Summer day

On Thursday both kids slept in. Kate came down at 7:30 for breakfast. Jack surfaced closer to 8:15. I gave them scrambled eggs and cantaloupe and got them to arts camp on time, still wiping sleepy seeds out of their eyes.

I picked them up 3 hours later. Kate anyway; Jack was invited over to a friend's pool for the afternoon. A year ago I might have thought "You have a baseball game tonight! Take it easy!" But that was dumb, he's a 10-year-old and it's summer. Off he went.

Kate and I had lunch at home, and then I brought her and a friend to our pool. They played a game where one of them threw a toy in the water, the other jumped in and retrieved it, then she gave the goggles to the first one and threw it in for her to jump in and get the toy. They did this over and over and over again. Then got ice cream. And went down the slide. And lay on their towels and talked about the candy vending machine. And jumped in the pool again. Three hours later, it was time to go.

Dropped Kate's friend off, picked up Jack. We went around to their backyard and he and a bunch of his friends were still jumping in and out of the pool, tossing a ball around. For all I knew they had been doing it for the last four hours; probably. Got him out and toweled off, thanked parents and friends, headed home.

Kids showered while I fired up the grill and made hotdogs. We've been having kind of a lot of them lately. But they're, uh, a somewhat healthy kind. Maybe? I don't know. Sometimes there's time to make burgers or chicken breasts. More often than not between a pool day and a travel baseball game, it's hotdogs.

Dressed in our coach and player uniforms and drove to the game, stopping along the way to pick up a couple of his teammates. They talked about music and the All-Star Game and baseball bats and the pool. At one point they were all talking in English accents for some reason, cracking each other up.

Really good game for Jack. A line-drive base hit to center in his first at-bat, his best hit in a couple of weeks. Even the balls he'd hit hard of late at found gloves. I looked over to first to give him a little thumbs up and he had a big grin. Still had it after the inning ended and he came into the dugout for his glove. Had a nice inning at second base where he fielded a low throw for the third out and backed up every throw back to the pitcher, jogging back to his spot at second after each one. How I know when he's really into the game; when he's doing everything right. In the last inning, in right center field, he ranged to his right and made a great, impressive shoestring catch of a sinking fly ball with the bases loaded. If he doesn't make that catch, at least 2 runs score. Emily's Dad in a text later: "saved game." It did. He got lots of high fives and congratulations after the catch and after the game, from coaches who are normally reserved. We won 6-5, I snapped a picture of him and one of his buddies, big smiles.

Players messed around on the playground near the field after the game. Jack asked if a friend could sleep over, and we were in a good mood and said sure. Picked up a pizza on the way home, Jack still happy in the back seat the whole way. At home the kids stayed up watching some Nickelodeon Kids Choice Sports Awards show, then Kate went to bed and Jack and his friend stayed up even later playing XBox. Sent them to bed around 11:30. Washing up myself, I could hear them talking in the dark quietly for a little while longer.

A nice Summer day that started early, ended late, and had the best of Summer in between.