July

Wow, what a couple of weeks that was!

It started on Tuesday, June 28 when Andrew stopped by our house and surprised us. Their family wasn’t due into Chicago until Sunday night for their annual vacation up from Houston, so this was a pleseant surprise. Turns out he just finished his final interview with Willow that day and got offered a job. (which he accepted). The process had been ongoing since May, and it was finalizing this week (he signed the contract on the 8th, so we were asked not to say anything until then).

Saturday, the 2nd, we headed up to Hutchinson Lake to spend family time with my cousins and aunts/uncles at my uncle Van’s cottage. We left later than we expected and got stuck in heavy, heavy holiday traffic. What is normally a 2 hour drive took us 4. We were less than happy with that. We were offered the opportunity to spend the night at their cabin, but we weren’t fully prepared for that, so we did head home later in the evening.

But not before having a couple of hours of fun playing in the lake and playing baseball on the lawn. We got Alex a life vest and that gave him a huge confidence boost. It was tough to get him out of the water. Sara, Alex, and I all climbed on a jet ski for a short excursion around the lake. We went out past the 7:30 “no wake” time cut-off, so I didn’t want to spend too much time out there lest we got Van in trouble. But we had a nice 10 minute trip with short bursts of speed and Alex had a lot of fun doing that. Next time we’ll have to get there much earlier to get some boating time. The plan to try to drive during nap time just sort of backfired on us.

The water was only up to his waist all the way out to the boats.

Sunday was relax day.  Although we did go to the baseball field and that was when kids were shooting off fireworks on the next block over which Alex was sure they were being fired off for his “home runs.”

Monday was the holiday. At noon, the parade came down the side street and turned east (so not technically in front of our house). We walked to the corner and put our chairs in the street for a good view. Alex loved running out to grab all the candy that was being thrown out. We haven’t eaten any of it yet, it was just more fun to chase it all down.

Monday evening, Andrew & Cathi and the kids came over for a BBQ. The kids swam in the pool a little bit too. Alex became a daredevil by jumping off the cube into the pool.

We walked to the park on the praire path to kill some time and energy (and to walk by any houses that may be for sale). Then around 9, we walked down the street to get a seat in the grass at the church for fireworks viewing. It was late and the kids were tired. We wondered why we were doing it. Oh well.

Tuesday was back to work. Tuesday night was the U2 360 concert at Soldier Field. Hmm. I just realized those pictures are on Sara’s phone still. Well, here’s one from Cathi:

It was a great show. It ended late and getting out of there was tough (can’t go East!) We got to bed at 1am on a school night. I’m way too old to be doing that! But it was fun anyway.

Wednesday evening was BBQ at Emily & Dan’s place. Good to hang out with them again, too. Thursday night was my softball night. Friday night: day off! woohoo!

Saturday we drove up to Warren Dunes State Park (90 minutes) to meet up with the whole Bemis gang. This has become an annual tradition as this beach is perfectly between GR and Chicago. Traffic wasn’t near as bad as the week before, thankfully.

So we spent the afternoon playing in the water, getting sunburned and having a good time.

Alex surfing on a boogy board

Burying Andrew

14 Kids from 6 families

The Women

The Men

So that’s how July started. I need a vaction from all that!

Story Time

I was reading this story to Alex last night about a boy who keeps pleading with his mom to let him stay up 5 more minutes. But Alex looked at this picture and asked me “Who’s the grandma?”

I guess that’s the outfit grandmas wear?

Lost Posts

Couple of things I meant to post, but never did. Sorry.

Some videos:

Over Easter, we went to Minnesota. Sara’s cousin’s husband is an equipment manager for the Twins, so he got us nice seats for the game that weekend. It was cold. The Twins brass can boast all they want about the number of over head heaters they have on the concourse, but unless they add them to the seats, I’ll never understand why they didn’t put a roof on that thing.

That said, it’s a beautiful baseball park. Surprisingly, it’s a few thousand seats smaller than Wrigley. But it’s a excellent example of what a ballpark should be. I’m all for tearing down Wrigley and starting from scratch.

Here’s a couple of photos. I took a couple innings and walked around the park late in the game. I’ll get those up someday.

Picking up our tickets from the Twins Player's will call window

Bundled up in our seats

About 30 rows behind home plate.

Panorama of the exterior on our way out

Uncle Scott bought him a Twins hat, too.

This week

Monday started T-ball. Calling it that isn’t quite right. It’s 3-4 year olds. Most of them are still learning which direction is first base. It’s actually too basic for Alex, but he can’t play real t-ball until he’s 5. Besides, it gets him out in a more team oriented environment than just playing with Mom and Dad.

