We Made It!
I can't believe we are in the last few days of June. What a blur this month has been, and I knew it would be. We made it through all of the camps, tournaments and games; just one more evening of SBC softball games, and we are done with June competitions. It was a lot; probably more than we have ever done in one month. The last week has been tough, though.
It started with Owen leaving for his 8 day camp at Mizzou. Nick checked on him Monday before we left for Chattanooga, and we took a book to him Tuesday morning before picking up Sadie to ride along with us. Really glad we did that, because he had a lot of down time in between sessions. Like I mentioned, he had 3 other "roommates," two from different states. He said they were all pretty nice, but I never saw any of them while we chatted through face time. After getting Owen settled in, we left for the 9+ hour trip to Tennessee. Google Maps said it would be 8 hours 20 minutes, but it was lying. We arrived by about 5pm ET, so pretty close to 10 hours. But we did stop a few times.
I think this was in Kentucky maybe. I really can't remember. Maybe we were already in Tennessee, or it could have been Illinois.
Gracie and Nick needed to entertain themselves at the rest stop.
After the long drive, we arrived in Chattanooga, TN at the Hotel Bo. Not the greatest place I've ever stayed, but it was ok. My 2 biggest complaints were that they advertised and continental breakfast, and that did not exist. They also advertised a fitness room, which did exist, but both treadmills were broken and the only other piece of equipment in the room was a stationary bike. Liars. So, rain for two days made it really hard to exercise. I guess I have another complaint; the bar at the hotel was open until 3am every night and you definitely knew when people were going home. Very noisy nights that did not give this light sleeper much opportunity for consecutive hours of quality sleep. OK.. I am not going to focus on the negatives.
We were excited to get to Chattanooga and explore downtown. I think we ended up walking well over 2 miles that evening and ended up eating at Big River Grille. We walked by the Aquarium and several other fun places for photo ops.
Outside the Aquarium. We didn't actually go to the aquarium, though.
Sadie and Gracie found a small "boat" on the sidewalk.
GRACIE...
I'm not sure about this statue that they found.
Since there was no free breakfast at the hotel, we decided that grocery shopping was a good idea.
We did eat at the hotel restaurant one morning, and it was really good, but decided it was more economical to get groceries for the remainder of the stay. We tried to limit eating out to once a day after the initial travel day. Except I think we ordered pizza that night, too. oopsie.
Gracie and Sadie loved walking around and looking at stuff, especially the floating umbrellas.
Gracie, Sadie, and Madigan were supposed to participate in All-Star games on Wednesday, June 21. However, the weather did not cooperate. They decided to move the games to all-turf fields, but it ended up pouring all night, so that did not work out. They didn't cancel the games until half way through the first inning of the 4pm games. What a waste... So, Wednesday was pretty much a wash and we didn't get to do much. I worked in the morning and then we stayed in for the rest of the evening when we got back to the hotel.
Thursday was about the same. It rained all night Wednesday, and they initially pushed the games back 4 hours, but ended up canceling all games on Thursday, as well. It didn't stop raining until about noon and the fields were a mess. Late in the morning it was only light rain, so I got the opportunity to explore more by foot (running). YAY! There was a pedestrian bridge about a half mile long that crossed the river. It was pretty wet and slow going, but great to get out!
Running on the bridge
On the other side of the bridge was a park and I got a pic with the bridge in the background.
Chattanooga is a pretty fun place to visit and I got a 4+ mile run done that day and the following day.
Next up... Lookout Mountain
Since all games were canceled, we decided this would be the best day to have team activities and fun outside of softball. The girls decided on the train to the top of Lookout Mountain and then zip lining at Ruby Falls.
Brook and Sadie rode with us to the fun activities.
At the base of Lookout Mountain
Brook and Gracie riding the train up the mountain.
Who are those people in the background?
My parents even went with us!
Deb was there, too, and you can see Scott with Melissa in the orange TN shirt.
Gracie had quite the fan club.
The purple fanny pack is great.
Ruby Falls/Lookout Mountain Zip Lining
The train was not enough and the girls wanted to do the zip lining.
Gracie, Brook, and Sadie getting their gear on.
Sadie, Gracie, Brook, and Madigan
Grandma Deb even gave it a try.
Silly girls
All but 4 of the team.
Layla, Madi, Natalie, Brilee, Gracie, Madigan, Sadie, Brook
Lookout Mountain Zip Line Tower
We did not participate this year.
Gracie's turn!
zipping through the trees
Oh, yes...Softball. Finally.
Following the afternoon of fun, we had a quick dinner and we prepared for the following day of games. The whole tournament was rescheduled and we did not get to do bracket play at all, unfortunately. That is the 3rd tournament in a row that we were unable to compete in a bracket due to rain. At least we were able to get 6 games in. Friday was still a little went and the infield was a little soggy, but at least they got to play. By Sunday it was great... and hot again.
