The last two days I have spent baking in the sun, eating hot dogs and freeze pops, setting up pop-up tents and taking them down, trying to find Willow (always trying to find Willow) and watching my favorite people play my favorite game. To say I am satisfied is an understatement.

The little guy’s game got us out of bed before the rooster crows and then he played hard for two games. That sweet team celebrated with so much gusto, and a joy I have only seen come from 10 year olds. These boys danced and danced and cheered and danced some more. I am talking about a Congo line around the dug outs. Giggles that grew into belly laughs. Dance offs in catchers gear. Their energy was contagious.

After wasting time candle stick bowling and eating “the best subs known to man-kind” we headed back to the field for the 12U game. Between the two games we played against this incredibly evenly matched team only one run was scored. Thank god it was for us. After a nail biting pitchers duel, with not 1, not 2, but 3 kids hit by pitches (flying in somewhere in the mid 70’s no less, which is something to say when the mound is only 46 feet away), our courageous coach sent a kid sailing home all the way from second base on a passed ball in the bottom of the last inning.

Lawrence family values can all be found in the unwritten code of baseball.

-Cheer for your team. Hell cheer for the other team. Keep cheering on all these awesome humans.

-When I say help me find your sister I mean it. Hustle!

-Take a knee when someone gets hurt, wait for them to recover.

-Get crafty, be scrappy, this game is as mental as it is physical.

-Stand up for yourself, but don’t get kicked out of the game.

-You can do hard things. You can dig yourself out of unbelievable situations.

-Celebrate- your body, your health, your team, your coaches. This is all such a mixture of luck and hard work. Don’t take it for granted.

There is so much more to say but I had to start somewhere as its been years since I have found myself in this space. Maybe this will simply turn into a spot to document all these awesome games I get to watch. Or maybe I will find something more important to write about, but I can’t see how. 😉