PLAY ball!

Our village kids had their annual softball tournament this past weekend.  Luckily the rain that we've been experiencing let up a bit and allowed the teams to play without fear of catching a cold.

Noatak boated in a team from up river to compete in the Majors, and Nome flew their all-star team in as well.

 

Plenty of us had kids in both leagues so we ran around all weekend between fields screaming like crazy.  (Or we sat between the two and yelled from the outfield to both!)

Kaisa's team, the Drake Dragons, ended up winning the tournament in probably the BEST game of the season.  These kids (ages 7-11) did spectacular!  One of Kaisa's friends caught the ball in right field to force the game into "overtime" of sorts.  Maybe you had to be there, but between the sunshine, the kids having a blast, great coaches and the crowd yelling for both teams, it was awesome.

I won't say that Kaisa is good but she has tons of fun, smiles the entire time, usually plays with the dirt and runs when she's told to run.  So, I don't mind!  She likes to stand at home though, and watch strikes go by.  Gotta work on that, I guess.

 

Another parent and I spent the evening after the first game putting the kids names on their shirts using the  Freezer Paper Stenciling  method of painting.   The kids loved their names and numbers. 

Koy's team, OTZ Telephone,  battled the losers bracket and forced a double elimination game with Nome Saturday afternoon.  He hit three homeruns during the first championship game, then petered out and hit only one during the true championship.  They lost by a few runs, but again, they had fun as well. 

In all, the only thing I was disappointed in was the fact that it was windy on Sunday.  The aqpiks are ready to be picked, so we are waiting for the wind to die down and the water to recede so we can get out and pick a few gallons for winter.

Other than that, thankfully it wasn't raining.  This stupid summer has been nothing but rain.  We don't usually get more than two or three inches a YEAR, and it's been raining a few inches a week.  Horrible.