Baseball and a really fun weekend

Before I finish writing about the Fourth of July weekend, which is now a week and a half ago, I have to jot down all of the funny little moments from the past weekend.  First up, baseball.  As I've mentioned like a million times on this blog, this was Will's first year playing baseball and it was a great experience.  All of us have enjoyed going out to his games and watching a group of 7 and 8 years olds (sometimes) hit the ball, (sometimes) field the ball and (most of the time) have a really fun time.  Last week was the end of the season tournament.  Will's team won their first game but then lost the second.  On Saturday, they won two games to move to Monday night, where they won again and played in the championship last night.  They lost the championship, but it was such a fun season. 

Will started off the season just knowing the basics about baseball.  He's played t-ball so he understood you hit the ball and run to the base but beyond that, he was a total newbie.  For the first few weeks of the season, he struck out at bat almost every time and started to get pretty frustrated.  This league uses a pitching machine and that ball is coming in at you pretty fast.  But he kept going to practice and asking us to play catch with him in the front yard and hitting wild pitches that Glenn was throwing and this kid never EVER gave up.  I get a little teary when I think about it because I am just so proud of him.  In the second half of the season, something just clicked. Will started hitting the ball and grabbing ground balls and throwing them to the right place and having some fun out there. You could see his confidence growing each time he came up to bat.  He's speedy so most of the time when he hit the ball, he'd get on base.  When he'd get hit home, he'd gleefully leap over home plate like he was in the long jump, but we're working on that.  Baseball's more than just about the hitting and on defense, he'd scoop up the ball and heave it to the right base and quietly shout "YES!" when he got someone out.  It was a joy to watch.  I read somewhere that one of the best things you can say to your kid in sports (or other performance type activities) is "I love to watch you play." Man if that wasn't the truth.  There were games where I felt more nervous than the Broncos AFC Championship and Glenn and I yelled and cheered louder than is probably necessary (or appropriate?) for a 7-8 yr old sporting event, but we sure loved to watch Will play baseball.

A true Reds fan, I'm just glad he wasn't on the Yankees.  Or the Dodgers.  Or the Giants.  Or the....

A pretty happy bunch of runners-up! 

Besides lots and lots of baseball, we also fit in a local race to benefit the hospital's foundation and all of the good work they do.  First up, was a kids' 1K.  I signed both kids up and they were pretty excited to run in their first race.  We didn't get a chance to practice very much but there are both enthusiastic runners and gave it their all. 


Will, in the blue, racing to the finish line.  He was bummed that he finished fourth, medals were given to the top 3.  He did get a ribbon and a goody bag for his fine effort. 

Reina had a great pacesetter and a little help.  I love this picture so much. She earned a ribbon too and carried it around all weekend. 

After the kids' race, Trigger and I ran the 10k.  After the race in Yellowstone last month, I had pretty low expectations - hoped to finish before noon and not injure myself.  The weather was crisp, we had a big rainstorm go through the night before.  The course was in a part of town that I don't often run in so there were lots of new things to look at (a baby donkey!) and I had a great cheering section.  So long, boring story short, I won silver medal in my age group!  Granted, there were only three of us but I took second.  All of the glory goes to Trigger who paced me pretty well, until he stopped to go potty for third time about 20 yards from the finish line.  I had my fastest time (PR in running lingo) and nothing hurt too badly afterwards. 

Me, some of the other runners in my certain age group and Trigger's behind. I did let him wear the medal. 

 

And where was Tootsie, my faithful readers will ask? Well Tootsie split a nail early last week and I thought we cleaned up it alright until Thursday, when I noticed that she'd licked all of the fur off of her toes on that foot. So off to the vet we went. She had to be sedated so that they could cut the nail all the way back (OUCH) and she spent the day at the vet's office. Reina and I picked her up after work and I snapped this picture. Tootsie was a little, well, altered. This is a family blog after all. But if she could talk, I think it would've been along the lines of David After The Dentist (google it). Reina was truly concerned and spent most of the weekend worrying about Tootsie and her giant bandage.  Just say no to drugs, Tootsie!