After Weston and his Lumberjack team won 1st place in 6U TTAB district tournament, it was on to the state championship tournament. This year’s location was selected for Riesel, TX. Just to the east of Waco. With a little bit of coordinating and airbnb hunting on Dad’s part, we were all set for July 16-20 to play some ball and vacation as much as possible. Here’s a day by day run down of our week.

Monday:

Nathan’s parents, the kids and I arrive in Waco a few hours before check in time for our apartment and we hit up Magnolia Market. The crowds were light compared to other times I’ve been and we were able to browse the market, eat a food truck lunch and get cupcakes fairly easy!

The Dr Pepper museum is located a block away from the Magnolia compound and we were happy to post up in their air conditioned soda shop and have a few treats. Dad met us there and with still time to kill before check in, we toured the museum. A lot had changed since the last time I had been there and I personally found the museum to be a little droll for kids. It was self guided and most of the displays were old marketing materials. There was a fun story telling robot that share how Dr Pepper came to be and the remains of neat/creepy artisan well that we found most entertaining.

Check in to our apartment went easy and we got settled in nicely. Unfortunately, and as would be for the remainder of the week, the pool was under renovation and inaccessible. The 7 of us, man I love my car, loaded up and grabbed dinner at Torchy’s Tacos before game 1 time. And let me just say Torchy’s is AWESOME! Count me in as hooked. Thank goodness Tyler has one.

Game 1 was against the Belton Rebels at 8pm and we were so grateful for a night game. The temps the entire week stayed over 100. Night time was still hot but without sunlight. Haha. This game was hard fought and we earned Tuesday night off with our win of 27-26. After the game, the sports association put on one of the biggest, brightest and elaborate fireworks display I think I’ve ever seen! Pictured is Weston on the right with 2 of his buds. 💜

Tuesday:

We woke up happy to have a whole day to ourselves and spent the majority of it at BSR Cable Park in Mexia. This place was awesome! I could see it potentially not being as family friendly on the weekends due to liberal alcohol rules on premise, but we had zero issues on our Tuesday there. Probably my least favorite part of the park is that the well water they are using is heavily dyed blue to the point of no visibility at about 6 inches. Dad and I were surprised we didn’t turn blue spending time in it. Haha Regardless of the water, we thoroughly enjoyed lazy river floats, people watching at the slides, Dad’s own ride down the slide and playing in a beach area while wakeboarders went by. We headed out after 5 hours of fun for dinner at the apartment. After dinner, wanting to make the most of our day off from ball, we went to the historic Hippodrome Theatre in downtown that has undergone renovation and watched “Hotel Transylvania 3”. The movie theatre areas are set up like a Studio Movie Grill, but the performance area was stunning.

Wednesday:

That evening we had a double header game that Nathan was coming in for the day to watch, so we kept it pretty low key that day. I met the other baseball moms at Magnolia Table at 6:15 am while Dad and the kids slept in and we enjoyed a nice break AND breakfast. 😉 The food really was good and hearty. I would qualify it worth the wait even though we managed to avoid one that early. Nathan came into town and after a restock at HEB, we relaxed and napped at the apartment until 5:00 game 2 time.

We played Riesel’s Hulksmash and took it 21-9. Dad got a good picture of Weston up to bat. We had an hour to kill until our 8:00 game and we just opted to post up in the shade in the parking lot.

Game 3 was against the Mineola Bombers that were actually from our district and this would be the 4th time we’ve played them this season. They wanted to beat us pretty bad, but fell short 23-13. Dad got some more good action pics. Weston was so out of it by this game and after it took all he had to smile for a picture. Haha

Thursday:

Nathan had to go back home Wednesday night and we woke up Thursday morning well rested. We opted for air conditioned activities and went to the Texas Ranger Museum. This one intrigued the kids a little better with its scavenger hunts and a 45 min film covering the history of the Rangers. There were a ton of artifacts with information galore. For a full experience, Ashlyn probably got the most out of it. Younger than her, would bore quickly. Weston did find a pretty cool baseball in the gift shop and I dropped the $9 to buy it 😆.

We met up with the majority of the team at a restaurant near the Silos called The Backyard Bar for lunch. We were severely underwhelmed with this place. The food was less than mediocre and the prices ridiculous. Everything was slider style and they put hamburgers on donuts. Weird. To make up for that experience, however, we found a Starry Night mural!! I was so happy!

Game 4 was at 8:00pm ( LOVE those night games) and we were up against the only other undefeated team in the tournament. And the Axtell Rangers made up work for that W. 27-26 was our final and we were set for the championship game Friday night.

Friday:

Nathan made plans to work half a day and come in for the game that night. A friend of ours looked after Skye so he could stay the night after and we all head home Saturday. Initially I wanted to daytrip to Lake Whitney State Park, but when we saw the predicted 109 😱 temps for the day, we opted indoors again. We went with the Waco Mammoth Site and really enjoyed it! The park ranger talk was very informative and held your interest. I was quite impressed with Ashlyn’s questions as well. What was most fascinating for me was they haven’t even finished surveying the area yet! There could be even more fossils below our very feet! We left there pretty hungry and hit up Torchy’s Tacos again. Yum.

Championship Game 5 was at 6:30 and we showed up to see the final 2 teams battle it out for who would play us. Either way they would be at a disadvantage having played an hour in that heat before going up against us nice and fresh to the field. Lesson: it pays to stay in the winners bracket. We ended up against the Axtell Rangers again and didn’t have to work as hard as the night before. 19-11 final and we were State Champs!

At 10:30 that night, this little stinker got “whatever he wanted” off the menu at DQ. He ordered a medium Jurassic Chomp blizzard and couldn’t finish it😊

I’m sorry I don’t have more “plays” to report in detail for y’all. Or myself for that matter. Weston was an all around good player. He played left field every inning making good stops and throws. And brought runners in with his hitting. A pop up ball was caught and that wrecked him, but many times his hits brought in the 7th runner that would wrap up the inning. It’s crazy how many details of that week are already so fuzzy. We’ve already had 2 practices for fall ball and are playing with the Lumberjacks again. He loves it, so I do too. 💜

-Lindsay