4B weekend (baseball, biking, breakfast, & Baptism)

We went to our first RedHawks game on Friday night. It has been something we have talked about for several years and I am thankful that we finally got it done. It was the first minor league baseball game the girls and I have ever gone to {Steve is a pro at attending baseball games}. The Newman Outdoor Field is absolutely beautiful! We had seats down in front, slightly to the left of home plate, which gave us a great view of all the action, albeit through the mesh.

The RedHawks played the Schaumburg Flyers. Not sure what a "Flyer" is supposed to be because their mascot was a man walking around in a seed corn hat and bib over-alls, so I think they should be called the "Farmers" instead.

Of course the food was a huge highlight and we definitely indulged in the required hot dog, chips and pop... and then topped that off with kettle corn and cheese curds before the night was over.

The girls both got asked to sing "Take me out to the ballgame" during the 7th inning stretch, but they declined. Abby later told me it was because she didn't know the words for sure. Steve & I have failed our kids in this arena!
The game started out slow with no runs in the first 3 innings and then our home team trailed until the bottom of the 7th. It was a nail bitter for a while, but eventually the RedHawks won the game!
I also tried to get the girls to go over and talk to the RedHawk and get an autograph or at least a picture, but they were perfectly content to just watch.
At one point, I said to Steve, "I think this idea was a swing-and-a-miss." because I didn't think the girls were that excited about it. Now I am thinking that they were just observing and would be more willing to participate the next time around.

I definitely was jumping up and down cheering and yelling and even booing when appropriate.

Oh look - I just noticed the "Flyer" mascot is kind of creeping in on the picture of Steve and I {bib-overalls guy over my shoulder}. The fireworks after the game were FANTASTIC!! We all agreed that it was probably one of the best shows we had ever seen. It was midnight by the time we got home, which made our next "B" event a bit of a risk.
We woke the girls up at 7:20 AM to pack up and hit the Central Lakes Bike Trail by 8:00 AM with the KC's for a Biking and Breakfast event.
We biked 10 miles to Dalton and ate a big {greasy} breakfast at the Dalton Cafe. I was grateful that we had other bikers with us because the girls were on their best behavior and much more cooperative than they would have been if they were just with their parents.
Once we all had full bellies from breakfast, we got to bike 10 miles back to Fergus Falls. We were cutting the time pretty close since we meeting Grandma Shirley, Maribeth, Dano, Megan and Chad for lunch at Johnny Carinos in Fargo that afternoon.
Several of the KC's were excited to go off the bike trail and check out the hand quarried bridge over a small creek. It took the help of three men to get us down the steep slope. What was really interesting is that we never would have found it on our own because you absolutely can't see it from the trail. It was an exciting treasure even if we had to work hard to avoid all the poison ivy.

We really worked hard to make up for lost time and ended up being pretty spread out. Just as I got back to the van, Steve called my cell and told me that he was still 3 miles back on the trail because Kippy had broken her bike shifter. He said the chain kept falling off so they were going very, very slow. I looked at my watch and saw that it was already 11:15 AM. Yikes! We needed to be on the road to Fargo to by noon meet the family. I had never loaded the bike rack before, but I had no choice because we had to drive back to get Kippy & Steve. I did the best job I could and Abby said, "Mom, you did that much faster than dad!", which just confirms that I didn't get the two bikes I loaded as carefully and tightly as Steve would have.

The good news is that we got Steve & Kippy picked up and made it back to the house by 11:40 AM and then a miracle happened. We all were actually able to showered, dressed and get back on the road to Fargo by 12:01 PM with a minimum of whining and complaining! I would never have believed it possible if I hadn't experienced it first hand!

We had a fabulous lunch visit with the family and all too soon we had to leave to get back home to take care of our abandoned doggie.

On Sunday, we got to experience the final "B" event of the weekend. We celebrated Maria Rae's baptism with the Schroeder family. It was a beautiful ceremony as Maria's uncle, Father Tim, was able to preside over the Mass. We spent the entire day with their family, ending up at East Lost Lake through the evening. We just love being with the Schroeders and their extended family. They are a blessing to us, which should really make this post the 5B weekend recap.

**Post blog note** I considered an alternate title for this post called 4 Pound Weekend... showing how I gained 4 lbs in one weekend overeating at a ballgame, after biking to Dalton for breakfast, with family at Johnny Carino's and finally at the Baptism celebration. However, I decided my Mean Inner Critic is the only one who cared about the extra weight. I personally had a fabulous time!**