Jacob's Baseball Season - Site One

 

Jake had a great rec league season this year!  The minor league boys in Catlin were able to field 4 teams, and his team had a lot of talent!  They finished 1st in the regular season, undefeated!  They actually won almost every game by the 10-run-rule!  They had a very disappointing end to the season, losing the tournament championship to another Catlin team.  They have so much to be proud of though!  Jacob played great at 3rd base.  He also pitched some for the first time, and he was pretty consistent, especially considering he has no training.  He also played 1st whenever Q was pitching.  He had many in-the-park homeruns and lots of other great hits!  You can almost always count on him to get on base, and he doesn't like to walk unless he has to!  He did get intentionally walked once in Westville for the first time ever (they didn't even pitch to him), so that was interesting!

Jake's games overlapped a lot with Aleah's this year.  Josh was technically assistant coaching both teams, but Aleah's team needed him more, so that meant that Jake and I had a lot of nights together.  I love watching him, but it was really hard on Josh to miss.  It helped that Jake's games weren't really close all year.  The championship day was the hardest.  Aleah was in Oakwood at 9, and Jake was in Hoopeston at 11.  It KILLED us not being at both the entire time.  I left Aleah's game early to make Jake's an inning late.  Josh was even later.  We hated that part of it, but it comes with the territory of multiple kids in sports!  I was so frazzled, I think I left our chairs in Oakwood - big oops!!!  

Trying out pitching:

Jake popped up to Landon pitching, but Landon just barely missed the catch:

Then, Landon popped up to Jake, and he caught it.  They have never been on opposing teams, and we hope they never are again.  It was no fun for any of us, especially Papa Steve who doesn't like to miss a game!

Always buying this guy ice cream:

1st Place Trophies!

His buddy, Bodie, on another team:

The 4 teams from Catlin actually finished 1st-4th in the league!  As a whole, they hardly lost a game to any other town (maybe one or two).  Their future is bright if they stick with it!

This was a hard day.  Nobody wants to get 2nd.

I made the team cookies for the championship game:

We love watching our boy play!

Aleah's Softball - Smoot Construction

 

Aleah had a good introduction to softball this year!  Josh helped coach her team, so he went to all of her games, while I was often at Jacob's at the same time in different towns.  I even had to leave her championship game in Oakwood early to make it to Jacob's championship game in Hoopeston, while Josh stayed with her.  It was awful, and I was so frazzled, I think I left our camping chairs there, haha!  It was hard for me to miss any of her games!  Her team finished 2nd in the regular season and 2nd in the tournament!  She had an exciting game winning hit to secure 2nd for the season.  We're so proud of her!  She has such a happy-go-lucky attitude about sports, and I hope she keeps that!

I made her team cookies for the championship game:

Friends

As adults, we are rarely good at taking pictures of our adult get togethers, but here are some fun pictures of things we've done with friends over the past year.  There are so many more nights that we took zero pictures of... so hopefully we will just remember!

Escape Rooms:

New Year's Eve:

Kurly Q in Paris:

Game night at the Coxes:

Cheering on the Illini at church:

Meeting HS friends for dinner:

My sister and my friend, haha, with our (almost) finished invisalign:

4th of July at the Merritts:

We spend a lot of time with the Hirds, Coxes, Strungas, and more.  We rarely take pics, but we always have a good time!

Lucas' First Year of T-Ball - Astros

 

It was finally Lucas' turn to play ball!  He was so excited for his first year of t-ball!  I joined the CSYL board this year, so I headed up t-ball (and pictures and uniforms), and Josh coached Lucas' t-ball team.  There were 8 t-ball teams in Catlin this year, so over 80 kids!  I got to divide the teams up, so of course we had a couple of cousins and a couple of good friends on our team!  I think the kids all had a lot of fun, and Lucas took up calling his dad, "Coach Josh," even at home sometimes.  Once, during a game, I had to walk something to the next field, and Lucas yelled at me from the infield, "Mom!  You left my game!!!!"  Granted, NOTHING happens defensively in t-ball, haha!   

He looked so cute walking through the ball diamonds with all of his gear:

He had an impressive little swing on him.  Josh says he's a natural!  Could be from so many years of watching his older siblings!

Go Astros!

Cousins!

The kids LOVE trophy night:

I love that he loved it so much!  Can't wait to watch him grow and play!