This year we were all so happy to be part of a wonderful team full of great people and some other families that we loved getting to spend some time with. I say we even though I really don't have much to do except show up and cheer on the team. These two on the other hand...they are firmly members of this team and they both couldn't be happier. This night that James got his team jersey the smile didn't leave his face for the next 2 days!
Here is James with Laurie and Kramer's dog Kota. She just jumped up like that as I snapped this picture of James near the base.
And Jordie doing his favorite ball game related thing...jumping off the bleachers to Daddy!
Earl..the very best dog in the whole world!
Up at Sunset and James was the bat boy whenever his little girlfriend Madeline wasn't there. If she was there he was much more interested in playing at the park than paying attention to the game :)
Best Daddy in the world.
Another favorite thing was to "help" the ladies with the score keeping.
Such a cool kid
Some Jordie bleacher jumping!
On the last night of the regular season Jordan got himself a Hit Squad t-shirt too. He was so proud of it that night!
Playing a game of baseball with Daddy and James
A couple of team pictures from the last game of the season! Such a great group of people. We really did have such a fun spring/summer with them!
Jimmy up to bat
More jumping
DD up to bat
James helping again
Last cheer of the year!
Now moving on to the year end ball tournament where the Hit Squad team ran the beer garden. James and Jim stayed up there with Ray and camped overnight both Friday and Saturday. This was Jordan playing on the airbed we made up for James
This right here...this is what childhood memories are made of. The first night that the boys were up there camping James asked Ray to play Go Fish with him. And what could Ray say except for yes. This was the adorable game playing at almost 10:15pm!
The next morning I got this video from Jim.
It's called "Nothing better than playing baseball in your PJ's"
The next morning Jordie and I went up there with McDonalds breakfast burritos
And who doesn't love Cheezies for breakfast too?!?!
Ray with his beautiful daughter Lily!
And Jordie with the always awesome Earl
He was my beer garden helper boy
BUSTED! This kid loves beer!
When things were slow I was able to capture at least a few parts of a couple of games that the team was playing in.
My serious looking baseball loving little guy
By lunchtime on Saturday it was so hot that we ditched all of the clothes and just let him run around in his diaper. Everyone said how jealous they were of him!
This little guy was with us most of the weekend too. River is his name and he's an awesome baby!
Here are the boys looking into the bed where Lily was sleeping
Earl! The best chocolate lab ever...and I say that even though my fur brother is a chocolate lab too. This big gentle giant is truly amazing. I've never seen a dog put up with kids like this guy does!
Playing some baseball in between Hit Squad games
We attempted a nap/quiet time in the playpen but it was so hot in there that within 10 minutes he was dripping in sweat so we took him out!
More snacks!
Hugs for Ash
Cool guy!
This was his spot for most of the weekend!
This guy was so busy and on the run that I had to almost hold him down to sit and eat something!
Earl wanted his hotdog :)
A few more pictures from some of the games
James's preschool teacher Janet
Mr Bumps even came to PR to visit
Jordie and Uncle Kevin chatting about something
Back to "helping" which really meant playing with his cars
More snuggles with Earl
He had to be watched very closely to not drink the beer!
Adorable little Lily
The day was over and we were waiting for the pizza to be delivered so James convinced Ethan to play catch with him
The adorable Mr. Bumps waiting for pizza too
Really long day running around, no nap, dinner at 8pm, fell asleep before the Shinglemill on our way home!
This was just before 9pm...he was OUT cold. And he slept straight through until 8am when I had to wake him up!
8:15am and we picked up Timbits for the ball park
And A&W breakfast too!
The layout of our beer gardens
Jordie admiring the league trophies.
This was a heartbreaking game for the Hit Squad. This was on Sunday morning and we were playing against Parkland. This game was incredible. We scored a bunch, they scored a bunch, and it all came down to the last at-bats and they beat us by only 1 run. This was the closest we had come to beating Parkland and unfortunately our tournament was over after this.
Here are some great pictures from that game. I was manning the beer gardens and was quite aways away from the field but luckily had my zoom lens so got to take some pretty great photos!
