June Family Visit

My parents came for a week long visit at the beginning of June.  The kids were so excited and we had a great time with them.  Even though the big kids were still in school, we squeezed in lots of fun while they were here.

My family grew up BIG Yankee baseball fans, so if the Yankees are ever in town playing the Mariner's while my Dad is here, you can bet that we are at that game.  

This was our first time ever taking the twins to a Mariner game.  They are almost 4.  Our other kids went to Mariner games when they were both babies- under a year old.  But having 4 kids at a baseball game late a night, especially with 2 babies, never really appealed to us.  We figured that if one or both of them cried and were miserable the whole game and we had to wrestle with them all night, it wouldn't be any fun for any of us.  But we decided this was the year we went as a whole family! 

We went to the game about 2 hours early to watch batting practice.  Mitch happily put on his Yankee shirt and took his mitt with him in hopes of catching a ball during batting practice.  Don't mind Ben's Mariner hat- he did not grow up a Blakeslee and therefore is not the Yankee fan that his wife is.  But just for the record- when the Yankees aren't in town, I am a BIG Mariner fan.    

These sweet girls don't have any Yankee gear yet and were so excited to wear old Mariner shirts that Chloe and Mitchell used to fit into.  I was so worried that they'd grow tired and restless during batting practice but they did so great.

Papa loved being at batting practice too!

As luck would have it, Mitch was lucky enough to get a stray ball thrown to him by a Mariner player.  He caught it in his little mitt (after dropping it once) and was thrilled. 

Luck struck again and by us yelling and being loud and persistent (and with 4 cute kids waving their little mitts), a Mariner player threw a ball to Chloe as well.  She dropped it twice, I believe, but the player was so kind and patient and kept throwing it back to her until she caught it.

Another happy fan!

My two ball players with their Yankee/Mariner balls.

Leah borrowed Chloe's mitt after that and was hopeful that lightning would strike a 3rd time and she'd get a ball as well.  No such luck.  And I knew that if our family got a 3rd ball thrown to them, the family sitting above us with anxious kids would become very disgruntled. :)

We watched them chalk the baselines after batting practice was over.

We then made our way to our real seats for the game- the family section in center field.  Right after we sat down, the Yankee pitcher for the game, Andy Petite (no. 46), came out onto the field for a little warming up.  Andy Petite has been my favorite Yankee pitcher since I was a kid and I have never seen him pitch in person.  My dad hadn't either and was desperately hoping he'd be up in the rotation to pitch this game.  We were both in luck and it was so fun to watch him pitch a great game.

The twins were fantastic during the game.  They were happy and never complained. 

Lexi loved wearing our old school Mariner hard hat that Ben and I bought right after we got married.

One of my favorite sights- a baseball field.

Sitting in the family section, we are very close to the Moose Den.  Sometime in the 2nd or 3rd inning, my Mom and I took the kids up to visit him.  The kids love seeing him.

It was a great game with lots of great hits.  The Yanks won, 3-1, earning Petite his 250th career win (the 47th major league pitcher to reach this milestone).

On our way home, we stopped by a nearby park to finish off our baseball day with a little playing of our own.  Mitch has really taken on a fast love for baseball and was thrilled to be playing with the world's biggest baseball fan- my dad.

After some warmup throwing, my Dad pitched to the kids and let them each bat.

The twins were happy to play in the dirt.

My kids sure loved having Grandma and Papa to play with all week.  My mom is so good to play endless games with my kids.

Chloe loved playing duets with Grandma.

My dad helped us find a great bunkbed for an amazing price at a garage sale- just 4 doors down!  When Ben got home from work, Dad helped Ben haul it to our house and helped him set it up in Mitch's room.

It's an awesome bed.  Besides just 2 beds, it has a desk on one end and a set of drawers on the other.  It's made of real wood and is super, super sturdy.  $50 was a steal of a deal and when set up in Mitch's room, it was like it had always been there!

We recently just bought season passes to two local zoos here.  We get 3 free guests every time we go, so we had to take my parents while we were here.  It was fantastic weather too, so that was a bonus.

We went to Point Defiance.  The kids had a great time.

Can't go to this zoo without a picture in the shark teeth cutout!

They let a peacock roam the zoo and my kids loved chasing after it every time we saw him.

Our favorite exhibit of the day was the walruses.  We got there right at feeding time and the trainers had the walruses put on quite the show for us.  We must have watched them for at least 30 minutes.  It was fascinating. 

Mitch with one of his favorite animals- the polar bears!

Sure love doing fun things with these sweet kids.

Before we left, we fed the goats.

The night before my parents left, we headed to another park to play one last round of baseball.  Mitch was in heaven!

Grandma played with the girls on the nearby playground.

We ended the night, and their visit, with dinner at Red Robin. 

We love having visitors and sure had a great visit with Grandma and Papa!