Coolest Doubleheader Ever - Part 1

As mentioned, we had a pretty exciting weekend!  We were headed to Hamilton for Craig's 400th straight game with the Knighthawks, and then to Toronto the following day for a Blue Jays game!  Craig's parents were coming with us, as well.  Of course, I was mildly panicked all week and taking Zicam with every sniffle because I was so worried illness would screw something up.  We had been so excited for so long, for multiple reasons, and I just couldn't bear the thought of anything getting messed up.  Thankfully, in the end we made it there and it was such a wonderful weekend.  It was not without its hiccups, but they were far overshadowed by the good stuff!

The process of getting packed up ended up being a bit hectic.  I was able to do most of my packing on Thursday night for Carter and me, but of course there are always last minute toiletries and I was still deciding on what kind of purse or bag to use since both venues only wanted small bags, so that and a lot of other last minute decisions--like snacks--were going to be packed right before we left.  I had a bunch of last minute stops on my way home on Friday, too.  We were supposed to leave around 5:30, and I got out just after 4pm, but I wanted to stop at Wegmans for more Zicam, one requested snack, and Craig's razor blades I forgot the night before, followed by the Aldi down the road for a couple weekly specials I was worried about missing, and then Dollar Tree (thankfully in the same plaza) for another requested snack, poster board, and another random thing or two.  The poster board was to make a sign for Craig, which Carter said he wanted to do, but actually doing that was going to have to wait for when we were there.  It wasn't ideal to have all those stops, but I have to say it ended up pretty efficient all things considered--pretty much one quarter mile stretch right on my way home.

When I got home, Craig was already in a flurry trying to get things packed up and in the van.  He always does this, grabbing bags I'm not finished throwing things into, just to make progress on packing.  I tried to get him to chill out because I was losing track of what was where at that point.  I did the toiletries quick and started checking my list, packing up a smaller purse, and getting a few other things ready.  The boys wanted to go to Dick's to look for a couple baseball things with a coupon that was only good for the weekend, so they decided to go while I was wrapping up, which was definitely going to make us leave later, but whatever. I did manage to print up a Knighthawks logo for the sign before I left work, so I cut that out and glued it on the poster board while I waited.  I got everything pretty set by the time they got back, but of course it was still rushed and hectic wrapping things up and grabbing a couple last minute additions.

We grabbed dinner at Mighty Taco once we got to Buffalo, ate in the van, and got to Craig's parents' around 7:30.  We packed them up, shifted seats (Carter and me to the back, Craig's mom in the front, and his dad in the middle), and headed out just as it was starting to get dark.  It was also pretty rainy.  We decided to take the Peace Bridge, which is a rarity for us.  It was different to go through a separate part of the Niagara Falls tourist area we don't often go to (in a popular hotel area away from the Falls itself), but unfortunately there wasn't much to see because of the dark and rain.  It felt odd and rather miraculous to be back in Canada for the first time since October 2019.  I don't know that I'd ever been away for that long and never imagined after going there so many times amidst the Raptors championship era that we'd subsequently not go back for so long.  Of course, the downside was losing cell service as my phone does not operate in Canada unless there's WiFi.

The drive to Hamilton wasn't too bad, only a little over an hour.  When we got to the hotel and unloaded, I realized there was one less bag than I was expecting.  Carter's wasn't there.  I asked Craig where it was and he said he never grabbed it, and I never grabbed it either because I was sure he would have done it given his frantic packing when I got home--primarily since I knew he'd been in Carter's room to pack up his stuffed animals, blankets, and pillow.  But sure enough, nope.  It was a bit of a heated moment, and Carter was pretty upset, too.  Later on Craig took the blame because Carter had specifically asked him about his and Craig even stopped Carter from going back up to his room to check on something, so no one ever saw it.  Admittedly I missed it too because I'm usually the one that packs his stuff and brings it down, and I had even stopped in to grab his nightlight that we always bring for hotel rooms and turn off his light.  But with how frantic Craig was, I guess I just assumed that had been part of it, although I feel like something else must have been said that made me think he had it.  Essentially, a number of things had to go wrong for this to happen, and in this case they all did.  On the bright side, we were able to get a toothbrush for free from the hotel to get us through the night, and there wasn't anything else that was a desperate situation--like it would have been had I forgot something like birth control pills or even if we would have forgotten any of Jacob's stuff--he would have lost it!  We told Carter he'd get a nice new wardrobe the next day, so that seemed to help.  He was upset, but in the end he was a trooper.  We felt AWFUL, though.  Otherwise, the night and overnight weren't bad.  I can't say I slept great but the bed was comfortable and everyone seemed to sleep good enough.

We had a pretty quiet morning.  Craig had to go to the team shootaround pretty early and we all woke up, so the boys and I just hung around for a bit.  I think we ended up downstairs for our overpriced but pleasant Starbucks breakfast before 10am.  Jacob discovered he likes the egg bites, and Carter loved his sandwich.  We had a couple good laughs and were generally in very good spirits.  We headed back upstairs to wait for Craig and I got started on the sign.  Here's the thing--we had one shot with this and if it was going to be visible to other people or even TV, I wanted it to be legible, so I started by doing the bubble letters myself.  Carter was my consultant on what it should say.  I was going to have him help color, but it turned out our markers weren't quite as robust as I was hoping, so I ended up doing that part myself too, to make sure coverage was good.  But Carter was ready to be an eager holder, so that was his big contribution, I guess!

 

Craig came back in time for us to go to lunch with his parents.  We opted for a Pizza Pizza in Burlington because Jacob wanted chicken bites and it was just down the road from a spot that had a Winners (Canadian version of Marshalls) and a Sport Chek (sort of like Dick's minus the sporting equipment), which were both on our agenda.  Lunch took a bit because only one person seemed to be working, but it was good.  I have missed Pizza Pizza!

 

The shopping area turned out to be a full-on indoor mall, albeit a smaller one.  We started at Winners to get Carter's clothes.  We managed to find a couple Montreal Expos shirts he liked, which was appropriate since that's his new baseball team this summer.  We found one pair of pants that would work, as well as socks and underwear.  That would at least get us through the next day.  He could wear one shirt that night (but his same pants) and then wear the other stuff the next day.  We tried to find Blue Jays stuff, but it didn't quite work out.  Still, it wasn't bad, and the price was reasonable  It was less than $70 CDN for two shirts, a pair of pants, three pairs of underwear, and like 10 pairs of socks, I think.  He needed some new socks anyway, and the shirts were fun.  We also almost bought some stuff at this slightly sketchy sports store--they had a lot of Jays stuff but Jacob was insisting it was all fake.  Still, the $20 rack was tempting.  We moved on to Sport Chek, and our lucky boy found both a Jays hat and a jersey he liked, which his sweet, generous grandparents took care of.  So he was officially all set for the next day!  He's still a little bummed we didn't get the Jays stuffed monkey they had--one of those long armed hugging ones--because the Jays stadium store didn't have the stuffed Ace mascot we were looking for either.  Boo.

