Atlanta Braves Playoffs!

Life's pretty funny when you can go to a high school football game and leave heading to Atlanta Braves baseball game...confused? Well, that's exactly what happened. About 3 Friday nights ago, Adam and I went with Jason and Jenny to the Yulee football game that was being televised on ESPN, while we were there, Jason told us that Daniel (his brother) was chosen to be the Hometown Hero at the Braves game the following Friday night. He was conflicted about going, only because he had a previous commitment with his Sunday School class and something they were doing. We both were quick to assure him that this was definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity and he shouldn't feel bad for backing out. I mean how many people get to see a brother honored in front of 50,000 people (plus it was a playoff game for crying out loud!!)

Somehow during that conversation, Adam and I just invited ourselves along- Sorry J&J, we were coming whether you liked it or not at this point ;)



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday morning, we loaded up in the Suburban and headed north- all 7 of us. It was sure to be an interesting trip, 3 kids in the car for a trip to Atlanta, we were either crazy or well lets just go with crazy...



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actually, everyone did so well on the trips there and back. Thank goodness for 2 DVD screens and headphones, plus 2 big bags of snacks! We were set!

Somehow (uh hum...Adam) we made a trip that should have taken 5 hours (5.5 hours tops) turn into a 7 hour trip and we were busting it to get to the game on time. I could tell you it was becuase I took us to the wrong hotel, but I wont' do that since it only cost us about 5 minutes of that extra 2 hours!

We quickly checked into the hotel (after Adam took us to the far back corner to park instead of letting us unload at the front door) and changed clothes.



We were catching the shuttle from the hotel to the airport and then the Marta from the airport to Underground Atlanta to catch the shuttle to the game. Did you get all of that?

We have always taken the shuttle to the game and this time, there wasn't an onsite parking and were afraid we wouldn't find any offsite parking since it was such a big game, plus battling Atlanta traffic at 4:00 on a Friday afternoon just wasn't my idea of a good time!



Well, it seemed this particular day wasn't in our cards. We made it to the airport okay and went to purchase our Breeze cards to get on the Marta and the machines stop responding in the middle of us buying the cards. After we finally get it done, we hop on, ride to Underground Atlanta.



We haven't ever had to wait more than a few minutes to get on a bus to the Stadium and I don't know if you have ever been to Underground Atlanta, but usually you come in from the Marta on one end and there is an exit straight out the other end, which is where the buses pick you up. I kid you not, we made it about 20 steps into Underground Atlanta and stopped, and I mean STOPPED!



The line was crazy long and it took us 40 minutes to get on the shuttle. I don't know what it was, poor Adam, he felt so bad. He tries so hard to make sure everything is thought through and planned out- and then we walk in and there are thousands of people in front of us waiting to get on the buses! It literally took us 40 minutes to get through the line. To his credit, even people that frequently go to games were complaining, they hadn't ever seen anything like this and even the security guard mentioned it was unlike they had ever seen and they definitely weren't prepared for it- people were skipping like crazy, which only fueled everyone's anxiety levels and wait time!



After we made it to the Stadium, we made it to our seats only to find out someone was sitting in them. Then they acted like they were offended we asked them to move-stating 'They are the same seats (they were in the next section over), but they only had 3 together- we had 8!



Eventually it was all sorted out and we were ready to enjoy the game.



Our seats weren't the greatest, actually we were only 3 rows from the very top of the stadium, but at least we were there. Jason and Brody were sitting down in the lower level with Daniel, Jessica, and Caleb.



You know it doesn't seem like it was 9 years ago that we were here on our honeymoon...We had better seats, no kids, less worries, younger-looking, and no boiled peanuts- but we were together :) I think we have only missed going to games 3 years over the course of the 9...I know we have gone to a game each year for the past 4 years, but there were some years I know we didn't make it up.



During the 6th inning they honored Daniel. They had a short video clip they showed and then he walked out onto the field.



