As you already know Alex's baseball team, Stockton Cardinals, went to the USSSA AA 11U World Series this week. They did a great job, the tournament is still going on but know that we placed somewhere between 13th and 16th. Alex had a great tournament, and their team had 4 wins and 3 losses. All 3 teams that we lost too were still in the tournament as far as yesterday. My pictures are a little out of order but I will try my very best to get things right. 
When we got to Branson we were more than impressed with the condo that Papa and Kay were going to be staying in. It was spacious and had enough beds for all of us to stay there. Kay, Papa, Dad, Mom, Me, Alex, Stephanie, David, Pauletta, Jacob, Drew, Tate, and Charlie all at some point stayed in the condo. As you can see from the picture above it was decorated very well and expensively.
We did a lot of sitting around watching TV, shopping, playing cards, and having a good time in the condo. It was large enough for mom and me to watch CSI in the bedroom, Charlie to watch HGTV, the boys to play video games, and Papa to watch ball games.
We even had our own little watch dog out front. It is definitely some place that we will want to come back to.
Alex and Jacob played very hard during the world series. At nights Alex, Me, and Jacob would sleep in the big comfy bed.
One night even us girls all got together and played phase 10.
Here is Brittney, Easton, and Tate.
Tate spent a lot of time playing Go Fish. One morning I played with him, and I know that several other people played with him too.
All the boys managed to find the flat screen TV, within the first 10 minutes of being at the condo.
After we saw the condo we went back to the ball field to watch the parade. All the teams went through with their banners. This is our team's.
Like I said... all of my games and pictures are very mixed up. So I will have the story in order but the pictures are scattered. So that night we went back to the condo to swim. They had a very nice indoor pool that was very cold. This also was the night that I fell and twisted my ankle at the ball field because of a stupid drain. But anyways...we went to sleep that night and were able to sleep in. Our first game wasn't until 4 on Monday. We played the Louisiana Crawlers. They were the second seed in the tournament, but we came out on top with a final score of 13 to 1. Our hitting was great, and Eli pitched a really good game. Everyone got a hit or on base, and Jake Byrnes had the most awesome diving catch in center field. They had several pick offs and Alex threw some kids out from behind the plate.
Here is Alex running home from 3rd base.
Jacob Wheeler in the batters box...
Alex showing a bunt.
Ryan pitching.
Alex also got to play 1st base. He played 4 positions in the whole tournament. Pitcher, Catcher, short stop, and 1st base. Not all at the same time of course. He did well in all of these places.
In the second game they played against the Blue Valley Longhorns from Texas. This team too was a good team, and we came out on top 11 to 2. Colton pitched a good game, and this was also a very special game for him and his brother because in one of the innings their mom had her baby. She had been in labor all day and Cannon Brinnton was born during the game. Once the boys heard the news they all seemed to play so much better. They all livened up and were hitting and playing great defence. Above is Jake Byrnes in the batters box.
They had 2 games that night though. So between games they went to McDonald's for some dinner. ( I have some pictures from there). Here is Jacob leading off of second base.
In their second game on Tuesday they played the Lebanon Yellow Jackets. This is a team that we play alot in tournaments. They are a very good team, with hitting, pitching, and defense. Alex pitched very well and our team had several errors in the field. We also were having a hard time getting hits. One of the most memorable things about this game was a kid from the other team hit a hard line drive back at Alex and he caught it just before it hit him. It was so quick we didn't even see it. It was all sound from bat to glove. Alex was very surprised and said later that he thought he was going to die. We only lost by 2 runs, 4 to 2. But since we had 2 wins we automatically made it to the championship bracket.
The picture above was of Garett and this is Connor.
The next morning we had to wake up early and play at 9 o'clock, against the Mid-West A's. This team was seeded lower than us, but we have played them many times before and have lost to them. They played very well, Eli pitched a good game, allowing 3 runs. Alex played short stop, and had some good hits. The whole team hit exceptionally well. They again pulled through and won 9 to 3. Above is Dylan waiting for his turn to hit.
This is Alex swinging, and I'm almost 100% sure that he got a base hit. This was against the L.A. Crawlers.
