Arlington 3on3 Basketball Tournament

Arlington has a pretty good-size outdoor, 3on3 basketball tournament held on one of the tarmacs of the Arlington Airport. I (Matthew) made a team up for the Saturday-only bracket. It was basically adult recreation level basketball in our bracket, so not real stiff competition, but enough to make you work for it. Our team went 4-0 in our double-elimination bracket and won the Championship game. It was a lot of fun, tiring and the sun got the best of me by the end of the day. Kristina and the kids were able to video 2 of the 4 games, so I put together a little video of a bunch of my highlight clips, it's educational and awesome! Enjoy.

Heather Lake

We have tried to do a bunch of hikes this summer.  When we first moved here, people told us that everyone spends all their time outdoors during the summer (mostly because of the excess of rain during the rest of the year).  I didn't understand that because I grew up in the south when you definitely spent alot of time indoors during the summer because of the heat and humidity.  I understand the Washingtonian mentality much better this year!  I have found myself looking forward to the warm days of 80 degree heat and planning hikes for those days specifically.

Heather Lake is an alpine lake.  It is probably one of the longest hikes we have done as a family and definitely the longest climb the kids have done.  It is switchbacks up on a rocky trail up to the lake.  The kind of rocky trail that you have to be aware of where you are stepping constantly.  Xavien lost his shoe a couple times in between rocks.  :)  The lake is beautiful with some snow on one side and a ton of bugs.  We had a nice picnic lunch and then made the hike back down.

The Family Day

Day 4 of our vacation was spent with extended family.  Both Matthew and my grandmother's live about 30 minutes apart around the San Fransisco area.  We were able to enjoy wonderful visits with both grandmothers and then visited my sister-in-law and her family for a 4 of July barbeque.