Jenny and I had really planned to walk down further, but after it took us forever to get up to our seats we were afraid if we started down we would miss it and it would take us too long to get there and leaving Adam to handle Ava and Trevor might have been a feat he wasn't ready to tackle ;)



But we snapped away from the high-vantage point :)



Everyone cheered (of course)



As he was walking off the field, Chipper was on deck, so he stepped out to shake his hand- this is even cooler now that we know it was Chipper's last game and he retired after this game.



On his way up to his seat, which did I mention, were much better than ours?, Jimmy Carter stepped out to shake his hand. The former President Jimmy Carter. We didn't expect that to happen so we didn't catch it on any of our cameras, but I have it on the video camera. Too bad I had to video the video board to see anything, you know because we didn't have "the seats" ;)





 



I wasn't lying about our seats- they were at the tip-top!





Brian, Kristin, and Dalton ended up going to the game as well, but they opted to drive separate, and NOT with the 3 kids :)







So, I would be remiss if I didn't tell this story...

Sitting up high in the stands, it is obviously tight and it was sold out, we got the best available seats at the time we bought them if that tells you anything... so sitting close you are bound to get some bumps and rubs. Well, Ava and Trevor were very well behaved, and believe me, I'm not one of those parents that pretends my child is perfect- I will tell you if she had misbehaved in any way. And she had not! I couldn't have asked for them to be any better. They weren't loud, the only moved around and danced whenever it was time to move and dance, they did the tomahawk chop when the song played, along with the other 50,000 fans and during the middle of the game and old geezer turned around and made a smart comment about how 'these kids have been kicking me the entire game, can you reign them in?'

Ya'll I thought Adam was going to loose it. He started saying something to the guy, the which his response was, 'I'm not trying to start anything'... Well sir, you did, and did you know that when you turned around to say something it was our kids so called 'Kicking you' which I seriously doubt felt anything like a kick, it was two other kids walking past to get to their seats down the isle. Our 2 were in their seats, not moving. I hushed Adam down and just stewed. It ruined the rest of the game. How dare he? If you want to not be bothered either stay home or pay for better seats.

The way these seats are situated, you are almost right on top of each other, in fact, the guy behind me kept his feet on my seat the entire time, and it didn't turn around and ask him to stop 'kicking' me! UGH! I was so prepared to go off on his old... well this is something my child will read one day, so lets just leave it at that... but he left at the top of the 9th.

You know, just so we are clear, I'm not saying my child or Trevor didn't occasionally bump into him, but I can assure you it wasn't hard or intentional, or even constant, and he even stood for a large majority of the game blocking our 2 little ones' views. (plus he came late and left early- sounds like he should have just stayed home!)

At least getting to the stadium was easy.



Chipper's last at bat.



Chipper's Last Swing



After the game we walked down to meet up with Jason and Brody and to see Daniel, Jessica, and Caleb.



Me and Daniel, he and I graduated together, 10 years ago this year...man do I feel old :(







After the game and speaking to everyone, watching Chipper's post-game interview, we headed to catch the shuttle back to the Marta station. All that was pretty easy, just crowded, but when we made it back to the Marta station we had to wait about 20 minutes. We soon found out why.

Poor Adam.

We got on and headed to the airport and we noticed we were going pretty slow. It wasn't a few minutes later the conductor? is that what they are called? came over the intercom and said they had 2 engines down so basically only running on half power. They were going to get us to our destination, it just wouldn't be as fast as we were accustomed to.

Poor Adam.

He couldn't have planned for more to go wrong if he had tried! We ended up all getting off at the next stop and another one picked us up and took us the rest of the way.



We all definitely gave him a hard time about it. We caught the shuttle at the airport back to our hotel and it was about midnight at this point. Ava ended up falling asleep on the short shuttle ride back and after calling to order pizza and realizing it would be another 45 minutes before it was even delivered, we opted to eat in the hotel restaurant that was open to 1:30- thank goodness! Ava slept the entire time and Trevor ended falling asleep in the middle of it dinner. We had made a full day of it- and LOTS of memories, so we would like to forget, some others would like to forget.

Poor Adam.