Before we move on I need to back track and show you some pictures of the opening ceremony and the parade. Here is Mom and Me listening to the mayor of Branson talk to the teams and audience.
The Cardinal's!!!! Woo!!
The whole Gang.... Coach Papa Wheeler, Rick, Brian, Jacob, Connor, Alex, Ryan, Colton, Garett, Eli, Dylan, and Jake.
The Boys... Dad and Alex.
Like I said, we spent a lot of time just hanging around in the condo. But after our morning game on Wednesday we went out to eat for lunch and then came back to the field for another game against the Bobcats, from Branson. They were also a very good team who could hit the ball very well. Colton started the game and pitched well but the other team scored by getting lots of good hits. Ryan came in later to pitch but the other team just hit very well and kept scoring. Alex got hit by the other team 2 times, once in the knee, and once in the hand. He only was hit, and didn't do any of the hitting. He also caught the whole game. They sadly couldn't come back, and lost 5 to 8. But like I said this team is very good and is still going on in the tournament.
Alex loves catching, and I love this picture. It was a ball but he just held his glove like that for a whole second, like he was trying to get the umpire to change his mind. This was against the L.A. Crawler's.
Here are the pictures of the boys between the games at McDonald's. They all were acting like monkey's in a cage.
Dad, enjoying a shake in the very hot weather. We had a few days that were so hot, and then a couple others that felt really good.
Here is Alex, I love this picture too because it looks like he just hit a homerun, but he really is just standing in the batter's box.
After our loss to the Bobcats we went back to the condo. This was me during the Bobcat's game. I was very tired and hot, but glad to be in our luxurious condo once again. We had dinner at the condo and went to bed because we were scheduled to have our game at 9 o'clock the next morning. Luckily it rained that night and there was a rain delay on the game. So it was pushed back to 11. 
Above is Ryan, standing in the batter's box. He had a very nice hit in our game against the L.A. Crawler's that hit the fence in center feild. Which is two hundred and twenty feet. If it would of had a little more it so would have been a homerun. We watched lots of homeruns this week.
So our game that was scheduled for nine, we played at 11. It was against the Conway Cats from Arkansas. In this game Alex pitched, and Colton caught. The first pitch of the game was a double, going over the left fielder's head and hitting the bottom of the fence. The next batter hit the ball to short stop, where Jake Byrnes threw him out at first. But the runner advanced to third. Alex tried to pick him off, and the ball got passed the third baseman. He came in and scored. Alex pitched an awesome game, 5 innings. He wasn't the only reason that the game was 1 to 0 in the 6th inning. His defense did a spectacular job of backing him up. The Conway Cats had a total of 13 runners left on base. Connor had several good plays from 2nd base, and Jake Byrnes had an awesome diving catch at short stop. There had a horrible time hitting though, with only 2 baserunners in 5 innings. They held them again in the 6th, and all they needed to do was score 1 to tie and 1 to win. Alex came up to bat and hit a solid base hit to right field. Dyaln was up next, and walked, moving Alex to second. The catcher missed the ball and both the runners advanced. Colton was up next, and all we needed was a base hit, there were 0 outs. Colton hit the ball and it bounced over the short stops head, easliy scoring Alex, and Dylan was coming too. The center fielder picked up the ball and hesitated. Giving Dylan just enough time to come in easy. The game was over and we won 2 to 1. That was by far the most exciting and overwhelming game. This I think was everyone's favorite memory of the week.
Above is Eli in the batter's box, and below IS THE CARDINAL'S AFTER THEY AMAZINGLY BEAT THE CONWAY CATS!!! They were just as excited as we were!
After this game we went out to eat at K.F.C. and came back for our next game at 3. We then played the Oklahoma Rockhounds. They were also a team that could hit the ball. Jake Byrnes and Ryan pitched for us. Our boys you could tell were very tired, the other team scored 11 runs. We on the other hand came out with 1. So our week was ended there, but they played very hard. Alex's favorite part of this last game was when one of the players from the Rockhounds was thrown out of the game. There was a force out at home, Alex caught the ball and got him out, but then the kid slid and Alex tripped over his legs while trying get out of the way. The umpire thought that the kid intentionally tripped Alex, and made him sit the rest of the game.
After the last game all the parents told the boys how proud they were of them and we went our seperate ways.