Thankfully Coach Josh is still doing it. We talked up T-ball with Coach Josh for several weeks and by the time it came, he was really excited about it. He ran right onto the field and followed Coach Josh and the group around all afternoon. The kids were told to get some water from their parents and then go back out, and he had no issues. No more clinging to our legs this year, which is great.

He’s becoming much more aware of things. He’s interested in learning the different positions around the infield. I’m trying to teach him about outs and innings. But outside of baseball, he’s become interested in knowing about street names and identifying what road we’re traveling on.

Yesterday at school was a bike day, but we discovered that his bike had a flat. I went to Ace at 7:30 in the morning to see if they had any tubes. They do, but not small enough ones. I tried a patch, but the hole was around the air valve, so I couldn’t get the patch to close around that uneven section. He went to school unhappy, but was fine.

That evening, we went to the sporting goods store and got a new tube. After I put the bike back together, Alex was interested in trying to ride the bike without training wheels. So we rode on the sidewalk for a very short while before he was ready to put the training wheels back on. So it was exciting to see him interested in learning how to do that himself. Hopefully as he watches other kids at school without the training wheels it’ll really keep him motivated.

We also signed him up for swimming lessons, although that starts in July. We decided to do the 2 week, 10 lesson class. We felt that going every night would help him retain the things taught better than if we were only going back once a week. That’ll happen just before we go to the Dells on our camping trip, so hopefully he’ll be able to swim in any pools we go in while on vacation.

Cubs Season Ticket Holder Family Day

Yea, that just happened. Alex and I played catch for 2.5 hours on Wrigley Field today.

I was a little pessimistic that we’d be let in, since the season tickets I share with 2 others aren’t in my name. The invite said 2 adults and 4 children. But with several hundred other visitors in this time slot, they weren’t checking IDs. Ryan and his wife, Dave and his son, Alex and I were all eager to experience this.

It was a fantastic day. From 10am to 12:30pm, there was really no part of the ballpark that was off limits. The Cub’s clubhouse and the visitor’s clubhouse were open. The Press Box was open. The Batter’s Eye lounge was open. The pitching machine in the batting tunnel under the right field bleachers was open. You could touch all the bases. Stand on the pitching mound. Slide into home plate. Really the only thing they didn’t want you doing was touching the ivy. Free food and drinks (water, soda, lemonade) were provided, too.

I was able to convince Alex to go into the Visitor’s clubhouse with me for a quick moment (they are not kidding when they say it’s a long walk – unbelievable). But I couldn’t convince him to go anywhere else.  There were inflatables in the outfield for kids, but Alex had no interest in those either. There was a long line for the Cubs clubhouse, anyway.

So, for 2.5 hours, we played catch and ran the bases.

And honestly, that’s fine by me. We had a blast.

I figure one day I’ll do the Cubs tour and hear some history from a tour guide like we did when we took the Yankee Stadium tour. Or maybe if we’re still season ticket holders again and they do this appreciation day again, I’ll try those other options then.

For now, I’m just thrilled to say I played catch at every position around Wrigley and watched Alex slide into home. It’s been a really, really good week.

This day was a scorcher. 85+ degrees, humid and little wind. We had suntan lotion on, but I’m still burned. Alex started the day wearing shorts, but I brought his sweatpants which he eventually changed into because baseball players wear long pants. We paused a couple of times to go down to the concourse to get some drinks, but for most of the time, we were out there in the sun playing catch.

Traffic was bad going home, which was fine. Alex fell asleep in the car, so it allowed him a nice nap without me needing to drive around the block this time. Thankfully we had a rain storm late afternoon, because he was ready to go out and play more shortly after we came home. Unfortunately, the storm was a quick one and all it did was give me a short reprieve.  When the sun came out, we went to the local ballpark for another 1.5 hours. That’s right, we played 4 hours of baseball today. It’s 8:30pm and he’s STILL not worn out. But I am.

All the pictures of the day are here.

Alex’s First Cubs Game, June 1, 2011

I was amazed that he was able to sleep the night before. He’d been talking about it all week and I wasn’t sure it was such a good idea to tell him so early, but he did very well.

Actually, the worst part was that morning. Being a 1:20 game, we didn’t need to leave for it until late morning, but every 5 minutes he kept asking me when we were going. Finally at 10 I caved in, knowing we’d be early, but at least we’d be there.

We drove to Oak Park to take the Green Line El in from there. I had considered taking the Metra to Oak Park just for the experience, but decided I didn’t want to be tied to the Metra schedule. Trains only run once an hour. But at least this way, we got to ride on one type of train.

