Labor Day

We had a great Labor Day, which included fresh fruit, another reunion with friends from Tallahassee, family togetherness, and America's favorite pastime.  What could be better?

In the morning we headed down to Mapleton to meet up with Misty and Colby, a couple who were in our first married ward in Tallahassee.  Back then Colby was working on a PhD at FSU, Misty was my VT, and they just had two little toddlers.  This was the first time we'd seen them in 7 years, though we have exchanged Christmas cards and seen pictures as their family has grown to include 2 more children.  It was still a bit surreal to see those two little toddlers as bonafide big kids though.

First, we met up and picked raspberries at a U-Pick berry farm near Misty and Colby's neighborhood.  Then we all went back to their house for lunch, playtime for the kids, and a good catch-up visit for the adults.

Jack and Eliza decided they'd had enough of raspberry picking after a little while, and hung out in the sandbox instead.  Cat even joined them at one point.  Cat and Misty and Donna enjoyed cutting some flowers to take home once we'd collected as many raspberries as we could.

We had a great time hanging out with friends we hadn't seen in so long.  It turns out that Colby now teaches
in the same building where the majority of Ben's classes are held and they get to see each other occasionally.
After a long visit at Misty and Colby's house, we came home and I washed the raspberries while trying (unsuccessfully) to keep Jack's hands off of them.  Then I froze them for later use in smoothies.  Yum.

That night we decided to finally use the free tickets we get to our local minor league baseball game (part of the water park passes we got).  It probably sounds weird, especially for someone who doesn't follow baseball or anything, but it kind of nagged at me all summer that we hadn't seen a baseball game.  It's just not summer without a baseball game!  So thank goodness I was able to cross the last item off of my bucket list on Labor Day.  Go Orem Owlz!

We were pretty sure our crew wouldn't sit and watch a game for very long, though, so we didn't worry about being there at the beginning.  But Jack's favorite song at the time was "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" so I insisted that we arrive before the 7th inning stretch.  When we sat down, it was the bottom of the 6th.  Gotta love it.

"Wow - that family must really love baseball.  They're even wearing baseball hats!"

"For it's one, two, three strikes you're out at the old ball game..."
I'm so glad I captured this moment - the kids' first 7th inning stretch.

As it turns out, Utah is pretty family friendly.  Have you heard?
And of course, there was a playground in the stadium (which is owned by UVU).
Don't tell my kids, but there was also a bounce house.  They deflated it before we got over there to try it out.
The kids didn't end up watching almost any baseball because they were either playing on the playground
or running races in the grass beside the playground.  At least they had fun.

We saw this mascot when we were walking around and I thought it would be fun to take a picture with her.
We waited for a few minutes and the kids noticed immediately that the mascot was swiping all the kids' baseball hats.
I love how Jack is holding on to his hat so that she can't take it.  And Eliza is trying to morph herself into Ben, who is sizing the mascot up.  Our 7-year-old neighbor told us during carpool that he has a friend whose hat was taken by one of the Orem Owlz mascots and he never got it back.  (Cue scary music.)  Good thing Jack was holding on so tight.

I'm not kidding when I say that Utahans love their fireworks.  We saw more fireworks this summer than I've seen in the last 3 years or so.  Unfortunately, Jack became more and more afraid of fireworks as the summer progressed.  By Labor Day, he refused to look at them, but instead laid down on Ben's lap with his head covered by his hood.  Poor guy.
The rest of us really enjoyed them.

It was a great Labor Day.