Baseball Season

Spring baseball is one big love/hate relationship for me.

I LOVE that the kids are excelling in a sport they LOVE.

Getting outdoors and cheering them on in a nail biting game is a joy.

Putting a 2 year old in and out of a car seat 20 x's a day to take said kids

to practices and games is the hate. I can't even complain because we live 2 minutes away 

from the fields. But 3 kids in Little League was a doozy!

I wasn't sure if I was going to sign Lindi up or not. But once we got Olive to join in it was a go! And a good thing too, they were the only girl power on the team!

I figured I would let her experience at least one year of coach pitch in her life!

The first couple of games she never made it past home plate.

She persisted and eventually made some pretty solid hits!

It's pretty awesome when the other team starts cheering after FINALLY

getting the first hit!

You knew when she was up with that bright pink helmet!

Thanks Steph for buying pictures so I could have this group shot!

Rusty played minors.

Surprisingly, out of all the cousins his age that were also in our league,
he didn't get on a team with any of them.

He mainly was the pitcher or catcher. 

Rusty is catching and Collin is batting.

During the first set of practices we thought they had a pretty good team!

They won their first game, and not much more after that.

It was defeating, but they persevered.

Tournament was double elimination.

Surprise, surprise.

They kept winning!

Even beating the best team that had been undefeated the whole season, the Blue Rocks.

The last game they battled hard but lost.

2nd place wasn't too shabby from where they started.

Lane played his last year of Little League. He got drafted by one of the best coaches and we were excited for him to grow leaps and bounds. Last year he took a break from baseball to do flag football. It was hard to watch him make that decision because he is a natural at baseball. Coach Joe was so patient with him and knew exactly how to push him to perform his best and not let nerves get in the way.
He mainly played catcher with short stop and pitcher thrown in here and there. He loved being on a team with his best friend, Griffen.

One Saturday I took Lane, Griffen, and Randon to the Talking Stick fields for a clinic.

They had DBack coaches and players there helping in the rotations. 

I sat on the pretty green grass enjoying the weather and watching them practice their hearts out.

I splurged and bought pictures for him since its his last year.
So crazy that he is passed this stage of life now.

I think baseball life is the only thing she's ever known!

She had quite the group of kiddos to run around with. 

One Saturday we had to be at the fields for 6 hours straight.

We were 2 seconds into the drive home when I looked back to see her asleep
with the ring pop still in her mouth!

The snack stand brigade! 

After a grueling, hot game day, I took a bunch of sweating kids to Costa Vida for lunch. 

One of these days they will make it on the same team!