adventure *day 4*

Upstate New York is absolutely lovely.

Cooperstown is one of the most quaint and picturesque towns in the entire United States. It is on a beautiful lake, there are charming, old fashioned houses along the streets and some large mansions around the lake, fun shops on the Main Street, it is clean, the people are nice despite the massive influx of people on their community every summer...I could go on and on.

We stayed in an even smaller town just outside of Cooperstown called Hartwick.

I loved it.

We stayed in a cute blue house called My Blue Heaven. And you know what? It truly was. I took these pictures of the outside. We loved the wrap around deck, the wooded area we were in the middle of, and the yard was perfect for the boys to run around in. The inside was cute too, I don't know why I didn't take any pictures but there were two levels with plenty of room to hang out in and I loved that there was a laundry room and a kitchen which saved a ton of money with not having to go to a laundromat or out to eat every night.







Liam wants to live there.

Early Saturday morning we went to go say hi to Nick. We walked around the park a little bit and bought some souveniers. The team was out eating breakfast in the park which was nice because we as family members were not allowed where the players lived. If we wanted to see Nick, we would have to check him out and one of his coaches would have to walk him to the entrance. It was reassuring to know that a coach had to accompany the boys everywhere they went even though the pre teens weren't sure they liked it so much.




We bummed around the park for a little bit and then went into Cooperstown to look at all the fun shops there. Every shop we went in produced a flurry of requests for things that caught the boys' eyes. It is hard to just choose one thing when everything looks so special. To help divert the boys we headed over to the local Farmer's Market and bought some delicious peaches and blueberries. While our mouths were dripping juice from the peaches we decided to drive back to the house and have lunch and hang out before Nick had his opening ceremonies.



This is us squished into the bleachers with the other parents our team waiting for our little All Stars during the opening ceremonies. The scene was pretty electrifying--teams that had banners and matching shirts, people who were selling concessions, "Bally" the mascot walking around--it felt like you were at a major league game. And yes, Andrew did survive the head lock that Liam has him in.






They even had skydivers.




Then the moment we all were waiting for. The announcement of the teams.

We were one of the very last ones to be announced since they went alphabetically and when there are 104 teams to be announced, we were waiting quite a while. But it was amazing. The procession was similar to the opening ceremonies of the Olympics: each team carrying their team banner, proud, smiling boys everywhere who definately felt like superstars, teams throwing swag into the crowd, and adoring fans screaming out their names. I still get chills thinking about it.

Our position in the stadium was perfect. Our team ended up right in front of us after their names were called which was perfect for pictures. Pictures of a truly once in a lifetime event for Nick.

Here are our fearless coaches: Travis, Troy, and Scott.


Thank goodness for a coach who understands a mom's need to capture these moments on film and telling my son where to look at the camera.





Bridger even had his head shaved to look like a baseball.




After the opening ceremonies there were 4 competitions: The Golden Arm (who can throw the furthest and most accurate), the Road Runner(who can run the bases the fastest), the King of Swat(who can hit the most home runs), and Around the Horn (the team who can throw the ball around the bases the fastest).

Nick was chosen by his teammates to compete in the Golden Arm.

The object of the contest is to stand 125 feet away from the board and the boy receives 1 point for hitting the black part, 3 points if it hits the target, and 5 points if it goes right in the hole. If the ball bounces and then hits any part of the board or goes through the hole, the boy is only rewarded 1 point.

Nick did pretty well. His total was 3 points and he needed 4 to get into the finals. Bummer. He hit the target once, over threw the ball on his second throw, and then one hit the ground and went right through the hole.





Here he is warming up a bit...



and waiting for his turn to throw.


Right before his last attempt. It looks like he is giving the ball a stern talking to.


So proud of him!