It's been a week. As I mentioned last week, this week was the regional baseball tournament in Ferndale, Washington. Merrick and I spent the week in an Airbnb just south of the Canadian border with my sister and her son, Jason, who is on the same team as Merrick.
It was quite a week. We had to be there early Sunday for check in and opening ceremonies. They introduced all the teams and had a performance by the the Lummi Tribe, who owns the land where the fields are located. While the traditional singing and dancing was cool, I think it was lost on the group of 13 and 14-year-old boys watching.
Monday, we had a bye day and while we had all kinds of plans in mind, the team had different ideas and we ended up having practice and team building activities. As part of our team building, we went go-kart riding. Given his height, Merrick was allowed to drive the two person kart that is supposed to be reserved for 18+. He was sure it would go faster, but that turned out not to be the case.
Tuesday, we had an early game. It was the first of what would turn out to be many defeats. We made the best of the day though by taking off after the game and spending the rest of the day in Canada. We explored White Rock and Surrey. We went to a beach and walked along a pier and had ice cream. We then headed into Vancouver. It is a beautiful city! Unfortunately, they congregate all their homeless people into one area and we had to walk through it to get to the neighborhood we were trying to reach. It was a little bit rough, but we made it and were able to explore the neighborhood of Gastown, with it's cute little shops, cobblestone streets, and old steam clock that plays music every 15 minutes. We ended the day with a stop in New Westminster for a trip to a Canadian Walmart (to stock up on Canadian chocolate) and dinner of poutine at Mean Poutine. Emily was the only one of us to ever have poutine before and we were all pretty impressed. Merrick declared it his new favorite food.
Wednesday and Thursday brought more losses and increasing tension among the team. The only highlight was lunch on Wednesday with my Aunt Elizabeth (my dad's sister) who I haven't see in many years. She lives on beautiful Lake Samish and the boys enjoyed swimming in the lake while we visited. They were a little freaked out though that the water was so clear they could see the fish swimming around them. Unfortunately, we neglected to take any pictures.
Friday was had a late afternoon game. It was to be our last since we were already knocked out of the championship bracket on Saturday. The boys fought hard and pulled out a walk-off win in extra innings. Unfortunately, during the game, things were said between some parent and even to some of the kids that were not appropriate. Although we finally got a win, it was hard to not feel like it was a bit tainted by all of the other drama. It was unfortunate and whiled the boys were still smiling for the most part, I think it's a good thing that's it for the season.
While we were gone, Jeremy did a great job holding down the fort. The girls got to spend one day with their Brown cousins and two days at Nana and Papa's house. Nana did a great job keeping them busy and Carrigan worked hard on sewing a dress for Elsie and a skirt for herself. Jeremy enjoyed spoiling the girls a little with special trips for ice cream and Happy Meals, and a fun time at our church BBQ.
Yesterday afternoon Merrick and I made it home. We definitely made memories this week that will last for a lifetime, but it is good to be home.
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