i've mentioned before that our little league names teams after top ranked college ball teams. omaha is home to the college world series - the place that all those college teams are trying to get. this year, alex was a vanderbilt commodore and ben was a florida gator. and both of their teams made it here.
the CWS teams hit omaha on thursday, and we've been able to attend a few events with the players. these are the kind of things the boys will remember for a long, long time.
on thursday, alex's team got to see vanderbilt practice. it was an awesome opportunity to see the team working up close, and afterwards, they took time to sign autographs for our boys. they were all exceedingly gracious and enthusiastic with our star struck kids, even after a day of travel and practice. the team photographer snuck a few photos while the boys got signatures, and they were mentioned in their day 1 write up on their website (scroll down to the bottom - and there are more pics if you click on photo gallery).
when we got there for vanderbilt's practice, we noticed florida's bus in the parking lot. sure enough, as we approached the field, the gators were coming off. ben got to see them and tell them good luck, and we snuck a photo with their bus. afterwards, we went looking for a ball that had flown out of the field when we got there - after all, it was probably hit by a florida kid.. i was a good mom and half crawled under a car to retrieve it and was rewarded with an official gator ball. ben was estatic.
friday was a fan fest day at the CWS stadium, and we headed downtown to see more practices and attend some autograph sessions. we met up with some friends and went through autograph lines for vanderbilt & florida (alex got his photo taken by a vandy kid, and ben got his gator ball signed by all the florida kids) we had overpriced popcorn and pretzels for lunch, we got photos with the mascots and we watched some of the teams practice. then we headed home before our meter ran out. ;) the boys also got to see the players again at meet and greet events on sunday.
both teams won their first games on saturday (we caught bits and pieces of both of them on tv), which meant that they faced off on monday night. matthew headed down early to get in line for tickets and was able to get them. AND a parking ticket for an expired meter. still way less than buying them online. ;) they headed out early so they could do some of the fan fest stuff, as well as get souveniers and buy dinner. alex went in vandy black & gold, while ben rocked the gator orange and blue. a house divided.
and 6 innings into the game, the tornado sirens went off. no tornados in the area, thankfully, just some reeeeeeeeeeeeally nasty wind and a LOT of rain. after crowding everyone into the covered areas and a two hour delay, they called the game. matthew and the bigs got home around midnight.
the game resumed tuesday morning. matthew took all 3 boys down for the last 2.5 innings while i did some work - it was sam's first (partial) cws game! florida won. and we'll be watching the rest of the games on tv. =)
happy wednesday! if today goes well, i should have some july studio calico sneaks soon. and um, today NEEDS to go well. ;) have a good one!
