Monday, July 20, 2009




Massive Beach & World Series Update / Photo Overload
(and a small Random Tuesday question added on at the end)

Whew...what a week!

We arrived back home from Panama City Beach, Florida, last night after eight days away. It was a fantastic trip and we had ALL sorts of fun, but I'm also sorta glad to be back home (you know, that double-edged sword. Being away is great, but being home is great too!).

I thought I'd share some pictures with you (of course!), but be ready...there are a lot of them (of course!).

We went to Florida because Delaney's travel softball team--the Birmingham Mustangs--was in the 12-and-under USFA World Series. We always love to watch Delaney's team play, but getting to go to the beach was just a wonderful, added bonus (it's probably why they play the Series there, huh?).

The World Series is really a cool thing to experience. The teams get to march in the Opening Ceremonies...




(One of the coolest things about the World Series is that you can trade pins with players from other teams. Delaney always loves to see which pins she can get!)

And then, of course, it gets down to business as the games start to play!

This year, there were 94 teams in the 12-and-under division, so you can only imagine how hard it would be to win the whole thing or to even advance very far. We were really proud when the team did great in pool play (this is sorta like "practice rounds" because the games don't count yet) and won two out of three games. Then, the teams advance to bracket rounds and have a double elimination. By Wednesday night (it all started Sunday night) we had our two losses, but the girls seemed to take it well (part of that could have been that we had the rest of the week to enjoy the beach! LOL).

Because our two starting pitchers weren't able to attend the World Series (one had a planned trip away at camp and the other's Dad had a kidney transplant!), Delaney actually was called upon to pitch several times (she hasn't pitched regularly in three seasons, so it was a little bit surprising to her!).

Delaney did GREAT, though. Her best showing was during our second pool play game. She pitched a no-hitter!! No one got a hit and she gave up only two walks. Plus, we won 5-0. It was so exciting and Delaney was just thrilled (as you can imagine!).

Here are a few pictures of her pitching, and also hitting, and fielding (she also played second base and right field during the tournament)...










Once ball was over, we got to REALLY play!! We had a blast at the beach and with several different groups of friends during the week.

We stayed at St. Andrew's State Park, which has some of the most beautiful beaches you can imagine. It really has two beaches, in fact--one that is blocked in by a jetty, so it's shallow and perfectly clear (Sydney really loved this one!), and a second that is in the Gulf and has much bigger waves. We spent several days there...







And then we also spent several days at the beach further down in Panama City Beach, with a couple set of friends. Delaney and Sydney both had friends to play with, so it turned out great!

(by the way: you probably noticed that McKenna isn't in any of these pictures. She had to work all week, had guard practice, and was volunteering at our church's VBS. I think she had a good time staying with friends, but we sure missed her!)






When you're at the beach, of course, everything isn't just about the beach. There's also food...like some good Dippin' Dots, smoothies, and seafood...





(those delicious crab legs came from Hammerhead Fred's, one of our favorite restaurants there!)

And then there's all sorts of entertainment, like playing Bochi Ball (not sure if that's spelled right, but it sure was fun. In fact, I'm buying a set for us very soon!). The girls played it...

and so did the grown ups...

And there was horseshoes...

some sort of synchronized swimming...

sunning by the pool...

watching the new Harry Potter movie (yay!!)...


playing putt-putt golf at, seriously, one of the coolest courses ever! It was built in 1959 and was a "true" Goofy Golf course...




hanging out at the go-kart track...


where Delaney was involved in a now-legendary blow-out that involved being crashed into and spun around several times, thereby causing a huge pile up (I just hate I don't have pictures of it! LOL)...

and Sydney even doing some bungee-jumping (it was SO funny and I'm afraid it means I have another thrill-seeker on my hands!)...

As you can tell from our pictures, we had a wonderful time! It's the longest I've ever spent at the beach in one spell, but I could have stayed longer (if only I didn't have school registrations, and work, and other duties calling my name!). And, well, we could have stayed longer if we had more money (the beach drains the pocketbook, that's for sure! LOL).

Now we are back home and I'm trying to get into the "swing of things" all over again. I can't believe that July is almost over...the Summer has truly flown by, hasn't it?

I hope you enjoyed your little virtual beach vacation with me, and I am looking forward to trying to get to as many of your blogs as possible very, very soon.