On the way out of the mall we stopped at Shoppers Drug Mart to get Canadian candy (yum) and the Indigo bookstore to get Craig's mom some Starbucks.  Indigo made me a little sad because I had already checked online to see if any nearby stores had the three newer Brady Brady books.  We loved that series of sports-themed books, and even if my kids have outgrown them, I sort of want to keep the full series going, you know?  They don't seem to be in stock in stores anymore, but I can get them a little pricier on Amazon.  Oh well.

We got back to the hotel and had a couple hours to kill.  Craig took a nap, I finished the sign, and the boys hung out.  Here's the final result:

We had two nagging things by this point--the game tickets hadn't shown up on my phone, and we needed to figure out dinner for Jacob since arenas typically don't have a lot to offer him.  In the end we had to get printed tickets because apparently whichever way they were texting them didn't work even with WiFi.  I could still get most texts, but apparently whatever format they were sending needed mobile data regardless?  They came in right as we got to the border on the way home (along with a couple of Craig's texts) so something was funky about them.  As for Jacob, we did find a place around the corner that was a dedicated gluten-free taco place.  We ordered a couple tacos--they were called the "Cease & Desist" as I think in a previous menu I saw online they called them the "Taco Bell" and the real Taco Bell must not have liked that!--and he and I walked there to pick them up.  He said they were okay--meat was good, but nothing too exciting beyond that...but it was food.  He finished up just as we had to go meet Craig's parents.  

The walk wasn't bad for us, but I felt a little bad for Craig's parents--especially since I took us the wrong way initially.  Still, we got in relatively uneventfully.  But then I looked at the tickets and figured out they were WAY up.  Like 2nd row from top.  UGH.  This was the view from the concourse...

But this was the view from our seats:

I personally don't mind these seats--it was a haul, for sure--but the field view is great.  I grew up sitting in the oranges at the Aud back in the day, and these are built quite similar.  I like being closer to the action because they're steep, but they're definitely not for everyone.  Jacob was predictably extra annoyed, and I felt bad for my in-laws because of the walk.  Ironically, we couldn't see Craig at all because his part of the press box was blocked by rafters.  Also, the WiFi wasn't available up there, which was an extra pain since I needed it to do any sort of texting.  So, I went down to the concourse, got on the WiFi, texted Craig and asked if maybe he wanted to try to get his parents into the team suite or something.  Thankfully, he was able to, so I walked them down there just before the game.  It was a bummer to not watch the game with them, but we did stop in during halftime when the team entourage was down in the locker room.  We needed a quick place to eat our food, and that was easier than going all the way back up with our hands full.  The other drawback to being all the way up was that it felt pretty pointless to unfurl the sign because literally no one could see it unless they looked behind them.  I decided we'd just have to open it up when we went to the friends and family area after the game.

Did I mention that we were playing the Toronto Rock?  But in Hamilton?  The Rock started playing there a couple years ago, which is a bit of a step down from 19,000 people in the Air Canada Centre back in the day.  Jacob and I both have fond recollections of games at the ACC over the years, and it's too bad circumstances had to change.  Still, they had a great turnout--over 11,000 people at this game, which isn't bad compared to most of the league these days.  It's different and weird but probably wouldn't be that bad if we didn't have something so much better to compare it to years ago.  

 

Sadly, the game had a really rough start.  We didn't score until there was less than three minutes left in the first quarter, and then didn't score again until about that same point in the third quarter.  That means one goal in the first half and a 10-1 deficit at halftime.  It was awful.  Thankfully, we made a bit of a comeback.  We held them scoreless in the third and picked up a couple quick goals, then got it as close as 10-5 in the fourth.  Then it went back and forth a bit before an empty netter and a quick additional goal.  We lost 13-6.  Not exactly the night we were looking for.

I snapped a couple pics near the end as we were waiting for the suite crew to leave for the locker room again.  You can see the press box here.  Craig is on the near end.

Turns out this was waiting for him in his booth before the game from the opposing team staff.  They also gave him a bobblehead of a player who happens to have played for both teams!  It's pretty sweet of them to think of him.  

 

 

He didn't even mention it on his broadcast, but he did get a couple nice mentions online from the Knighthawks and the league, and even got interviewed for the Knighthawks social media and another online publication.  It's a pretty amazing feat, after all!  And somehow I've been around for all of it, including the night early on where I tagged along for a road game to Albany and had to buy him a beer to calm his nerves before the game!  He's come a long way.

 

After the game we met him down in the friends and family area, and we had the sign out!  He got a lot of congrats while we were there, and it was really fun to be there to see it.

We wrapped up the night with food at the Anchor Bar in the hotel.  Ironic that was my first time having the legendary, original Buffalo wing brand, and it happened in Canada of all places, but I won't judge them since we were in a different country.  They weren't bad, just small and not very meaty.  But the sauce seemed good!  Eventually Jacob was falling asleep sitting up so I took the boys upstairs, and Craig followed not long after.  It had been a fun, long, tiring day, but we needed to get some rest because we had to be up and out early the next morning for another big event--onward to the Blue Jays!

The Importance of Memory Making

I had a pretty idyllic childhood in many ways.  Loving parents, an amazing extended family, nice home, great schools, a solid group of friends, great opportunities, the list could go on and on.  Essentially all of my needs were met, and then some.  Was it perfect?  No.  Did I have my struggles and disagreements with my parents?  Yep.  Have I become even more aware of my strengths and weaknesses as a kid as I've learned more about who I am as an adult?  Yep.  But overall it was pretty darn great and I feel fortunate to have had the foundation I did.

Becoming a parent definitely makes you re-examine parts of your life, whether it's thinking about experiences you had vs. what you give to your kids, how you were disciplined vs. how you discipline, or how the entire world has changed since you grew up and what happens when you can't raise your kids in a way that worked for you.  I feel like it's a constant, subconscious pondering, because it seems to impact so many elements of daily life.  How do I react to this?  Am I being inconsistent or hypocritical if I do that?  What if what worked for me is different for my kids?  All you know about parenthood going in is what you experienced from a kid perspective and what you see others do.  Your own parenthood experience is on-the-job training, and I'm convinced that no matter what your previous experiences or perceptions were, so much of it plays out differently with your own kids--whether you want it to or not.  Maybe it's on purpose to break a cycle or address a new obstacle, or maybe it's just because you see a different perspective when it's your turn.  I've had a little of all of that--thanks in part to two kids with ADHD, who both happen to be boys, living in a different city, in a very different 21st century setting, with a pandemic as the cherry on top.  I've constantly questioned my decisions, from discipline to medical care, to what's considered "spoiling" them, to how involved I need to be in certain parts of their life to ensure they gain independence while staying on the right track.  I feel like I'm always hesitant to go too far off course from what I knew as a kid--it worked good enough with me, right?  So what if doing something else ends up being a mistake, even though I had the blueprint already set out for me?  

