part 1

Our first full day in Florida was very nice and relaxing. We slept in and then played games and visited with each other. Kenny grilled up some burgers for lunch and we at those and played in Sherri’s yard. She has a swing set, hammock, plenty of room to run, and the biggest hit was her zip line. It is about 90 feet long and everyone took a couple turns. The kids took an uncountable amount of turns. They loved it. We played outside most of the afternoon. It was in the mid 70’s so the weather was perfect. That night Kenny started a fire in their huge fire pit and we roasted hot dogs and smore’s for dinner. We finished off the day with a game or two of Kick The Can.

Monday was one of my favorite days while we were there. The morning was a little chilly and rainy so we went to the Florida Aquarium. Alli got to pet some sting rays which was on her must do list so she was happy to get to do that. By the time we were done with the Aquarium we grabbed some lunch and went to the zoo. The rain had stopped and the sun was out. It was perfect weather. Almost every animal we saw at the zoo was up and about and active which the kids loved. We have been to lots of zoos but we saw a few animals we had never seen before, one of the most memorable was the sloth bear. The Orangatans were really active and there was three new babies the kids loved watching play. We fed the Lorikeets too. When we have done it at the KC zoo they have feeding times that everyone does all at once. At this zoo they just had you buy some nectar and you can feed them so it wasn’t as crowded and you could take your time.  We told the kids they could pick a souvenior while we were in Florida and they usually pick a stuffed animal for their souveniors. They decided to get one at the zoo. Alli got a sting wray, Emilee got a clouded leopard, and Matthew got a leopard. There was a little kid area with some rides that the kids tried out after we looked at all the animals. It was a really nice day.  That was that was the tone for the whole week. The weather was a little cold for Florida so there wasn’t a lot of people everywhere we went. It made it feel even more relaxing and fun to not have to fight crowds. We got a babysitter for the kids that night and the four of us went out to a Sushi/Thai place.  Kenny and Ryan got their sushi and Sherri helped me order some Thai Curry food that I loved. We are wanting to get a RV rental business going so we talked a lot about that too.

We slept in on Tuesday again. Kenny is a morning person. He pops up like a daisy between 6-7 every morning.  Not going to lie, I’m a little jealous but it is not in the cards for me. The rest of us are not morning people and enjoyed getting a little extra sleep. We packed a lunch and went downtown to a park by the river. After we ate and played a while we went to the Children’s Museum. Matthew is getting a little old for them but he found some fun things to do. Everyone else had a good time. After that Kenny’s parents had invited us to come over and swim in their pool so we headed over there. I took Ryan to the airport to catch his flight to his annual friend get together in Las Vegas for March Madness. The kids were done swimming when I got back so we went home and had dinner then played outside. We ended the day with a game of Kick The Can again.