The State Tournament

**GUEST BLOGGER**

 ~ Eric Hendrickson ~ 

We drove to Girard Kansas (by Pittsburg, KS) for the Babe Ruth 10u girls state softball tournament on June 30th.  Stacee and I had the van loaded with all kinds of things we might need along with 3 cute kids.

Above we are meeting with Mark Donley who heads up the tournament before our first game on Friday evening.

Friday, June 30th - Game 1 - 5pm - Against Independence

I am going to be brief with the information as the tournament was not a success for our team.  The other teams were "All-Star", hand-picked, teams and we had trouble competing.  All teams pitched great, fielded great, and hit great.  We were able to do all three great at times, but we had our lapses.

Quinn pitched for our team during game 1.

Mylie caught for our team.

Sarah played first base for this game, Madilyn was at second base, Hope at short stop, and Hannah played third base.  In the outfield we had Aleigha, Brittney, Alayna, and Lexy.

Sarah hit one good hard hit down the third base line for a single in this game, struck out once, and walked once.

We lost this game opening night 12-2.

 Below, Madilyn receiving the WOW Award for Game 1.  She played great defense at 2nd base the entire game.

Friday Evening - Opening Ceremony and Swimming at the Hotel

Below, our tournament team, left to right, Coach DJ, Coach Matt, Coach Eric, Hannah #9, Alayna #4, Dessa #20, Hope #0, Brittney #3, 

Lexy #7, Aleigha #21, Quinn #10, Sarah #5, Madilyn #2, and Mylie #12.

Well, we have now realized that our level of competition was as good or better than Winfield.

We did have a fun night swimming at the hotel.  Two other families from our team were staying at the same hotel, or "Hometel" as Silas called it, in Pittsburg as us.  The kids and I all fit in the hot tub.

Saturday, July 1st - Game 2 - 11am - Against Girard

Hannah pitched game 2 for our team.

Sarah played third base for this game.  She is a rockstar at third base.  Tough and fierce, as Stacee would say.  She was able to stop and knock down some very hard hits to and at her during this game and made some beautiful throws to first base to get a few of the girls on the Girard team out.

Below, Sarah receiving the WOW award, after the game, from the league commissioner for her mad 3rd base skills and her monster hit to left center.

Hannah, one of Sarah's BFF's got the "SHE" award for this game, It is an award for sportsmanship.  I love these girls and their friendship!  We were glad they both got awarded for their hard work, team leadership, and tough and fierce play.

We lost 16-2.  This team ended up winning the tournament.

Saturday, July 1st - Game 3 - 2pm - Against Arma

Arma was a team we thought we could compete with, and we did.

Sarah hit well this entire game.  Her biggest hit came when the bases were loaded.  It was a hard hit, pop up to left field.  The fielder missed it, and Sarah got a triple, driving in 3 runs for her team.

Sarah played first for this game and Quinn pitched.

At one point the score was 9-7 but we ended up losing 12-8.

Saturday, July 1st - Game 4 - 5pm - Against Pittsburg

In between games, in the dug out, soaking in some shade....

Pre-game warm-up and pop fly catching....

The girls were loose and ready to play.

Sarah played first base again for this game and Quinn pitched.

Below, Sarah leading off third to steal home.

Pittsburg was the most athletic of all teams and wound up getting 2nd place in the tournament.  By now, I had had enough of losing and didn't like the aggressive manner that Pittsburg was playing.  I got loud, and maybe would take back some of the things I said, but I was able to get a spark going in our team.  (Stacee got pretty loud on the bleachers too, even yelling at the Ump.  Our kids must get their competitiveness from her.)  We lost 16-4.  A tough tournament and a learning experience.  I was impressed with Sarah's play.  She didn't quit and made good plays on offense and defense.  Sarah could have been a player on any of these teams.  It was a great individual end to Sarah's season.

The Tooth Incident

On Sunday, June 25th, at about 9:00 pm, not five minutes after being told to go downstairs and "Calm Down" our sweet children came back upstairs with nervous looks on their faces and were quiet until one of the girls said to us, "You need to look at Silas's teeth".  We didn't look.  Then again, one of them insisted that we should take a look at Silas's front tooth.  I looked, and immediately went into a semi-panic mode.  What we had was an incident of Phoebe's foot vs. Silas's mouth during what I can only imagine was some sort of WWE Championship match in our basement.  I still am not sure exactly what transpired after they were told to "Calm Down", but they most definitely did not "Calm Down".

After a call to the Emergency Dentist after hours number, talking with our Dentist, and texting him the pictures of Silas's teeth, we knew this baby tooth had to come out.... We decided to try to get it out ourselves....  The Dentist gave me a few tips and pointers on the phone and said to let him know how it went.

We gave Silas some children's Advil to help with pain and tried to numb him up a little with some Baby Ora gel.  Then the fun part...not really.  Eric cleaned some needle nosed pliers with rubbing alcohol, we sweet talked Silas into laying down on the floor in the bathroom on his pillow, with a stuffed animal watching him "Be Brave", talked to him about wiggling that tooth out, Eric sat on him to restrain his arms and legs, and I got to play the role of the Dentist.

 I knew I would only have one shot at this tooth so I needed to grab on good and tight and give it one good pull... I clamped on, slightly twisted and pulled up.  It came right out!  Thank goodness!  With the pep talk from our current Dentist over the phone and my time working in Dr. Bennett's Dental office I could maybe have a future in pulling kids teeth.  (Dr. B would have been proud of me for this one.)

Silas did great holding still for us.  He didn't cry or whine once we got to it.  As soon as it was out he was ready for a new toy car, a bowl of ice cream, and some money from the Mommy Tooth Fairy.  Great job, kiddo.  Now let's try to have no more ER trips or Emergency Dentist calls for the rest of this summer.

Hall of Heroes at Exploration Place

We had a lot of fun one day this summer at Exploration Place with Popee and Nanee.  When we arrived we headed straight to the new exhibit, Hall of Heroes.  There is lots of Super Hero memorabilia on display, some great photo opps, and lots of Super Hero challenges set up through out the exhibit, to test your inner Super Hero.  A couple of the first challenges we tried out were, jumping high and hanging.

Super Sarah!  Super Silas! Super Phoebe!

Below, was a fun display of a robot arm.  We had to use controllers to move the arm.  The object was to get the arm to pick up and stack blocks inside the glass case.

Popee successfully operated the robot arm and picked up blocks like a pro.

Silas liked seeing the Super Man and Batman displays.  He was a little nervous about the large Hulk display.

Something fun thing that the kids always stop to try out at Exploration Place is the Tornado chamber.  This time they talked Popee into getting in with them.

Exploration Place is a great place to go with kids.  Our kids always have fun and enjoy trying new things and repeating some of the same.