{More} Softball

Bella's second tournament was this weekend. It started on Friday night and kept us out until 10pm. It wasn't supposed to be so late, but the game was delayed because of rain, and then again during the middle of the game for lightening, and ended up lasting an hour later than it should have. We started Saturday with a 9am game, and ended up playing 4 games total, ending our day a little after 7pm. (So much better than the last tournament!) They made it to the championship and took second place. Bella was so happy! In her eyes, they did great and got another trophy. She is such a good sport. However, several of her teammates were extremely unhappy. A few were crying. It's such a shame that these girls don't realize that both winning and losing is a part of life, and that they can't expect to win every time.

Bella and some teammates waiting between games (Bella is front & center):

 Waiting for the pitch:

 She hit it right up the center where the girl is reaching for it:

 Safe on first:

 She made it home for a score:

 Accepting her trophy from Coach Trey:

 Good job, Team Xtreme!

Since the tournament ended at a decent hour and the kids had been so good all day, I took them out for a treat at an old fashioned ice cream shop. This shop was amazing. The atmosphere was so quaint, the service was great, and overall we had such a wonderful little trip. It is a shame that this place is a solid 35 minutes from our house... or maybe that's a good thing, since we would be there all the time! The kids all wanted just plain chocolate ice cream, but the ice cream comes with 3 free toppings (out of 101 choices!) and so I picked out some toppings on the side for them to enjoy: dinosaur gummies, skittles, and nilla wafers.

Waiting for their treats:

 Bella was so proud of her trophy that she brought it in to show around:

 Yum!

Just look at all these fun toppings:

I was having a difficult time getting clear photos in the low lighting, but using the flash just made the photos too harsh. So, after the not-so-clear photos above, I took a few with the flash and then played around on Aperture to try and make this one look a bit vintage-y. I really should learn all the settings on this camera. Jake would totally have gotten awesome and clear photos of this trip. 

This was a great way to finish off such a full and fun-filled day!