Except for the Wheeler's who went back to the condo for some birthday cake and ice cream. It was also Tate's 6th birthday! Happy Birthday Tate! He got to open som presents and we all had some yummy desert. The boys all went to the pool for the last time, while me and mom watched U.S.A softball and CSI. Stephanie and the boys left at around 9 that evening, while me, mom, Alex, and Charlie stayed at the condo. A little whil later we all got ready and went.......
MINI GOLFING!!! It is tradition that every year we always go mini golfing on vacation. Last year at the world series we went too. So this year since there was a mini golf cource right across from our condo we decided to go. It was a dinousaur theme, and had a volcano that shot out real fire! Here is Charlie!
This is Papa, he had like 3 hole in ones. He also won, with a score of 49. I had 55, Alex and Kay had 57, and Charlie had 59.
Alex had a good time golfing. He made things interesting by always trying to go the hardest way or the long way.
We were very sad to be leaving our pretty and cozy condo. But we were also very excited to be going home finally. Here we are sitting and enjoying our last few moments in our home away from home.
Of course even though the Cardinal's were done with baseball... other teams weren't. So after making a quick stop at MC sports, Maurices, and Shoe Carnival, we went to Rec Plex one more time to watch some games. Mom picked out a few more pictures to buy, and Alex went and watched some games. When mom finished paying for the pictures they weren't taking money at the gate anymore, so we went in to watch the end of a few games. We saw the Lebanon Yellow Jackets, who beat us, lose to the Bobcats, who also beat us. Then we watched a game that looked similar to ours against the Cats. It was 1 to 1 in the bottom of the 7th inning, a kid hit a base hit. Then the next kid hit a pop up but the short stop missed it and the runners were safe at 1 and 2. The next kid at bat hit a base hit to left feild and scored the runner on 2nd base. There crowd was wild, and it was a good game. That was between the Twin City Outlaws, and the Texas Sliders. The other game we wound up watching was between the Mid-MO Warriors, and the L.A. Lions. The Warriors won 8 to 5, thanks to a kid who hit a 3 run home run.
When we got to Branson we were more than impressed with the condo that Papa and Kay were going to be staying in. It was spacious and had enough beds for all of us to stay there. Kay, Papa, Dad, Mom, Me, Alex, Stephanie, David, Pauletta, Jacob, Drew, Tate, and Charlie all at some point stayed in the condo. As you can see from the picture above it was decorated very well and expensively.
We did a lot of sitting around watching TV, shopping, playing cards, and having a good time in the condo. It was large enough for mom and me to watch CSI in the bedroom, Charlie to watch HGTV, the boys to play video games, and Papa to watch ball games.
We even had our own little watch dog out front. It is definitely some place that we will want to come back to.
Alex and Jacob played very hard during the world series. At nights Alex, Me, and Jacob would sleep in the big comfy bed.
One night even us girls all got together and played phase 10.
Here is Brittney, Easton, and Tate.
Tate spent a lot of time playing Go Fish. One morning I played with him, and I know that several other people played with him too.
All the boys managed to find the flat screen TV, within the first 10 minutes of being at the condo.
After we saw the condo we went back to the ball field to watch the parade. All the teams went through with their banners. This is our team's.
Like I said... all of my games and pictures are very mixed up. So I will have the story in order but the pictures are scattered. So that night we went back to the condo to swim. They had a very nice indoor pool that was very cold. This also was the night that I fell and twisted my ankle at the ball field because of a stupid drain. But anyways...we went to sleep that night and were able to sleep in. Our first game wasn't until 4 on Monday. We played the Louisiana Crawlers. They were the second seed in the tournament, but we came out on top with a final score of 13 to 1. Our hitting was great, and Eli pitched a really good game. Everyone got a hit or on base, and Jake Byrnes had the most awesome diving catch in center field. They had several pick offs and Alex threw some kids out from behind the plate.
Here is Alex running home from 3rd base.
Jacob Wheeler in the batters box...
Alex showing a bunt.
Ryan pitching.
Alex also got to play 1st base. He played 4 positions in the whole tournament. Pitcher, Catcher, short stop, and 1st base. Not all at the same time of course. He did well in all of these places.
