Our away tournament this year for Evan's baseball team was supposed to be both Sandusky and another weekend in Frankenmuth, but the coach dropped the ball (pun intended) with the registration for both of those and we lost our spots. So, he picked a tournament just outside of Grand Rapids in a small town called Jenison. There were 7 teams in his age group registered and our games were Saturday at 4:45pm and 6:30pm, but we opted to go early on Friday.
We picked the kids up early and got to Grand Rapids around 5:30pm. We stopped at The Mitten Brewery for dinner and beers. It seemed fitting since it's a baseball themed restaurant. Then we stopped at Founders for another beer and an appetizer. We went on to the hotel after that to check in and 3 other teammates were there swimming so we joined them. The kids ran around outside on a big field to play wiffle ball and they loved the castle next door (it's an apartment building...).
Saturday morning we were moving slow from our late night, so we ate breakfast at the hotel and let the kids hang out and play wiffle ball some more. We got ready and decided to grab a big lunch at New Holland Brewery in downtown Grand Rapids. It was a really cool space! The kids liked the yard games and the food was actually pretty good.
Then it was back to the hotel to get ready for the games. The moms stuffed good luck bags in the lobby to surprise the boys with and the kids got their uniforms on. When we got to the field thinking we had close to an hour to warm-up, the umps informed our coaches that they were running ahead of schedule and wanted to start in 15 minutes. So, it was a mad scramble to get their arms warmed up and to get our tent set up. The first game we played a local team called Club House and we won 10-6. It was an exciting game and our kids and coaches were super amped up! Afterwards they had a quick break and then we played a team from Rockford that was really good and unfortunately, beat us. 18-1. Ouch!
The team all went back to the hotel and we had a parking lot party of pizza, salads, desserts, and drinks for a late dinner. The kids were running around swimming, playing wiffle ball, etc. I think it's safe to say everyone had a good time despite losing that second game!
The next morning on Sunday we had an 11:30am game since we were seeded 4th for the bracket play. We all ate breakfast at the hotel and a dad picked up some bagels and cream cheese from Panera. We were up against the same team we beat the day before and they came out hot. Every kid on their team was hitting. It looked like a totally different team. Sadly, we lost 10-1 and we just did not play well. Evan struck out twice. It was very unusual for him.
Most families had checked out of the hotel and were going home after the game, but we had decided to stay the night again. There was a cidery nearby the field that I love and wanted to go to so we went to that. It was so cute! The kids played Jenga and had some snacks and plain cider.
We went back to the hotel to change into our bathing suits. Even though it was a cloudy day, it was warm and we wanted to go to a nearby lake. Millennium Park was about two miles from the hotel and is a metropark. We hung out at the beach for two hours before a big storm came in. We left just in time! It got very dark and crazy out there. We stopped for Subway right by our hotel for dinner, ate in the room, and then met up with the coach and his son to swim at the pool.
It was a fun weekend! Wish the boys would have played better and gone farther in the tournament, but onto the next one! We have this weekend off and then 3 weekends of tournaments in a row. Hoping those are better for us!
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