Anyway, all that overthinking brings me to the point of this post: A couple weeks ago I was thinking about my experiences growing up, and for whatever reason I was thinking about how little travel we actually did as a family of four.  We had one trip to Disney when I was three and an awesome trip to Washington D.C. when I was almost 10.  But our second Disney trip when I was 9 didn't involve my protesting father, and the rest were generally shorter, car-based, weekend-style getaways.  We did Cedar Point (as part of a family wedding weekend) and Canada's Wonderland, and I remember weekends in Detroit and Toronto doing some touristy things.  We also did a long, cramped drive to visit my mom's sister's family in Wisconsin over Christmas break.  There were a few things I did with just my parents after my brother was gone, and even trips a couple separate from my family, but when it came to the four of us, I really couldn't think of much more.  Maybe it was still more than a lot of other people did at the time, I don't know.  And don't get me wrong, we did plenty together locally--Friday night mini golf with ice cream after, Sabres and Bisons games, a couple museum visits, boat rides with my uncle, etc.  I have lots of good memories like that and I don't want to minimize those at all, but there's something special about traveling.  

I think traveling bonds you in a totally different way.  Sometimes it's the victory of working through some adverse situation as a family, like our Disney hurricane, but I think most of the time it's just extra special memory making when you experience interesting things together.  As a mom especially, I feel I'm able to participate more fully, mentally and physically, when we're away from home and I don't have to worry as much about day-to-day things like cleaning, laundry, errands, or cooking.  Traveling still involves a lot of planning and coordination, but it's a different sort of mental load and at least you can immerse yourself in the experience for longer than a few hours at a time.  Reality always awaits at the end, but the daily physical burdens feel less immediate.  And admittedly, based on our experience, it wasn't always a cure-all--taking the sibling frustrations to a new place merely changed the scenery while providing more chances for public embarrassment.  Still, most of the best memories we have and bring up often are from our trips.  Of course they're mostly Disney, probably not coincidentally since those coincided with Jacob finally being at least tolerable toward Carter when it counted.  Prior to that, it seems he blocks out things from his lacrosse trip era, probably because he feels lacrosse wronged him, and anything before that I think he was so fixated on being superior to Carter that the details blend into the background.  Anything else aside from maybe baseball trips pretty much pales in comparison to Disney anyway, and that is the standard he judges all things by.  Lucky us, right?  So, anyway, I suppose the kids' memories are a bit more limited than, say, what I might recall myself, but I think what we're doing now is trying to make up for lost time.  

But as I thought through all of this, I was mostly just surprised to realize how much more we've done with our little family and it made me re-think my childhood experience a bit.  Are we actually overdoing it?  Or did my parents under-do it?  The thing is, I know my parents thought they were doing the prudent, frugal thing.  They came from a time where you didn't do fancy family vacations, and they were very careful with their money.  It wasn't necessarily their responsibility to show us the world, and that's fine.  They did take some nicer trips as a couple to reconnect (Disney, Vegas, Atlantic City, San Francisco), which I get as well, and it reminds me we actually haven't done enough (read: any) of that.  But knowing now all that they've been able to do in retirement, I feel like the potential to do more was probably there all along.  While I don't begrudge them any of their amazing empty nester experiences--I promise, I know they earned them being wise with their money all along--I do wish that they'd maybe invested a little more of that into at least one other big family trip along the way so we could have made some additional core memories together.  I often feel like my brother and I have very little in common, and sometimes I wonder if that could have helped.  We spent a lot of time at home fighting over the TV, but I feel like a lot of our other time was either time with grandparents and relatives, John's sports (baseball, basketball, or him golfing with our parents), or just me going off with my mom.  We were always four years apart in school, which was just enough to keep us mostly separate even though we were physically in the same school for a number of years.  Maybe if we'd had something like more trips to bond over, there would be more to look back on together.  Wishful thinking, maybe, but when I see other families post epic vacation photos, I have to think their kids will have a lot to reminisce about later.  

To some degree, for a while I think Craig and I held a similar philosophy as my parents did.  When the boys were little, anything seemed exciting to them, so we focused on fun nearby places and eventually enhanced lacrosse trips.  I always tried to work in other things we could do together to make the most of the opportunity and give Carter a little reward for the long drives and countless games.  It just seemed logical and prudent to cram what we could into a trip so we didn't have to go there again separately down the road at an additional cost.  Our last-minute trip to the Basketball Hall of Fame and our stop at Howe Caverns were both part of lacrosse trips, and they worked out well.  But then I think we started relying on those trips to manufacture opportunities, and we eventually ended up with a summer with just one lacrosse trip.  We did add a couple activities to that (Lake Placid and the boat ride to Boldt Castle), but it was still pretty low-key and I came out of that summer feeling like we probably should have done more.  But before and after that, we had trips to Toronto for Raptors-related things, so I think we felt like one main trip was enough that summer because we'd already spent a lot on those weekend trips.  But when the pandemic hit right after, I felt guilty that our last "free" summer didn't feature much of a vacation.  When pandemic restrictions finally eased, we realized we couldn't take time for granted, and suddenly the kids felt a lot older.  It became clearer that our time to do things as a family was going to go fast, so we vowed to do more after that.  Disney had been the goal, but they still had a lot of restrictions so we settled on the Jersey Shore trip first.  I thought it was a good effort, but it definitely had a couple hiccups. However, as previously established, Jacob travels differently and was left unfulfilled, which was why Disney ended up being so important (and then happened again).  Thankfully we both got significant raises during the pandemic, and then we stopped having to pay private school tuition, so it's made it a bit easier to think a little bigger and not be worried about what something might cost.  I'm still not throwing them on a plane to anywhere exotic (even as I watch a lot of friends take their kids all over), but I'd like to make sure they get a feel for what's out there and feel confident to travel themselves someday.  We're still figuring out what other vacations might look like when Disney is not an option, but hopefully we can do that quickly before another summer passes us by.

Looking back, I honestly think my parents got caught up in being practical and not spoiling us, and maybe never realized the lost opportunity to do something fun and extra memorable together while we still had the chance.  I'm not saying it had to be the Caribbean or Europe, but the fact that my honeymoon was my first time on a plane since that Disney trip when I was nine feels like a lot of time to only have seen things within a reasonable car trip radius.  And even then, there were a lot of places I would have loved to see that I think we could have done frugally.  It just feels like a wasted opportunity to have done a bit more together.  Again, I don't mean for this to be a complaint--I think my parents just did what they thought was the right thing to do to keep us grounded and be careful with our savings.  