In the second game they played against the Blue Valley Longhorns from Texas. This team too was a good team, and we came out on top 11 to 2. Colton pitched a good game, and this was also a very special game for him and his brother because in one of the innings their mom had her baby. She had been in labor all day and Cannon Brinnton was born during the game. Once the boys heard the news they all seemed to play so much better. They all livened up and were hitting and playing great defence. Above is Jake Byrnes in the batters box.
They had 2 games that night though. So between games they went to McDonald's for some dinner. ( I have some pictures from there). Here is Jacob leading off of second base.
In their second game on Tuesday they played the Lebanon Yellow Jackets. This is a team that we play alot in tournaments. They are a very good team, with hitting, pitching, and defense. Alex pitched very well and our team had several errors in the field. We also were having a hard time getting hits. One of the most memorable things about this game was a kid from the other team hit a hard line drive back at Alex and he caught it just before it hit him. It was so quick we didn't even see it. It was all sound from bat to glove. Alex was very surprised and said later that he thought he was going to die. We only lost by 2 runs, 4 to 2. But since we had 2 wins we automatically made it to the championship bracket.
The picture above was of Garett and this is Connor.
The next morning we had to wake up early and play at 9 o'clock, against the Mid-West A's. This team was seeded lower than us, but we have played them many times before and have lost to them. They played very well, Eli pitched a good game, allowing 3 runs. Alex played short stop, and had some good hits. The whole team hit exceptionally well. They again pulled through and won 9 to 3. Above is Dylan waiting for his turn to hit.
This is Alex swinging, and I'm almost 100% sure that he got a base hit. This was against the L.A. Crawlers.
Before we move on I need to back track and show you some pictures of the opening ceremony and the parade. Here is Mom and Me listening to the mayor of Branson talk to the teams and audience.
The Cardinal's!!!! Woo!!
The whole Gang.... Coach Papa Wheeler, Rick, Brian, Jacob, Connor, Alex, Ryan, Colton, Garett, Eli, Dylan, and Jake.
The Boys... Dad and Alex.
Like I said, we spent a lot of time just hanging around in the condo. But after our morning game on Wednesday we went out to eat for lunch and then came back to the field for another game against the Bobcats, from Branson. They were also a very good team who could hit the ball very well. Colton started the game and pitched well but the other team scored by getting lots of good hits. Ryan came in later to pitch but the other team just hit very well and kept scoring. Alex got hit by the other team 2 times, once in the knee, and once in the hand. He only was hit, and didn't do any of the hitting. He also caught the whole game. They sadly couldn't come back, and lost 5 to 8. But like I said this team is very good and is still going on in the tournament.
Alex loves catching, and I love this picture. It was a ball but he just held his glove like that for a whole second, like he was trying to get the umpire to change his mind. This was against the L.A. Crawler's.
Here are the pictures of the boys between the games at McDonald's. They all were acting like monkey's in a cage.
Dad, enjoying a shake in the very hot weather. We had a few days that were so hot, and then a couple others that felt really good.
Here is Alex, I love this picture too because it looks like he just hit a homerun, but he really is just standing in the batter's box.
After our loss to the Bobcats we went back to the condo. This was me during the Bobcat's game. I was very tired and hot, but glad to be in our luxurious condo once again. We had dinner at the condo and went to bed because we were scheduled to have our game at 9 o'clock the next morning. Luckily it rained that night and there was a rain delay on the game. So it was pushed back to 11. 
Above is Ryan, standing in the batter's box. He had a very nice hit in our game against the L.A. Crawler's that hit the fence in center feild. Which is two hundred and twenty feet. If it would of had a little more it so would have been a homerun. We watched lots of homeruns this week.
