A Whirlwind of a Softball Game in La Pine Oregon:

Yesterday was a beautiful day.  I drove to our local park on Finley Butte Road in La Pine to watch Little Missy's softball game.  I got there early and was amazed at how much the park had changed over the past year or so.  I have pictures of the park itself, but because this post is already so long, I will do a separate one on it sometime later.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Meet Tatum, aka: Little Missy.  She is my BFF April's daughter.  This is her first season of playing ball, and she is doing great at it.  Tatum is a natural; it is in her genes.  Her Grandpa Galbraith was a pro-baseball player, back in the day.  Little Missy was happy that I came to watch her play.  So was I.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Tatum is warming up, throwing the ball to her best friend Sage.  Sage and Tatum are the only girls on the team. 

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Don't you just love their pink gloves and sporting shoes with the pink stripes?  Too cute!  Tatum is #9 and Sage is #8.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Here is Sage, ready to go.  I used my "Action Sports Shooting" setting on my camera all the way through the game and the mini-tornado.  I love that setting.  My camera doesn't have to stop to focus and I get some neat shots.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Tatum played third base for awhile.  She had lots of action coming her way.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

I was sitting with these handsome folks.  Tanner, Brandon, Ryland and April.   

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Tanner

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Ryland, Tanner and Brandon.  Tanner looks just like his Daddy to me.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Ryland is just plain sweet.  He loves people.  Ryland was gently poking the lady in front of him just to get her attention so that he could say hi and wave.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Ryland looks just like his Grandpa Duke, our friend who died a couple of years ago.  He also looks so much like his aunt Mallory.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Look how that little hand is holding on to his Dad's finger.  Precious.

Okay, so we were all sitting there, minding our own business, congratulating ourselves on only getting snow, but, thank God no tornadoes.  Somebody said, here comes the wind, and before we knew it we were ducking for cover and shielding our eyes from dust and small objects.

I looked up and thought, oh my gosh, I should be taking pictures of this.  By the time I got organized, it was starting to go away.  It was worse than it looks here; the wind was probably 60 mph, but I don't know that for sure.  It blew the helmets off the kids and had them spiraling up into the air in a dust devil wind tunnel. 

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

This is when it was leaving the field.  The dust devil spent several seconds in the middle of the field.  It blew the tissues out of a ladies purse and sucked them into the mesh fence.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Not knowing any better, that one little boy was chasing it away.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Enlarge this picture and see if it gives you the creeps.  At the very least, see how that white cloud looks as if it is sucking up the brown dust devil?  I know, me and my nature faces!

Play continued.  It was so fun to watch all those little kids learning play ball.  It was coach pitch, unless they were too unskilled and needed a tee.  One catcher kept getting foul balls dropped at his feet, and he'd just stand there, not even picking them up.  They were taught to throw to first, so even if they could have walked four feet to home plate to get a runner out, they would throw to first, the first baseman wouldn't catch it, and another runner would make it home.  Way cute.


Cary and I love to watch baseball on t.v., and I kept thinking about how those pros started like these little kids.  They had to think about throwing and carefully prepare ... it takes years of practice to get the naturalness that you see later on.  Some of those little kids are really good though.  They can hit, throw and run.   


It was so fun to enjoy the day with April and also meeting Sage's Mom, Lynette.  The weather action just made it even more interesting.


Thanks for stopping by and reading this long post!  I hope that you enjoy your Sunday.  God bless.


~ Kathy

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