July, Part 2

On Thursday, July 19th, Thomas and Kara went to a Bowie Baysox game. The Baysox are affiliated with the Orioles and were playing the AA team affiliated with the Tigers. Thomas has been talking about going for years and I am not sure why we waited so long. He and Kara had a great time. They sat right behind the Tiger's (actually the Seawolves) dugout. Since Kara is a cute kid and was wearing Tigers gear in a crowd full of Orioles attire, she obviously gained favor and got tossed a ball. The whole family returned on Friday, Kara brought the ball and got several autographs.

It was NASA night and there were lots of booths set up around the stadium with displays. We saw cool pictures of outer space, learned about asteroids and even got to try controlling a robot. Thomas and the girls were walking around at one point and saw one of the Tigers top prospects in line at a food stand (he is a pitcher and wasn't pitching that night). Thomas called the girls over and got a selfie. He was super excited! The girls were confused, they thought Thomas was asking the man to take a picture of them and wondered why he was getting in the shot. A little bit later, another top prospect was walking by and Thomas grabbed Luke (the big kids were walking around) and got Luke to ask for an autograph. It was funny, he was saying, "I need a kid, where are the kids? Luke, come on!" 

It was a fun game and they had amazing fireworks after. Hopefully, we can go back and see more games with the Seawolves.

Thomas the girls and the future MLB Tigers pitcher. Thomas said he was very nice.

NASA night!

The 21st was my birthday. The big 41. I have lots of thoughts about getting older. But, I don't want to focus on the today. Thomas cleaned the kitchen to an amazing level, getting everything off the counters and put away (although, it is starting to creep back in). And, he ordered me a pillow from Hilton. We had stayed at a hotel several months ago and I commented on how much I loved the pillow and he tracked it down for me. He is a very thoughtful gift giver. The girls made some gifts and everyone was nice to me. I went to lunch and a movie with my friend Kayce and had a nice day.

On Sunday, my sister, niece and nephew arrived from Florida. My brother's wife, Sheryl came down with their kids (my brother was out of town). This meant almost all the cousins from my side of the family were present for the first time ever (just missing Sarah, who is 24 and lives in Arkansas). It was great to see everyone and we had a nice dinner together.

Almost all the cousins from the Hubert side

I took Monday off from work, we dropped Luke at daycare and headed to DC for some big kid fun. We went to the International Spy Museum, lunch and the American History Museum.

It was a fun day. I had to work on Tuesday. I took Wednesday afternoon off and we went bowling. Thursday, I had to work, but met everyone for lunch at Nicoletti's.  On Thursday night, Thomas and I took Jack to see Hamilton! The tickets were bought well before we knew the date of my sister's visit, but she was kind and offered to watch the other kids for us. We had a great time, although we preferred the New York cast. The cast in DC played the characters in a more silly way. It was especially noticeable with Burr, who seemed almost like the caricature of an evil villain.  The play just didn't have the same emotional weight. Maybe some would prefer it that way, but we liked the way Burr was portrayed when we saw it in New York. Regardless, it was still a brilliant show and Jack loved it. Friday, I was off from work and we went to the DC zoo.

The girls 

The cousins and Kolten :)

It was a very full week. We had a great visit with them. I love my sister and wish that we lived closer. I am glad that my kids get to know their cousins, much more than I did growing up, although I wish they could have even more time together.  Unfortunately, all good things must end and Saturday was the end of their visit. My brother and his family came down for a couple of hours to say goodbye. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone. But, we made ourselves feel better by going to Star Wars night at the Blue Crabs. It was fireworks night and they played Star Wars music during a fairly lengthy display. The fireworks were pretty amazing and we had a fantastic time!

The 23rd was Thomas' birthday and he was pretty neglected. I did make him a carrot cake (a day late, but didn't do much else for him).  I would like to say the baseball game was his gift, but it wasn't. Sorry Thomas!