News & Notes, Post Excitement Edition

The big downside to a fun weekend away from home is always coming back to all the things you didn't do all weekend.  There's the mental letdown, for sure, where you have this high from a big adventure and have to come back to reality, and then reality is that there's cleaning, laundry, cooking, and whatever else waiting to be done.  All of it should have been spread across a two-day weekend, but instead, none of it gets done and now you have the decision to try to cram it into evenings all week or wait for the next weekend.  As much as I'd like to go the evening route, usually there's enough kid activities, late dinners, and trips to Wegmans to fill the time sufficiently, and by the time those things are done, I'm lucky if I can cram in a much-needed workout before collapsing in my chair.  That's especially true now that baseball season has started, although I guess we got "lucky" with last week because we had rainouts for Carter's first three practices.  Sad for him, of course, but it made the week easier for sure.  I suppose I'd prefer lovely weather over our current garbage, even if it comes with baseball commitments, but last week especially, I'll take the breaks when I can get them.  

My to do list for the weekend had a dozen things on it, ranging from taking out the garbage and recycling, doing a couple loads of laundry, changing out my car CDs, and changing our sheets, to taking down the Easter decorations (finally), switching a few seasonal things around in my closet, unclogging a slow sink, and mixing up my "custom" cereal (since everyone keeps discontinuing the ones I like, I'm creating a combo of my own).  I also needed to run a couple errands and do an overdue cleaning of my whole house.  It was intimidating, but I like writing out the list on my phone and checking things off as I go.  It keeps me on track and feels pretty satisfying.

Craig had a two-game weekend to wrap up the season--one away, one home.  He left for Atlanta on Thursday, so it was just me and the boys for a couple days.  It wasn't bad other than running Jacob to his training session and his Saturday tournament, but I managed to hit up three stores during his training session to buy him some food and knock a couple errands off my to do list.  As for the Knighthawks, they only had a 3.13% chance of making the playoffs going into the weekend, but then they won their first game on Friday.  Craig was back in town by early Saturday afternoon, but had to work for most of the day to get ready for Sunday's game.  Also on Saturday, Jacob had to play in a local tournament with his school team.  Once again he wasn't thrilled about it, but he did better than he did early in the last one.  I thought he had 11 points in the first game, but he insists he had more.  He also had 11 in the second game.  They lost the first one but won the second.  

I pretty much came home and slept for the rest of the afternoon.  I woke up oddly tired and feeling like I might be coming down with something.  Luckily I had gotten a couple things checked off my to-do list the night before, but resting for that long put me in quite the hole for the rest of the weekend.  I was still pretty tired later, but I managed to make dinner and work through a couple more things.  Craig finally got home later that night and was keeping his eyes on other NLL games because there were a couple things that had to happen in order to give the Knighthawks a chance to make the playoffs.  Sure enough, against all odds, those things happened and the Knighthawks just had to win Sunday to clinch the last spot.  On paper it shouldn't have been too hard, but it was to a team the reincarnated Knighthawks had never beaten.

On Sunday Jacob's first game was at 12:30.  If they won, they'd play again at 2:50.  That was a bit of a bummer because the Knighthawks game was at 3pm and I had wanted to go to it.  That became even more important when we found out that morning that Craig was getting honored in some way during the pregame season-ending awards ceremony.  But I just wasn't sure it was possible.  Jacob's team ended up going out to a huge lead in the first game, so I figured it was a done deal, but the other team came back and made it close--even took the lead for a bit.  That gave me a tiny bit of hope I might make the game, but I still wasn't sure timing would work, and losing a game like that would have been awful.  Fortunately, they saved face and came back and won.  As much as I wanted to go to the game, that was a bit of a relief since this was essentially his school team and we didn't need a loss like that haunting them next season.  We had to make a quick transition to the next venue closer to home.  I decided that I was going to drop him off, run to the arena, stay for just the ceremony, and then go back to Jacob's game.  That meant I went from the city to Greece and then immediately back to the city.  I felt bad that neither kid could be there.  Carter didn't want to go to the Sunday games so he was at home, and I knew I wouldn't have time to get him without risking missing the ceremony.  Jacob wanted to see it too, but obviously playing in the championship was important.  I decided that it was better for me to get there and take a video so we all could see it, and at least the boys were "even" and neither got to be there.  It was a little bit of a risk, but I decided it was worth it.  

