The Baima Family Blog: April 2016

Baseball Spring Break Vacation

This year the stars aligned and the kids' spring break from school matched up with the final week of Cardinals' Spring Training in Jupiter Florida. Joe and I had both been wanting to go to this for many years. This vacation was like we had two vacations in one - we attended 3 baseball games in 3 days, but we also had plenty of beach and explore the town time, too. This blog post will only focus on the baseball aspect. We drove to Jupiter (not sure that that will ever happen again!) over two days, arriving to a very warm, although cloudy, Florida.

Our first game was at Roger Dean Stadium to see the Cardinals vs. Mets. This stadium was very small - it held about 7000 people, but that meant that there really was not a bad seat in the entire place. Seeing palm trees at a baseball game is a little odd, though!

Batting practice prior to the game was our big unknown. There are 12 fields behind the stadium - 6 for the Cardinals and 6 for the other team, and we discovered that the teams begin to practice about 2 hours prior to game time. The public could only access 3 of the 6 Cardinals fields - the rest were private, and some were inside a separate building. Field 6 seemed to be all prospect players, but we got lucky on Field 1 and watched all of the starting pitchers practice various moves. We did not know about the stadium batting practice tickets that could have been purchased to watch the home team (that day was the Cardinals) practice inside the stadium - they cost $5 extra and only a limited number were sold. Notice Joe's giant backpack - it contained about 10 different baseballs that he hoped to get signed, Sharpies, pens, etc.

This is how close you can get during batting practice. Wacha was warming up with some hitting practice.

Wishful thinking. We were hoping to get some pictures or autographs of players as they went from their car to the stadium, but the entire parking lot was fenced off and had security guards posted.

Ethan wanting to sign up with the Cardinals through the player only entrance.

The stadium opens to the public about 90 minutes prior to the game, and it is a dash to the front row to claim your spot for autographs. Ethan (and his new friend that he made) actually had really good luck standing over the dugout getting a few autographs as players entered/left.

Al Hrabosky did some on field interviews and then stayed after to sign.

Some people take a picture of their feet in the sand with the ocean in the background. Ethan and Joe prefer this picture. We were in the second row behind the Cardinals dugout - prime location for getting a ball thrown to us by Cardinals players.

Matt Adams ripped his pants while sliding into a base. The dugout does not lead to the team's changing rooms - they have to walk through the field to get to their clubhouse in the outfield. So, poor Adams played an inning with his underwear (in all fairness, it was probably his sliding shorts) on full view until he could run to change his pants. We have never seen a major league player have to play with a uniform so badly ripped.

For our second baseball game, we traveled one hour to Port St. Lucie to see the Mets vs. Marlins at Tradition Field. And it was a good thing, too, since the Cardinals game on this day was rained out. The rain didn't start here until literally the final out of the game (which no one actually thought was an out, but no one wanted to get stuck in the rain, including the umpire!). This stadium was completely different looking than Roger Dean Stadium - it had more of a professional feel, like a miniature major league stadium. Roger Dean Stadium felt much more casual. In front of Tradition Field was a piece of the World Trade Center surrounded by flags.

A view of the field.

Ethan was lucky enough to get an autograph from manager Don Mattingly.

This was definitely the Mets stadium - there were hints of New York everywhere! The concessions sold black and white cookies, cannoli (both were actually pretty tasty), and Nathan's hot dogs.

Our final game was back in Roger Dean Stadium to see the Cardinals vs. Marlins. Due to the morning rain, there was no outside batting practice that day. So, we had a lot of time to waste prior to the game. We walked around the entire complex, and the security guard was nice enough to let Ethan and Joe go into the Marlin's players fenced off parking lot to get a picture with this wall.

It was like we tried to get Ethan kicked out of the stadium. First he tried to walk into the players' entrance, and then when the usher left the door to the field open he tried to walk onto the field!

Pham signing autographs prior to the game. As Pham was signing autographs, a lady told him that he was very nice to do this and thanked him. Pham looked right at her, said "I'm really not a very nice guy" and continued to sign autographs. We could not figure that one out - no sarcasm or joking manner was detected, all he had to do was smile and nod and let the woman think that!

We had front row seats to the field for our final game. We had great views into the dugout.

On the field at Roger Dean Stadium after the game. It was a successful trip and we hope to make it back again some year!