This is probably my favorite set of photos. This was Ray hitting a massive home run!
And of course James was the first to give Ray his high fives
Nana and Papa came to watch too and so Jordie got to see some of the game too!
James had to pee so he ran as fast as he could back to the bathroom.
And the game was over and they needed their coach/cheer caller so he went sprinting back to them!
Here's the cheer!
Big snuggles from Papa. He was so tired already and it was only 10:30am. I think Papa wanted to take him home with him but they didn't have his car seat in the truck.
hahahahaha
Yummy chocolate fudgesicles from the wonderful Ms. Patti Millar!
Oh Mr. Bumps, he is just such a cute little guy!
hahahahaha...this is a very typical Jordie face
Poor Sandra got all of the kids helping out!
hehehehehehehe...only Ray could get away with doing this to James!
Jordan was trying to make River happy but it really wasn't working!
On Sunday afternoon we did a beer run back into the liquor store and took Jordie with us so he could have at least a short nap. He slept a total of about 20 minutes which made for a much happier afternoon for him.
This kid loves Timbits!
Having a heart to heart chat with Ray
One of the very few photos I got of James that weekend!
This was the best smile that Ray could muster for me
He was having so much fun! I really hope we do the beer gardens again next year!
James having another chat with Janet
Playing catch with Lori Alexander
Checking out the trophies again
She's awake and still really happy!
hahahahaha...and at this point this kid was just DONE!
And then Lily fell asleep
I love this picture of Pam and Lily!
This was an incredible moment for Jim and I as parents. I think I wrote about this earlier in the summer but if I didn't then I will put it here. Earlier in the day Aaron had told me that she wanted to call James out on the field at the end of the tournament to recognize him for great sportsmanship. She said that the day before when Parkland had beat Hit Squad that she was very impressed at how James said Congratulations to every single member of their team while they were doing the handshakes at the end of the game. She got up there and as soon as she started talking I started to cry. I'm surprised that I was able to even take these pictures. I wish I had taken a video of the cheers from the crowd when his name was called. He is very well known on the field amongst most of the teams and there were so many people clapping and cheering for him. He was sitting with Jim in the bleachers and when he heard his name he just said to Jim "she said my name!" He had to push him up and tell him to go down to the field. It truly was a memory that Jim and I will both cherish forever!
He got a bag of chips and candy as his little gift. It was very thoughtful of Aaron to recognize our special little guy!
Here he comes for a handshake from Aaron.
And a high five from Len too (Len is Janet's husband) :)
And a few pictures with Patti. Her and her husband Jim came to visit for the tournament and it was so wonderful to see them again after quite a few years!
The last tournament of the year arrived and Saturday morning brought rain and some chilly weather so Daddy and James went alone. Jordie, Cassidy and I did head up for the second game though.
These next two pictures are some of my favorites of the summer for sure!
Favorite of James too!
Long sleeve sweaters and hot chocolate!
Poor Cassidy got head butted in the face by James (or maybe it was Jordan!)
After the noon game at Sunset we headed back to Cranberry for the afternoon game. James was so excited that Ray let him do the coin toss before each game!
In game action shots
Laurie score keeping and watching River
Subway lunch time!
He was in her arms for the entire game! He napped and just chilled out.
More in game action shots
Lily slept through that whole game!
James and his baseball girlfriend Madeline!
Cheesie face!
Holding hands on the way to the van
Playing shuffleboard at Kramer and Laurie's house
Checking out the stars just before we went home at almost 10pm!
The next day we went to a morning game that I never took any pictures of!
Then James wanted pizza for lunch so we stopped at Rocky Mountain!
The last game of the day (we made it finals of the B Division). Again I didn't take too many pictures except for some watermelon eating Jordie!
And this was a very tired Jordan with two very long days with only very short naps
That shirt never stood a chance at coming clean after two very busy ball tournaments. We definitely need to get him a new one for next year...and preferably not white next time!
Man, looking through these pictures brings back some wonderful memories of times with some new friends and team mates. Thanks to everyone on the Hit Squad team for making the whole Barrows family feel welcome and like part of the team! We'll see you all next May if you'll have us again!
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