Take Her Out To The Ballgame

Tuesday brought a big change up for our family in weekly activities. A friend of mine's daughter (Brylee's 'twin' and friend) was sick and had to give up tickets to that evening's Sea Dogs baseball game.

Thinking it would help her family out that they wouldn't lose money on tickets to be able to go again, I asked Cary if he and his parents would be interested in going. And lucky for us, they did!

So that afternoon, Brenda, Gary, Brylee, Cary and I headed off to Portland to check out our first non Texas Ranger baseball game!

Check out these seats! We were the 10th row up from the field, pretty much directly behind the home plate. You couldn't ask for anything better! (it was also still in foul ball territory, as proven when several balls flew behind us!)

Brylee was so excited to see this character and kept waving 'bye bye' after we got the picture and departed.
These characters are part of the Zooperstars, which were incredibly entertaining between innings.
This is Slugger, and we tried to get a picture with him as well, but he was very busy with older kids attaching him for hugs. But we managed to get this shot, though!
This was us leaving for the evening. We left shortly after the 7th Inning Stretch, realizing we had an hour drive ahead of us and a very sleepy little girl.
Thank you Nicole for the opportunity to enjoy a great game (Sea Dogs won 9-2) and it was a great first time experience for Brylee, who loved every bit of the game!

Super Brylee!

(blurry picture, but I love the expression on both of their faces)

A Weekend To Blog About

Last Friday (read, 1 week ago sadly...) Cary and I decided to go to a putt putt range!

All over Maine you'll find putt putt of some kind, but for this trip we went to New Hampshire to Pirate's Cove, and I was not disappointed in this! Dallas, check out their website and see how you can make more of your putt putts this great!

It was incredibly clean, well maintained, and they even had bottles of water set up midway through the course for you to grab if you needed some refreshment. But my favorite part was the awesome decor set up all through the course!

(are we being watched?)

There was a water cannon set up that you could go and push a button and shoot out water...of course Cary couldn't stay away. I tried taking the picture with mid-water action, but no luck this time...
Next to every hole, there were these plaques with tidbits of Pirate information. The first course we went on, Captain Blackbeard, had all of the information about him. The second course, Captain Kidd had more pirates included in their information, mostly because Kidd's pirating (and actual) life were short lived.
This was a cool hole--where I got my 1st Hole In One for the day!

When it came to having water hazards that came with the hole, I had no luck. Every time I heard a 'plunk' and Cary had to go retrieve it (but only because I would have joined that ball in the water if he didn't step forward)
This was my favorite hole: you had to hit the ball just right to make it jump over the water hazard (but there was also a sign to keep the ball from going air-born). And of course, both of us went into the water...but since there was no one behind us, we gave it another try, both succeeding.
My cousin has a thing about hammocks, so I had to post this picture on Facebook stating that I found him laying around...apparently 30 years later and with a peg leg...

This putt putt course is easily my favorite, but look forward to checking out more around us. After playing both courses, I got 3 Hole In Ones (a huge accomplishment for me) and Cary 1. Because of the water hazards, though, I had an ultimate score of 106, and Cary, 105. He beat me by 1 point!!!!!!!!!

Saturday morning, there was a quick last minute trip back to New Hampshire to fix a geocache issue from the night before. While there, we visited our favorite bakery and then Cary took a drive around. We nearly stopped at a Pow Wow, but due to lack of time, we figured we could try it again another time. We did stop, however, at Cathedral Ledge, where we saw some beautiful scenery and managed to snag a cache as well.

Sunday was a great day to go to Portland, since I had a mission for a couple of things at Target. We also stopped to eat at Jimmy The Greeks, and where the waitress gave a suggestion of a nearby beach.

It was an incredibly cloudy and cool that day, but that didn't stop us (or other beach goers) from checking out the waves and showing Brylee a little taste of sand castle building. She was not too happy every time the waves came up to her feet though. The poor thing couldn't move fast enough to get away, but even though the water barely covered her feet, she got mad and cried...until the waves retreated.






On the way home, we stopped at a gift shop where we walked around and enjoyed some interesting souvenirs and then made the trek home to get ready for the next day.

I think this is definitely my favorite weekend so far in this new town, mostly because Cary didn't have to work, and the weather was glorious to enjoy outside the whole time.

Caption Of The Week XIII

Dallas Vacation: Day 4: Wrapping Up The Fun

The last full days of visits are always the hardest for me. I want to take the opportunity and enjoy every waking moment with my family, but at moments I remember that it's the last day of this visit, and I get sad and bummed.

After a visit to church (the series was At The Movies: As Seen On TV!), Cary and I went back home and we got to spend more time with Amy, Spencer, Steven, and Granny while last touches were going on for Granny's car.

Our afternoon was very exciting. Snowcones at Bahama Bucks:









Popcorn from Lone Star Gourmet Popcorn (yes I have an addiction). And a trip to Michael's for some arts and crafts.









And finally, Brylee got to help make her stepping stone for her grandparents!
























The previous night, Amy set a task for all of the family members: to make little tiles so that they could be made into a cross. She wanted to make 9 crosses, one for each family, so that meant everyone had to make at least 9 tiles. And that meant 27 for our family (Cary, Brylee, and myself). But to tell you the truth, I think I made 25 just because. I really enjoyed playing with the clay and making these tiles. Brylee even got into it a little bit. I ended up trying to make tiles with a personal touch, while Cary's was artsy, and mom had a cool pattern to her tiles that really seemed to represent her. And I am so excited to see the finished results!

This tile was started as a hot dog that Amy created for Cary, because, well, he likes hot dogs. And he added his own touches to it!












Mom's tiles (I love how they are 3 things that represent her, just slightly different each time):









My tiles, which have a lot of little things that represent me:









Like I said, I was really into this creative task, so I made 9 additional tiles with the Jarvis name and year:









Brylee's tiles:









Random thing that was created with the 'left over':









Cary's modern look:









And the few that dad had finished by Sunday evening. So fun!





















Monday morning was a sad day for me...of course. The long weekend was too short for me and I can't wait until our next visit, hopefully longer.

The hardest part about this trip (besides the length) was the fact that Brylee clung to her grandparents so tightly the entire time. Not that this is really bad, but because it was as if she was trying to keep from leaving them again. I thought the airport separation between her and Poppy was going to be worse than it was, but I was relieved that it wasn't terrible. But you could see it in her eyes the sadness of the separation.












I arrived to the house to find these beauties, which, sadly I had to leave behind:









Mom came home that evening to change our bedsheets and find these in ours and Brylee's bed. I hope she liked them. (Funny thing is dad laid on the bed just before we left and found them, getting a good laugh out of our sneakiness).