The whole team on Saturday after the first game (minus Taylor)
Gracie only caught one game, but did great both here and at SS the rest of the games.
Catching... I didn't get any pics at shortstop, but she had some good plays and only 2 errors.
I know she would have liked that number to be zero.
Gracie with her Grandmas.
They both made the trip.
I thought this was kind of neat. I was trying to get Gracie and Nick, but Layla took a good pic, too.
Gracie on third...Just her and her dad.
Hitting on the las day.
We had a great time in Chattanooga and the girls did awesome over the weekend. We were 5-0-1 (should've won the game we tied). I really wish we could have played bracket, but oh, well. I think our team could have done pretty well. We had several of our girls batting over .400 for the tournament, and they played pretty clean defense.
Gracie had a great weekend and a fantastic month of June, for that matter. Nick referred to the weekend as video game stats for batting for Gracie. She hit over .700 in 6 games; 4 doubles and 6 singles. One double hit the 220 ft fence, and another one came close to the 225 ft fence. I don't remember the rest of her stats, but it was pretty impressive for one weekend. She played 14 games in the month of June (missed 2 games due to basketball) and hit .600. I would give more stats, but they probably don't mean much to anyone reading this. Overall she has had a great start to the 2023 summer season, and it's crazy, but there are only 2 tournaments left. Like I mentioned...if we can just get through June. We'll see how July goes and if it keeps up. Softball is so crazy and it is such a game of failure and resiliency. You can have a great weekend and then go out the next time and not get one hit. Or have lights out defense, then fall apart in one inning. The mental aspect of any sport is so much more challenging than the physical demands. We go to Wentzville a week from Friday for a 2-day tournament, then the last tournament is back to Kansas City for the Heartland World Series. We are competing up at 18u in KC, so we'll see how that goes.
Last day of running on Saturday was beautiful.
I love that running allows me to explore places when we travel. Some people look forward to traveling so they can take time off from exercise. I look forward to running somewhere different than my usual routes. It is so refreshing to see new places.
I went 5 miles instead of 4 on the last day.
Time to go home.
The last two games on Sunday were at 8am and 11am. We were done playing before 1pm and after these two cleaned up a little bit we headed back toward Missouri. The ride home always seems to take so much longer. We made it home by 11pm and Owen was there waiting for us!
Gracie and Sadie didn't have a whole lot of room with all of our stuff.
Our car was very full.
Speaking of Owen...
Man, I missed him last week. We saw him several times a day via Facetime, but it's just not the same. I could not wait to give him a big hug when we got back. He seemed to be content where he was, though and worked hard for 8 days straight. I think the down time is what was most difficult and he called us in between almost every practice session. The 2 hour sessions were sometimes pretty intense, but then he would have 2.5 hour breaks with not much to do. He said some of the older kids brought tvs and video games. All he had was his ipad. I think he must have been with a good group of roommates, though. Whenever I saw him, it looked pretty uneventful in the dorm room. He did have a book to read. When he got back home, he was very excited to be able to sleep past 6:45am. I was impressed that he was able to get himself up for the most part every day. We would call him just to be safe, but it wasn't a problem like it is at home. He does not wake up to anything when he is at home.
Here he is doing a workout.
Kathy sent us proof that he was alive and well.
We weren't home yet when they ended camp, so one of Nick's coworkers was able to take him home. We had her stop at Andy's for some much needed ice cream. However, she took a picture of him and this is what he was wearing. Hmmm... He was dressing himself all week with no guidance. When he got home he really wanted to see his friends, so he went to Talleys for the afternoon and evening. They offered to let him stay there since we were getting home so late, but he wanted to see us and stay in his own bed. I was so happy that he would be home when we returned.
Back on the Ranch (or acreage)
We have returned to the last week in June and hit the floor running on Monday morning. I had to go pick up Ruby, Owen had football camp and there was a lot of laundry to do. I took the morning off to get Ruby and take Owen to where he needed to go. Gracie mowed for us and the kids cleaned up the house a little. It's amazing what doesn't get done when nobody is home.
I can't remember where we were going here. Maybe to the lake???
Luckily Ruby only has to go to the kennel one more time this summer; while we are in Iowa for the McNary reunion
Gracie got a little sunburnt while mowing on Monday.
KC June 15-18
So, out of 50 16U teams, Gracie and her teammate Syd made first team.
Pretty good weekend for these two. They faced some really good competition. This was one of the tournaments that was rained out on Sunday. We did lose the day before, so we would've been done anyway, but still...
July will bring more adventures. First up is SE Missouri for the holiday. Just a couple days exploring a part of Missouri we haven't been to yet. Then a couple more softball tournaments and finally at the end of the month we will head to Iowa for the family reunion. Still lots of summer fun left!
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