It's June...so let the fun begin!!

I really can't quite believe that Summer's here already, but I sure am enjoying the fact nonetheless!

We have a lot of great things planned for the summer months--a big birthday bash, two trips to the beach, college road trips, water park fun, writing conferences, lots of reading, and who knows what else--so we are really looking forward to the break.

To celebrate the end of school and the beginning of Summer, we had our first trip...to the Great Smoky Mountains, for a travel softball tournament in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. It was our first time to see Delaney's team in action this season and they did great! Plus, we got to enjoy a gorgeous cabin, a day at Dollywood theme park, and all sorts of fun.

So, without further ado, here are pics of the Good Times!

As soon as we got on the road, Sydney was rockin and rollin...

and we were sidetracked only briefly by a flat tire...

but we finally made it into Tennessee and the closer we got, the mountains started peaking through...

We loved our cabin, which was called Bear Country (it had cute bears everywhere in it)...

On Friday, we headed out to Dollywood for the day...




where we rode all sorts of rides. Kid-friendly...




and not so kid-friendly.

I love these two pictures. McKenna (in the purple shirt) and Delaney (next to her in red) anticipate the water coming up...

and then get it...

They loved the Thunderhead roller coaster...


and this spinny thing (which made me sick just looking at it)...


and the swings (ditto, but because of the heights)...

but Sydney still got to enjoy her share of fun rides too...


and the girls got excessively wet after the log ride...

The hot tub may have been Sydney's favorite thing about the weekend. We got in it MANY times...


And no Summer getaway is complete without a Putt Putt Golf game...

in which McKenna did very "unique" warm up exercises...

And in which Sydney got a hole-in-one (it was unassisted and awesome!)...

and so did Delaney (she actually got 2 of them)...

and even Gary got one...

And yet, despite their prowess at holes-in-one, who won the game? Yep, that would be ME (pictured here with the girls at the pirate ship near the end of the course)...

No Wray vacation, though, would be a real vacation without the obligatory bed-jumping pictures. Sydney provided the best of the weekend...


And then...
we got started with the real reason we came to Tennessee (nope, it apparently was not just to loll around in hot tubs and eat lots of hand-pulled taffy!)...to play some softball!

The Birmingham Mustangs had a great weekend. We won one and lost one of our pool play games, then started on tournament games (where you are then in double elimination mode) on Saturday evening and Sunday. We won and won again and kept winning,

and Delaney played great (here in right field...I love that picture with the mountains behind her)...

and when she was up to bat!

Here she is checking out where the ball ended up...

huddling with the team....

smiling in the dugout...

And laying down a perfect bunt!

I LOVE this series of pictures. Watch it and you can see the play unfold as she gets ready to bat, hits a great bunt right down the fair line, and runs to beat the throw at first...






and up to bat again...

What does everyone else do while the games are going on? Well, we cheer of course, but we also play in the dirt...

and take naps...

But, when the day is over (at 10 PM!!), we see Delaney's team play in the championship game and come in second for the weekend (out of ten teams from different states!). They did so great and we were all very proud...

And, oh yeah, we then run around the bases ourselves (or, at least, Sydney does)...

It was a wonderful weekend filled with lots of fun!

We're all still recovering from the trip (we didn't get home until 4 in the morning on Monday) and I think we pretty much slept all day long yesterday. Today, we're trying to get back in the swing of things!

I hope you all had a great weekend too. I'll be trying to pop by all of your blogs very soon!

Summer...

YAY!!!!!!!!