To say it was an awesome weekend would be an understatement. The weather was absolutely perfect, sunny with an nice breeze that left just a bit of chill in the air. Cool at night and packed with all kinds of excitement. I'm not sure there is much more you could hope for in a weekend.
I've said it before, but there is a real dichotomy (I'm not sure that is the right word) between the city and the country in Columbus. Take the opening photo for example, that was taken in my inlaws back yard. You wouldn't think they lived in the middle of a bustling suburb right in the heart of Columbus with a view like that.
The main reason we were visiting was to watch my niece play some softball with her travel team. I'll be covering the full details of that in a post on my 
Believe it or not, I didn't get any photos of the pizza, but if you follow that link above, you will get an idea of just how amazing it is.
I have to wonder if 
As is typically the case, the games were held at Lou Berliner Sports Park near downtown Columbus. It's actually listed as one of the largest sports parks in the country with something like thirty some fields for softball and baseball.
I am sure I am going to get the number wrong, but for this showcase tournament, there were over 200 teams in attendance.
I got to hang out with my oldest niece as well which is always really awesome. I met
Since it was a showcase tournament, there were coaches from universities and colleges all over the country there to watch the young ladies play. At one point there were at least 15 different coaches watching one of the games my niece was playing in. Sometimes they come to see specific players, but other times they are just looking for players based on position.
They might come to see if a team has a really good center fielder or something like that.
Sometimes you have to wait several hours between games. It doesn't make sense to fight the Columbus traffic to get back to your hotel or house, so some people use the tools they have available to them. The RV in the photo above is not ours, but it was parked next to where we were hanging out waiting for the next game.
It's super smart if you have one available to you. You can lay down, you have a private restroom, and you can even whip up yourself a snack if you don't want to eat the burgers, hot dogs, or fried food they have available at the concessions stand.
This is one of my two favorite photos from the weekend. This is my niece hitting a ball that dropped for a double and she brought in a run on the hit as well. Much like batters time the pitcher to swing, I've been working on the right moment to hit the shutter button so I can get shots like this.
If you hit it too early they aren't swinging yet, if you wait too long, you just get them running to first. I've learned it's best to hit the button as soon as the ball leaves the pitchers hand.
The area of Columbus where they live was a bit crazy because there was also a big golf tournament happening on the same weekend. We were leaving the store and I caught a shot of this plane flying around carrying a banner behind it. You can just see it above the treetops in the photo above. Can you guess what the banner said?
Still can't make it out? Back at the house the plane continued to fly over and we discovered it was actually a banner for Maker's Mark Bourbon. I thought it was pretty cool since we just visited the distillery down in Kentucky a couple of years ago now.
Apparently they were trying to give folks suggestions of what to drink on the golf course!
After a morning of Softball games on Saturday, we headed back to our in-laws house for a nice steak and chicken dinner. There was a butterfly floating around near these flowers and I tried to catch a shot, but it flew off before I had the chance. I settled for a close up of just the flower instead.
Sunday morning we caught one more game before we got on the road to head home.
As I said, it was a fantastic weekend spent with my wife's family and now my heart is really full after seeing my nieces and spending time with my in-laws.
In just a couple of weeks we will be together with them again, but this time halfway across the country as we go to see my niece play softball in Colorado. I'm beyond excited about that!
All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or