I got to the arena using my backroads method to avoid parking lot traffic, and luckily had a parking pass for the arena lot since the lot was otherwise full.  They parked me in a weird spot and assured me I wouldn't get stuck there--because obviously I couldn't get trapped as that would ruin my plan to get back to Jacob.  I ran into the arena, got through security and ticketing (thank goodness the e-ticket worked this time), and sat in my assigned seat for a bit waiting for things to start.

I sat there thinking about this team, how things have changed since I worked there, how team intros used to be one of the most exciting things ever, and wondered about all of the rumors that have been surrounding the team (and really all the Pegula-owned teams) near the end of the season.  Knighthawks games aren't what they once were, but it would be a shame if all this ever went away.  I guess on the heels of the last game, it just sort of hit me that if it (sort of) happened to Toronto, it could happen almost anywhere.  And technically it already did in Rochester, but the league made it work for us to stay, even if all the history did go to Halifax.  And you know, Craig may not be famous but he's pretty much officially a legend in this league 20-some years after becoming the Knighthawks broadcaster.  It's pretty nuts.

Once they started the ceremony, I realized I needed to go to a different spot, so I walked to about midfield and captured this video:

And with that, I had accomplished my mission.  I stopped recording and immediately ran into a former sports co-worker of ours right at that moment, which was fun, because she could appreciate that moment for both Craig and me.  I hung out for the opening faceoff and hoped to see the first goal, but gave up after a minute or two and walked to the car.  The crossing guard was confused that I was leaving so soon, and the parking attendant was amused as well, but took the time to make sure I was not blocked in and was able to leave, which was nice of him.  I listened to Craig's broadcast on my way back to Greece, and got to Jacob's game at halftime.  Apparently they jumped out to a giant early lead but gradually lost it, and they were down by maybe 10 or 12.  I asked the other parents how Jacob was doing and no one really gave me any indication either way.  He hit a couple threes while I was there, and the team made a heck of a comeback.  But a couple botched plays, missed free throws, and the inability to stop the big guys on the other team doomed them and they lost by 4.  When I asked him after the game how many he had, he said 31!  I wasn't (and still am not) sure how that's possible, since I only saw six points and no one indicated he was shooting the lights out before I got there.  But his coach said the book said 31, so I have no idea!  So I guess it was more of a bummer they lost because he definitely would have gotten the MVP again.

Back at home I listened to the game and the Knighthawks were CRUSHING it!  They ended up winning 12-3!  The three goals against was ironic considering the rough, low-scoring outing the prior weekend, but it set a team record for lowest goals against.  They also had a player set the one-game goal-scoring record with seven.  It was crazy--from a 3% chance to a playoff spot!  And guess who they're playing?  Back to Toronto/Hamilton we go!  We decided to go to Hamilton, mostly to save the boys from another weekend with Craig away, and then go to the Bisons game in Buffalo on Sunday.  We thought about going to Toronto again, but that seemed extreme to go again so soon, especially since we'd rather hit up some other games this summer if we can.  I'm hoping for IKEA this time...and to not forget Carter's suitcase.  My parents are meeting us up there, too.

Anyway, this is the plaque Craig was awarded.  Not too shabby, eh?