We got the front row seat so we could look forward as well as out the side. We were right behind the driver, who was very friendly. Just before the train departed, he held out the loudspeaker mic to Alex and told him to say “Doors are closing”, which Alex gleefully shouted out. Well, it came out “Doors close”, but close enough.

From the Green Line, we had to transfer to the Red Line at State/Lake. Alex enjoyed it.  We were in Chicago amongst the tall buildings. The Red Line thankfully wasn’t very crowded since we were an hour early for the game. That was one of my fears was that it was going to be crazy crowded, but it was fine. The station is right next to the gate we enter, which was another reason for me wanting to take the train: we didn’t have to walk far from a parking spot, nor did I have to pay an exhorbitant amount to park close.  Avoiding the heavy traffic was another bonus.

Alex handed the tickets to the gate attendant. The promotional item was a lightweight watch. I thought originally when I looked at the schedule that it was going to be a stuffed bear, but back then I had figured we weren’t going to be there early enough anyway. Oh well. Alex wore his for 2 mintues, but it doesn’t fit his wrist. The lady giving out the promotions asked if it was his first game and told us to go to Fan Services for bonus stuff. We did and waited in line a bit to get a sticker, First Visit photo and coloring book. The coloring book had a cut out catcher mask on the back, which we did later that night. I’ll get a photo up of that soon too.

Next, we walked up the steps to the field level and were right behind home plate. The Astros were still taking batting practice. The cage and other fences were still up and Alex wondered how they were going to play a game with all that stuff on the field. After a few minutes we went back down to the concourse to look for nachos (his request). We went out over to our section in the right field corner to eat them and finish watching batting practice. Alex was relived to see them wheel all that stuff off the field. He was also intriqued by the grounds crew spraying water all over the dirt in the infield.

Alex was patient. Thankfully that hour past quickly as there was a lot of activity to watch.

Kosuke Fukodome is Alex’s favorite player because we got him a shirt with the number 1 on it a while back. It was great to have Fukodome lead off the bottom of the 1st inning with a home run. He also plays right field, so we could get a good view of him from our seats in the right field corner.

I packed a lot of food for him and a sweatshirt. You never know in Wrigley. It was a beautiful day – mid 70s, but it was also windy, so the sweatshirt came in handy. Sheryl texted me that I should buy him whatever he wanted. Thankfully his list was short. First there was the nachos and later he wanted ice cream from the vendor shouting it out. I did make him eat half the PBJ I packed for him before he was allowed that dessert. I couldn’t convince him to get a hot dog.

Alex, being the ever so thoughtful one, kept informing me the beer vendor was coming by and I should get another one (I had one with lunch). He even held up my empty cup to try to show me that I needed more.

Finally, he needed a Cubs flag. He has a fascination with flags right now. We got him a checkered one at the Monster Truck show and now a Cubs one. I don’t mind that souveneir at all. It’s better than a foam finger or crazy hat. Thankfully our area was not full at all and we could move back a row so he could wave it around without disturbing anyone around us (unlike the Monster Truck show)

By the 4th and 5th innings, Alex was getting itchy to play baseball himself. He started warming up in the aisle.

By the way, he does this warming up all the time at home. It’s often while he’s waiting for us to get ready to go to the baseball field with him. You can see him catching the invisible ball back from the catcher. I keep missing my chances to get a better video of it.

Alex took this picture:

By the 6th inning, he was ready to go. He was more interested in playing baseball himself than watching others play. So we headed out. On the way out, we passed by Tom Ricketts, the owner of the Cubs. It didn’t registered with me who that was until after we passed him, otherwise I would have said hi.

Because we left early, the Red Line was not crowded (thankfully). I had taken the Red Line with Todd a couple years ago for a Cubs/White Sox game and we stay until the very end. The subway was packed and it was a madhouse getting through the station and onto a train.

I had no intention of staying all the way to the end of this game, just to avoid that situation with a 4 year old. I thought at best we’d stay through the 7th inning stretch and hear them sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame, but he was ready to go, so I didn’t argue.

The train ride back out was uneventful. Alex started yawning while on the Green Line. We got in the car and 15 minutes later he was out. Unfortunately, 15 minutes after that, we were home. So in order to allow him some sort of nap, I drove around the block for another 45 minutes. It was scenic and relaxing.

After he woke up, it took him another half hour to fully wake up. Sara was home by then, but now he was ready to go play baseball. So I took him to go find an empty field (it gets hard to find one this time of year with all the Little League games). We played on the field for about an hour and then went home for dinner.

The Cubs have fan photographers walk around all game long and I got one of those pictures taken, too. I’m still waiting for them to get those online. When they are, I’ll share them, too.

So it was really a fantastic day. It couldn’t have gone any better.