Braves' Game

The BYU Alumni Association hosted a "Mormon Night at the Braves" last night, so we took the whole family to Turner Field to cheer on the home team. Dale Murphy was a special guest last night. He played for the Braves from 1976 until 1990, and quit impressively so. He was a great player and a great guy. His jersey, No. 3, was retired after he retired from baseball in 1994.


We had perfect seats - not necessarily the best seats, but for our family, they were perfect. We sat right beside the Mets bullpen, down the third base line. We were only three rows back, but we were on the inside isle (right against the bullpen), so the kids had a big "play area." They could move around without bothering anyone, and they watched the Mets' relief pitchers alot when the action on field was stalling.

We also had a steady supply of cotton candy, Reese's pieces, and blue slushies going :-) We missed the meet and greet with Dale Murphy, but we made it in time to see him throw the opening pitch. The weather was great (a little overcast so the temperature was not in the 90s like it has been for the past month), the kids were happy, and the Braves won (4 to 1), so it was a great night :-). Even the one thing that started out as a hassle ended up being great...

Sydney needed to go to the bathroom 4 times during the 3 1/2 hour game. The last time I was a little annoyed because it was the 8th inning, and since the Braves were ahead, the game would be over soon. I asked Sydney to try to wait, but she was adamant. Reluctantly, I took her to the bathroom. As we were coming back to our seats, we were walking right by the bullpen wall, and I heard someone whistling. At first I didn't pay it any attention, but after the second whistle, and a "Hey!" I turned to look.

Raul Valdes, one of the relief pitchers, was trying to get our attention so he could give Sydney a baseball from the bullpen. Sydney was so excited! She proceeded to tell us for the next hour (the rest of the game, the walk to the car, and the entire drive home) what a great time she had at the game, and how happy she was to have a real Braves baseball.
Jaxy had fun doing the Tomahawk Chop (especially when the Chick-fil-A cow would do it too), and watching the "fireworks" (for every strike out the Braves pitch, the Atlanta Gas light display shoots a burst of fire into the air). When Chipper Jones hit a home run, they actually shot off real fireworks, so Jaxy liked that too.




The view of home plate from our seats

Left field

Watching the action

Jaxy checking out the Mets' bullpen

Sydney stood at the bullpen wall and watched for a long time.

Sometimes she saw this:

Sometimes she saw this:

Our battery went dead before we could get anymore shots of Sydney with her ball (Valdes is No. 22, or the bald guy in the bullpen picture)

Jaxy pointing out the "fireworks" after a strikeout.

No one wanted to cooperate for a picture; they just wanted the cotton candy guy to hurry it up.

It was so much fun. This was our fourthj game this season, and we are already making plans to go back for a fifth!

Fourth of July

We spent the weekend in the north Georgia mountains with my family again this year. We went up Thursday and stayed until Monday, so it was a nice long break from real life.

On Saturday, the guys went fishing (Donnie and Ben went golfing after that, but my Dad went to the hospital to have a fishing hook removed from his middle finger :-)) The girls spent that time at the new and improved Babyland General. Sydney found a new Cabbage Patch doll and a bag of doll accessories.

Jaxy was kind of out of his element. In fact, the only thing he wanted was a car from one of the displays. They have a limited edition Nascar doll (seriously?) and at the top of the display area is a big car with a doll all dressed up like a racecar driver. Jaxon yelled, "Car Mommy! Car!" like a million times

It was nice to spend time with so many members of our family (this was the first time we were able to hang out with Moe and Kat since they moved out of state in January), but we missed those who weren't there (Angela came up for one afternoon, but Jason and his family were unable to come).

Barbershop

So, Allison and fam came up yesterday to visit, and while here, Donnie gave Quin a haircut. It was Quin's first haircut, so it was a hard time for all.

Allison was sad to see all of his beautiful hair chopped, and Donnie was afraid to mess up Quin's hair. He kept saying to me, "I don't want to be the guy who ruined Quin's hair. what if Allison doesn't like it when I'm done?"

Well, the upside of it all is that 1. Hair grows back quickly, and 2. Allison asked him to do it (granted after weeks of pressuring from ALL of my family), so she could only be mad at herself.

