Wrapping Up June

Lots of softball and baseball!

That is about all we have been doing outside of work.  I'm so happy that we are finally feeling a little more normal again.  However, we are back to eating burgers and hotdogs at the ballpark for dinner multiple times weekly.  We are halfway through Gracie's tournaments for this summer.  Three more weekends straight.  There are also three more weeks of league games in Columbia for both kids.  They are both having a lot of fun!

This is the first tournament with Gracie's 12U Galaxy Team in Jefferson City.  They ended up winning the whole thing, going 5-0 that weekend, I believe.  I didn't get to stay for the whole championship game, but it was a close one!

On Saturday night, they played a really good team and went 7 full innings.  It was a one-run game until the top of the 7th when our girls opened up the throttle and blasted the other team's pitcher.  It was great.  Our pitcher was outstanding, as well.  Nick is talking to the girls after their Saturday evening win.

Gracie batting

She had another pretty good weekend.  I would estimate her on base percentage is about .700 and hitting is not far behind.

She's also doing pretty well defensively.

Galaxy 07 Team with their first Championship of this summer

Gracie with the plaque

Gracie and her pitcher, Brynn

They are phenomenal together.

Gracie on deck at a league game.

Owen gets to play too!

Owen's games are also getting more fun to watch.  He is mostly pitching and catching.  He actually got to play outfield the other night and stole someone's in the park home run by throwing him out at home from deep center field.  I didn't get to see it because I was watching Gracie, but Nick said he was pretty excited.  He really loves playing outfield, but he has quite the arm for pitching, and can stop the ball as a catcher.  So far Owen's team has only lost one game.  He is playing with friends from Ashland and they're having a lot of fun together!

Getting some catching time.

More catching

He hit a triple off of the actual pitcher!

Pitching

This particular night he did great! Only walked one and struck out two in the last inning of the game.

Owen at bat.

Oklahoma!

Gracie guest played with an 11U team in Oklahoma 2 weeks ago. They were originally scheduled to go to Nashville, but the county they were to play in was still shut down because of  COVID.  So they entered a 12U tournament in Choctaw, OK.  She was actually with girls who were all her age and born in 2008.  It was interesting.  She got to pitch a little bit and probably throws harder than anyone else on that team.  This team struggled on the first day and went 0-2, but came back on the 2nd day going 3-1, (3-3 for the weekend).  It was a fun weekend and we will go to Iowa with them in a week for a national tournament if everything doesn't shut down again.  The Iowa tournament will be an 11U tourney, so they will hopefully do better against players who are all their own age.

Gracie went in to pitch during the first game.

This was also their first experience playing on a turf field.  I don't think very many of them liked it, and Gracie definitely missed playing in the dirt.

Safe, diving back to 1st

Gracie tired.

This is during their one break on Sunday morning.

They went over to watch the 14U girls play for awhile in between their games.

Nap time.

Sliding into 2nd

Sunday was a long day and they ended up playing 4 games, which is good.  They were down to the point that if they lost they went home.  They battled through 3 games and won, but were pretty tired by the 4th game of the day.  If they would have kept winning they could have played 7 games.  I hate to say, it, but I am not sad that we left by 5pm.  It was almost 7 hours in the car to get home.  We're looking forward to Iowa, though.

Back to Missouri

More league games and another tournament with Galaxy.  Gracie is also on a little league team that plays every Monday.  I don't have many pictures of that team, though.  It's a mixture of Stealth teams, Galaxy teams, and girls who don't play competitive softball.  Here are pictures from last weekend.

Gracie got to play one inning at 3rd base.  Otherwise she caught all weekend.

They lost this game on Saturday evening.  It is their only loss so far this spring/summer.

However, they came back the next day and beat this team in the championship game.

Gracie at bat.

Trying to find shade in their dugout.  It was pretty hot on Sunday.

Catching in the championship game.

We ended up 5-1 on the weekend, winning all of our Sunday games.

We won 4-0 after losing the previous day 7-2.  This was a much better game.

The two teams after the championship.

Social distancing?  Is that a thing in softball?

Crazy girls after a great game!

A girl and her coach/dad.

I got a picture with our celebrity, too.

Happy birthday Nick!

We went out after the unfortunate loss on Saturday night to celebrate this guy.  They treated him appropriately and he took his birthday shot.  I probably would have elected for fried ice cream. Several families went with us to celebrate, and little did we know that five days later, this particular restaurant would be shut down due to COVID.  Sad.  Maybe we should have chosen a different restaurant.

Nick and tequila.

Owen wanted to wear the hat, too.

Other June shenanigans

This is how you move round bales, right?

Maybe someday we'll be able to afford a bigger tractor.

We also have had visitors

These cute goats visited us and made themselves at home in our barn for a day.

Nick finally found the owners after going out on the 4wheeler searching for awhile.

They're so cute.  Nick says we can't keep them and we're not getting any.

So, here we are at the beginning of July.  June was crazy busy and I think July will be the same.  Unless, of course, everything gets shut down again due the the virus.  I can't wait until it has passed, but I fear that will not be for awhile.

The kids are scheduled to start summer school next week, July 6.  They will have two weeks in school and then will work on school work for two weeks at home.  They are trying to keep numbers down in-class to prevent germs as much as possible.  Hopefully it will go well and it will be a good sign for school being in-person this fall.  I can't imagine doing another semester of home-school.  That was definitely not ideal and I fear I am not a very good teacher when trying to work full time, also.  

We will head to Iowa next weekend and play some more ball.  Then we have one more week of league games and one more tournament with our Galaxy girls.  I love this time of year!