Opening Day Surprise

Yesterday, was a full day for all involved in the tournament.

There was hotel registration..........

Team registration.................

Cooking for the team picnic................

Wrapping over one thousand hot dogs and hamburgers, eight trays of baked beans, umteen pounds of potato salad, and a TON of BBQ chicken made special by the Police Department. (That's me...all the way in the back on the left :> )

We fed over 800 people at the picnic....WOW!

Then there was an evening of F U N........

Playing at Imagination Station.............

Pin trading..............

and fireworks..............BOOM!
What a great day. We were all so exhausted. Most of us got to bed way after midnight, and were back up and out to the ball field by 6:30-7:00. Skippy was there at 5:00 am preparing the fields for play. WHAT A MAN!!!

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Today was Opening Day Ceremonies for the Little League State Tournament. All the kids were there in their nice clean uniforms. They all looked GREAT!

These are players from our area, District #3. Out league did not have any teams in the tournament this year :> (This is only 11 out of the 16 teams that are participating. They just finished parading across the field, and are waiting for their names to be announced. There's nothing like being a kid, surrounded by almost a thousand people, and having YOUR name called out over the PA system. We want them all to feel special!

The League planned a BIG SURPRISE for everyone......SKYDIVERS! How COOL is that! We were a little worried that they weren't going to be able to jump due to the cloudy skies, but WOO HOO, they did, and what an awesome sight it was! Please take a look.......

Did you see the beautiful mountains in the background? :> )

After the ceremony was completed and the skydivers had landed safely, the skies opened up and just POURED on us, which caused the games at first, to be on a two hour delay, but God saw to water our fields with the much needed rain canceling them for the rest of the day. Thank you, God, for your provision of liquid sunshine today! :> ) We so needed it!