omaha

after mississippi state won their third game of the college world series that put them into the finals, it took us about an hour to make the decision and book our hotel for the championship series in omaha.  it is very unlike us to make last minute plans like that, but it's not like it's every day that MSU plays for a national title in anything.  or ever, actually!  and we just couldn't pass up the opportunity to see that take place.  as state fans, we are realistic.  we know it might be a while before anything like this happens again, so we made sure that the little people were there to see it as well!!

and....it was a long drive.  we didn't realize omaha was quite so far away!  14 hours in a car is a looooong way.  and it seemed that it just kept getting farther away the more that we drove.  mapquest would tell us that we had 7 hours left, and then an hour later it would tell us that we still had 7 hours left!!!  we drove through some crazy midwest weather...

and saw a really cool sunset (phone pic doesn't do it justice)...

but we made it, and the little people were fabulous.  major props to whichever genius invented the dvd player!!  :)

all the games started at 7pm, so we had the day to kill both days.  it was pouring on monday morning, so we went to the movies to see monsters university.

it was a cute movie, but we couldn't wait to get out to the stadium.  so after a quick lunch and a change of clothes, we made our way to TD Ameritrade Park to check it all out and go to the pep rally and dinner for all the MSU fans.  and there were millions of MSU fans!  that place was a sea of maroon and white.  it felt like we were kentucky during basketball season!

i even broke out the maroon and white boa from the 2000 SEC basketball tournament for luck.  (too bad it didn't work!  maybe it's just a basketball boa!)

we took in the fanfare behind the outfield.  we always go to the fanfare at the basketball tournaments, but we never have kids with us.  so this was new for us to actually have people to play around in it!

the tickets at the CWS are very weird.  the entire outfield is general admission.  you can just buy a general admission ticket for $10 and sit in the outfield.  BUT, they only let the first 5500 with a general admission ticket in the stadium.  apparently the GA line was forever long already at only 1pm.  we had regular tickets, but we walked around to the outfield to check it out.  for future reference, i don't think there is a bad seat in that stadium, but the outfield is a really good seat!

i took this picture before the first pitch on monday night.

and if you want to talk about making a 7 year old's night, how about seeing yourself up on the jumbotron at the CWS?!?

the next day, we decided to check out rosenblatt stadium where they used to play the CWS.

they left the sign that was in the outfield, some stadium seats, and the original bases.  the kids had fun running around!

omaha has a really neat "old town" area.  we walked around for a while, and then we found a hole in the wall pizza place where the little people could sit at the bar and watch our pizza being made while playing with some pizza dough!

we headed over to the stadium and found a few shirts/hats before the game started.  and some ice cream.  we can't go too long without ice cream around here.

before the game started, i snapped a pic of this bridge in the distance.  i don't know if it has a name, but it's a pretty neat bridge that lets you walk from nebraska to iowa.  it was a little too far away to walk with three kids.  maybe next trip!

we were ready for game two, but we obviously were not good luck!

we just never even got in the game.  it was kind of sad because UCLA had about a half a section of fans while the rest of the stadium was pulling for us.  that place was ready to explode, but we just never got the chance.  we could have had that place rocking!  however, the scoreboard people must have really liked us because this picture...

showed up on the jumbotron after the 5th inning!

two nights in a row!  the little people's trip was made!!

as the fireworks went off and the confetti was floating around, we watched as UCLA celebrated at midfield (with all of their 18 fans).  we were disappointed in that series, but as the stadium erupted into the loudest "maaaaarrrroooooon!  wwwwhhhhhiiiiitttteeeee!" of the night amidst the other team's celebration, you just couldn't help be proud of what these boys accomplished this year.  we set a record for attendance at that game (and the entire CWS), and that was solely because the bulldogs were there!

and did i mention that we were on the scoreboard twice?!?!  :)

the little people didn't hit the wall until about the last hour before we reached home.  well i take that back.  two of the three hit the wall.  guess which one didn't?

so yes, we were sad to lose, but we are so glad we had the opportunity to experience omaha and watch the bulldogs fight for a national title.  we can't wait to go back!  ON AN AIRPLANE!

first tournament

william played in his first golf tournament last weekend.  he wasn't out there as a single golfer, though! it was a father/son tournament, so he had a pretty good partner to play with!  

he was really excited when it was over, and he made sure he told me that he hit his tee shot over the water on #8!  and also, "there is this girl.  and she just drives around and hands out powerades!!!"  he's in love with the cart girl already!!  

they finished in 4th place out of about 12 or 13 teams.  considering that the families who finished in front of them can lay claim to club champions, state am champions and collegiate golfers (in the SEC, no less)...i'd say 4th place was pretty awesome for their first time out!

i sure do love my golfers.  and i love seeing them out there together.  here's to many more rounds!!!

this year's relocation

the beach was graced with our presence last week.  i have to admit, it is getting easier to pack now a days since i don't have to load down the car with diapers, pack 'n plays, booster seats, etc.  but i still had to bring most of my kitchen cabinets because an hour is about as long as we can make it around here without some sort of food.  i guess i'll be dealing with this for about 15 more years.  baby steps, people.  anyway, after driving there in the rain with an 80% chance for more the next day, we made the most of every opportunity to get out there as soon as we arrived!

the place we stayed was super nice.  however, they completely messed up our sleeping arrangements (and didn't bother to even notify us until check-in....grrrr), so the full size bunk beds that everybody was so excited about turned into just one bed.

it was a little bit of a hassle the first night because "he's touching me!  he won't scoot over! etc!!!!"  but they were too tired to complain before passing out every other night!  so i guess it wasn't terrible, but some advance notice would have been nice!

anyway, the next morning we woke up to no rain but a big green blob headed right for us on the radar. so we made our way down to the beach for a little bit before the rain hit!

our baseball game got interrupted by the impending weather.  see those nasty clouds?!?

so....the rest of the day was spent at the indoor pool!

but we managed to have plenty of fun while we were there.  we, of course, hit up the putt putt course to show off our skills!

after that first day of rain, we got plenty of play time in the sunshine.

i tried to get one of those really cute pictures of everybody jumping in at the same time.  this is the best that i did.  for the record, my kids are completely unable to coordinate timing and jump on 3!!

but we can totally chill while eating snacks and watching the other kids having a water gun fight.

i think the biggest kid won!!

the next to last night, we ate some really good food at peg leg pete's and then finished the night off with some sparklers that my mom had saved from several of her weddings!

and some frisbee in the dark, too!

the last day, we finished up the ice cream in the freezer...

and put our boat to use one last time!

while it's definitely getting easier, i still don't feel any more relaxed or rested after returning home from that vacation.  ahem...relocation.  i guess i might have to wait 15 years for that too, huh???  :)  but i wouldn't trade those smiles above for anything.