But that day a few weeks ago when I was thinking about all of this, it just hit me that after all that we and the boys have been through, it's become even more important to prioritize finding things for us to bond over.  Saving and being financially responsible is also important, and I have always wanted to follow in my parents' footsteps in that way.  That's brought on some guilt when trips or experiences have cost more than I'm comfortable with, but I realized that now that we're in a better place to make memories together as a family, perhaps it's okay to take a little financial hit to make that happen--those memories could be priceless.  We lost a lot of time to dysfunctionality and we only have a few years left to cram in what we can before Jacob is potentially off doing his own thing.  If it's now or never, I'm willing to invest a bit more in the now because we won't get this time back and I don't want to regret it.  Ever since I took that crazy trip to Arizona for the 2007 NLL championship game, I realized that I'd have missed those once-in-a-lifetime memories far more in the long run than I'd miss the $450 I paid for my plane ticket.  Yes, there has to be a balance there--you can't do it all--but that taught me a very valuable lesson that I try to keep in mind now.

This past weekend was one of those times where I previously might have hesitated to act due to cost or practicality, but in this newer era of family togetherness, we went all in.  Craig was set to call his 400th straight game on Saturday in Hamilton, ON, and then we decided to tack on a Blue Jays game in Toronto on Sunday.  Craig's parents came with us, and it really made for a great weekend together.  The boys were pumped since they've been bonding over baseball in recent months, and obviously we were all excited to share this time with Craig's parents, especially since they'd never been to the Blue Jays stadium despite being big baseball fans.  Tickets weren't cheap, obviously, and food and souvenirs have clearly been hit by inflation, but it felt like a really important weekend to just immerse ourselves in the moment and try to let the cost worries go.  I'll admit the $45 Starbucks breakfast for the boys and me gave me pause, but it was Canadian money and I soldiered on.  I know the trip meant a lot to the boys and to Craig, for different reasons, so when you have the privilege to safely ignore the number on the credit card machine, you just do it.  So we did, and I think it created lasting memories for everyone.  

Obviously one or more posts are to come on that, but leading into it, it felt important to document this realization first.  I was truly struck when I realized that my kids have likely done and seen a lot more than I did as a kid.  I feel like I had such a great upbringing, and I guess I always wanted to make sure I did the same for my kids.  But somewhere along the way, I guess we accidentally did more than I ever expected.  Sometimes I still look at friends and feel like I'm not doing enough, but truth be told it's been a pretty amazing ride--even if we unfortunately weren't able to enjoy it the way we should have due to all of our family challenges over the years.  While I truly appreciate the childhood I had and am thankful for all I was able to experience within our frugal existence, I'm grateful for the chance to take a different path with our kids.  

As a side note, I'm extra grateful that I have documented it all here.  Call me crazy--16+ years and 2,098 blog posts later, I probably am--but preserving these memories may be the best thing I've ever done, the ultimate life souvenir.  As another side note, I realized the other day that I should have suspected this tendency when my last hockey game at the old Aud (28 years ago this week!) spawned a 32-page, single-spaced "book" of my memories there.  I didn't want to forget anything then, I guess, and the same holds true now.  Life is a blur if you don't slow down and take it all in, so I've tried.  Yay for digital photos and the magic of the internet to make it all just a little easier.

So, on the subject of memories and souvenirs, I'll close this out with one of my favorite songs, aptly named "Souvenirs".  It's so true and always a good reminder how fast time flies. 

Total Eclipse and the Art

As I mentioned a couple posts ago, our spring break week was a bit lacking, mostly due to the weather and my busy work week.  The only photographic highlight (literally the only pics I took all week aside from a work one) was that Carter and I did manage to color eggs on Tuesday night so we could color the maximum number of eggs and still get him some egg salad for his lunches at home all week.  We played around with crayons (note the two-color R, the orange bunny, and the red one with baseball stitches), rubber bands (the two with white-ish stripes), dripping dye (the bottom left), and purple (they look black here--one was an experiment that accidentally went blacker).

Carter enjoyed his egg salad, both boys have had hard-boiled eggs, and this past weekend I made my beloved creamed eggs and asparagus!  But yeah, if this was a highlight, clearly the week was really uneventful.  It made me realize Jacob really needs a job or more regular training schedule for the summer because he played a LOT of video games.  He tried to get in the gym more but kept getting thwarted.  Carter diligently chipped away at his homework but also got a lot of screen time.  I took off Friday if only because it was the one day I could take off and also because it helps my mental health to not be sitting at my desk working while both boys are home.  I had hoped to do something fun but the way the day went it just didn't work out.  The relaxation was fine, though.

Saturday ended up a lot busier.  Craig was working but had opportunities to stop home and keep Jacob moving.  After lunch Carter and I headed out to the activity I wanted to go to on Friday but didn't work out--the Memorial Art Gallery!  I had been trying to get him there since the fall when their big current exhibit, INFINITY MIRRORED ROOM – LET’S SURVIVE FOREVER, 2017, began.  I loved it when I went in December, and I really wanted Carter to see it.  He had a field trip there last month, but they didn't go into the special exhibit. When I realized there was only a month left before it closed, I decided we had to make it happen.  And bonus points that the weather cooperated since Carter hadn't seen the new additions to the outdoor sculpture garden yet.

We walked to the garden there first, and stopped along the way on this fun bench.  Carter tried to set it up for us to take one picture of him on a plain bench and then flip to the fun one with a surprised expression, like it had changed as he sat, but we couldn't get the positioning right so we'll just leave it at the nice picture!

Carter is a treasure that should be at the end of the rainbow, but we'll go with under it instead!

Selfie time!

Carter decided to have some fun with the wall above when I explained that the faces are meant to be an audience for the performers at the School of the Arts across the street.  He tried to do a comedy routine for me, but ended up postponing it until later when he could gather up some new jokes in his head!

I love the rainbow but it's hard to capture all the colors.  This angle gets close...but I tried!

Inside, we went right to the Infinity exhibit.  I was excited for him to see it.  It's less of a disorienting feeling than the mirrored room in Buffalo, but still sort of surreal and interesting.  He liked the column that you can look inside that is more like the Buffalo experience!

I think he was originally a little unconvinced that this little outing would be more entertaining than the video games he'd been playing all week, but he said the room was worth it, even if it was only a minute long. 

That minute always feels so fast!  After that we were off to the rest of the gallery.  There's always something new that catches my eye, and this trip was no exception.  I really liked this colorful hollyhock painting.

Carter had loved seeing this one on his field trip (along with the pitcher behind him that looks like wood but isn't, and the hat made out of straight pins just out of the frame), and it made me happy since I love Wendell Castle pieces too, and this was also one of my favorites when I first started going to the gallery!  It's wood but looks like a soft pillow getting squished under the chair!

He's pretending to knock on it!

This picture jumped out to me too.  It's a cubist painting from a New York artist who moved to Germany and later had to leave because the Nazis called his work "deranged".  I think it's really cool, from the design to the colors, so it just shows you how messed up their perceptions were back then and how limiting that kind of mindset can be.  I'm happier that this is in the world, you know, so what did the Nazis think it was going to cause?  God forbid there's some sort of interesting, independent thought!

This was in the entry/exit gallery.  It is all beading!  It was stunning but had to be so much work (and probably deceivingly heavy)!

