Soccer!

Last Friday was an interesting day.

It was a normal day of work and all, but it had some twists and turns.  I went out to lunch with my boss and the intern who we've had for over a year and hoped to hire, only to have the powers that be thwart our efforts.  Friday was her last day so we took her out to Chipotle, and who was sitting down to eat on the patio when we arrived but Craig and a few of his co-workers.  Small world! We didn't eat together but it was nice to glance over and see him there.

We had decided earlier in the week to go to the Rhinos game that night.  We haven't been to one in ages, and the summer is rapidly dwindling.  One of Craig's best friends (and I guy I worked with for years, as well) works there, so we have a nice connection for tickets.  I got a little nervous, however, as I walked out of work, because the pleasant day had suddenly turned stormy.  I stepped off the elevator into the parking garage at work, and in the blink of an eye I saw a flash of lightning and heard thunder a mere millisecond later.  I barely had time to process the lightning before the boom hit.  Yikes.  I drove through torrential downpours halfway home, but when I got to Greece, I realized the roads were dry! 

Back at home we checked the radar to ensure the game would be happening, and while we were packing up to go, there was another cell working its way northeast.  Originally I thought it might just graze our area, but soon enough the black sky was upon us and it started to rain...hard.  And then it started to HAIL.  Twice.  It rained really hard for at least 20 minutes straight.  It was crazy, but it was fun introducing Jacob to the hail.  He was fascinated by the ice balls, which were between pebble and dime-sized.  Carter was not a fan and simply wanted to be attached to me for the whole thing as we watched from the porch.  Eventually the weather passed and we headed out for a quick fast food meal on our way to the game. 

We got to the game a little late, but it had been delayed a bit anyway and the kids' ability to sit and watch is always a little iffy, so I don't worry too much when we miss a bit.  As we arrived, the weather was pleasant, though there was a definite dampness in the air since everything was saturated.  The sunset looked pretty cool, as it was a giant red ball.  This picture does not do it justice, but rest assured, the sun was a red ball with crisp edges and no cloud interference.

We sat down (thank goodness I remembered to bring a towel!) and enjoyed the rest of the first half.  Carter was cracking everyone up because he kept pointing to the field and saying "ball" over and over again.  He was bouncing to music and absolutely loving it.

My boys!

 The clouds stuck around, but no more rain fell and it was a pleasant night. 

The building with the red lettering on top is Kodak's headquarters...the rest of the skyline is behind the scoreboard.  My building is actually blocked by the left leg.

We purposely stuck around through the end of the game, even though I'm usually hesitant because late nights are tough.  Jacob really wanted to go on the field and it was a nice chance to test out fireworks with Carter.  We went down to the field to watch.  This picture doesn't show you much in the way of fireworks, but it gives you an idea of our vantage point...

This picture is blurry because I had the "fireworks" setting on and between a slow shutter and trying to hold Carter with one arm and the camera with the other hand, I was only able to get a blurry picture with a cool fireworks effect...

Love the look of the fireworks here when you zoom in.  Sorry about the people.

The boys enjoyed running around on the turf...

And for the record, Carter didn't even flinch with the fireworks...though they weren't too loud, either.

Watching Jacob play on the turf brought back memories of one of the last times I remember him doing that, as shown in this post.  He was only two then, less than a year older than Carter is now.  Back then he was so small in comparison to so many of the kids that were playing, and he had a hard time making it through his playtime unscathed as there were kids and balls flying past him.  This time he did his own thing off to the side until the net was freed up, but it amazed me to realize how big he's gotten.

He just wanted to be out there and didn't care that he wasn't playing with the real goal.  Kudos to him for being patient.  He got his chance, though.

It was a pretty late night by the time we finished chatting with some friends and headed home, but the boys went down fine and it was a good night as a whole.  I'm so thankful the weather cleared to allow us to go!

Saturday we had big plans, as well, but they were a big secret!  My cousin (and Jacob's godmother) Lori is turning 30 this week, and one of her good friends set out earlier in the summer to do a big surprise birthday party for her.  She had settled on a date quite a while back and the task for most of the summer had been to plan and keep it a secret.  In the past couple weeks things nearly went awry because Lori set up some plans to spend a long weekend with some friends of hers who had rented a cottage in the Thousand Islands.  Ironically, those friends who invited her were invited to the party but forgot, and Lori was planning on leaving the day of the party!  Everyone had to scramble a bit, but it all worked out in the end.  I contributed some pictures for some photo boards, and made a double batch of a family favorite casserole that Lori loves, and we headed off to the late afternoon party.  It was a hot afternoon and the rain had held off (and was supposed to hold off for the most part), and Lori's friends Ken and Mandy had a really nice setup in their backyard.  We all eagerly awaited Lori's arrival, and she sure was surprised when she got there!  She had a slight inkling something was up the night before, but she had no idea what was in the works!

I was too far back in the yard to get a great shot of the initial reaction (she doubled over), but I did catch this shot once she was once again upright and was finishing wiping the tears out from behind her glasses.  Mandy (the planner) is on the right, and my Aunt Lynne (Lori's mom) is on the left.

There was plenty of family in town to celebrate, and quite a few friends.  Jacob enjoyed snacking and was a very good boy despite not having a lot of stuff to do.  Carter rarely strayed far from me, but he did like sitting on that toy in the background of the picture!  The food was awesome and it was fun to look at all of the old pictures.  As we were eating, however, the gray clouds started to roll in and we could hear thunder rumbling.  We rushed through dessert and then started to break down most of the party to bring inside.  Despite the crowd we still enjoyed another hour or so indoors.  The rain never got crazy bad while we were there, but it was in other places.  We've had some pretty good storms on and off since that batch on Friday and we're all ready for the rain to be done.

Sunday was a pretty low-key day.  I did some yard work and laundry and paid bills, and the boys watched Scooby-Doo and played some baseball outside while the weather cooperated.  Carter napped.  It really hasn't been nice enough for the pool lately, which has been a bummer.  We went out for a nice dinner at Jacob's favorite place, Pizzeria Uno (yay for a $15 off $30 coupon--with leftovers to boot!), and did some quick shopping.  Now we're into another week.  The bad news is that I have a crazy amount of work to do, and I'm currently alone in my department with my boss on vacation and my fellow analyst at home sick with the plague (seriously, she's been sick since midday Thursday and still had a fever as of Monday morning--God forbid I get that!).  The good news is that vacation is looming, but I have so much to do before that happens.  I have a feeling I will be doing some work over the weekend or during my vacation just to keep up.  UGH.  We also have a wedding on Friday night, but no other set plans for the weekend until we hopefully leave on our "vacation" Sunday.  More on that soon...