April-May!

We have been very busy!  I thought after basketball season things would slow down...well not even close!  Haylea turned 12 on April 3rd and has been busy with Long Course Swimming.  Tate has had baseball 3 nights a week (unless it rained!) which it has done quite a bit lately!  But all in all, we have stayed quite busy 6 nights/days of the week.   We took a trip to Denver Memorial Day weekend for the Denver Zoo and 2 Rockies games.  You will see some  pics of the zoo and Haylea and her friend Janae at the Rockies games.   Also, Tate brought his friend Blake and the 3 boys (Ty, Tate and Blake) are showing off their Rockies shirts!  On Sunday, after the game...Haylea stubbed her toe on the walk back to the hotel...boy you would have thought her foot was cut off!  There was a lot of blood, I do have to admit, it does hurt when you stub your toe and this was a pretty bad cut on her toe.  Sorry about how the pics are laid out on here...I got tired of trying to move them around!  I also participated in a triathlon in Missoula in April.  Ty and I (and another friend Mike) ran in Peaks to Prairie and the picture of the trees with snow on them was in Red Lodge on the way up to the Beartooth Pass. 

Tate is doing great in baseball.  He plays a lot of 1st base and outfield.  He is one of the best 1st baseman on the team.  He gets on base over 50 % of the time and is having a lot of fun.  His tournament starts in a week or so, we will keep you up to date on how that goes!

Haylea finished up her last days as an elementary student on Friday...Here are some pics of her and her friends at the awards assembly last Wednesday.   Her music class also put on a "Top 40" music program a few weeks ago.  It was really good. 

I hope all is well and we love you all!

Love, Elkin's


BTW...I will be in Boise, ID Saturday June 12th 2pm start for 1/2 Ironman.  www.ironman.com is where you can follow me if you would like...I hope to have a better race this year than last! 

UPDATE!

It has been awhile since I have updated our blog..the last few months have been very busy with refereeing, Haylea's swimming/basketball and Tate's basketball.  It is all finally OVER!!  But boy does it make the winters fly by!  We finished up our very busy winter with Haylea's last basketball tournament last weekend in Columbus..They were champions.  Their team name is RUKUS! They are the shortest team in 6th grade but they are the scrappiest team.  They have improved so much from November and they actually looked like a basketball team, making game winning hook shots, free throws and fast break lay-ups!  Our biggest girl is probably 5'1" 105lbs and then there is Haylea...5'0" 85 lbs.  They had to guard 5'8 160lbs!!!  These girls were HUGE for 6th grade!!!  And the guards for our team are very short!  But boy did we make it difficult for the other team to get the ball down the court.  The Rukus will be very good once they all go through their growth spurts next year.  It will be exciting to watch them grow over the summer!

Haylea finished her swim season the first weekend in March at the State Short Course (25 yard pool) Swim Meet in Butte, MT.   She did very well!  She finished 9th 50 back, 9th 200IM, 8th 200 back, 4th 400IM, 6th 50 fly, 7th 100 back, 12th 100IM, and 1st in the 200 FR Relay!  She took time off all of her swims!  A very long weekend and the top 8 swam in the finals (except the 400IM).  She is on a break from swimming right now and will start back up in a few weeks.

Tate played basketball this winter too!  He has just started to play on a traveling basketball team.  They have practiced about 4 times together and will play tomorrow night in a tournament.  We will miss the games on Sat and Sun because we will be in Helena...I am taking on the challenge/embarrassment of swimming in the Montana Masters State Swim Meet this weekend.  It is more for fun, a couple of us from my swimming group that I swim with are going (and Ty and the kids) and we are just going to have fun...and swim in a relay or two together.  I know Haylea's times are going to be WAY faster than mine so it will be a weekend for her to feel good about beating me in something!

Tate has just started baseball this week too.  He made the 9-10 majors!  The 9 year olds have a chance to try out for majors and play with the 10 year olds...and Tate made it!  His first practice is tonight.  I think he is a little nervous, but I am sure he will do just fine.  I will have pics up from his games when they start!  I hope all is well with everyone and we love you all!

I have put some pics from the State Swim Meet in Butte on here...not very many of her swimming, but you get the idea of what a swim meet entails.  Enjoy the spring time weather...before you know it we will be complaining of how hot it is!

H

 

Haylea is the one in the rainbow swim cap...she swam her best time in the 50 fly...she took 1.4 secs off!  that is a lot in a 50!!  She won her heat in her age group....

Lane 3 Place 7:  100 back time-  1:16.61

Love, Elkin's

Happy 2010

Well I spent WAY  too much time trying to put these photos in order in which they happened!  I uploaded them in order and before you know it, they are all scrambled  up!  But to update you on what we have been doing the last 2 weeks here I go!

Dec 20th- Tate's "friend"birthday party at a bowling alley!  It was easy, fairly inexpensive and absolutely no clean up!  The kids were great and they all had fun!

Dec 23rd- Tate's 9th birthday!  Cam, Erik and Reece flew in on the 22nd from Seattle so we had a dual birthday celebration.  Reece's birthday is on Dec 17th!

Dec 25th- Christ's Birthday!  What a day we had!  Lots of family and friends came over and we spent the whole day opening of gifts and eating lots of food!  We had such a great time just hanging out!   For my birthday on Dec 5th - Ty bought me a plane ticket to Oklahoma to see my grandparents.  My grandpa turns 90 on Jan. 5th and I have a Papa who is very sick with cancer.  He surprised me with a ticket to go see ALL 4 of my grandparents.  Unfortunately, I do not have pictures of my visit with my Papa, it just didn't feel like the right time to be taking pictures.  He is on his way to be with Christ!  I was able to spend one of his last days with him, tell him I love him and give him a hug!  What a bittersweet experience the past weekend was.  What we all fear is death to some degree, but he was anxious and awaiting his arrival into Heaven!  I have been blessed with 2 sets of grandparents who follow Christ for a lifetime!  I was there to say good-bye to one and to wish a Happy 90th to another!

I have pictures of my Grandpa Rainwater who will be 90 tomorrow. His beautiful wife Lorene put together his party for him!  There is a picture of him (Paul) and his twin sister Pauline.  I do not know how old they are in this picture but boy was he a handsome young man!  I love him dearly and miss him more than my heart can explain.

I was also able to see my parents, Uncle Rob and Aunt Christy, cousin Billy his 4 kids (Kara pictured below with Kyle) and my sister Sarah (who are all pictured below).  Also in attendance my cousin Paul Allen.  Boy how time flies when you are having fun (I guess).  To all my family, I love and miss you very, very much!  Happy New Year to All!  

Love,  Heather

 

Christmaas Concert!

Here is Haylea's Christmas Concert last Friday....





And here is Tate's concert...

OOPS....

OK-that last blog isn't working...you probably can't open the videos...i will try again....

Tate and Haylea's Music Concert Dec 18, 2009!

Here are the video's from Tate and Haylea's music concert last Friday.  The battery went dead on the last song for Tate!  And Haylea's was in the dark with black lights and no singing.  Just music and dancing.  Kind of cool, much better in person because you could see the whole thing.  But this gives you an idea of what it looked like....Love to all!!


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Gillette Swim Meet Dec 5-6....

Here are a few clips from Haylea's swim meet this past weekend in Gillette.  We only recorded 3 of the races...she raced in 10 plus 2 relays.  She did AWESOME!!  Took time off all 10 events!!  Enjoy!!