There were a few others that jumped out this time, but I'll leave it at that.  But I just LOVE this picture of Carter from the store.  They had these little magnetic finger puppet people--mostly famous artists but a couple art subjects as well--and Carter's version of the Scream (on his finger) made me laugh!

We went back out to the garden for Carter to do his comedy act, and I made a friend!

 
Carter liked that he could see over the wall along the side.

His jokes were cute, and after that we headed back to the car, just in time to pick up Jacob at home and take him to his basketball game.  He was playing in a local tournament with a team that was half school players and half travel team players.  It was a little odd because it felt like it should had had a school team focus but seemed to lean toward a travel team warm-up based on who was playing most.  Jacob didn't get a lot of points or playing time in the Saturday games.  He was clearly getting back in the game groove after most of a couple months off, and was also nervous about getting injured in a tournament like this where the players aren't necessarily that good--he figured a good portion were just JV players.  It just didn't feel worth it to him, so mentally I don't think he was as all-in as he should have been.  After things didn't go particularly well in those two games on top of his anxiety, Saturday night was a bit of a struggle to talk him down.  Plus the Knighthawks lost a tough game which makes the playoffs look really unlikely, and there was also an odd rumor pertaining to the future of the team that got passed along to Craig and caused some concern (seems to be unfounded for now), so despite the fun afternoon Carter and I had, the evening was not the best for anyone.

Sunday was another full day.  The boys and I did church while Craig caught up on sleep, and immediately once we got home, Jacob went to get some shots up.  We did a quick lunch and then I was off to my monthly coffee date and Jacob and Craig headed to another basketball game.  Jacob still didn't want to play, but apparently a switch flipped because he was ON.  He got 20 points in the first game which launched them into the championship, and he ended up with 21 in that one.  Not only did they win, but he got MVP!  The trophy was a little...lacking...haha.

My coffee date was delightful as usual.  Always so good to catch up with my friend Marcia and vent about our motherhood challenges and all sorts of life stuff.  And I really love the coffee there.  At least if it's overpriced it's a local place we're supporting!  It was so gorgeous outside when I got home that I immediately went out for a 40 minute walk.  It felt great, but I was a little sad inside because we'd had two perfect days and yet the forecast for the next day was cloudy--for the ONE DAY it could not be cloudy or risk ruining a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  Monday was set to be the first full eclipse here in many decades (and the last for just as many), and the clouds were set to ruin it.  It killed me that we had this lovely weather leading up and it was all going to go to crap at just the wrong time.  Even still, my walk was lovely, Craig grilled dinner, and overall we just had a really nice night.

Over the weekend, while we watched endless baseball videos and video game games, Carter worked on this magnetic tile Pirates logo.  He did a really good job, given the slightly awkward medium!  He wanted to do more to the middle but there probably wasn't a good option and we were running low on yellow tiles anyway.

In addition to Monday being the eclipse, it was also supposed to be Jacob's brain study day.  He's been doing this nationwide brain study since he was 10.  He always gets annoyed about going, but he gets paid really well, so now is not the time to drop out!  This year it was a full-day visit with his lengthy MRI, but we made an eclipse day deal to do a half day on-site, get out by midday, and do a Zoom visit for him to finish his surveys later in the week.  I was a little nervous about the whole setup, mostly because they were warning about traffic congestion due to an influx of tourists and I didn't want to somehow get caught in anything and delay getting home.  I'm pretty sure the forecast reduced any risk of issues since a lot of people probably went elsewhere when the forecast tanked.  But I was apparently still overthinking the details of the day because I dreamed about eclipse stuff all night, including timing issues and one where the clouds were coming and going to ruin it.  Up until that point they had been saying we might just have some high clouds, but it seemed like the forecast was sounding worse, so I guess my fears were coming to the surface.

Indeed, it was a little cloudy in the morning, but it only got worse as the day went along and by the time we made it out of the study around 1pm, it was really cloudy, like not a glimpse of sun.  That did not bode well.  Totality was around 3:20.  I took a half day from work to account for the time I was doing study surveys and for watching the eclipse, but it was pretty clear that it wasn't worth watching the eclipse during the hour prior when the eclipse began, because you couldn't even see where the sun was supposed to be.  No glasses were needed, either.  Around 3pm I went outside to keep an eye on things.  The clouds were looking really funky.  I honestly couldn't tell if they were getting thicker, or if the half blocked sun was making it slightly darker.

Around that time I started watching the Cedar Point webcams because they were also in the path of totality.  Their weather was better and they were doing an event, and I was curious what the cameras would show.  They seemed to have the light cloud coverage we were originally supposed to have, and it was pretty clear that the sun was out.  They were hitting totality around 3:12, so I kept watching the cameras, and sure enough, the horizon got sunset-ish and you could see lights popping on around the park.  Suffice it to say these do not do it justice because I saw footage from someone who was there and it got really dark--and, of course, they had a full view of the sun and the corona.  Lucky ducks.

Notice the parking lot lights and the light reflecting off the concrete near the entrance

The pavilion lights behind the ferris wheel were really noticeable here

The ride lights all started popping on, but then, all of a sudden, I realized the sun and shadows were back and their eclipse was over!  But just around that time, the boys had been out playing baseball in the yard, and we realized it was almost our turn!  It was definitely getting darker but again, it was hard to know if it was just the clouds getting thicker like an approaching storm would do, or if the sun really was getting blocked more. 

This was right as things were getting noticeable and the street lights popped on.  Ignore the baseball banter...




In this video you can almost see how quickly the darkness came on.  It may be partly how the camera adjusted to the lighting, but it pretty much felt that fast and was darker than it looked.
 

The real darkness came on so suddenly, it looked like a sunset but the speed was nothing like a normal sunset.  We couldn't believe how dark it got.  These pictures don't do it justice, but you can tell based on street lights and house lights how dark it was.

The sky to the east stayed a bit brighter and was so dramatic!  It was gorgeous.

This video seems to do it more justice, but again, ignore the weird banter.  Jacob kept being a goober and asking where it was--I'm not entirely sure if he was joking or, like he insisted, really thought it was just going to pop up out of nowhere despite the clouds.  The neighbors across the street were the only other people we saw out.  We did hear fireworks somewhere nearby, which apparently was a pretty common thing, as I heard a number of other people elsewhere say they heard fireworks, too. 

Craig got this picture of Carter as I was documenting everything from the porch...but again, no glasses were needed so he was just needlessly blinding himself!

And then, just as quickly as it came, the horizon began to lighten again, and before you knew it it was back to being a normal afternoon.

