Well, its time!!! The week Brayden has been practicing for….State Allstar week!!! We have a long week to prepare. Monday is pretty uneventful with the heat, we stay in the house and relax until practice this evening. The coaches made a few changes at practice to get the boys ready. After practice, Brayden is beat…….its still hot at 8pm here!!! Once we got home, we ate supper, took showers and hit the bed. Brayden was almost out as soon as his head hit the pillow.
Tuesday is another remake of Monday……..relaxing and enjoying the day indoors with my kids. Alysin is walking everywhere now and beats on Brayden’s bedroom door so he will play with her all the time. Gotta love little sisters!!! As usual, Brayden is dressed and ready for practice as soon as daddy walks through the door from work. They head out for another night of practice. They come home hot and sweaty so off to the showers they go. At the supper table, it’s the usual……..Brayden and Alysin making funny faces and laughing, oh and talking baseball. I take a moment just to listen to them, I smile knowing this is my life. I love it…….I love my family. Simple words but the meaning is so much deeper.
It’s Wednesday and no baseball practice today but like any other “no practice” day…… I bet daddy and Brayden will go outside and play after he gets off work. I try to keep Brayden inside as much as possible because its getting hotter outside. It’s hard but I manage the best a mom can. As soon as daddy walks in the door Brayden runs to grab his glove. Time out Brayden!!! Lets hang out and we will go outside in just a bit when it cools off a little more. We hang out in the living room floor playing with the kids and every five minutes Brayden asks “is it cool enough yet”. This boy never gives up!!! He keeps saying “practice makes perfect!!!”. I wonder where he got that from (all smiles) We finally go outside…….it’s still hot. Brayden doesn’t care, he’s so excited to practice in the back yard with his daddy. Although he is playing in the coach pitch league, they have been practicing his pitching. It almost scares me how hard Brayden can throw. By the time he moves up to kid pitch, he should have his ball control down and hopefully be a decent pitcher. After hanging outside until dark……it’s time for supper and bed!!
Thursday is yet another day of relaxing and baseball practice. We’re gonna have a long weekend and we need all the rest we can get!!! Everyone is wondering how we are gonna do this weekend. Theres gonna be tons of awesome competition down there. The experience in itself is gonna be worth it. This is his first year playing baseball so we don’t know what to really expect down there. The coaches motivate the kids at practice and start batting practice. Daddy made a few changes to Brayden’s swing and he hits the ball even harder tonight!! Brayden is so excited about that!! Another night of practice is over. One of his little baseball buddies spends the night with us. They eat, shower and go straight to Brayden’s room to play and watch baseball on TV. We go to tuck them in for the night and find they are already out. Sleep good boys for tomorrow we go to State!!!
Its finally Friday!!! Good grief, I got a ton to do. Kevin goes to work and is gonna meet us down in Gardendale (which happens to be exactly 99 miles away from our doorstep). I finally get all my running around down and hit the road. Oops……Brayden forgot his baseball hat!! U-turn time!! Thirty minutes later…….we are finally on the road again!! We pull up to the hotel and the pool is closed for cleaning, thats not good but they assure us it will be done soon. It’s nice down here, people are welcoming all the allstars and getting everything ready for the festivities. Kevin finally gets here after work and off to the tournaments we go. This place is huge and packed with everyone all over Alabama but we find our field and get to warming up. Baseball is definitely in the air and the kids are pumped up. Finally game time…….the first pitch is thrown and the game is underway. We start off slow but finally pulled it out with a 18 to 3 win!!! Lets go back to the hotel and hope the pool is open now. Brayden is breaking his neck as we pull into the parking lot……”it’s open” he yells!!! Thank the Lord!!! We swim and eat and pass out from exhaustion.
Saturday starts out with Alysin waking everyone up. Food in our bellies and off to the fields we go. We ended up losing our second game but won our third. Brayden did awesome, he caught some amazing catches and hit the ball really well. He even bunted one perfect to bring in a run!! After winning our second game, we find out we don’t play again til tomorrow so another night at the hotel. More swimming!!!
Sunday was another hot day 106 degrees outside but the kids are all having a blast. We get beat but we definitely made a statement and represented Limestone County awesome. Finished 7th in the state out of 32 teams ain’t bad at all. Brayden got his trophy but was a little upset that it was over. We started baseball this year when it was still cold outside, Brayden put a lot of time and effort into this season and we are so proud of his positive attitude. Brayden learned some valuable life lessons this year. Never give up, always give 110 percent in everything he does……..regardless of what it is. Now let’s go home and play some fallball!!
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