The Crouse’s always enjoyed spending the offseason in London close to both of their families and it was a nice change from the always humid Arizona. With two kids in the mix, the two parents enjoy showing their children where they grew up.

Their first child, Ayden just turned 5 and wants to be just like his daddy. When the family got back to London in May, they quickly signed him up for baseball and soccer. Ayden had taking a liking to baseball right away and he was becoming really good. Ayden loved being with his daddy sometimes so much that he would tag along to workouts and morning skates and try and skate or workout with Lawson. He couldn’t wait for hockey to start again but enjoyed baseball for the summer. Soccer wasn’t really his thing as he would be picking at the grass if he didn’t have the ball.

Their youngest, Harper was almost 2 years old was a spitting image of Abby and loved to match outfits with her mom. She too, had her daddy and her older brother wrapped around her little fingers. She was sassy like Abby but she also had the smiley nature of Lawson. She was perfect, a total sweetheart. The crinkle of her eyes when she smiles was almost already permanent.

Putting Ayden in baseball meant that weekends were spent traveling around to other baseball fields to play in two day tournaments. Which is where the Crouse’s were today. Lawson always went, and sometimes Abby and Harper would stay home. When Harper gets into a mood, she doesn’t want to be around anyone so its better that Abby is the only one to see that. Lawson loved watching his son play baseball, he would like to coach him from the watching benches and Abby has to remind Lawson that he is only 5 and its for fun.

Almost 6 years ago, Abby and Lawson got married and they bought a house in London on the water and have been in complete love with it ever since. This is their permanent home when they aren’t in Arizona for the season. Abby loved being able to sit out on the deck and drink her morning coffee before everyone was awake. Lawson loved taking the boat out on the lake and just relax, it was their true happy place. Ayden was starting to like going in the boat with Lawson and his dad slowly taught him how to fish. Ayden had been taking swimming lessons in Arizona so he was learning how to swim but it was always nerve wracking for Abby to watch him swim in the lake. She made Lawson always have a hand on him, even with a life jacket on. Harper loved kicking the water with her feet and got all giggly around the lake. Their 4 year old German Shepherd, Moose loved to grab water with his mouth and pour it on Harper making her laugh or cry (it depended on her mood.)

Abby loved watching her son play baseball, but she also liked the social time with other families. The offseason was a lot quieter than the season so she liked being able to talk to other wives, something she missed being back in London.

Ayden played outfield and didn’t do a lot back there because not many of the hits got far out as most were just learning how to play baseball. Ayden did pitch sometimes but he liked to bat and was pretty good at bat, probably the best on his team. Because this was his second season in baseball he was one of the only ones able to hit the ball into the outfield. It helped that Ayden has Lawson’s long and strong legs so he was able to run really fast. Ayden was starting to understand what a ball was and where the strike zone is, this lets him not have to swing at every pitch he gets. Lawson and Ayden practice this a lot together at home.

The team was warming up, they would start in the outfield for the game and the other team would be batting. Ayden, along with the other two outfielders were throwing the ball to each other. Lawson said that Ayden would get to play centre field in this inning which was exciting for Ayden as it was his favourite position.

The warm up was over and the first up at bat was lining up ready for the pitch. Lawson was still standing making hand gestures to Ayden that Abby was sure Ayden wasn’t understanding, well she couldn’t understand them anyway. Harper was wearing her blue jays pink t-shirt and black shorts and was ready to cheer on her brother.

“Law, babe, sit down,” Abby taps the wooden bench beside her trying to get her husband to sit down. Harper is sitting in Abby’s lap giggling and trying to reach for her dad.

Lawson reluctantly sits down and Harper crawls into his lap leaning back on his stomach to watch her brother. “I’m nervous, this is a good team from what his coaches say. He might get some hits to centre field,” Lawson says to his wife leaning over to kiss her on the head.

“There’s no need to be nervous, lets just hope he has fun,” Abby reminds Lawson that he is playing for fun and to relax. I think Ayden sometimes feels the pressure that Lawson puts on, Lawson never does it on purpose, he just wants the best for Ayden and wants him to play good. Ayden wants to play good to show his dad but Abby just wants him to have fun and learn some good morals and manners from the sport.

“You’re right, you’re right,” Lawson concludes the conversation as the first batter doesn’t make it to first base before its an out. Lawson claps lightly along with the other families from the team. There are 3 coaches for Ayden’s team and they’re all dads of the players on the team. Lawson does want to help coach his son but he also likes to just sit back and watch his kid play baseball. After he retires from hockey, Lawson definitely wants to coach Ayden (and/or) Harper in hockey.

Lawson does get the odd fan come up to him during tournaments and ask for his autograph, its usually other players on other teams. Still playing in Arizona he barely gets recognized so it doesn’t bother the family when he does. The “fan-girling” stages are over for the kids on Ayden’s team because this is their second season with them and also all of them are invited to Lawson’s hockey school the week it runs in London.