It was such a weird, surreal, crazy experience, and we didn't even get to see the best part.  But maybe darkness was even darker because we didn't have even that little bit of sunlight.  It was a little more of a bummer that we got shut out because Buffalo had some clearing just as it was happening so a lot of people got a couple pictures of the sliver of sun peeking through the clouds.  Had we just traveled and gone to the party we were invited to, we might have seen it.  Boo.  Other areas had some great views, and even just seeing a bunch of videos from different gatherings here was pretty neat.  But it's sad that we had this literal once-in-a-lifetime thing and it was only half the experience because we had one half-day cloudy period...despite two perfect days before, the sun reemerging three hours too late that evening, and the next day being pristine again.  Ridiculous.  I said to Carter the next morning that God must have had some good reason to bring in clouds so perfectly placed in that timeslot...maybe someone who needed to keep their sight to fulfill their future destiny but was currently destined to look up and blind themselves!  That seems silly, but I mean, what were the odds?  No, it's not usually sunny here so I was fully expecting clouds, but given the amazing weather that surrounded it, it was such a bummer.  Regardless, the experience was really amazing and I'm glad we got what we got.  It makes me want to seek out more, but there are none even close for like a hundred years, and given what people went through this time with traffic, inflated prices, hotel cancellations, and weather, it doesn't seem like a great idea.  Maybe if you build it around some other trip so it's just a tiny fraction of the overall fun?  I don't know.  I wish it would have worked out better, but what an experience.

So, the excitement of the eclipse died down and Tuesday was back to normal for everyone after 11 days of no school.  It wasn't easy, but we made it.  I'm not sure if I'm surprised or not that the week is somewhat dragging.  On one had, we had an easy, somewhat distracting Monday, which should have made it feel like a freebie, and yet by Tuesday it felt like the week had already been a long one--to the point I really questioned Tuesday morning what day it was.  However, we have a really big weekend coming up so I suppose it's not surprising that we're all counting down the (very slow) minutes...which always makes a week drag.  Hurry up, Friday!

World War Truce?

I hate to put this in writing because it'll probably change immediately, but I feel like I'd be doing this blog a disservice if I didn't mention that the eternal battle between the boys really seems to have hit a much more peaceful era.  They're actually trying to be friends, people!  

Baseball has probably been the biggest turning point.  Carter wanted to play it, Jacob wanted to help and really got back into it himself, they both wanted to play MLB The Show on Xbox, and both enjoy watching YouTube videos about baseball.  Craig has provided the assist with helping them with their ball hitting sessions--driving them to fields as needed and generally keeping the peace when Jacob's throws go off course.  It's given them something in common and a couple common goals to work toward, which I think is extra important for getting Jacob on board.  

That's not to say they don't argue anymore--they definitely do.  They have plenty of disagreements on what to watch or what to do with their video game team.  Jacob still makes comments unfairly critiquing Carter and putting him down for a variety of reasons, but he insists he's mostly joking with him.  I keep explaining that those jokes only fly when you have a certain mutual trust, but I think he's realizing the ways he needs to improve that, and things have gotten significantly better overall.  I think I probably yell at them more these days for things they're doing while getting along--like things they shouldn't do in the house or risking injury by playing something where they're not evenly matched--but I guess that beats having one kid fully terrorizing another.  

Not long ago I came back across blog posts from our trip to Toronto in 2016, which was at a time where their relationship was getting even worse.  Carter was big enough to actively bother Jacob, and Jacob was old enough to be a full-on jerk.  I even mentioned in one post how Jacob said something about how bugging Carter actually made Jacob feel happier, which pretty much sums up how much of a battle we had on our hands back then--one happy-go-lucky kid who was constantly squashed by a bully big brother who had zero guilt about it.  Times have definitely changed, and this might be one of the first times in my entire parenthood experience, at least since Jacob started acting up around age two, that I feel like I'm not constantly on edge.  Not only that, but I swore off vacations for a bit after that one, and now vacations are generally times where they're even easier to manage.  It's quite the switch and a welcome relief.

As a whole I can see Jacob maturing in a lot of ways.  He's still a mess with cleaning up his space, being proactive with his homework, managing his food making and eating, and getting ready on time, but there are certain things he says and does that surprise me with their maturity.  It's almost like all of the stuff we've been trying to hammer home to him for years is finally clicking.  He's being nicer to his brother and realizing they CAN get along.  He actually enjoyed hanging out with my extended family on Good Friday, after years of being bored there, because he realized talking to people is way more fun.  He seems to be taking his faith more seriously, including considering how it could impact his relationships and where he wants to go to college.  Speaking of college, he seems to have a pretty good path planned out at the moment.  He wants to go to school for physical therapy, which would be an amazing fit for him, I think.  Lord knows he's done enough of it over the past year, and it fits right in with him wanting to stay fit and active once his basketball days are done.  He's back on his "I want to go to Oral Roberts" kick from last year, which may be in part because his coach apparently has a connection there, which makes it seemingly more doable.  I can't say the thought of traveling to Oklahoma again (let alone regularly) thrills me, but he'll probably change his mind few dozen more times before we get to that point.  Still, it's nice to see him taking something of substance seriously.  

He's supposed to be going to the prom this spring, as his coach recruited him to be a date for someone.  Who that person is has changed a couple times and is currently up in the air, but it still seems to be happening.  It's ironic because he pretty much swore he'd never do stuff like that, and here he is doing it as a freshman.  We're at a bit of an impasse, though, because he wants to buy a suit and I think he should rent this year.  He seems to be very close to being done growing, so I'd rather he rent now and get the suit when he'll fit in it for an extended period of time, ideally closer to when he might need it for interviews, another prom, or something else important.  We'll see who wins that battle.  He still insists he might not go to his own prom, but I keep telling him it's fun to go with a group of friends.  He seems to have it in his head that that means he wouldn't have a date or something, like it would be a whole group going stag, but hopefully we can clarify that.  He has gravitated toward the older kids at his school at the moment--he says his own grade is super immature and annoying--so maybe he won't find a group he's comfortable with, but I hope he can find a good one for once those kids all graduate.  He seems pretty confident about being smart about it and avoiding a lot of pitfalls, but it still makes me nervous since a lot of these kids don't have the best home life.  

I think part of the peaceful streak here is actually thanks to missing four days of school before break and having a nice respite from basketball.  It has probably allowed his anxiety to chill out a bit, makes him less snippy with us, and gives us fewer things to battle him over.  I might still have my work cut out for me on Monday when we need to go to his annual brain study appointment.  He gets paid well, but he always resists going.  It'll fortunately be a shorter day than usual because of the eclipse (we have an evening Zoom appointment Thursday to finish it off), but it's never a favorite thing.  We'll be more than halfway through the full study after this year, which is pretty crazy.  Heck, I remember thinking at the time of the last partial eclipse here in 2017 that my kids would be SO OLD by the time we got the full eclipse in 2024, and boom...here we are.  I didn't realize at the time that about half of it would be spent in a pandemic, so I suppose that once again warped time a bit more than would be expected, but it's amazing how quickly we got here.  

