Camden Yards

Brett made waffles this morning and they were delicious. By the way, Brett has claimed Dad's waffle iron. Rachel took Grace to the doctor today. She had hives all over her shoulders and cheeks, really everywhere that Rachel had put sunscreen. Rachel was so nervous that Grace was allergic to sunscreen. That would be awful considering they are moving to a beach in a few months. Luckily she is not allergic to sunscreen, she had rosella.

Brett and John had fun playing baseball with the kids while Rachel was at the doctors. Once Rachel got home Brett, John, Brandon and I headed up to Maryland to visit Ft. McHenry. It was great! When we went on our trip back East with my family this was on the agenda. Unfortunately Marie got sick that morning and threw up in the motorhome, so that put us behind schedule. We had to choose between Ft. McHenry and Valley Forge. We picked Valley Forge, and it wasn't that great. I wish we had picked Ft. McHenry. It was beautiful! It was also open and Brandon had lots of area to run around. That would have been great for our trip. Anyways, I loved hanging out here with my brothers and Brandon. We stayed until they kicked us out.

One quick story about our trip up to Ft. McHenry. John was driving on the freeway. I was asleep in the back next to Brandon. All of a sudden the car jerked really hard. I thought John had hit something. Luckily there was no one in the lanes next to us. Extremely lucky considering that there was usually traffic around us. Anyways, what happened was John's car locked up. One of his brakes just went off, like it thought it needed to lock from some traction thing. John had both hands on the wheel and was able to control it, but that could have gone really badly. Such a weird, random thing.

Brett, Stephanie, Brandon, John

The flag behind us is where the flag was hoisted that inspired The Star Spangled Banner.

Brandon loved exploring. He especially loved going down into the 'holes'. I found a teeny-tiny door I crawled through. Brett said he thought I was the only person to ever do that. I guaranteed him that it is done more than once a day, although I might be the first 43 year old to crawl through it.

Stephanie

We laughed and laughed at the placard for the bomb shelter. It said, "They were built immediately after the bombardment of 1814, when it became obvious that such places were needed."

We drove to Baltimore so we could see the Blue Jays play. We picked up Subway on the way into the field. There were so many people waiting to get into the park! They opened the gates right as we got there. Brett found a line that didn't go down several city blocks, so that was nice. The baseball stadium was so beautiful! The bricks give it a lot of character.

Brett, John & Brandon

 Camden Yards

 Brett, John, Stephanie

Brandon did so great at the game. He stayed awake for about the first five innings and slept through the rest.

Brandon

 John & Brandon

Everyone who had a ticket got these cool Orioles jersey. Brett is wearing his.

Brett, Brandon, John, Stephanie

John was wondering about The Sun up on the giant screen. He noticed that the E blinked after someone had an error. John was asking Brett if that always happened. Then he wondered if the H blinked if someone got a hit. Brett said that there was no way anyone has ever noticed that. Anyways, John came home and researched it. Sure enough John was right. Overtime an error was called the E blinks. A hit the H blinks. How fun!

John & Brett

 John, Brandon, Brett

 John & Brandon

 Stephanie, Brandon, John

 Stephanie & Brandon

The Blue Jays lost, which was disappointing. We did get to see Bautista hit a three run homerun. Too bad the Orioles hit a three run homerun the next time they were up. John wasn't excited about the starting pitcher. He said he would have loved to see any of the other starting pictures on the Blue Jays. Bad luck for John. The game finished really late. John and I dropped Brett off at his house and then drove another hour and a half to John's house. John got super excited about his milage on the way back. That's a lot of ones!

We arrived at John's house about 2:30 in the morning. His house is super cute. I slept up in the kids room. Cassie had the ids asleep in the playroom. Whew! Long day! It was especially great because my mom died 21 years ago today. Spending this day with two of my brothers made this day fun instead of sad. I can't believe she has been gone for 21 years, although it seems like she has been gone forever.