One Helluva Housewife!: "Batter up!/Please don't touch the animals!"

Our family had a very busy, fun-packed weekend, and I had to write about it all, so this might be a long entry. But, I promise it won't be boring. It all started on Friday with Michael's job. He was given the hard task of getting the whole day off and participating in the District Bar Association softball tournament. I know, sounds terrible, doesn't it? Several law firms from Idaho Falls formed their own softball team, including lawyers, paralegals, secretaries, and members of their family, to play against other law firm softball teams. Beard St. Clair Gaffney (Michael's firm) had participated in a city rec softball league earlier this summer, so they were more than ready to take on the other firms. Michael and another attorney drove to Idaho Falls early Friday morning for a quick team practice, while Annabelle and I carpooled with the wife of this other attorney and her kids a little later. We didn't make it time for the first game, but our boys dominated. The team played really well together and won 8-0. The second game didn't end up quite as well, although it was not by any fault of Michael's team.

It's a co-ed league and every other batter is supposed to be a girl. Our team was true to that rule and had enough girls to make them bat as per the rules. The other team, however, only had one female, who I'm sorry to say didn't seem all that athletic. The rest were men from the law firm and their teenage sons that played on their high school's baseball team. When this is the case, where one team doesn't have enough girls, that team is supposed to take an out when two male batters bat right after each other. Well, the umpire said that since there were some "younger" kids on the team, they would count as a girl batter, and that they would get pitched the bigger, easier-to-hit "female" ball. Well, this turned out to be totally unfair because as I stated above, these "younger" kids belonged to high school baseball teams and were really good, probably better than almost all of the men on the field. So, that was a very disappointing and totally unfair game. However, Annabelle loved being there, even though she hardly watched any of the game. She was busy running around trying to pull things out of the trash cans and playing on the amazing playground that was located right next to the softball field.

This playground was nothing like anything I've ever seen before. It was every kid's dream playground, and Annabelle went wild. She is one of the most daring kids I've ever seen, and when other kids didn't dare try anything "dangerous" like the twisty slide, Annabelle wanted to do everything on her own. She wanted to be pushed faster and higher on the swing, climb the rock wall, and do everything that looked remotely scary. Here is a video of such an activity. Annabelle had already been doing this for a while, so she was really tired and had a hard time holding on, but she kept wanting to be pushed.

The last game was that afternoon and once again, Annabelle and I didn't get to see it. Annabelle was taking her nap and we got to the park just as the game ended. I wish I could have been there for it because there was some crazy drama. During the second inning, Michael's team was at bat and Greg, the firm president, was up with nobody on base and two outs. He hit a ground ball to shortstop, and raced to first base, beating the ball by almost a full second. He was obviously safe, but the ump, who was watching from home plate, called it out. Greg couldn't believe that he had been called out and yelled in a non-menacing way that he was obviously safe. The ump gave him a warning, and shocked, Greg once again, in a non-menacing, almost teasing voice said that he wasn't trying to be confrontational, but the ump made the wrong call. The ump then yelled, "You're out! You have one minute to leave the field or I'm calling the game". Well, this guy was not going to leave. He had not threatened the ump or done anything that would cause him to be thrown out of the game. So, after a minute when Greg was still there, the ump called the game, saying the other team won. Well, this made everyone upset, so Greg walked up to the ump and said, "Well, I guess you're not needed anymore since the game is over, so you can leave. I'll take over and ref the rest of the game". The ump didn't really know what to do, so he left and Greg took over as ump, calling plays very fairly, and the two teams finished playing. Although Michael's team still lost, they still had a very good time, especially once the bad ump was gone.

After that, Annabelle, Michael, and I went to the Idaho Falls zoo (it's not very big, but that's why it's perfect for someone Annabelle's age). We had a good time, but Annabelle was really upset that she couldn't go in the cages with the animals. After the zoo, we went out to dinner with another attorney and his family. So after a long day, we returned home 11 hours after we left. It was hot all day and Michael didn't put any sunscreen on and was red all over. Annabelle and I had rosy cheeks, but we weren't in the sun nearly as much as Michael was. Although Annabelle was exhausted, we had a good time being out together as a family. Next year, we hope to be cheering for the District Bar Association softball league champions-Beard, St Clair, Gafffney, and BROWN!