I did a reasonable job of getting through the rest of my to-do list items other than cleaning.  I tried to get to more this week, but only got so far.  Evenings are hard for me--it's such a battle between getting through dinner, deciding when to cram in a grocery run or a workout, and still getting some downtime before I'm nodding off in my chair, which happens way too much lately.  I was happy to get my decor straightened out over the weekend.  I always have an interesting spring transition once the Easter stuff comes down.  I never like to put away my Polish eggs because they're so pretty, so I came up with this little setup:

I decided they'd go nicely with my new green Aldi vase and some daffodils, and then figured if I was going that route I'd bring the St. Patty's gnomes back out because they're actually just green with the colored pom-poms, so it could all be springy again together.  I think it works and all the color makes me happy.  Did I mention I moved the stair-step cube shelf that was in Carter's room down to the living room?  It actually fit nicely in the corner with the IKEA chair I brought up from the basement and provides some extra toy storage and decor display areas.  I put a glass bowl of the rest of the eggs there along with another Aldi vase (they were like $6 and so pretty!).  I went for the blue vase and fell in love with the green, too.  So the green's on the mantel and the blue has white flowers and blue hydrangeas in it in the white cube shelf and looks so adorable there.  Funny how those little things can make you happy!

The boys handled the first baseball practice on Monday and I got quite a bit done while they were gone, like vacuuming most of the house and doing a lot of other cleanup.  Carter enjoyed his first practice and it seems that he fits in pretty well skill-wise, but Jacob suspects it's going to be a long season.  They lost another practice to cold, gross weather on Wednesday and now he's missing one this weekend while we're gone, but he's practicing plenty at home.  They're really doing everything they can to get Carter ready, so I'm hopeful he'll enjoy it.  

The weather has continued to be a problem, though finally Friday the temperature broke, even if rain continues to mess things up a bit.  We actually had two nights of frost this week and I forgot to cover my hydrangea the first night so now it has some damage after all the hard work protecting it a couple weeks ago.  Not a total loss but we'll see how it recovers.  It's just been so cold and breezy.  Our flowering tree lasted only about two weeks.  It's been such a strange spring, very up and down, but hopefully the tide is turning.

Otherwise, I have my busiest week of the year at work right now, and I'm battling some random aches and pains.  I swear it's early menopause stuff (either that or I'm dying, or my body has just plain lost its mind).  I think I have a hip flexor issue (hurts most in the first 30 seconds when I get up from a chair, but a long walk is fine) and possibly shoulder impingement that makes my upper arm burn for about 15 seconds after I reach the wrong way (usually behind me).  All that on top of having really tight, sore shoulders, which isn't new but has been bothering me more lately.  I also can't sleep that well at the end of the night, in part because I wake up around 4:30-5:30 and struggle to find a position where my hip, arm, and shoulders aren't bothering me.  It's tiring to deal with, but I suppose it could still be worse.  I can function, but it's frustrating.  After sleeping in a different bed for a couple nights and having the hip hurt less, now I'm suspecting our mattress, which is way overdue to be replaced.  Not to mention not sitting at a desk all day probably helps.  Oh, the fun of getting older.

Anyway, we had another fun weekend to look forward to this weekend, so that was enough to keep pushing through a tiring week.  More on that soon...

Coolest Doubleheader Ever - Part 2

Sunday morning in Hamilton was an early one given our late night, but we were up and out by about 9:30.  We were going to have an early lunch so we just grabbed quick stuff at Starbucks before loading in the van - egg bites for Jacob, a couple pastries for Carter, and an erroneous coffee order for me...apparently I'm incapable of ordering pre-caffeine?  It wasn't what I was craving, but it was fine.  We had a rather unfortunate discovery as we were planning things out in the lobby, as we had been planning on eating at the Wahlburgers down the street from the stadium but found out it actually recently closed!  That was a big bummer for so many reasons--it was convenient, good for Jacob, and isn't really easy for us to get to otherwise.  So, we decided we probably didn't have a choice but to do Pizza Pizza again, just to make sure Jacob had something in his stomach in the event the stadium didn't have much for him.  Oh, well.  