Anyway, I know things could ramp up again next week when he's back in school, but I'm enjoying the peace for now.  It's also a good reminder that when stress and anxiety aren't creeping up on him, he can be a pretty darn pleasant kid so we should always strive to uncover that again when it gets buried.  In the meantime I'm just amazed at how much they're working together and spending time together.  I almost never thought it would happen, since Jacob's frustration with his brother's mere existence and his perception of our favoritism toward Carter seemed to be pretty deeply rooted.  It still flares up once in a while when we give him grief or call him out on going a little too far with his comments.  You can see him go from 0 to 60 very quickly so it's still a sore spot, for sure.  But he seems to be realizing his brother wasn't simply put on this earth to make him miserable, and just as he learned with talking to my family, if he puts the effort in, it can even be a good thing.  Little steps, but we're getting there.

Carter seems to be enjoying the camaraderie as well, and takes his part in their video game exploits very seriously.  He's also trying hard on the real baseball front.  I think it's taking some effort for Jacob to stay patient with him, but it's been a good group effort.  Carter got his team for the summer, by the way--he's going to be an Expo, which suits us just fine!  I was an Expos fan way back during my obsession with all things Quebec, and Jacob went through an Expos phase for a while, too--possibly after we went to a minor league game for the affiliate of the Nationals, who were previously the Expos, and Jacob got a hat.  We somehow make all of our different favorite teams work here--Craig is still a Braves fan, Jacob is a Pirates fan, and Carter is a Blue Jays fan--but as long as they're not playing one another we are all supportive!  And lucky for Carter, we'll be seeing his team soon!  Hopefully this trip to Toronto is much more successful than the one eight years ago!  And I have a feeling this summer will have a lot more baseball than the past few!

So, anyway, this blog post has been about 11 years in the making, but I finally got to write it.  I'll pray and cross my fingers and toes that it sticks, but for this moment at least, I'm so grateful for a bit of a truce in the endless sibling wars.  

Back to Easter

Last year, Jacob and I had to travel over Easter.  After missing the holiday--or parts of it--over the course of the pandemic, missing it again was such a bummer.  I just wanted a normal Easter weekend like I used to have, and it was going to have to wait another year.  I had to miss Good Friday church, the return of the Journey through Good Friday at my parents' church, Easter church, Easter breakfast, Easter foods, and all of the family time.  It absolutely broke my heart, even though the Oklahoma City adventure was sort of interesting and exciting in its own way.  It barely felt like Easter at all.  I tried to watch Good Friday church and worked a bit on a mix CD of Easter-oriented songs (I did one years ago but had slowly made notes of songs for a second one over the last many years and transferred them all to my computer before the trip), but our Sunday felt very un-Easter-y aside from our "fancy" Outback dinner.  I definitely felt a loss missing all of those things.

This year I was eager for Easter again, but originally we were supposed to be traveling again.  But with his injuries I had a bit more hope we might miss that weekend.  Fortunately (I guess?), Jacob ended up taking the spring off.  I mean, the injuries that led to it sucked (and we just hit the year anniversary of when his bad run of injuries and associated struggles began), but I think he just needed a break for his mental and physical health.  And it allows us to do some fun things instead of those trips, so it's working out nicely in more ways than one.  I will say, however, that this Lent didn't feel particularly notable.  It was too early, and we just didn't seem to have a lot of interaction with it.  I used to try to make it to church more often during Lent, maybe Sunday sermons usually mentioned it more, or maybe I was just more proactive finding Bible studies or something.  Regardless, this year half the time I forgot it was Lent and I think it left us a little mentally unprepared for the holiday.  Aside from having to make plans like food and Easter baskets, it almost didn't feel real and I just felt like it wasn't hitting quite like it used to.  Maybe that's because my faith has evolved and even struggled a bit over the past few years, but either way, I just wanted to enjoy my Easter.

Usually we go up for Good Friday with my family and then usually we have to come home for something on Saturday.  This year we didn't have anything specific, and once we found out Craig's larger family gathering would be on Saturday due to his brother's family heading to Florida for spring baseball, it just made sense to stay all weekend and have Craig meet us on Sunday since he had to work on Saturday.

Friday ended up being a scramble.  I had two nights that week where I had work responsibilities, including Thursday, and after work I had to go to Wegmans for last-minute ingredients, too.  I tried to get packed up as much as I could manage on Thursday night, but I spent quite a bit of time just prepping food--boiling eggs and making croutons--and by the time I was done, I was tired.  Friday morning I had a work meeting even though I took the day off, and that set me back further.  I still had more food prep to work on, and in the end we didn't get going nearly as soon as I wanted to, which meant we had to miss the Journey through Good Friday at my parents' church.  I haven't done it in years at this point, and it's always such a meaningful, immersive experience that gets you right into the Easter weekend mindset.  I was very sad to miss it--again--because I really felt like that would be my Lent catch-up.  I was sad and frustrated, but I tried to get past that as much as I could by focusing on my original Easter mix CD during the car ride.  We got to my parents with enough time to spare to boil Jacob's dinner pasta and get my chicken wing dip ready to go to Uncle Jeff's.

Prunes and Noodles is the long-standing family tradition that my grandma did for years, resurrected by my cousin many years ago, and still held at the same house, although now it's my uncle's.  Egg noodles, buttery croutons, and stewed plums may not sound like much of a meal, but it's an old German tradition for Good Friday.  I'm not daring enough for the plums, although the older generation is all about them.  I will put some juice on mine, and even Carter tried it this year.  But I filled up on all the appetizers--veggies, cheese, wing dip, and deviled eggs--not to mention a glass of wine, and it made for a very nice evening with family.  It's always nice to catch up with everyone, see the littles, and get a good meal.  

We had to leave by a little after 6:30 to make it to church on time.  Good Friday church at my parents' church is always very nice.  They do a tenebrae service where candles and sanctuary lights are extinguished gradually throughout the service as the Good Friday story progresses.  The climax and peak of darkness is always this loud bang (which I am now fully prepared for) which is (I think) supposed to represent the tomb door being closed.  The best visual is when we lay "sin strips" of red cloth over a giant cross and they stand it up, now fully draped in red.  It's very moving.  We had a relaxing rest of the night back at home watching some basketball, and prepared for a busy Saturday.

I had suggested to the boys that we go to Kith and Kin, the gluten-free restaurant and bakery in Lockport, for brunch and so we could get Jacob some treats to get him through the church's Easter breakfast on Sunday.  We've always wanted to go back after a good dinner there a couple years ago, and just never got a chance.  They didn't open until 11 so we had to wait out the morning, but we survived.  Luckily we got there a little early and were among the first in the door.  The bakery line didn't slow down for a solid hour after we got there!  We all really enjoyed our meals.  We got an appetizer of pretzel bites because Jacob never gets anything like that, and they were really good!

Forgot to take a pic until we were almost done!

Jacob had French toast, sausage, and eggs.  The eggs were apparently much better than I make (ha) and the French toast looked and tasted amazing on good French bread!

I got breakfast tacos.  This was when only one of three was left, but they were also really good--ham and sausage with cheese, peppers, onions, eggs and tomatoes.

