Take me out to the ballgame...

One of my favorite activities of spring is going to ballgames.

Don't really care whose game or where it is.

Growing up, we used to traipse to my dad's softball games. As a little kid, going to the playground was the best part. Nothing like 574 turns on a rickety old merry-go-round to make you lose your concession stand dinner.

As I got older, I remember trolling the ballfields with my cousin Jennifer, looking for hot men. We learned quickly that rec ballfields are not the place to look for hot men... well, at least not hot men we could take home to meet Ken and Jimmy (our dads).

I've always had a fascination with baseball players, I guess. My first major teenage crush (sigh) was a guy named Matt. He was a pitcher, and he was H.O.T.

Too bad he was so H.O.T. that he was seeing, like, 6 other girls that summer.

Once I got to college, I didn't date any baseball players at Clemson -- although I did have a one-time disastrous formal date with a rookie second baseman who fell asleep on my couch and refused to leave.

In addition to being a squatter, he was also a mouth breather. Had to let him go.

Instead of dating sketchy ball players, I spent my spring afternoons stretched out on the metal bleachers at Tiger Field next to Toad, my all-time favorite date, watching ballgames, eating ice cream, and getting sunburned.

I did, however, meet an extremely H.O.T. guy post-college (well, my senior year), and as it turns out, he played baseball in college.

When we started dating, he was playing in a rec softball league. I was excited to find, upon attending my first game, that he was pretty good AND that he looked really good in his uniform. (Always a plus!)

Turns out, I wasn't the only one that noticed. A 40+ year-old woman (one of his co-workers) also had the hots for him and was ready to duke it out with me in the parking lot if I didn't give up my seat on the bleachers.

Fortunately for me, her friends (also his co-workers) were able to convince her that she wasn't really his girlfriend (since he'd not even shown the slightest interest in her), and I didn't have to show her my fabulous ninja skills.

After sitting on the bleachers for a season of games, rooting him on, he finally asked me to marry him.

I, of course, said yes.

It's not every day a man who looks that good in baseball pants proposes... :-)

Anyway, K. has continued to play ball here and there, and now Ethan is following in his steps with t-ball. Granted, E resembles my dad (a little short and squatty) more than my hubby, but still, he's pretty good on the field.

Spring for us now includes rec softball for K. and t-ball for E.

We spend a lot of family time at the ball field. From the above pictures, you can tell that a lot of our friends and their families spend quality time at the ball fields, too.

The top picture is of Laney and Reece. Don't mind that scary belly in teal behind them. That's just me and Swimmer.

In Picture #2, Laney and Reece are partaking of one of the variety of snacks in my ballfield cooler. Reece, being a good boy, only had two suckers (unbeknownst to his mother... Sorry, Jenn.). Laney had 4. You'll be seeing her as a candidate for what not to eat on the pedia-dentist's waiting room wall.

The bottom pictures shows the brood of Townville kids; E is the 1/2 kid in a navy shirt on the right side of the picture.

Now, this is what's fun. All of those kids in that bottom picture are on (or related to) someone on E's tball team, and I grew up with all of their parents. I know it probably sounds a little like in-breeding, but it's not... It's just a part of living in a small town.

Now, I'm not saying we aren't a little 'neck.... we yell at the referees -- even in church league, they have to be fair!... we bring our own lawn chairs... our kids eat from the concession stand and/or our never-ending bags o' stuff... but these are the things I loved, loved, loved when I was a kid, and I'm so grateful that my kids have an opportunity to grow up with that same small town atmosphere.

There's nothing like a good ballgame (with a pit stop at Dairy Queen afterward) to announce the arrival of spring...