Harper is bouncing on her father’s legs as they watch Ayden’s team get 3 outs and they run in to switch to batting. Abby puts her arm around Lawson playing with the hair at the nape of his neck, Lawson liked to keep it short during the season so sometimes in the offseason when he lost track of his hair Abby loved it getting longer, even though he hid it behind a baseball hat.

“I need a hair cut,” Lawson mumbles to his wife.

“I like it this long,” Abby replies watching her son get his helmet and batting gloves on. She motions to her son of the water bottle sitting beside her and he shakes his head. In the batting order, Ayden hit 5th so he still had some time before he had to go on deck. “Why don’t you like it long?” Abby wonders.

“Its more manageable that way, don’t have to worry about it getting in my eyes,” Lawson says subconsciously lifting up his hat and running his hand through his hair.

“It makes you look older,” Abby smiles.

“I’m 28,” Lawson scoffs.

“I know babe, but I think you should keep it this length, it looks better,” Abby tells him. Lawson’s hair was still relatively short it was just starting to curl at the ends, nothing too crazy for Lawson. He was just a weirdo with his hair.

“Maybe,” Lawson lays a hand on Abby’s thigh.

“That means no,” Abby pouts to which Lawson leans over to brush his lips on her cheek. “Now its for sure a no.”

Lawson laughs, “Why do you like it like this?”

“Its cuter,” Abby chuckles. “Harpy can pull on it when you guys are laying in bed.”

“You mean you can pull on it in bed?” Lawson says in her ear with a shit-eating grin on his face.

“We’re in public,” Abby scolds with a blush on her cheeks.

It’s now Ayden’s turn up at bat so we turn our attention to him and he ends up getting a double which brings in a run for the team. Lawson whistles and cheers very loudly as Harper and Abby clap along.

Harper was becoming restless in Lawson’s lap so Abby decided to take her for a walk around the fenced in field. Harper loved to run around to other people, animals, and to the nearest park. There was a park at the field but it looked a little to advanced for Harper. They did manage to find a swing set that was for toddlers and Abby plopped Harper into the seat beginning to push her. Harper immediately started giggling which made Abby smile at her daughter. The swings also gave Abby a view of Ayden’s baseball game and it looked like the inning was over and Ayden was heading out to the outfield.

One of the mom’s from Ayden’s team came over to the swings with her son that was a couple months younger than Harper.

“Hi,” Abby greats brightly. “How are you, Boston?” Abby leans down to her son with a small smile.

“Good,” He replies shyly somewhat hiding behind his mom.


“He saw that Harper was over here playing and wanted to come too,” Boston’s mom, Morgan said. Harper and Boston have been playing together at games and practices so they are becoming friends. Harper can’t say Boston, so she calls him B.

“Harpy, are you gonna say hi to B?” Abby says down to Harper.

“Hi B,” Harper replies with a smile his way. Lawson and Boston’s dad Tyler always joke that Harper and B are boyfriend and girlfriend. Harpy doesn’t deny it. Eli, Boston’s older brother and one of Ayden’s best friends thinks its hilarious.

“Harpy, Eli scored. Did u see?” B talks animatedly with his hands showing Harper how fast he ran to home plate.

“YEAH,” Harper replies. “Addy (what she calls Ayden) hit the ball and it went zoooooooooom.” Harper uses her own hands also to show B how high the ball went. As the two are talking on the swings, Morgan and Abby get to talk as well.

“Are you guys doing anything special this summer? A vacation?” Abby asks Morgan.

“We’re gonna go to our family cottage for awhile. It’s in Nova Scotia so we’re gonna drive down. Take our time getting there, the boys aren’t the best with riding in cars for a long time.” Morgan explains.

“At least there’s lots of stops along the way for them to get out. Harper is bad with even just sitting still through Ayden’s baseball games we wouldn’t be able to do that.”

“Do you fly to Arizona?”

“Yeah, its about a 4 hour flight, we go first class though. Night flights are the best for the kids and we usually fly out of Detroit instead of Toronto. It is difficult, first class gives them a bed basically and we make sure they don’t get a nap that day so they’re zonked. It’s a process thats for sure,” Abby huffs.

“How long would it take to drive?”

“Like over 30 hours, Lawson and I did it the summer we got married. Everyone joked saying this would be the last test of each other before we got married,” Abby laughed. “Somehow we survived.”

Morgan chuckles. “I could not be in a car with Tyler for that long, I would rip his head off.” Morgan and Abby chuckle along and keep an eye on their two children on the swings and on the baseball field.

We stay at the swings until the baseball is over and Boston and Harper are tired out and ready to head back to the hotel for the night. Two tired kids from a long day of baseball playing and watching and two tired parents from running around looking after and cheering on their kids.

Notes

not the best, I'm trying to get back into this! (I can't take requests right now as I don't want to let down any readers as I am just getting back into the swing of things)