reds game

$1 hot dogs and a 1st inning brawl for ian's 10th birthday! it doesn't get any better than that!!!

this never gets old

ian playing ball yesterday.

is there anything better than watching your child enjoy himself so completely?

the best thing about spring

(thanks, danielle, for the photos!)

saturday in september

a young fighting irish player giving advice to an osu buckeye on how to beat navy:

why we're jets fans

our cousin, eric smith, plays for the new york jets. last year he started at safety (many of you will remember the vicious collision between he and anquan boldin). there was a massive debate about the helmet-to-helmet contact between eric and boldin, but i honestly believe that kerry rhodes' involvement in the play didn't help matters, and eric found himself in an incredibly dangerous situation. (eric was knocked unconscious as well.)

at any rate, we got to hang out with eric at our family reunion a few weeks ago. he is delightful in person. quiet and reserved. great with the kids. kate and ian were on cloud nine the entire afternoon. (my grandfather and eric's grandfather are brothers, and for those of you who don't know, yes, my maiden name is smith).

at one point in the afternoon, many of the relatives were talking about what fantastic athletes the smiths have produced...and it's true. my grandfather was recruited by the st. louis cardinals prior to WWII. my cousin rob was a tremendous basketball player and now coaches at urbana university. eric's sister stacy is being recruited out of groveport to play college volleyball. all of the other cousins have shown an enormous propensity toward athleticism. it's pretty cool.

so anyways, here are my kids with one of their heroes. they have many, but i'm pretty sure eric ranks right up there at the top.

the boys of summer

oh my gosh...what a BLAST! ian was in heaven being on the all-star team! he alternated between playing shortstop and pitcher. (he is seen in most of the video wearing a heart-guard, a requirement for boys playing pitcher.) ian was the lead-off batter and had a pretty good on-base percentage. his fielding was awesome, too.

all in all, we couldn't have asked for a more wonderful tournament season. the boys were absolutely terrific (and adorable) and really pulled together as a team.

and as for our coaches...hey, we love you matt snodgrass, jeff davis, rick swain, and kent shanks! you guys rock!

p.s. to see erica snodgrass' fantastic tournament pictures, click here and here!

football 2008

Ian's Football Highlights: Fall 2008 from Jodi Gillen on Vimeo.