Another high point, we gave Quin a lollipop and sat him in Allison's lap, and he was the best kid ever! He sat completely still while Donnie buzzed about his head with clippers. I wish my kids were so cooperative during haircuts :-)

So, here are a few pics - I ran out of room on my camera, so sorry Mom that I do not have more!

Jaxy turns 2!

I can't believe how fast the last two years have flown by!

Jaxy has changed so much. He is sweet and loving, but he is also a little rowdy. He loves trains, heroes and bad guys. He likes to run, jump, and wrestle (mainly his sister and she doesn't like it one little bit).

He gives the best hugs, and has the sweetest little voice. Although he can be quite loud at times, he is also the first one to inform us if we are "too loud!" That is probably his favorite phrase; well, and Sydney did it (which sounds closer to "Didney do it.")

We had two little birthday celebrations for him this year. One on a Friday when we could do something fun with family, and the other was really just a dinner with cake and ice cream on his actual birthday (which fell on sunday this year).

Jaxy loves Toy Story, so we went to the theater and saw Toy Story 3 with my parents, Jana, Ronnie, Katie, and Emily. It was in 3-D, so I wasn't sure how Jaxy would react to that, but he kept his glasses on almost the entire time. He can't stop talking about the movie now.

He received a lot of Toy Story toys for his big day too. He has a Woody, Buzz, and Rex doll, a Mr. Potato Head, a Toy story racetrack, a rocket sprinkler, and a tricycle.

Some friends came to dinner on his birthday and gave Jaxy a superhero cape and mask (from the incredibles, and my friend made it herself - it's very impressive).

Fireflies

One of the best things about evenings in the South is chasing fireflies. Every day when Donnie comes home, Jaxon asks to go outside and see the fireflies - okay, so it's actually more of a command, but you get the point, he's excited to see fireflies.

Jaxy's summer cut...

Jaxon needed a haircut, so Donnie took matters into his own hands.


Before:


































After:

Happy Memorial Day!

I love holidays! Not just one, but all of them. I especially love Memorial Day because it is a day all about remembering. Remembering family and friends who have died, remembering all of the brave men and women who fight/fought for our freedom, remembering just how blessed we are to be here...

I know some people like to go to special services, and others like to visit graves, but personally, I like to spend time with family and friends and share stories about our loved ones and heroes who are no longer with us.

It's probably because cemeteries creep me out, and I am not an early riser so I can't make it to special ceremonies...

Anyway, today we celebrated by enjoying America's passtime - we went to a Braves' game. I was a little worried because according to The Weather Channel, there was an 80 percent chance of scattered thunderstorms today, so I thought for sure we would get rained out.

I was also a little worried because we were taking Jaxon and Sydney with us to a game at 1 p.m. (super hot, and right during nap time). And I was worried because we were going with a group of friends, some of whom we went to a game with last month and the Braves lost miserably. If they lost again today, surely our friends would think we brought some kind of curse a long with us and would not want to go with us again :-).

Thankfully, my fears were all for naught. The weather was hot, but hot and sunny, so not a drop of rain. Jaxon had a great time at the game, and showed no signs of missed naps (Sydney, on the other hand was not exactly the ray of sunshine one would hope for). The Braves won 9 to 3, and are now in first place in their division.

The best part of the day (other than being with friends and family of course) was after the game. The Beach Boys gave a concert at Turner Field. I absolutely love the Beach Boys, so I was very excited for this! Only two (Mike Love and Al Jardine) of the original five were there (two are dead, and the other is Brian Wilson), but they sounded great!

Donnie and I stayed with our kids, but the rest of the group took off. We moved to seats close to the visitor dugout, and we had a perfect view, and the sound was great. Jaxon and Sydney fell asleep about halfway through (they played for about an hour and a half), but Donnie and I enjoyed it :-).

They sang my most favorite song, and a lot more. Sydney's new favorite song is "Help Me Rhonda," and she has not stopped singing it since she woke up.

So that was our wonderful day, we hope all of you had a great day too!

Zoo mania

We can’t get enough of the zoo apparently – we have upped our visits from once a week to twice a week, and during Spring Break, we went three times!

The kids love the animals, and I just love getting out of the house.