At the beginning of the month we celebrated Jarom's birthday by going to a baseball game. Unfortunately it was also the night we had a really big summer storm in our area. I could have just kicked myself, because we couldn't have done it worse if we had actually sat down and planned it.
The minor league team that we love to go to is the Carolina Mudcats (I believe they are a farm team for the Cincinnati Reds, but don't quote me on that. Jeff would know for sure.) Anyway, they have a nice park, the games are a lot of fun, and the seats are cheap ($6 for general admission, $10 for front box seats). Plus, on Fridays (like the one we went to) they always have fireworks at the end of the game. It's one of our family's favorite fun things to do.
The game started at 7:15, but since our kids don't have the attention span to sit through an entire game, we decided to go a little late so that they would still have enough energy to stay for the fireworks. We went to McDonalds (Jarom's special birthday dinner request) and got to the park about 8:15. The skies had been getting darker, but there was only 30% chance of rain, and it was supposed to rain all week, but it never had, so we figured, same thing this time, right? Oh, so wrong!!!
We parked (and paid $5 for it too, which really irritates me) and walked to the entrance---all the while the wind is starting to pick up, and we're feeling little sprinkles, but we keep telling the kids (and ourselves) that it's not going to rain hard, and that we'll still have a fun time even if it does rain. Well, then the thunder started, with flashes of lighting in the distance.
I took Kelcey to the bathroom, while Jeff headed up to our seats. In the 3 1/2 minutes that it took us to be out of the bathroom, the storm just exploded, with rain and wind so strong that it was horizontal, with lightning and thunder that were practically on top of each other. Jeff said that they were only able to watch 2 pitches before it started raining, and then it was all over. Everyone in the stands rushed down, and with the rain blowing all over the place we all just huddled in the back by the concession stands, trying to stay as dry as possible. Unsuccessfully, I might add.
It was a little scary for everyone, but Kelcey is really, really, really scared of thunderstorms anyways, even in the house, so she was seriously freaking out. She finally just buried her head into Jeff's chest, put her arms around his neck, and held on for dear life. She didn't make a peep, or even move for the rest of the time we were there, waiting out the storm. We kind of thought she was asleep, but she never was. Actually, it was almost like she was in a self-induced coma---if she pretended that she wasn't there, then maybe it wasn't so bad.
Finally, after about an hour, the storm lightened up enough so that we could make a run for it. We made it to the car, and decided to take everyone for ice cream to make up for what Jarom kept wailing was his "worst birthday ever!" I tried to get him to realize that it would be an exciting memory, but I guess it's just too hard to have a long term perspective when you're barely nine.
The next night we had cake and presents, and that went better. (It could hardly have been worse.)
Jarom got his first actual Sunday suit,
and then we had a treasure hunt for his big present: a mountain bike!!
I'm kind of lame (no big surprise!), so I don't have any pictures of him actually riding it, but I'll get to that and post a couple soon.