A Forgotten Easter

Poor Easter was a bit of an after thought for us this year due to our spring break vacation. But, we did manage to have a bit of fun celebrating.

One week before Easter we decorated two dozen eggs. Olivia worked on many different techniques this year to make her eggs very creative.

Ethan using a wax crayon to draw a rhino on his egg before dyeing it.

A rare moment of sibling love - I had to photograph it!

Olivia showing off some of her creations - a polka dot, an ombre, and a four color egg.

Joe's use of the wax crayon.

The kids' final results. Joe and I each dye four eggs and the kids each dye eight.

The day before Easter, we began driving to Florida. Saturday night we stopped off at Joe's cousin's house in Georgia. They were so gracious to welcome us in their home during Easter weekend and accommodate our Easter fun. The following pictures are after an extremely long day of driving, a late night of catching up with family, and a very early morning to see what the Easter bunny left. Joe and I needed a lot of coffee!

Easter basket goodies - iTunes gift cards, a mani/pedi gift card for Olivia, a WiiU game for Ethan (oh how the gifts have changed over the years!) and TONS of candy (that hasn't changed).

The bunny sucker picture seems to have become a tradition.

It was raining in Georgia, so the egg hunt (all 92 eggs!) was inside. The parents plus a group of 3 teenage boys hid all of the eggs, and our kids plus their cousin Kaiden hunted for them. All but one were found (at least they are not real eggs!). Ethan always seems to struggle with reaching at least one of the eggs!

Opening all of the eggs and dividing the money takes some time! After this fun, we spent the rest of Easter in the car traveling to Jupiter Florida for our vacation. We did manage to eat a late Easter lunch at Cracker Barrel (better than a fast food Easter meal!) and ended the day with a long night walk on the beach and room service pizza.

All About Ethan

A look at Ethan's life....

Ethan's third grade school music concert. He is in the second row, right under the basketball hoop.

Let's just say that Ethan is not shy. He was extremely expressive during the concert!

Another successful music concert in the books.

During a student auction, Ethan and three other students won the opportunity to duct tape his P.E. teacher (Mr. A) to the wall.

A successful duct tape - no stool needed!

The big third grade project at our school is the wax museum. The kids each pick a historical icon, write a research paper on them, dress up to look like their icon, and give a speech. Ethan selected Stan Lee as his icon and gave a wonderful speech. Plus, Ethan was selected to be the wax museum narrator, so he was in charge of keeping the entire presentation running smoothly.

A photo for the history books - Amelia Earhart, Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Einstein, Stan Lee, and Dr. Seuss all together!

A new haircut!

Olivia the Lost Boy

Olivia continued her acting career with a role as a Lost Boy (nicknamed Comet) in Peter Pan. This was a wonderful performance - five of the actors were flying during the show, there was a real dog as "Nanna", the set was wonderful, and of course Olivia gave the best Lost Boy performance ever!

All six shows (plus 2 more student shows) were sold out!

Joe and I went to two of the performances. Olivia is a lost boy in a navy jacket and shorts with a blue baseball hat. All Lost Boy outfits were speckled with neon paint so it would glow during the black light scenes. Her hair is all tucked up under the hat, so she was a little hard to spot at times!

Take a bow!

Olivia the Lost Boy enjoying a successful show!

Indy Weekend Trip

In February we took a weekend trip to Indianapolis. On the way there, we stopped in Champaign to visit the University of Illlinois (not that we are trying to influence the kids' college choice!). We ate at our favorite place Zorba's (that was date night for Joe and I every week in college) and walked the Quad. Below is Olivia with the Student Union, Ethan with Follinger Auditorium, and both kids in Lincoln Hall.

I am not used to seeing the beloved Alma Mater bronze instead of green! But, it still looks fantastic.

We made it to Indy just in time for the Pacers vs. Pistons basketball game. Our seats were very high up for the game, but it gave us a good view of the entire game.

The next morning was a beautiful day, so we decided to walk around the downtown prior to our breakfast. I had no idea that Indy had so much art around their town! It was beautiful to see and explore.

It is hard to see unless you zoom in on the picture, but we could not figure out why these bears were posed this way on the columns.

A tween rebel.

After breakfast we spent a few hours at the Indy Children's Museum. This was only our second time visiting this fantastic place. The kids loved the entire dinosaur exhibit - especially this Harry Potter inspired dino.