Spring Break, Part 2

Our gorgeous sun from Monday went away.  Tuesday was overcast, with rain threatening.  Ben's parents flew in late Monday night to Seattle, returning from a month long stay in Hawaii.  (A month!  I know!)  They stayed with us a few days.

We headed to Northwest Trek Tuesday, late morning. 

Mitch, admiring the Bald Eagles.  He loves Bald Eagles.

The whole crew, minus me, the photographer.  Ben was back at work that day.

Horseshoe Lake!

Livy was very wiggly and restless as we waited in line for the tram ride.

We saw more animals this day then I think I've ever seen before here.  I've been told by the zoo workers that the animals come out more when it's cooler and overcast.

My two babies!

Ebony and Ivory!  A month in Hawaii will make a Greek man's skin all sorts of dark brown. All of my family looked like China dolls next to him.

This babe was a trooper once again.  She doesn't fall asleep anywhere and everywhere anymore, which will often have her awake for 4 or more hours at times when we are out and about.  Luckily, she is usually very manageable and pleasant.

It started to rain right as we were getting ready to go home.  It was raining pretty hard as we headed out of the park.  

Leah found a rain gutter that was pouring rain from the top and went and stood right under it, just for fun.  She was soaking wet and happy as can be.  (You can see the other kids in the background- they are standing under it as well).

Livy wanted to show Nana her desire to be a BIG girl!

We ended the night with a family game of Spot It, before heading off to bed.

Wednesday was brighter skies!  We spent the morning and afternoon around the house hanging out, reserving our energy for our late night outing.  In our last minute plans last week, Ben and I bought Mariner tickets.  Our kids love going- the games are super fun.

Livy's first game!  Here she is sporting her Mariner outfit (we bought it for Chloe when she was the same age).

We parked at Krispy Kreme's in downtown Seattle, not totally on purpose, but we weren't disappointed by our location.  Safeco Field can be spotted right over the girls' heads (the roof of it, anyway).

The whole group, ready for the game!

The workers at the game handed each of the kids a baseball card as they walked in.  For the rest of the evening, everywhere we turned, another worker was handing all 4 of them another card.  By the end of the evening, we must have had 20 baseball cards.  We had to start politely declining them.

One of the cards was this gem- a Mariano Rivera card.  He just retired last year from my fave MLB team, the Yankees.  He is the all time leader in saves.  

We got there a few hours early to watch the Los Angeles Angels during batting practice.

We went down on the third baseline to watch, and try and see if we could get some balls hit or thrown to us.  (We got 2 last year!)

A little boy standing behind Leah got a ball thrown to him by a player.  As Leah watched him receive the ball she said very loudly, "Ahhh, man!  I wanted a ball!"  A few seconds later, the boy came over and very sweetly gave Leah his ball.  It was so sweet.  Ben kept asking the boy (and his dad) if they were sure they wanted to give the ball away.  Leah was so thrilled!

By the time the game started at 7:00, it was an hour past Livy's bedtime.  She was hungry and tired!  I fed her her nightly sweet potatoes, which helped.  She was mostly just tired!

I got her all snuggled up in her bear suit and Ben worked his magic and put her to sleep.  It took a little while, as the stadium was pretty loud and every cheer would startle her and wake her up.

I was hopeful that she'd sleep awhile, but she only stayed asleep for maybe 30 minutes. 

For being purely exhausted, she was such a trooper.  "Patient" is the word that keeps coming to mind for me when I think of Miss O.  She really just wanted to be in bed asleep, but was very patient with us as we kept her up hours beyond her bedtime. 

We went to the customer service office and received this cute certificate to commemorate Olivia's first game!

It was also Ben's parents' first Mariner game and they received certificates as well.

These two were so excited to wear their Mariner shirts again. 

We bought our tickets on a Family Deal- your ticket came with a hot dog and a drink.  The hot dogs were small and super basic, but the kids didn't care.  And any reason to have soda is a great night for them!  I'm not obsessed with hot dogs, but like them just fine.  Even a bad hot dog tastes good to me at a ball park.

I love a good ball field.  So pretty!

  

The previous night, Tuesday, was Opening Night for the Mariner's at home.  I don't think we've ever been to a ball game this early in the season.  It was a lot of fun, but it was COLD! 

We came prepared!  I packed warm hats for all of us.  Mitch didn't put his on, and refused to even wear his sweatshirt.  He was too busy having fun to be cold.

Our crew!

 

Lexi kept wanting to take selfies with Ben. 

While I stayed with all our stuff and kept Livy happy, Ben took everyone else over to the Moose's Den for a picture with the Moose.  We visit him almost every game.

It was a freezing cold but fun night.  I love a good baseball game!  You can "take me out to the ball game" any time.  The Mariner's lost, which was a bummer, but it's early in the season.  And it was fun anyway. 

And being parked at Krispy Kreme's, we couldn't help ourselves and got 2 dozen glazed donuts on our way home.  Great end to a great night.