A brief recap of our short summer...
Each year, summer seems a little shorter. We bookend it with the girls' sports. School is finished at the beginning of June but softball continues. School begins late in August, but volleyball has already begun.
For this past summer, it began a day later than the girls would have liked due to a make-up day for some inclement weather in January. (We have to make up all missed days here). The first weekend of summer was a trip to Beaumont, Texas for the state softball tournament. While we were there with Alexa, Mackenna spent her first weekend of the summer with a friend at a 3-day volleyball camp. We returned from the state tournament and the next day dropped Alexa off at a softball camp, drove across the city and picked Mackenna up from her volleyball camp. Both girls enjoyed their camp experiences.
Later in June, softball continued with another state tournament in Corpus Christi, Texas. It was again very hot and humid in late June. It was also quite windy due to being so close to the Gulf of Mexico.
Upon returning from Corpus, we packed to head north. Leaving a day later than expected (car issues), we headed north on what we called the "college tour." We drove through Dallas (drove past SMU) and stopped for the night at the University of Oklahoma. We did a self-guided tour of the campus. From there we ventured to the Softball Hall of Fame and then did more self-guided tours of Oklahoma State University and the University of Tulsa. We spent the night in Branson, Missouri and took a tour of the Titanic Museum. We all enjoyed that; it was quite impressive!
We continued our college tours with stops at Miami University and then Ohio University. It was fun for both of us to show the girls our alma maters.
Our college tour ended with stopping at the University of Michigan to drop off Mackenna for a volleyball camp. She stayed in the dorm with a friend and they had a blast!
Despite some cooler weather, we had a great time in northern Michigan. And again, like last summer, our return to Texas was sooner than we had hoped.
Mackenna had an opportunity to try-out for a premiere volleyball club in our area and so the two of us flew back home a few days early. Matt and Alexa stayed the next few days (Matt had a meeting he had to attend) and then they drove back and met us at home.
Going back early paid off and Mackenna made the team. We were all so proud of her and so happy for her!
The following week brought another week of volleyball camp and then volleyball try-outs for the high school team. Mackenna made the junior varsity team and they began practices and games the first week in August.
In mid-August, softball practices began again. Even though it was 100 degrees outside, summer was officially over. The girls were busy with sports again and school was still two weeks away!
