Rangers Baseball

Ammon decided to give baseball another shot this year after taking last season off. He really enjoyed it. The season started at City Park, but with all the rain we've been having the river was rising fast and the park got closed, which canceled the rest of the season. We were so bummed when the season got canceled. It was just like 5 years ago when Simeon played here. Just a week later we got word that the softball park (where Corrine played) was going to let us use some of their fields so the boys could play again. Our schedule got changed to only playing on Monday's and Friday's, but we got to play!! Because this was also where Corrine's teamed played, we spent 4 nights a week at the softball park for ball games.

Ammon started off the season not being able to hit off the pitching machine, then got on fire hitting awesome hits and scoring every game. Then for some reason he started standing too folded over in the batters box and striking out every time. Once we got him to stand differently he was on fire again hitting awesome big hits and scoring multiple times a game. At 1st the kids in the outfield were kinda of a free for all, but then they got a rotation going that picked up from where you left off after the last game and things went a lot smoother. Ammon knew where he was playing, so he was always one of the 1st out of the dugout and into position. He liked to be the last one back into the dugout so he could slid into it. He also liked to be the 1st one in line to give the other team high fives.

Ammon seemed to play catcher a lot. He had his normal rotation into the position, but he was also the one who would volunteer to play it when someone else didn't want to. He looked so cute back there all geared up. When we were still at City Park he got hit hard in the shoulder with the ball. He got 1st base and scored a run, but was so sore.

Ammon really like playing 1st base. He made some great catches to get kids out. He had an awesome throw from right field to the 3rd base. He was also so funny to watch some times. He liked to be where the action was. One game we had to laugh when he was playing in right field and ended the play backing up the 3rd basemen! To end a play an infielder needed to hold the ball up. Since he would sometimes go to the action he would be playing outfield, but end up holding the ball up somewhere on the infield and getting the play ended. He also had his moments of playing in the dirt. One game he was working on making himself a box to stand in, and his coach needed to tell him a few times "don't worry about the box, watch the batter." 

At the end of the season they had a tournament. We were there for the 2 Saturday games. The 1st game the team did awesome, and had fun but still lost by 1 run. Ammon got a few really good hits and scored a few runs. The 2nd game didn't sound so good. I was at the playground with some friends that were just in town to see us for a little bit, so I missed most of the game. They ended up losing again and it didn't seem like it was a lot of fun. On Sunday they had 2 more games that we didn't play in and we thought we were done for the season. We got a call telling us that they won the 2nd Sunday game and we were playing in the championship game on Wednesday night.

Our team played their hearts out. Ammon got a few more hits and a run, but got stranded on base a lot. In the end we came in 2nd place in the Silver bracket. The boys had so much fun playing.

The coach had balls for all the boys to sign for each other and they got a medal from the league. Ammon was so excited about his ball and metal that he came right home and put them up and took pictures of them.

This was a really fun baseball season. We had good coaches that were positive and helped encourage the boys and keep them focused on the game. Ammon is even more excited to play again next year.

A Little bit of a sand lot baseball game

Sunday afternoons can be hard for the kids. We usually keep them inside and do quiet activities, but today we just couldn't keep them in, or us for that matter.
Being in the middle of 2 baseball and 1 softball seasons we live, breath, and eat baseball and softball right now. Simeon's been teaching Ammon the finer points of pitching and he's getting good and fast. Rebecca wanted to try her bat at his pitching, so a small game started with the kids. Then Johann and I joined in and the game went from quiet and friendly to loud and a bit more competitive. Add in a camera in many different hands and the pictures afterwards show a fun, loud (sorry neighbors trying to enjoy a quiet Sunday afternoon), laughter filled, energized game of backyard wiffle-ball sand lot baseball.

Rebecca getting some batting tips from Simeon. Sadly this is the only picture with him in it and you can't even see his whole face.

ATTACK MOM!!!

This bat I got a Home Run into the neighbors yard. Wahoo!!!

Dad got a home run and an automatic out because he hit the ball into the "dog yard". The kids call the neighbors yard one house over and behind us the "dog yard" because they have a dog that barks and barks and nobody will go get the balls hit into that backyard. The owners say it's a really nice dog, but so far no one wants to go find out! We've lost a dozen balls or more to the "dog yard" since we've lived here.

Ammon the catcher. For some reason I really like this picture even if you can't see his head.

Ammon waiting for the pitch.

Corrine playing catcher days before we learned that her sore foot was multiple stress fractures and what appears to be an infection in her big toe and he was stuck in a boot.

Ammon our amazingly strong monkey swinging on the swing set in front of the massive wall of hedges the neighbors haven't cut in years. 

Days like this make me want to bottle this time, put it on the shelf and keep it from aging to make it last longer. 

We have so much fun as a family. Nobody's too old, too young, or too cool to play together.

Families are AWESOME!!

Seriously that's what happened!

Yesterday afternoon we were up in Cedar Rapids for Simeon's baseball games. Between the games the boys  and coaches we're taking some batting practice on an open field. Johann was taking some hits and decided to bunt the ball. When he bunted it, the ball instead of going forward, flipped up and hit his sunglasses, which dug into his cheek giving him a nice cut.
He came over to me about 15 minutes after it happened and asked if I had any thing to wipe some blood off with. He took his glasses off and he had a big cut with now dry blood coming down from it. We cleaned it off the best we could and with his glasses on no one could really see it. We thought we'd be heading to the ER for stiches after the game, because he wasn't hurt enough to leave right then.

This morning after he cleaned it really well we saw that it probably was alright that we didn't get stitches, but it does have a pretty deep cut. He may still get a black eye to go along with the cut.
At church today he got alot of questions as to what happened. His responses "You should see the other guy!" and "I got into a bar fight," were more believable then the truth of "I took a ball off my sunglasses during warm ups yesterday". But that's the true story, unbelievable as it may be.