~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...
