take mason out to the ball game

mason chose to join his baseball team at a pittsburgh pirates baseball game where they were going to get to walk out on the field! it just so happened that the trip was planned for his birthday. we were actually planning a trip to pittsburgh for last weekend but pushed it back when this opportunity came up.

espn bought the rights to the game which caused it to be pushed back from noon to 8pm! yeah, mason and daddy were going to be the only ones going to the game (and the tickets weren't exactly a bargain). they had to show up by like 5:15pm so a quick change after arriving at the hotel and they were on their way (they were able to walk to the field from the hotel).

just before crossing the river to the field.

and the rest of the kids and i were stuck at the hotel fairly early in the evening. the plan was to let them watch some cable (since we don't have it at home), but they didn't offer disney junior and everything else (the few options) were already into age inappropriate programming. but at least we had our swimsuits and could go to the pool. oh, oops. i didn't (and she didn't) pack madelyn's. sigh. there was a lot of crying about this - even the boy who didn't want to go to the pool was suddenly devastated to learn that it wasn't an option. 

our view.

 so we went in search of our own fun.

i tried to get the kids to go with me to explore some sort of street fair (with a large concert stage) outside the hotel but two of the three were terrified of the crowd. they wouldn't even let us walk to look for a restaurant. (i think the problem was i only had two hands and three kids and the crowd was very thick.) so we went back to order dinner instead.

i found an amazing deal on pizza so we got bread sticks that we wouldn't normally order. i was planning on tipping the delivery guy by adding onto my credit card total, but he didn't speak english and there was nothing for me to sign. i seriously felt awful watching him leave without a tip! i had no cash. the pizza was delicious.

train spotting. they asked for the picture to show mason.

we took another spin through the hotel (turns out we weren't able to even find the pool) to try and burn off some of the pizza energy before taking long baths and getting ready for bed. we ended up getting really into the food network shows (madelyn especially!) until they all fell asleep.

meanwhile at the pirates game, mason and daddy were having fun on the field. matt said that the heat and waiting (their team was over an hour earlier than they actually needed to report to the field) really got to mason. they were brought out on the warning track and were able to snap a few pictures.

found the padre's score

i started to get a little nervous towards midnight when they still weren't back and had a decent walk through an unfamiliar city. i was so happy to see them arrive back safely! the birthday boy had a wonderful time and was very excited about all of the 'gifts' he received at the game - a pirates jersey and a hat. not to mention some dippin' dots. happy birthday, sweet boy. love.