State Fastpitch Tournament





~Erica

 

Tovah's team played at the ASA U-10 State Fastpitch Tournament in Lacey in July. I uploaded these pictures several weeks ago but they sat in a draft waiting until I took the time to journal them. Her team was up against teams that were much better than they were but they did okay, even lasted a game longer than their rival team (and believe me, we were all pretty excited about that).

 

The first day was against two teams that we wouldn't have played before to get the teams a chance to play on the artificial turf (and the games didn't count for pool play). The ball bounced differently than on dirt and the turf makes sliding into base easier or harder depending on whether its wet or not.

 

 

Warming up on the turf- the trick is to get the ball before it bounces

 

Both teams lined up with the umpires, not just the team captains. After the first set of games they also had opening ceremonies and introduced the teams and lined them all up on the field. It was pretty cool but my pictures don't do it justice.

 

Our friends came to hang out with me at the ball field both days. Reminded me why the older kids didn't get to play ball- little guys in the stands can be pretty exhausting but it was a lot of fun too. They cheered and waved and got pretty excited when Tovah acknowledged them and pretty much cleared the snack bag.

 

Sliding into home! I hadn't gotten a good picture of her sliding home before this one- I was always watching someone else while she stole home. I guess that's the point....

 

At the end of the day the little guys got Tovah-time on the playground!

 

I really need to get the pictures uploaded of the tournament they won...

 

Fastpitch Tournament in Selah

~erica

We drove to Eastern Washington this weekend to play in a fastpitch tournament in Selah. Another mom and daughter rode over with us so that they didn't have to take 2 cars.

 

A stop at the top of White Pass for ice cream. One of these days we'll have to take the kids up to see the snow, they only get to go over passes in the summer when its all trees and dry meadows.

 

Other teammates were already in the pool when we checked into the hotel so the girls were ready to join them. It was cloudy at home when we left but it was hot when we got over the mountains. In the next hour most of the team arrived. Surprisingly we were the only U-10 team staying at the hotel, especially since it was right across the street from the fields.

 

There was no way I would be within 10 miles of a Sonic and not get a Cherry Limeaid. The other family had never eaten at a Sonic so they joined us for dinner.

 

The North Park Lodge definitely had a lodge feel. The lobby was decorated with antlers and pine furniture. This is our king room with a peeled pine bed and log cabin quilt. It had a good-sized fridge and microwave in the room and the breakfast was good too, with biscuits and gravy and waffles. The cable was limited so there weren't a lot of kids choices available outside of normal cartoon times but we had brought the mini DVD player and the laptop so we had some options. This was our first travel tournament and I didn't really know what to expect. I do know now that I need to bring a power strip when we stay in a hotel and I packed a lot more food than we wanted to eat since we ate breakfast at the hotel instead of out of the cooler. The fruit and fruit juice were her first choices, then cheese sticks. She didn't want yogurt or chocolate milk as she usually does between games. We didn't touch any of the cookies or sweet stuff that I packed. I brought chicken strips that worked well for lunch; cold the first day and reheated in the microwave the second day.

 

Downtime really needed to be rest time, playing in 90-degrees is hard work and the girls played 3 games each day. The mantra of the weekend was "water, water, water" and "shade, shade, shade."  Saturday we stayed at the field over lunch and it was hard to get the girls to settle and rest in the shade. Sunday I got a late check out so we went back to the room and ate and relaxed in the AC before returning to the field for the last game and the 3-hour drive home.

 

I made hair ribbons for each of the girls in Thrashers colors of lime and black.

 

Playing 3rd base.

 

Enjoying the shade of the new pop-up I bought at Costco. It's not much bigger than a chair when its folded up and it goes up and down almost instantly. It will also be nice for soccer in the rain.

 

Watching coach for signals, if the pitch gets past the catcher be on 2nd...

 

Some of the brothers found a great hill to roll down except they came back covered in grass and itchy the rest of the day. I'm blessed to be able to leave everyone else at home for tournaments.

 

Stealing home.

