An All American Outing

So this year Uncle Dave is working for the Diamondbacks. Ever since he and Aunt Devin got married, he's always played for teams that were out of state. Devin had been nudging me to take the kids to a game with her and Sophie all season long. Don't get me wrong, I totally wanted to go. Brian and I used to love to go to games when we first got married. Beer, popcorn, hot dogs, what's not to love, right! But the thought of taking, not just three toddlers, but more specifically MY three toddlers to a stadium full of screaming fans was....overwhelming. I had planned on taking them one at a time, but as the season crept by, we were going to be lucky to just get to one game before the season ended. So we loaded the kids in the car and followed Devin and Sophie over to the stadium. We stuck Luca in an umbrella stroller and clipped the big boys into their "backpack" leashes. As we walked from the parking lot to the stadium, we passed a homeless African American man sitting in a wheel chair under a bridge. The old man had dreadlocks and a tangled beard. Miles and Aidan started pointing and saying, "Mama, Dadda, dats Santa!", "Hi, Santa!". I was mortified. But on the bright side, I don't think the man was at all aware of his surroundings, let alone my enthusiastic toddlers.

We walked through security and Brian beamed with pride as we took his picture with his three sons at their first baseball game! As we walked down the steps to our seats, the Diamondbacks hit a homerun and the crowd erupted. Poor little Aidan just about jumped out of his skin. We found our seats and strategically sat everyone in a configuration that would discourage possible escape attempts. All of the fans seated near us oooed and ahhhed over the boys. We planned to only be there for a few innings. We did our best to keep the kids entertained. We kept the snacks flowing and had the kids continuously scoping the stadium out for "Badger" the teams mascot. Aidan kept disappearing under the seats and returning with mysterious items- nachos, french fries, an old mans cane. He was so small that he would just sneak under our legs and and take advantage of the fact that the other fans would put their tray of food under their chairs while they stopped to cheer. Not to mention that he was obsessed with wanting to smell people's beers. Finally the 7th inning stretch rolled around and we all sang, take me out to the ball game. We decided that the boys had done well and that we should go before our luck ran out. We snapped a few more pictures and headed out.

On the way to the car, the boys spotted the escalators that led to the upper decks of the stadium. They started pointing and shouting, "alligator!". So now elevators and escalators are called alligators according to my kids. To this day, if you ask them about their trip to see the baseball game, they immediately start talking about seeing an "alligator". Who would have thought that seeing an escalator from a distance would have been the highlight of their day.