So our game that was scheduled for nine, we played at 11. It was against the Conway Cats from Arkansas. In this game Alex pitched, and Colton caught. The first pitch of the game was a double, going over the left fielder's head and hitting the bottom of the fence. The next batter hit the ball to short stop, where Jake Byrnes threw him out at first. But the runner advanced to third. Alex tried to pick him off, and the ball got passed the third baseman. He came in and scored. Alex pitched an awesome game, 5 innings. He wasn't the only reason that the game was 1 to 0 in the 6th inning. His defense did a spectacular job of backing him up. The Conway Cats had a total of 13 runners left on base. Connor had several good plays from 2nd base, and Jake Byrnes had an awesome diving catch at short stop. There had a horrible time hitting though, with only 2 baserunners in 5 innings. They held them again in the 6th, and all they needed to do was score 1 to tie and 1 to win. Alex came up to bat and hit a solid base hit to right field. Dyaln was up next, and walked, moving Alex to second. The catcher missed the ball and both the runners advanced. Colton was up next, and all we needed was a base hit, there were 0 outs. Colton hit the ball and it bounced over the short stops head, easliy scoring Alex, and Dylan was coming too. The center fielder picked up the ball and hesitated. Giving Dylan just enough time to come in easy. The game was over and we won 2 to 1. That was by far the most exciting and overwhelming game. This I think was everyone's favorite memory of the week.
Above is Eli in the batter's box, and below IS THE CARDINAL'S AFTER THEY AMAZINGLY BEAT THE CONWAY CATS!!! They were just as excited as we were!
After this game we went out to eat at K.F.C. and came back for our next game at 3. We then played the Oklahoma Rockhounds. They were also a team that could hit the ball. Jake Byrnes and Ryan pitched for us. Our boys you could tell were very tired, the other team scored 11 runs. We on the other hand came out with 1. So our week was ended there, but they played very hard. Alex's favorite part of this last game was when one of the players from the Rockhounds was thrown out of the game. There was a force out at home, Alex caught the ball and got him out, but then the kid slid and Alex tripped over his legs while trying get out of the way. The umpire thought that the kid intentionally tripped Alex, and made him sit the rest of the game.
After the last game all the parents told the boys how proud they were of them and we went our seperate ways.
Except for the Wheeler's who went back to the condo for some birthday cake and ice cream. It was also Tate's 6th birthday! Happy Birthday Tate! He got to open som presents and we all had some yummy desert. The boys all went to the pool for the last time, while me and mom watched U.S.A softball and CSI. Stephanie and the boys left at around 9 that evening, while me, mom, Alex, and Charlie stayed at the condo. A little whil later we all got ready and went.......
MINI GOLFING!!! It is tradition that every year we always go mini golfing on vacation. Last year at the world series we went too. So this year since there was a mini golf cource right across from our condo we decided to go. It was a dinousaur theme, and had a volcano that shot out real fire! Here is Charlie!
This is Papa, he had like 3 hole in ones. He also won, with a score of 49. I had 55, Alex and Kay had 57, and Charlie had 59.
Alex had a good time golfing. He made things interesting by always trying to go the hardest way or the long way.
We were very sad to be leaving our pretty and cozy condo. But we were also very excited to be going home finally. Here we are sitting and enjoying our last few moments in our home away from home.Of course even though the Cardinal's were done with baseball... other teams weren't. So after making a quick stop at MC sports, Maurices, and Shoe Carnival, we went to Rec Plex one more time to watch some games. Mom picked out a few more pictures to buy, and Alex went and watched some games. When mom finished paying for the pictures they weren't taking money at the gate anymore, so we went in to watch the end of a few games. We saw the Lebanon Yellow Jackets, who beat us, lose to the Bobcats, who also beat us. Then we watched a game that looked similar to ours against the Cats. It was 1 to 1 in the bottom of the 7th inning, a kid hit a base hit. Then the next kid hit a pop up but the short stop missed it and the runners were safe at 1 and 2. The next kid at bat hit a base hit to left feild and scored the runner on 2nd base. There crowd was wild, and it was a good game. That was between the Twin City Outlaws, and the Texas Sliders. The other game we wound up watching was between the Mid-MO Warriors, and the L.A. Lions. The Warriors won 8 to 5, thanks to a kid who hit a 3 run home run.
After the games we just couldn't leave Branson without going to eat at Steak n' Shake. Here is Alex and Me waiting for our food. It was really good and a relaxing day. We were SO glad to be home and sleep in our own beds. This was a really fun week that we will never forget.
1 comment:
Rachel, this was amazing! You remember the details so well. I loved reading this. You need to write an article for the newspaper. Thank you so much for filling everyone in on our awesome week. Love you, Kay
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