He's Home!

Ryan returned safe and sound from his Blue Lake International Exchange adventure. We are beyond grateful that he was able to experience cultures other than his culture of origin to build perspective and empathy. He really enjoyed staying with host families, and of course, playing the cello. He came back pretty fired up for music!

2-1/2 hours after landing, Ryan and the other BL musicians finally emerged. I guess they were all waiting on the cellos and basses appear in the baggage claim area.

After about 36 hours of travel by bus, plane, and car, he was happy to be in his own bed - and he was exhausted.

Jet leg or not, we had to drive up to Blue Lake for the Homecoming event. Students rehearsed and recorded for about 5 hours, and then there was a reception and concert for families and actual BL campers.  It was a long day, but really celebratory and bittersweet. Here are some bits from the Homecoming concert. 

Segment from Un Bal from an arrangement of Symphony Fantastique by Hector Berlioz

Hoe Down from Rodeo

[Due to copyright, I could only publish a brief clip.]

This was their encore. Ryan enjoyed playing it because of the slides. 

It's The Love Theme from the film Cinema Paradiso by Ennio Morricone.

[Due to copyright, I could only publish a brief clip.]

Benediction

It is tradition for the instrumental ensembles to sing this benediction at the conclusion of the concert in each European town they visit. Ryan's not wild about it, but I thought it was a lovely gesture of gratitude and well-wishes. 

International Symphony Orchestra Conductor and Tour Director, Mr. Pfeil

This was his fifth time leading Blue Lake's ISO.

Joey's Favorites [aka the cello section]

They became fast friends, and had a lot of fun together!

Joey is in the back row, center. He is a staff member and section leader.

They lingered saying goodbye. 

It was hard to pull them away.

Reuniting with Artie

The next day he was right back to regularly scheduled programing - working the grill at Layla's graduation party. 

The day after that he was back to work, and tennis started up again for him too. Busy kiddo! We're so happy to have Ryan home, and know that his upcoming senior year is going to fly by! He has about 5 weeks until school begins. Hopefully, he can enjoy what's left of summer. 

 

Halfway

We're about halfway - halfway through summer break, Ryan is about halfway through his international adventure, and Evan is halfway through his travel baseball season. Here's a halfway update. 

Packing Day for Ryan

Thank goodness for a very explicit packing list. It helped keep us focused.

This all happened in the same day:

Evan played a game in his first tournament of the travel season with the Michiana Repetition 15U in the South Bend area.

After 3 years of me working in Niles, we finally found opportunity to go to Don Chepe. I've been talking about this place for a long while, and it was near enough to the game location, so we stopped for lunch. Burke and the boys gave it great reviews, so it lived up to what I promised. Phew...

After getting home from the game and lunch, we switched gears to drive Ryan up to Blue Lake for what they call Intensive Week. Basically, it's a week of rehearsals before leaving for the international tour.

The next couple days, Evan's team finished up that first tournament in SB. A mom of a teammate takes these great pictures with an actual non-phone camera and shares them with the group. We are so grateful for these pictures of Evan and his team in action. Too bad the tournament outcome was not one we'd hoped for. They went 0-4. 😐 No where to go but up, right?

Father's Day in New Buffalo

After about 5 days of rehearsing, we attended the Bon Voyage event at Blue Lake. This is the last time we'll see our big boy for 3 weeks!

Tracking flights and locations

Thankfully, he's sharing pictures with us so we're sort of with him.

We miss Ryan so much, but we are grateful that he has priceless experience! 🛫

Great pictures from Evan's second tournament in Nappanee, IN. In this tournament they went 1-2-1, which is a better outcome, especially considering the team they lost to twice should NOT have been in this tournament. They are an elite team, and should play in elite level tournaments. It was completely unfair to the other teams that they were even there. Also, there were a couple of wretched fans who needed to bring it down like, three notches. Their "cheering on their team" was borderline unsportsmanlike. All this said, Evan's team lost to this elite team in the championship game, so they moved far through the bracket in this tournament, which is something to celebrate. ⚾

playing LF

The third tournament of the season was in Grand Rapids.

Since this was a tournament where there is an expectation that you stay in a hotel, the boys had an opportunity to hang out, playing things other than baseball. They had some laughs, and got to know each other a bit more, hopefully building rapport that will lead to more wins. In addition to swimming and splashing in the pool, the boys played...

darts,

corn hole

 and duckpin bowling.

In this tournament, the team went 1-2. They played a tough team from Ontario twice (1-1), and another team that should only be playing in elite tournaments who, of course, went on to win this tournament. At least they got one win, and some more great action shots. 

pick off attempt

attempting to not get picked off

I'll end with a cute picture of Artie.

Onward through the second half of summer. 

The school year will be here before we know it. 

🌤