Take me out to the ball game!

What a Summer?! It's been a busy one. Lots of baseball... Fort Collins doesn't do little league (which I think I prefer), they have their own thing and kids only play with their own age...so the boys were on separate teams. We had baseball 4 nights a week, which is fun, but I'm glad it lasts 1.5 months. We're heading out on vacation this Saturday for two weeks, so Nate is missing one week and play-offs (which isn't really a play-off format) and Mac is missing his last two weeks.


This was Mac's second season. We encouraged him to play when he wasn't so sure, because he was just seeming to get it at the end of last season. However, this season was a toughie. None of his friends played and this is the first year that it's only kid-pitch, and like I said before, it's only their grade, so it was lots of walks. They just keep going until there's 6 runs in an inning. We had one game that was two hours and 3 innings. Walk after walk. For a boy who was hesitant to play because he thought it was too slow...this did him in. We told him, just keep doing your best and have a good attitude and if you decide you don't want to play next season at the end of this one, that's fine. Right after his last game, the first thing Mac said to me was..."Mom, I've thought about it and I don't want to play next year." We're fine with that...:)


Mac got a hit his last game, so we were excited he went out with a bang. I think he got hit with about 5 pitches and walked a lot the rest of the season! He's not the strongest hitter and after getting hit and walked a few times, he started looking for walks which drove his mom crazy watching him take a strike when there were so few...so I made him a deal. Every time he swung the bat (I'd rather see him swing at bad pitches then lay off a decent one)...he got a quarter, every time he watched a strike go by...I took a quarter back. That got the boy swinging!


Nate's a different story. You don't have to convince this boy to swing the bat! Sam was his coach again and had a lot of the same players from last year, which includes a couple of Nate's really good friends. They were a great team. Nate's grade rules with pitching is kid-pitch one inning, coach-pitch the next. With the kid-pitch inning, the kid is relieved if they walk 3 batters, so there is much more hits at his level.




Nate's favorite position this year was pitcher. He did a good job. I personally love watching him at short though!


Our little entrepeneur decided to have a lemonade stand at Nate's last two games. He made $17 one night and $12 the next. He's been saving for a suitcase...I know random. Elly wanted one for her birthday, Nate just bought a nice duffel bag and we're heading to Walmart today for Mac to buy his suitcase. Not sure why they are so into suitcases besides the fact that they are super-excited for our trip to Montana and Washington!


And not to forget this little chickadee! She finds a friend at every game we go to, climbs a tree or plays at a playground close by. I'm not sure she's actually watched a full inning of a game...but is that a surprise for this mover?! We let her go off our zipline into the pool this year. She loves it!

Besides baseball, we started the Summer with a week-long sports camp for both boys, then the next week was VBS. So started off kind of busy. We've also gotten a lot of swimming in and had family reunion in Denver. We're having a couple slow days, then we're off to Montana and Washington on Saturday. We'll see a lot of you soon!