We had another unfortunate moment a few minutes later.  As we were pulling out of our parking spot in the very tight parking garage, we heard a terrible noise.  Turns out there was a pillar in Craig's blind spot and we just rubbed up against it between the tail light and back window.  The damage wasn't terrible--annoying but nothing that was a trip-derailer, thankfully.  Better than hitting another vehicle, too, but it stunk.  Luckily Craig seemed to shake it off quickly and the drive into Toronto wasn't too bad.  I enjoyed seeing the QEW for the first time in years because there's plenty to see and it's always evolving.  Traffic didn't ramp up until we hit the Gardiner Expressway, which is always crazy.  We got a little off-course because I have no idea where the GPS was set for (I sat in the back, remember?), but I finally asked where we were going and got us back on track.  We had a nice little downtown tour, though.

We parked and headed to Pizza Pizza.  This was my meal view...it may not have been super warm outside, but that sun was hot!

After lunch we started the walk up to the stadium, and I'm so annoyed this one is blurry because it turned out pretty cool.  I probably damaged my camera after all those eclipse warnings, but it seems ok.

This is better, but not quite as dramatic.  

Inside our gate there were really cool windows.  Look close and you can see all the baseball players! 

The boys have been having this weird obsession with getting baseballs.  They want more to play with in the yard because store ones apparently aren't the same, even though in theory a major league ball would be a souvenir.  Our pregame activities mostly revolved around strategizing the ball situation.  But, we did take a detour when a couple Jays were signing and Carter got a store-bought ball autographed.

That's Carter in the jersey

Carter only ended up getting one autograph because the other player down in that area was more well-known and was mobbed, but he was happy with that one.  We wandered around the stadium, which has changed pretty dramatically from other times we've been there.  They did a full renovation over a couple years, and I think at least one of our past trips we were limited to the upper deck concourse because that's where our seats were, so I'm not sure what existed pre-renovation that we hadn't seen.  I also don't know if that policy still exists.  I will say the stadium looked great with a bigger set of scoreboards and a lot more concourse activities than I remember.

View of the visiting bullpen from a concourse bar

Cool mural, and Carter with his signed ball

The full mural

They had a bunch of these player photos on the concourse walls so of course I grabbed Carter with his favorite!

We stopped in the store to get Craig and Jacob appropriate attire, and finally headed down to our seats.  The view was pretty great.

It was really fun getting Craig's parents there since they're big Blue Jays fans now after being Bisons season ticket holders and seeing players come up through the farm system.  They had never been to this stadium so it was neat giving them that experience. 

We were quite disappointed that the team store didn't have any stuffed Ace mascots.  The best we could do was to see him (and the junior version) on the screen.

The game production was a step up thanks to the new scoreboards and all of the fancy lighting that's been added since our last time there, but I think we generally thought it was a notch below Pittsburgh.

Jacob was (of course) unimpressed as a whole, and I have to agree that outdoor baseball just hits different and the fans feel more into it.  But having a climate controlled game was a bonus since it was still a bit cool out.  I was still hoping they might open the roof near the end since it was sunny, but no luck.  Not much compares to the CN Tower view from the seats.

Carter loved seeing his favorite player get on base!

As the game went on, it was becoming apparent it would be tough to get a ball.  At one point early on, Carter's favorite player, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., had been warming up, and Craig tried to catch his eye and show the back of Carter's jersey, which had his name on it.  Craig swears Vladdy saw it and tried to throw a ball to him, but the netting made it a tough throw and it went over our heads.  That was a bummer.  Carter did try to go down later in the game and get a foul ball or a between-innings practice ball, but no luck.  He got pretty upset for a bit, and Craig did eventually take him over to the bullpen a few sections over to try there, but no luck there either.  After the game Carter got a little weepy and said something like, "Jacob's going to hate me because I didn't get a ball," and it broke my heart.  Jacob had been hyping this up a lot, and they had been watching videos of a couple guys who are essentially pros at getting balls, which made it seem a little too easy and ratcheted up the expectations a bit too high.  I think Carter has also been enjoying that he and Jacob are getting along a bit better, so I think it worried him that this would end all of that.  Poor kid.  Jacob did refute Carter's worry, but it was a bit of a tough ending on that front.