 

We ended up taking 3rd Place. The two games we lost we could have won, they were both close games. The girls have a lot to be proud of, they played well.

 

It rained yesterday and Tovah's comment, "it's nice that it's raining, we needed it after all the sunshine this weekend." She's definitely a Washington girl...

 

 

 

Jonah and Tovah's 5 Places to Visit

I asked each of the kids what 5 places they'd like to visit and why. I think I'm seeing a theme, do you?

Jonah

1. Disneyland
2. Australia Zoo to see koalas
3. Disneyworld
4. San Diego Zoo to see koalas
5. Euro Disney

Tovah

1. San Diego Zoo
2. Euro Disney
3. Texas to see museums
4. Canada
5. Disneyworld

Tovah couldn't explain where in Canada she wanted to go and why and she just wanted to go to Texas to see the museums.

Baseball Cards

Jonah and Tovah have asked me to make baseball cards of them. I did them for Tovah's soccer team this fall and they're really easy in StoryBook Creator so I figured it was no big deal. I wanted them to be a little more realistic so I asked Jonah to bring me his baseball card collection so I could see what a "real" card looked like. I was horrified! They used the most unflattering pictures of the players they could find. One poor pitcher was caught just before his arm came forward to release the ball- his face is screwed up, his eyes are bulgy and crossed, his tongues hanging out, he looks like he was just removed from a car with the Jaws of Life. I didn't know the human body could be twisted like that and still survive. His mother must be horrified. The other action shots are better- players jumping into the air to catch a ball or sliding into base, they probably have horrible looks on their faces too but the camera doesn't zoom in so closely as it does on the pitchers.

I guess what I learned is that the picture isn't as important as the card is. Having a card makes you "official" regardless of what it looks like. So I spent my time making word art for "Adna" and a pirate icon png file. I should go and download the pictures from Tovah's first game.

Coloring Contest

Tovah entered a coloring contest at Anchor Bank. She was very serious about it, she found her Strawberry Shortcake puzzle and made sure she used the right colors on every stripe (Ryan says its because she is exactly like her mother!) She went in and looked at the other entries and said that they didn't use the right colors. Last week they called to say she had won! They started her a savings account with $5 in it. She told everyone that I said she could go to college now since she has a college fund. She's excited to put more money in it and as long as she never discovers that money can come out of it she probably will have a nice little nest egg when she is ready to go to college- maybe it'll buy books her first semester.

Talking about college, I submitted my registration for Centralia College today. I had to tell them what I was planning on doing- I put down Track 1 Associate in Science which includes biology, chemistry, physics, and earth science. My plan is to take whatever is offered at 8 and 9 a.m. and 1 independent study course each term. I'd love to transfer to St. Martins when I'm done but not sure that they offer anything I'd want so I probably will end up at Evergreen. Pre-Med is still my inclination but Med School and the rest would be difficult (not impossible but...)

ZooLights

We went to ZooLights one day and we saw lots of animals there. My favorite animal was the penquins. I liked the ones with the purple and pink tags.

We got to pet the goats.

Afterwards we went to Carl's Jr for dinner.

Carving Pumpkins

We bought our pumpkins at Wal-Mart because the local pumpkins got rained on and were rotting in the field. We finally got around to carving them on the the 30th. Mom said it was dad's turn to help us this year.

Jonah is holding one of the paper patterns we used. We poked holes through the pattern to mark the pumpking then cut from hole to hole to follow the pattern.

Rush is carving out the face of Jonah's pumpkin with a battery-operated carver (mom bought it a few years ago to save her hand from hurting when we carved 1 pumpkin for each child).

My pumpin has star eyes and Jonah's is smiling.

Our pumpkins out in the yard.

Rush stayed home, Arin was an 80's rocker, Isaac a sleepwalker, Jonah an Army dude, and I was Snow White. Mom went as a homicidial maniac because you know they look like everyone else. We went trick or treating down Dieckman Rd in Adna, then came home and ate our candy.

We roasted our pumpkin seeds this year for the first time. Mom found a really good recipe.