A Little Fenway Fun

Well, we've been wanting for some time now to visit the oldest functioning ballpark in the US, but with rain on the days we've considered going to games and the tours seeming a bit much for Alan, we hadn't gotten a chance to make it there. On Saturday, however, the Northeastern University Alumni Association hosted a Family Fun Day at Fenway! One of our friends from the ward is an alum, and she invited anyone who wanted to attend. Sounded like a perfect deal for us, so we took her up on it and had a blast at Fenway. Here are some pics from our adventure. :)

Walking to the ballpark.  The term ballpark confused Alan greatly.  I think he was expecting slides and lots of balls, but oh well. :)

The entrance

Scott and Alan in front of the teammates statue

Inside the park.  They had lots of fun performers, moving statues, etc.

Yes, he tried to go take the balls from this juggler

A view of the park from the outfield

The lone red chair which marks the longest officially measured home run ever hit inside of Fenway Park by Ted Williams

Alan loved running up all the stairs.  It kept him busy for quite some time.

The "Green Monster"

Sitting in the stands

Of course Alan found a "hill" to run up and down

The World Series Trophies

Touching the "Green Monster."  Ok, not really.  These are the seats added above the original green monster, but it's as close as we could get. :)

So we still have to go to a game, but in the mean time it was really fun to see all of the cool history surrounding the park. And it's fun to be in an area with such a great baseball tradition. We haven't even watched any games, but you can't live here and not have this Red Sox fever rub off on you a little bit.  So while we're not true loyal fans, we can cheer for them any night... except tonight of course, and tomorrow, and the night after that.  Yes, despite the Fenway tour, for the next three days I'm gonna have to be cheering against them.  Go Phils. :)

Birthday Boy!

Well, our little boy is growing up.  He no longer gets into airplanes, sporting events, buffets, or almost anything else for free. :(  But at the same time he is turning into such a character.  He is talking more and more, and it is absolutely hilarious the things he comes up with.  He will occasionally call Scott "hun" or say "Good job guys" when he is talking to one person, and often just to himself. :)  He cracks us up every day with some new phrase.  He also shows me that he has colored on the wall, and tells me it is a "no, no, no." (Speaking of which, is there a way to get pen off the wall?)  I guess this all comes with the territory of having a 2-year-old!

We all had such a fun filled day as we celebrated his birthday on Monday! He was so excited and absolutely loved every minute of it. He will even tell you that he's 2, if he feels like it. Here are some pictures from the big day!

Happy Birthday morning!

Loving the T-ball set

And wanting to play NOW!

He would yell "Present!" when we brought another present in the room, and then when he pulled out the gift he would yell "Oh, Wow!"  It was all very exciting.

He immediately found a perfect place for this new dog to sleep between George and his bear.   "Now we got that in an order, don't we." :)

Unwrapping was very serious business.

Thank you aunts and uncles.  They are everywhere. He will peek in a room and then go back and hide behind the wall and throw them in the room like a grenade.  He thinks it's hilarious.  :)

Squatting next to his new sandbox as he hadn't quite discovered that you can actually get in it.  As he was still in his jammies, I didn't encourage him. 

We also went to a farm on Alan's b-day.  We went strawberry picking, saw some animals, and played on this little playground.  It was a nice day and a lot of fun, but chasing Alan around didn't leave much time for picture taking, so this is what we got. :)

We had a BBQ that night with some friends to celebrate.  I can't believe I didn't get any pictures of Scott with his new grill!  He made us some very tasty burgers.

And we really couldn't have Alan's birthday without ball cupcakes.

Alan's reaction to singing "Happy Birthday."   Very nervous, as you can tell, but no crying!  He even did a little puff to try to blow out his candles.  Such a big guy!!

I think it helped that he knew he would get cake afterwords. :)

Balls, sticks, and cupcakes.  Doesn't get much better than that.

Happy Birthday Alan!

My Boys and their Drills

I just couldn't help posting these pictures from Father's Day on Sunday. We got Scott a new drill and as soon as Scott opened his gift, Alan wanted to go get his toolbox to be just like Dad. Kind of some classic Father's Day pics, and I think they had a lot of fun together.