Carter got a breakfast sandwich.  I think he expected different bread, but it looked amazing and he said it was really good!

We picked up a couple muffins for Jacob on the way out, which we figured would supplement whatever they had for breakfast at church.  After that we crammed in a stop at the outlets.  They ended up being busier than expected so we couldn't wait in the eternally long line at Nike, but Jacob did get a pair of pants at Adidas, which is a feat at his height.  We went back to my parents' after that and I rushed through getting deviled eggs ready so we could head out to Craig's family gathering--minus Craig.

That stop was once again a bit awkward due to ongoing family issues--essentially Craig's parents were not involved, partly because they went to a Bisons' game and partly because there's a lot of tension in the house.  Our sister-in-law's parents and sister's family were there, along with some of the same friends from Thanksgiving.  Our nephews were not there because the younger two were in Florida for Varsity Baseball, and the oldest one was driving down there.  We were getting together on Saturday because Craig's brother and his wife were heading down there as well on Sunday.  Our niece and her boyfriend were there, and they have a new addition, this adorable puppy Buddy!

I'll admit we spent a good chunk of the party on the living room couch watching baseball.  There was a lot of activity in the kitchen and it was honestly hard to get a word in edgewise so I just hung out with the boys after getting in some initial chats with everyone.  It got a little rough around the time we ate because our sister-in-law's niece is pretty profoundly disabled--a brain injury around birth plus autism--and she ended up having a meltdown for about an hour or more.  I suspect all the noise and people didn't help--it was a lot for even a neurotypical person.  Her family, including her older brother, spent a lot of time taking turns trying to help her, and eventually she came back out and ate for a bit.  Craig's parents got back probably 45 minutes before we left and were immediately dispatched to their bedroom.  At least we'd see them tomorrow.  Eventually we felt like we'd served our purpose, so to speak, so we said our goodbyes and went back to my parents' house.

My parents had just gotten a new card game their friend had told them about, and I somewhat-reluctantly agreed to play (to be fair, I had a headache).  There was a learning curve, but it ended up being a lot of fun.  Even the boys loved it!   

I have no idea why my ones are upside-down.  Probably just how I flipped them but apparently I'm blinder than I thought!

The game was interesting.  It's called SKYJO, and you receive 12 cards face-down.  You turn over two, lowest total starts.  You can draw a card to replace any of your cards, or simply discard one you have, with the goal to ultimately have the lowest total.  The challenge is that you eventually need to flip over those face-down ones, and sometimes you lose a good card in the process, which the next person can pick up.  There's some strategy as you can discard three cards if you get three of the same in a row, but you have to be careful because you don't want to get stuck with big cards or accidentally do that with good ones!  We learned a lot of lessons rather quickly!  We liked the pace and it was a nice mix of skill, strategy, and luck--even Carter picked it up pretty quickly.  We had a lot of laughs and ultimately it was a fun way to spend the night.

Of course, I remembered just as the boys headed up to bed that I still had work to do--Easter baskets and eggs needed to be attended to!  My mom sat guard at the stairs as I assembled eggs and baskets and hid everything.  We were in such a rush in the morning that the boys actually didn't realize until we were at church that they had that to go back to!  Speaking of church, we miraculously made it on time and it was another very nice service.  In my mind nothing will match the sheer euphoria of my childhood Easter services (although that might have been the sleep deprivation from 6:30 sunrise services that sometimes coincided with the time change)--those crammed-full services, flowers everywhere, full chorus of traditional hymns--it was truly outstanding even before I understood what true worship was, and even better once I did.  Our church now usually puts on a pretty nice service as well, but in the COVID era the extreme fullness of the sanctuary on Easter sometimes makes me nervous, so my parents' church felt like a good compromise between the two.

Easter breakfast was delicious--really good eggs, a bunch of donuts and pastries, a yogurt parfait station, and fruit.  Even Jacob fared pretty well, though even with a supplemental muffin we stopped at Starbucks on the way back to grab a couple more things.  The boys eagerly looked for their baskets and eggs, and I think the bunny did a pretty good job hiding them because they really had to hunt for a few!  Jacob's big gift was $25 to spend at our gluten-free bakery, and Carter got a bunch of non-candy things including a couple Fortnite guys, a "test" Spirograph (I wanted to get him a real one but figured I'd get a dollar store one to see if he liked it) with a multi-colored pen, and a balloon dog fidget to add to his desk collection of fidgets. 

We had a nice pork tenderloin lunch with my parents, and then the boys headed out to try to play some baseball.  It was a pleasant day, not super warm, but sunny.  My duty was to try to find flowers for Craig's mom and sister-in-law, so I headed to Wegmans.  Just as I got there the boys called asking for guidance to a different field because the first one they tried was tarped.  I gave them some instructions and went to shop.  Unfortunately I was a bit of a fail.  They didn't have the ones I was looking for--primarily the bulb flowers like daffodils, hyacinths, or calla lilies, or even hydrangeas like I saw at our Wegmans earlier in the week.  It was extra frustrating they pretty much only had cut flowers because I wanted something that would last until the Florida crew returned.  I gave up for the moment and met the boys at field attempt #3.

I made myself useful and tracked down Jacob's home run ball (!), about 20 feet beyond the fence.  It's a softball field but that's still pretty impressive.

Carter is doing what he can to get ready for his season, which should get going in the next 2-3 weeks.  He's improving, so hopefully he'll fit right in when the time comes.  Oh, and I wanted to share this very cool artwork he did at school featuring the Pirates logo.
 

We wrapped up back at my parents' and headed to Hamburg for the rest of the day.  We did park my car right near the Thruway so we could all go together in one vehicle, and we stopped at the Hamburg Wegmans on the way and had a bit better luck with flowers there.  The Florida crew hadn't left yet when we got there but were busy packing up.  We watched some baseball and then watched the Duke basketball game with Craig's parents.  We had a little bit of a flashback to last Easter as we tried to figure out dinner, because it turned out all of our usual options were closed.  Jacob and I did the same scramble last year in Oklahoma trying to find anything he could eat (we ended up at Five Guys getting him a lettuce-wrapped hot dog, which got me quite the look from the cashier), and this year felt pretty similar, just done from one more comfortable spot on the couch rather than endlessly driving from place to place.  We eventually settled for Saturday's leftovers.  We also picked up Slurpees on the way home, which was a helpful boost to get through the rest of the drive.  It wasn't too bad, all things considered, because normally that drive feels like a haul after a tiring weekend.  We did a bunch of unpacking upon arrival, although five days later I think the Easter baskets are still sitting in a bag in the dining room.  Oh well, that's what THIS weekend is for, I guess.  It's been a pretty uneventful break week for the boys because I had a couple on-campus work events and could only take off today.  Even worse, Monday was the only decent day, so they went to hit balls then and have pretty much been stuck in the house ever since due to constant rain and even snow.  It's been a brutal run.  Next week should be better, between the weather, the eclipse, and a big weekend next weekend!  Hopefully lots more to write about then!