The Jays had a solid lead most of the game and ended up winning 5-0.  It wasn't a super exciting game, but there were some nice hits and it was good to see them winning.  Later in the game we checked the game feed for Jacob's favorite team, the Pirates, because his favorite player, Andrew McCutchen, had been trying all season to hit his 300th home run.  Sure enough, he did!  And then as we continued to watch the live game tracker online, they loaded the bases and Jacob called that the next player would hit a grand slam because he hits well against right-handed pitchers...and sure enough, he did!  It was fun to watch it all happen via the live updates, and made the day even better that Jacob's favorite player and team did well too.

Jays win, and Vladdy celebrates!

Once the game was over, we had to try to meet back up with Craig and Carter and get ready for Carter to run the bases.  We know from Pittsburgh that it's always a big production with the major league teams--a far cry from the 20 minutes it took (that we would complain about incessantly) when I was a Bisons baseball intern!  I caught this selfie on the way up from our seats.

Interestingly, we found out later that Craig's cousin and his family were sitting only a couple sections over from us!  What were the odds?

At some point when I was down by the field waiting to see Craig and Carter emerge from the tunnel to run, Jacob went and caught up with them.  Imagine my surprise when I saw all three of them on the field!  Craig took this picture when they were down there.

This was the best I could do getting a close-up of Carter running.

I waited for them at field level near where we sat and took this picture as they came off.  Carter was still a little bummed at that point but his mood perked up after running the bases, especially since they were going to get him a ball in the store after this.

As I had been watching the game, it occurred to me that one of the first pictures of Craig and me together once we were dating was actually taken not far from where we were sitting.  We came to a game with our co-workers (though secretly made it a date weekend--people knew we were friends and I think we had some excuse about meeting up in Buffalo, but I'm sure it still seemed suspicious...yet no one called us out on it for months).  Anyway, someone took our picture right near the foul pole.  Those seats no longer exist after renovations, but I convinced Craig to take a new picture anyway.  Wrong angle, but you get the idea.  Crazy to think that was only maybe a month into dating, almost 23 years ago--and just before his now legendary broadcasting career began!  Man, we look young...and skinny.  But as I said in my social media post, I wouldn't trade the years or pounds for all that we've shared together.

I also caught this picture of Craig's parents while we waited for the boys to get back from one more store run.  I thought it was cute.

Back outside, it was a nice day.  Just warm enough, and nice and sunny.  So, of course, Toronto was photo-ready.

Our van was parked across from SOHO, the hotel-condo that has the Chihuly in the front entrance overhang.  Carter ran over with me while everyone was getting settled to try for less reflective pictures than I got last time.  It's so pretty.

We ran back, loaded up, and headed out.  Another view while we were stuck in traffic...

This was along the Gardiner.  Always so much to see!

Aside from getting behind one single car that was stuck at customs forever and one quick gas/bathroom stop, it was a pretty simple trip home.  Nice to see our route in daylight for a change, and finally get back to a functioning phone.  We dropped off Craig's parents, and I caught this on the way back out of town along the lake. 

We had to stop for a quick dinner that we ate on the road, and then came home to Carter's still-packed suitcase (ha) and homework drama with Jacob.  He forgot to bring his work with him over the weekend, so we had a long, late night of him finishing it--but unfortunately he was so tired as a result that we were unsuccessful getting him up the next morning.  UGH.  Not exactly the way we wanted to finish our weekend, but despite all the hiccups, I feel like we came home on a high.  It was a really fun, very special weekend, especially spending it with Craig's parents.  After all the worrying and wondering if it would happen and whether it would go smoothly, it felt like mission accomplished...even if it wasn't exactly perfect.  But it was pretty darn close.

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!