The World Cup on a Jumbotron

This weekend my parents and brother, Thomas, were in town for a house inspection.  Thomas put an offer on a house that is 15-19 minutes from us and it was accepted, woot woot!  The inspection was scheduled for 12:30, so I stayed home with Carter while he napped and everyone else headed to the house to hang out/watch the inspector.  There were no major issues discovered so Thomas plans to go forward with the deal.  I am beyond excited about having one brother less than a mile away and the other brother less than a 20 minute drive from us.  Carter is pretty stoked about it too!

Walking to the stadium.

After the inspection we headed to the minor league baseball field to watch the US play Portugal in the World Cup game on the jumbotron for free!  The stadium has a splash pad and a playground and they had blow up slides set up for kids.  Carter had a blast on the playground and in the splash pad, but the lines were so long for the slides we decided it wasn't worth the wait.  The playground had a big "tornado slide" as we call them, I'm not sure if there is an official name for them or not.  It's just the kind of slide that is long and twists around as it goes down to the ground.  Carter climbed all the way up the playground equipment to the slide with mom on one side of the equipment on the ground and me on the other side of the equipment on the ground.  He got to the slide and was scared.  He stopped and stood in front of it not sure what to do.  A little girl, I'm guessing about 2 years old, was standing by him and gently pushed him forward to let him know it was his turn.  He got upset and thought she was pushing him, so he sat down and cried.  I went around to climb up and help him down.  When I turned to check on him I saw that my mom had climbed up the slide to help him.  Some kids had played at the splash pad before the playground so the slide was wet.  Mom grabbed Carter's hand and slipped.  So when I looked back I saw mom sliding down the slide holding Carter's hand as he slid down head first with his cheek sliding along the slide.  Mom said when she got off the slide a little boy told her she was too big for the slide!  I figured Carter wouldn't want to go down the slide again after that, so I let him walk around on the equipment alone, figuring he would just go up and down the stairs.  Instead he again tried to go down the slide and was scared.  The same little girl was by him and he reached for her hand wanting her to help him.  She gave him a weird look and went down the slide.  I climbed up and set him on his bottom and gave him a little push to help him get started.  After that we went to the splash pad.

We picked a spot down on the field to watch.

Carter was overstimulated in the splash pad.  He had been to splash pads in the past, but this one was packed with kids.  There were so many kids he was a bit hesitant and scared.  He wanted my hand so I walked around with him.  Once he warmed up a bit he ran through the area, looking back to make sure I was following him.  Then he found a little girl with Cheez-Its and befriended her, hoping for a snack.  He eventually wore out and wanted me to hold him so I picked him up and we headed toward the blow ups.  While we were walking back from the blow ups after realizing the line was ridiculous we saw the US score the first goal.  We were directly in front of the jumbotron and so close it was like sitting in the front row at the movie theater.  I got so excited I shrieked and jumped up and down.  Carter wasn't quite sure how he felt about my reaction and all the noise of the tons of cheering fans, but I was holding him so he let it go.  On our way back we found free brown bag snacks for kids with a juice box and a bag of chips.  You all know what a stickler I am about Carter eating healthy, but the food lines were ridiculous and it was past Carter's dinner time so we grabbed one and let Carter eat a few chips and drink the juice box.  We headed back down onto the field and met up with my dad who had braved the absurdly long food lines to purchase Carter a hamburger which he didn't eat much of.  I had 2 fruit strips in my purse and Carter ate both of them, a little bit of burger, and more chips than I'd like to admit.

Carter was content to sit with us and eat while also feeding grampy chips so mom and I were able to sit and watch the remainder of the game.  We got to see the US score their second goal and were shocked when Portugal scored a second goal in the last minute of the game.  I sat and couldn't believe the game was over and that's how it had ended.  I'm sure Portuguese fans were thrilled and I could imagine the excitement that would ensue from tying the game up in the last minute, but it was very disappointing as a US fan.  Even though we didn't win (although a tie is totally acceptable) it was so much fun to be with my family and to watch the game in a stadium with so many other fans on a jumbotron!  

Feeding Grampy chips.

Tired boy wanted to be carried on the way back to the car.