"Let me show you how this works, Alan"

"Yeah, it's pretty cool, huh."

Admiring and exploring their "toys"

Paint Job

So I realized I never documented our painting project that we did last month. So just for fun I'll post a few pictures so that we can remember our first paint job. Luckily it was just one room and it wasn't too hard, but still took a little time we found out. The old yellow paint just made all of our furniture blend into the walls and was kind of scuffed up, so we decided on "Rocky Mountain Sky" to add some color. Can you tell that Scott misses Provo? He wanted to paint a big Y on the window as no Rocky Mountain sky would be complete without it, but we decided against it. :)  Ok, that might be a little bit of an exaggeration, but still.
I don't feel like our camera really does justice to the true colors of the room. The flash kind of washes everything out, but you can get a general idea from these pics. Now I just need to finish decorating before this baby comes as I know nothing will get done afterwards!

NJ Memorial Day Trip: Birthdays, Baseball and More

We had such a fun trip to New Jersey last week!  Alan and I flew down on Tuesday, as I got a $9 airline ticket on Jet Blue.  Insane deal that we just couldn't pass up.  Then Scott drove down after work on Friday and we all drove back up on Monday.  Alan LOVED having the constant attention of his grandparents and aunts and uncles in addition to the new toys, swings, and exploring that comes from being somewhere new.  The whole way home in the car he talked about Grandma's house and constantly said "bye" to everything: Grandma, Grandpa, Em, Meg, Nate, Evan, Gin, Grandma's car, toys, balls, couch, etc.  In fact, when we got home he had a tough time remembering our house.  But once he got to his room he was quite excited to see his bed and chair again.  Such a fun, fun trip and we were so glad to be able to visit!  Here are a few picture highlights:

Evan at his T-ball game.  Alan loved it.  He clapped every time anyone got a hit, which in T-ball, is any time anyone is up to bat. :)

Giving "Gin" a love.

Playing lots of ball with Grandma.

A little footprint trail after some chalk action that I though was pretty cute.

We went to a Phillies game on Em's birthday.  Mom and Dad surprised her with a birthday deal that included a hat, her name on the birthday board, and a very energetic employee throwing confetti on her and getting our whole section to sing happy birthday.  Well worth it. :)

The first Phils game I've been to in a very long time.  It was terribly hot, but it was a great game.  We weren't really expecting much as the previous game went to 19 innings and ended 12 hours before the start of this game.  But we ended up winning 10-4, and see that guy on the picther's mound?  He got 2 AMAZING hits and 3 rbi's.  Thank you Cliff Lee.  I always knew we wanted him back.  

We also had so much fun as the whole fam went strawberry picking.  We realized that the last time we had done this was with Scott as well, before we were married, and Evan was just a little older than Alan is now.  Crazy how time flies!

After a little convincing, Alan learned that we couldn't eat the strawberries until later and that we had to put them nicely in the box, rather than his, um, not-so-soft throws. 

But the true highlight might have been riding in the truck.  Always a big hit.

As is the lunch afterwords. :)

Uncle Nate, Alan and Daddy playing some ball.

I love this picture.  Somehow the ball always ends up in the "boosh."

We had a fun family barbecue on Saturday night.  The weather cooled down a bit and was perfect for relaxing and a little game of baseball.

And these two had a lot of fun together all weekend long. :)

Isn't Emily an amazing cake decorator?  She made her own cake this year.

And as she blew out the candles, Alan didn't even shed a tear.  We'll see what he does next month when the attention's on him...

Really can't have a trip home without a little name game.  Family Feud was also a blast.  In case you were wondering, save yourself some money and don't buy the DVD version.

Memorial Day waffles.  Pretty sure Alan ate 2+.  And I'm talking whole waffles.

Meg and Alan at the Memorial Day Parade in Medford.  Alan loved the fire trucks.

Watching the parade.

My Dad drove my Grandpa's '54 Chevy in the parade.  Evan drove with him and Alan and I jumped in as he drove by.

Here's a pic of my Grandma at the cemetery in Medford.  We visited many family graves... 4 generations I believe. 

And here is everyone gathered around my Grandpa Foulk's grave. 

Happy Memorial Day!!!!