In the meantime, how about a Random Tuesday question for you. This question will give me a glimpse into your life while I was away...

* What was the most interesting, funny, exciting, boring, meaningful...whatever...thing that happened in your life over the last week? I want to know what's going on with you and yours! (So, leave me a comment about it!)

I'll talk with you all again real soon!

14 comments:

Kari (GrannySkywalker) said...

Love all the pictures. Glad the girls enjoyed the softball and the beach.

LOVED the Harry Potter movie!! Did you?

Kari

Anonymous said...

My favoite pictures are the ones of the girls jumping up and down in the water. Those are super cute.

Not much going on this last week actually. Work and work, and dreaming about a vacay. (So, yeah I'm jealous of you.)

Marg

hippo chick said...

There is nothing like a southern beach. We had a wonderful time on Martha's Vineyard, but the beach wasn't much at all. Give me PCB any time.

Loved all your pics. Thanks so much for sharing.

I'm going to try to post tomorrow. In the meantime in answer to your random question, I think walking the Freedom Trail in Boston was the most interesting and exciting part of our vacation. It takes you right through the North End with all it's great restaurants and delightful buildings. All the upper balconies had window boxes. It was so charming. Okay, I've gone on long enough.

~hippo hugs~

Stephenie said...

Looks like yall had LOADS of fun! I'm going to post pictures of the scrapbook pages I've done so far. They're shabby since it's my first book, but, I'm still proud none the less haha

Cheryl Wray said...

Kari--Of course, I LOVED the HP movie. I'm a HP Nerd and proud of it. I really thought the movie went great with the book, too!

Marg--There's still time for a vacation! :-)

Hippo--I am extremely jealous of your trip into Boston. It's one of the top places I want to visit--and I can't wait to read all about it on your blog!

Stephenie--Yay for scrapbooking! You inspired me and I seriously think I'm going to do some scrapping tomorrow! (I will come check out your pages!)

Daisy said...

* What was the most
Interesting~ I would have to say a toss up between the Wetlands Institute and the Avalon Museum.

Funny~ Man's nephew Yuke, (who is 5) running around naked. He IS a free spirit.

Exciting~ Thursday morning when I woke up to find Man's sister, Mrs. Brady had left.

Boring~ Not too much of anything was boring this past week.

Meaningful~ Friday when we got to go back to Avalon.

CrAzY Working Mom said...

The beach looked beautiful and fun! I loved the photo overload. :)
I hope you all had a great time.

Lisa said...

I want to know about that pirate ship in the picture - that is so cool. Where is it? What is it?

We had a great weekend in Mobile. The son of my best friend (we've been friends 22 years) got married in Mobile and our supper club went and all stayed two nights in the same hotel and had the most wonderful time! Wish we had 8 days like y'all did - sounds wonderful and your pictures are great as always!

Cheryl Wray said...

Daisy--I would love to know more about Avalon. Where exactly is that? Sounds like you had a great week!

Crazy--It was great!

Lisa--The pirate ship came through two days in a row; it was a boat that took people out to an island just past St. Andrew's State Park. Sydney loved it because she thought it was a "real" pirate ship. :-) And I loved hearing about your weekend. Sounds like such a fantastic gathering for the wedding!

Lynilu said...

What fun!! I love the first picture, of Scout in the edge of the surf. Very sweet.

Gin said...

Awesome pictures of course, Cheryl. It looks like it was a great getaway.

Stephenie said...

*The best thing that happened to me this past week would be that Mom and I had a night out just us last Friday. We went to eat at Cracker Barrell and then to see the new Harry Potter movie [WHICH I LOVED!!] and we had a blast. We haven't hung out and done that in forever.

*The only bad thing that happened is that my car won't start! :[

Cheryl Wray said...

Lynilu--It was a blast! and I love that picture too!

Gin--It WAS!!!! We love the beach!

Steph--That sounds like so much fun (the night out with your Mom). Is the car better?

Gretchen said...

Awesome pictures, and congrats to Delaney's team. So much fun was had by all. You're so good about getting your pictures posted so quickly, Cheryl.

Have a great week.

P.S. My most exciting/fun thing was that I got to road trip with my fam to MT to see not only my BFF, but a mutual friend and her family from CO. We did lots of water activities in West Glacier and Whitefish. Beautiful!