PLAY BALL!!

hadley and i came home from our trip to oregon just in time for the start of BASEBALL SEASON! if you know much about our family, you know this is probably our favorite time of year. in the past, though, our live baseball watching has been pretty limited. 


our first season together, we were able to catch a few portland beavers games. in fact, our second date was a beavers game. somewhere in the middle of the 6th inning or so, joseph kissed me on the cheek, and i thought i was going to DIE!


our second season together, we took at trip to seattle before hadley was born and saw the mariners play. that trip is actually most memorable for our walks to the cheesecake factory next to our hotel, and the homeless man we saw many times and said he saw cheesecake in my eyes. he also predicted it was a girl, and, i guess, was right. 


our third season together marked the departure of the portland beavers to somewhere else to let MLS take over. eww. yuck. boo. so we caught a game at the keizer volcanoes, a single a team south of portland. that game is most notable for hadley's first bee sting. you better believe joseph smooshed that bee beyond recognition.


so this is our forth season, and we have moved to the land of baseball! according to the charts joseph has made, there are two MLB teams within two hours of our house, four within 4, 8 within 6, and 16 teams within 13.25 hours. that area reaches from minneapolis to boston, and toronto st. louis. 


joseph also highlighted on each teams schedules when either the dodgers or twins are near us, so hopefully we can catch them a time or two. we have tickets to see the reds play dodgers in september, i think. i plan to blow andre ethier kisses at each at bat, and if i can get close enough to touch his hair, no doubt i will. we are also planning a trip to chicago, just four hours away, to meet my sister and brother in law the first part of september. i think we might be abke to catch a game at each stadium. neat:)


to all our friends out there, let us know if you are coming out this way to any games, or not games. we will talk you into a game if we can make it. and if any of you are wanting to pay us a visit here...hint hint. it's a great time to be here.


the detroit tigers are our new home team, with the toledo mud hens being their AAA affiliate right here in our city. boy, does joseph know how to pick a job! baseball back within 15 minutes of our house! 


hadley has been such a trooper, and was apparently born to be a baseball baby. in the first week of baseball season, we will attend a total of 4 games. last friday, we attended opening day for the mud hens. we even got to spend a little time sitting in open seats next to our friends zak and emilie. 


on sunday, we drove in to detroit for a game against the red sox. i can't believe hadley let us make it through an almost five hour, 11 inning game to see the tigers beat the red sox 13-12! she was done about 8 innings into it, so we packed up and strolled around a bit, landing at the far end of the field, past the bull pens. the stroller is her happy place, and it bought us another hour or so. we finished up the game basking in the april sun, which could only characterized as barely warm. 

yesterday afternoon, facebook told me the mud hens were playing at home, and i could hear them calling to me to saying "come here." i ignored it. but i guess joseph heard it too. brandon inge, from the tigers, is spending a few days in town in rehab, i guess, so we couldn't resist. it must actually be really neat to step back for a few days to play AAA. it felt like little league. the guy goes up to the plate, and EVERYBODY is yelling "GO BRANDON!!" like it's their best friend. 


well, not long after joseph had purchased those tickets for us yesterday, i thought i saw snow coming down. no, that's crazy. it's the tree blossoms falling down. no, it's not stopping. that's teeny tiny snow. no way. yes way. it's 42 degrees and there's a freezing warning overnight. so sure enough, we sat through a very cold baseball game. hadley cared the least about the chill, refusing her hat or to keep her coat zipped. we saw a few tiny snow flakes over the course of 9 innings, but nothing to write home about. (ha, that's funny, i pretty much am writing home about it.) 


on top of all this, i have to mention that i never win anything. last night, after downing two hot chocolates, our row won free ice cream. so toledo, WARM UP!! it's ice cream season!


we are going to finish up our april MLB by running back up to see the tigers play tomorrow. sometimes you gotta catch it when you can. there's a home game, and joseph is off. we got some pretty nice, pretty cheap tickets. and i don't think it's supposed to snow:)


AMEND. AMEND. AMEND. AMEND. AMEND.


ok. now that my better half has read this through, he pointed out i missed noting the twins game we saw at target field in minneapolis when haddy was a tiny baby. (haddy didn't go. we had a grandma.) what is worse, the only person who i know for sure read this, is joseph's friend renee, who attended that super game with us on our trip to visit my family. so, dave and renee, we remember you, and you will be the first to know when we make our next trip to MN. well, second. i should probably tell my family. 


cool baseball fact about dave and renee: they got married at target field in a box two years ago in may, i think. every year on their anniversary, they and many family and friends get that same box and celebrate in baseball style.