Lemonade Stand

This summer Alaina has been playing softball.   After a few games, she started asking for a new bat (she had been using her brother’s baseball bat).    I thought ok, sure let’s get a bat.    Then she told me that the one she wanted was $400!   Are you kidding me!?!  For a bat?   So obviously that was a no.  I told her I was willing to spend no more than $50.

Not deterred, she kept looking, and Ethan helped her scour the internet for suitable options.     Eventually they found a "two-piece composite" bat for $200.   Which meant they had to raise $150.   

Ethan actually was very enthusiastic about helping her get this bat.   They pooled together a few left over Amazon gift cards, most of which were actually Ethan's (a very generous brother).  And then came up with the idea of selling lemonade to make up the difference.  

They found a busy corner in Marin…and made enough money to buy the bat in one day!

For the record, Ethan was the mastermind behind this whole scheme…..Alaina is sure lucky to have a brother like him (and honestly, I think he may have been more excited about the bat than she is!). It is very sweet to see these rare moments of sibling support.

And the new bat has been working great!   So hopefully a good lesson in economics.

Wedding!

 This weekend, Jason and I went to a wedding in Napa valley.   Our friend, Mark, who we trained with in residency, got married to a winemaker named Kerri.

 

The ceremony was at a private estate/vineyard over looking the valley--absolutely stunning!

The reception was in the town of Yountville, in a beautiful indoor/outdoor space.

Now, if you can imagine, the wedding of a winemaker in wine country meant that the food and wine at the wedding were pretty fabulous!  

One thing that was fun is that a lot of people that we knew from training, but have lost touch with, were at the wedding.   So it was a lot of fun to catch up and reconnect.   

Fun to celebrate this day with them!!   Congrats to Kerri and Mark!

Summer Softball

This summer Alaina is playing travel softball.    Now, admittedly we aren’t a “travel ball” kind of a family, but with Jason’s new job we have a little more time on the weekends, so we decided to try it out.

This weekend was our first tournament, so we spent the weekend in Benicia with what felt like 1000s of other softball families.  Actually there were 16 8u teams.   But it felt like 1000 people.

To be honest, it was a pretty grueling with games at 8, 12 and 5 Saturday.   Alaina played well on Saturday and had a lot of fun.   

On Sunday, the tournament was sudden elimination.   Alaina's team won the first game at 9:30 in a tie breaker, and also went on to win the second game at 2:30.   Which meant they played in the 4:30 finals.   Unfortunately, the game did not go so well, and the team lost 4-7.   It was over 90 outside and the girls were very hot, sweaty and tired.   Still, they all got runner-up medals, and the team got a second place trophy.    

 Alaina did not have a very good day personally on Sunday, so that was tougher. Sports are good for teaching life lessons, I suppose.  And Building resilience.   And helping us think about how best to parent.    

 

4th of July Weekend

 We headed to the cabin for the long Fourth of July weekend.  Surprisingly, the traffic was not too bad (maybe it is the $7/gallon gas we have right now).   The weather, however was a bit colder than we would have liked-- to cold to swim in the lake!

On Saturday, Jason and I took and amazing long hike along the pacific crest trail, from Sugarbowl down to Squaw Valley.   The trail is really cool because it actually does follow the mountain crests as it winds along.   

 

Our portion was nearly 16 miles long with 3000 feet of elevation gain, so tiring--but we met many full-trail hikers who do up to 30 miles a day with full packs, so we had nothing to complain about!  Certainly a cool thing to get to do.   I am not sure if I could do it, but it would be fun to try someday!

   The wildflowers were out in full force, and the cooler weather was actually perfect for hiking.  

We were able to do our short section pretty quickly without the kids, who stayed back at the cabin with Grandma and Grandpa Greenberg.  Jason's parents picked us up at the end of our trek and took us to dinner in Tahoe City--a treat! (and we snuck into a lodge in Squaw Valley and took a shower in the gym so we were cleaned up for dinner!)
 

On Sunday we planned to picnic and spend the day at the beach, although the cold wind shortened our time.   We had a nice BBQ for dinner though.   

No fireworks due to the wildfire risk, but that was ok--we were too tired to sty up that late anyhow!