Meet the Pirates Day @ PNC Park

On July 24th, we went to PNC Park early so we could go down to the field to talk to and take pictures with some of the Pirates players.

Tommy had a lot of fun talking to the players and wanted to take a picture with all the ones that came by. They were all so nice!

Tommy with Chris Stewart

Tom, Tommy and the 3rd base coach

Tommy with a couple of the pitchers

Jeff Locke

Sean Rodriguez

J-Hay (I laugh when I see this picture - we look like a family - haha)

I let Tom get in on the family picture. :)

It was extremely hot and they wouldn't let you take any drinks down to the field. I started to feel dizzy after about an hour on the field and walked up with Grace to buy a water. I was feeling so bad that I had to take a couple breaks on the way up and kept missing steps. 

We finally made it to the concession stand and I managed to buy a water (my vision had gone black by this time) and I ended up losing feeling in my hands - and couldn't unclench them. Grace was standing there crying and I could feel my phone vibrating, but couldn't get it out of my purse.

Thank goodness, the stadium had just opened to the public and not many people were around. The ladies at the concession stand were so nice. They called Tom to let him know where I was and they had the EMT's come and get me. I'm not going to lie - I was pretty scared!

They wheeled me into the First Aid Station and ended up having to pump 2 full bags of saline solution into me. By this time, I was starting to feel better (and my hands unclenched), so we decided to go meet up with everyone else at Rivertowne and I drank some more water and cooled off some more.

We did have seats in the shade, so I was able to sit in the stands for the fest of the game. Man - what a day! I'll definitely make sure to load up on water in the future. :(

The kids made sure to keep cool!

Grace's Field Trip & Graduation

After Tommy's Graduation, we went to meet Grace's class at the Pittsburgh Zoo. It was pretty hot that day, but we had a good time.

We decided to stay with the group of kids (and help the teachers out). Mrs. Marie brought her son, Griffin (12) - so Tommy had someone to hang out with.

Grace's graduation was on the May 31st at the church they held their Christmas program at. There was assigned tables this year, so our view wasn't the best - but luckily Grace was in the front row.

Grace ended up getting the award for the Most Contagious Laugh.

We did stay after the "ceremony" so Tommy and Grace could hang out with their friends, but we ended up keeping the tradition alive by going to Sunset Cafe for dinner.

Grace with Mrs. Erika & Mrs. Marie

Grace and her bf Grant

Our waitress ended up being the lady that made birthday cakes for both kids. She was so sweet and bought the food out with a candle on it for the kids to blow out. They were so excited!

Washington Birthday Trip

The weekend of July 15th we headed back to Washington DC to celebrate Tom's birthday.

We got there Friday night and after checking in to our hotel (right across the street from the Pentagon), we walked down the street to this new bar-b-que place. 

Saturday morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel and then took the subway to Ford's Theatre. Tommy loves hearing about Lincoln, so we thought this would be a fun thing to do.

The kids waiting for our time to go in.

The kids sort of liked walking through the museum, but we all enjoyed listening to the park ranger talk about the events on the night Lincoln was shot. He gave all the details about Lincoln & Booth's day. The talk was probably 30 or 45 minutes.

Waiting for the talk to start

After the tour was over, we walked over to Capital City Brewing for lunch and to cool off. It was pretty hot the whole weekend.

Walked over to the White House

Saturday night, we took the metro over to the Nationals Ballpark and wouldn't you know as soon as we got off - it poured down rain. We stayed inside for about 30 minutes and then decided to buy a a couple rain ponchos and head across the street to the ballpark. 

It rained for another hour or so. We had planned on grabbing something to eat and then heading to our seats, but after grabbing some food from Shake Shack (so good) we ended up eating under the escalators. Oh well!

The game was probably delayed about 30 minutes, but it was still fun hanging out and watching the Pirates. The coolest thing was getting texts from some friends that we were on TV! One of the dads from Tommy's baseball team even sent us a screen shot from the game.

We left around 10:30 and the game was only in the 6th inning.

On Sunday, we went to walk around and look at some monuments.

The kids look so small at the Washington Monument

Tom and the kids at the WW2 Memorial

Texas!

Of course we had to walk to the Lincoln Memorial

We always have so much fun when we go to Washington. We can't wait to go back next year.