Play Ball!!

"Am's Fam-damily" (minus Britt, she was sleeping still)

The cute Grandkids in their matching team shirts

The "crew" that was in charge of the whole event.

"Friend" doesn't even describe how I feel about these guys. They are my sisters. I love you guys!! Thanks so much for everything!

Coach Dad. I think he's saying "We're number one!" Actually, he's probably saying, "K, guys we only have one more chance!!" Ha ha!

My cute friends. Wish we could have played them too.

The life of the party! "Wha happened?!" Love you Dell!!!

Me and Grams in front of the poster that everyone signed. It was all so amazing. What a memorable night!

The boys in heaven eating sno-cones. You can eat that for breakfast, right?!

I don't even know where to start... The softball tournament last weekend turned out AMAZING!! My friends and community have put so much effort and time into this and for that I will be forever indebted to them. We figure there were about 500 people that showed up including teams. There were 22 teams registered to play.

My family formed a team called, "Am's fam-damily". (It was all we could agree on) Other choices were "Hitting for Hope", "Hits and Giggles" (sounds like an all girl team) and "Rhodes to a Cure". The funniest team name was one of our friends team called, "Here come the runs..." We had team shirts with the "Sanpete Gives Back" logo on them and even the grand kids had shirts too.

Our first game was against the college athletic dept. and coaches. Really?? Wow. They humiliated us by running the bases as we tried to figure out how to get the ball back. I did score a point though and I will not even entertain the thought that they may have let me have it just because the tournament was for my family!! Even with my amazing point and some great catches by Jon and Ryan, we still lost.

Our next game was against "The Goonies" which was fun because some of our friends were on that team. We still lost. Some friends. Ha ha ha! After that we had some time till our next game so we listened to the live band and danced and visited with everyone. It was such a fun atmosphere and if you missed it, you truly missed out. We struggled to get the kids to bed, (We camped in the trailer in the parking lot) but eventually they did wear out. Aaron was asleep laying next to Grandma. Jason was helping get the other kids settled when Aaron woke up with a zombie sort of look on his face. He stumbled over to where Grandma laid and proceeded to drop his drawers... and pee right on her!! Yes, it's true! Jas grabbed him in mid-pee and escorted him to the shower, still asleep. I wish I could have been there. Sorry Grandma. It was really funny though and I'm sure Aaron feels bad by now.

For our third game (at midnight) I look over to see my cute Grandpa sitting in the dugout. He had gone back to the hotel but came back again just to watch our next game. Does it get any cuter than that?? We actually did ok on that third game. We finally figured out how to do a few things. I'm sure we made Coach Dad so proud! Jas caught a fly ball in the outfield and I was so proud. We still lost this game but it was fun to be ahead for a while and we definitely had the best cheering section! (Thanks Randalls!!)

What to do at 2 a.m.? Hot cocoa and batting practice, of course!! Kurt Larsen was so sweet to help me practice hitting balls for almost an hour. It was so fun and I learned a lot. I loved chatting with Erin and Ashley till all hours of the night. When else would we spend all this time together? It was so much fun and I will never forget it!

After our third game, we were excited to play our fourth, at 3 a.m!! Our excitement was quickly extinguished when we realized we had to play the college athletic dept., again. What?? Can we just forfeit and go to bed?? Please?? Well, being the troopers we are, we played anyway. We did improve from our first game though so that's worth something, right? Well, we were losing and Dell was our last hitter up to bat and she had a plan. They think we are idiots anyway, so why not laugh about it? She misses the first ball... she takes her stance and swings to hit the second, "Ting!" She runs... to 3rd instead of 1st! The pitcher has a look of total confusion. The catcher says, "She can't do that!", She runs to 2nd and then does a show stopping double cart wheel to 1st. It was so hilarious!! The ump called an "Illegal running of the bases" or something like that and we cheered because now we got to go to bed! Yeah! It was such a blast.

I will never forget my cute Dad all enthused about the game and trying to get his four daughters to figure out how to play softball. When we did something right, he was the first to notice and yell out a shout of encouragement. My mom was one of the best kid-tamers and cheerleaders as she pleaded for "the pity team". My Grandma chucked at how cute all of us girls were out there trying to get our game faces on.

It was a night I will never, ever forget and it was all made possible by a darling girl from Texas whose organizational skills could run a small nation and whose heart is way bigger than Texas. She said she just wanted to "do something positive" and she accomplished that and way, way more. She brought together an entire community and gave us all something to laugh about and look forward to. Thank you so much, Erin. I just love you so much!

Thanks to everyone that came to support, cheer, uplift, donate, play or even those that were there in spirit. It was an amazing event. I will never forget the generosity and Christ-like attributes of so many of you. What an amazing place we live in. Thanks so much to everyone that participated in any way, big or small. I was touched by the dollar that little Rylie Olsen put in the donation jar to "help Amberly get better". It doesn't get sweeter than this. Thanks guys from the bottom of my heart. You will be blessed for your service, of this you can be sure. I get to spend the rest of my life making it up to you and trying to be like you. I look forward to using my pink softball mitt again soon and next year we will do the event again and I get to help pick and help out another family. I can't wait!!