Cousins - Part I

Cousins! Cousins! Cousins! The last month has been exciting. I have seen all of my cousins!

One night, my cousins from Maryland came to our house. The

next morning, we woke up and I played basketball with Kevin. Then I had a baseball game that night. The next day I had 2 games. I was happy that the Cooleys could come to all my championship games.

The day after my last baseball game Aunt Mary, Kevin and I went hiking in New Hampshire on a waterfall trail up a mountain. When we got almost to the top, we went

back down the mountain. We went to our hotel in New Hampshire, we got checked in and got our stuff out in the room. Then we went for dinner. The next morning, we woke up and had breakfast and at about 10 o'clock we left to go to a water park.

When we got to the water park, we got stamped on our arm and started going on the rides. First we went in this big wave pool and then we climbed a huge flight of stairs. The slide was straight down - bump - straight down - bump - straight down. I got air on the bumps! On our next ride, we climbed back up the same flight of stairs and took a right instead of a left. We went down a slide that was curvy and wurvy and some parts were completely black and you turned almost upside down because you were going so fast. Before lunch, went on one more ride. It was a 1-person ride with a tube. We climbed up the stairs and then went on the ride. It was a very relaxing ride compared to the other ones but I bet if we did that one first, it would have seemed a little faster. Then we had lunch and after lunch we rode a 3-person ride. Kevin, Aunt Mary and I got in one tube and rode Harpoon Express. We went down the slide and it was really fast. Next we waited in a line that was pretty long. We climbed up the stairs and Kevin and I were getting a little scared. We could see that the slide went through a pitch black tunnel that was twisty and turny and then you dropped straight down in light and then went up a straight-up ramp and came straight back down backwards! When we got on the tube and went down the pitch black water slide, I was saying, "uh oh" and Kevin said, "there's no turning back now!". We went down the straight down slide and it was almost like we were a bird that didn't have any wings. We went up the ramp and came down backwards. It wasn't that scary anymore but it was still scary. The next ride had a long line. When we finally got to the top, Kevin went before me and it looked OK when Kevin did it. When it was my turn, I didn't even push because I didn't want to fly out of the toilet bowl! I went down another black slide and when I got into the toilet bowl, I went 3 times around and about made it to 4 and then I fell in the water below. We went on a couple more rides and then went to our house in Southborough just in time for my baseball party.

Part II of "Cousins" to be continued. Stay tuned for stories from Iowa!

Hiking in New Hampshire.

The Last Baseball That I'll Play Until Spring

Wow! It's been a LONG time since I've done any writing. You are probably wondering if I have been kidnapped by aliens. No I haven't, but I have been very busy.

I bet you want to know how my baseball season ended. The last time I wrote we were on our way to the playoffs. Our 1st g ame was against Hopkinton and since they beat us once and we beat them once, it was an even match. We won the close game, 5-4.

On to the championship series...

Our 1st game playing Shrewsbury was a night game under the lights. We lost badly, 11-3. Since the series was a best-of-3, we had a least one more game to play. Our 2nd game against Shrewsbury was a regular game during the afternoon. We won 7-3. So we're on to our 3rd game to determine the champion. After 6 innings, the game was tied so we went to our 1st overtime inning: no score for either of the teams. So we went another extra inning: no runs scored again. Since that was all theextra innings we could play, we ended up being co-champions with Shrewsbury!

Next spring, our team will get a banner on the batting cages that will say "District 8 Co-Champs". On opening day, my dad, the head coach, will get to go out on the field and introduce all the players on our team to everyone who is playing spring baseball. I think I will feel very proud of my team then.

Batting during the final championship game.

Baserunning.

The trophy presentation.

My team:

Front Row (l-r): Matthew Dunderdale, Louis Lyons, Patrick Solomon, Aidan O'Leary, Nolan Kimball, Connor Whitney

Back Row (l-r): Tony Massaglia, Me, Jack Branson, Jack Bayko, Daniel Goldstein, Greg Rosen

Coaches (l-r): Pete Massaglia, Dave Lyons, Larry Branson, Paul Secrist