Freedom, Food, Family, & Fireworks

No surprise that I was extremely excited to celebrate the Fourth!  With a new town comes new traditions.  We woke up early to get to the parade route to stake our claim.  We also learned our lesson after many years of being unprepared at parades - the camping chairs came with us this year.  LaVor found the perfect spot under a tree, that provided us with plenty of shade the entire time.

The motorcycle unit from the police department started off the parade with some loopty loops in the intersections.  They were loud and smelled of exhaust, both of which got The Lime riled up.

Following the officers were the veterans carrying the flags as well as a couple super heroes. Not sure how they were incorporated into everything.

The Lime could hardly contain himself when he saw the fire trucks coming, especially because the hook and ladder was leading the pack.

Several other floats followed, throwing out candy, waving, and wishing us a happy Fourth. The couple sitting next to us commented that the parade was much shorter this year than in previous years. It was over in about thirty minutes.

We had thrown around the idea of seeing a movie but after arriving at the theater, we discovered it was sold out. We grabbed a bite for lunch and returned home so The Lime could take a nap and I could get started on the potato salad.

Within a few hours, family arrived and The Lime and Laina were overcome with giggles and excitement. They dressed up, played and played, then it was time to eat.

It was still outrageously hot after dinner so we blew up some water balloons and the kiddos threw them at each other. The Lime tried to reenact our events from earlier this week, and attempted to throw a bowl of water on Auntie Amy. Despite being pregnant, she still has cat-like reflexes.

In between water games, we gobbled up some decked out ice cream sandwiches and popsicles.

LaVor bought some water guns at the store a few weeks ago, and although they're fun and shoot far, they're a little hard for three year olds to pump. So instead, they sucked the water out of them.

It wasn't long until it was dark enough to start the fireworks! Our city was putting on a show at the fairgrounds but we opted to shoot some off in the neighborhood. We got our chairs lined up and enjoyed the show.

The Fourth of July is my favorite holiday and I look forward to instilling the same love and pride that I have for our country, in The Lime. We are so blessed to live in a free land and I love celebrating it!

Water Balloons

Two things keep us inside; heat & rain.  Last week was the rain, this week it's the heat.

But after The Lime's nap yesterday, I needed to get outside.  So we ate our popsicles on the porch and then I asked him if he wanted to play a game.  "Sure!" he said.  

I remembered I had some leftover balloons from LaVor's birthday.  I filled some up and we played catch in the front yard.  Since they were regular balloons, they only popped when they hit the grass and we were standing on the cement.  After a few rounds, I suggested we wait until LaVor got home to finish the rest.

So after dinner, we all went in the backyard and tossed the remaining balloons around.  In about a minute, they all popped and then everything went to pot.

I am very particular about getting wet.  LaVor knows that I only like to get wet when I'm supposed to (taking a shower or if I'm in a bathing suit...and that's even pushing it).  I was fully clothed, as were the boys, but last night that didn't matter.

LaVor got a hold of the hose first and we were soaked.  Then we started filling up the bowls and pouring it over each others' heads.  The neighbors must have thought we took crazy pills because that's what it was...crazy!

Our backyard has a sliding door to the kitchen and our bedroom.  Unfortunately, the door to our room was locked so I had to maneuver my way through the entire house to get towels, trying not to leave a huge mess.

It really was a lot of fun.  So much fun, we went to the store and bought real water balloons so we're sure to get wet the next time...minus the hose.

Coco Crisp Bobble...waist?

After a couple months of patiently waiting, we finally got to an A's game.  And not just an A's game, but a day when they were giving away Coco Crisp "Lean" bobbleheads.  The only thing, his head doesn't bobble but his torso does, to depict him doing the Bernie Lean.

Notice his hand is backwards?  

When the A's had their Reggie Jackson bobblehead giveaway, there was an enormous crowd that showed up (or so I've read).  I came across a blog of a kid, Nick Badders, who documented the extremely long lines and noted he arrived at 9:00 for a 1:05 game.  Following in his helpful footsteps, LaVor called the coliseum Friday night to find out what time the parking gates opened.  When the lady told us 8:30, we knew that's what time we had to be there.

We pulled up right at 8:30 to a semi-empty parking lot.  We think they actually opened the gates at 8:00, or people took BART, but there were about 50-75 people ahead of us in line.  A total of 15,000 bobbleheads were available and we were determined to get one.

The line when we got there

The line about an hour later

With a bag full of snacks, a blanket to sit on, some coloring pages for The Lime, and the iPad, we were set to brave the 2.5 hour wait until we could go inside.  If we had brought a squirt bottle with a fan attached, we would have really been set.  We knew it was going to be hot, but we weren't expecting it to be that hot at 9:00 in Oakland.  But it was and we dealt with it, and some may have complained a little bit.

The little boy in front of us, Leo, kindly offered his trains to The Lime.

 The Lime and I took a little break to walk around and see how bad the other lines were.  There were people everywhere and boxes of bobbleheads everywhere.  We think we saw Josh Reddick pull into the player's parking lot in his older Chevy truck that might have had a train horn on it.  The Lime was excited to see that LaVor bought a frozen lemonade while we were gone and he (The Lime) ended up claiming it as his own.

Homeless encampment underneath the overpass. 

Several people said, "I don't get it.  Who's Nickelback?"  I got it and thought it was hilarious!

 We had a tiny countdown and when the clock struck 11:05, we had our tickets in hand and headed toward the gates.  We got our bag checked, our tickets scanned and then it happened...we all got our much anticipated bobblehead!  The Lime was so stinkin' excited and wanted to open it right then and there.  But since people were already asking to buy them, we thought it'd be safer to hold off until we at least got to our seats.

I made The Lime a sign that said, "Coco's Biggest Littlest Fan".  He and LaVor hung out above the A's dugout for a while, hoping to see Coco and have him sign it.  Unfortunately, it was hotter than it was at 9:00 (obviously) and The Lime just couldn't take it anymore.  Sadly, when I turned the recorded game on this morning, the camera crew shot the guys that The Lime was standing right next to!  Darn!

The guy in the yellow shirt and the other one holding a huge Coco head were the ones that made it on tv

We got to watch everyone stretch and warm up and unfortunately had to listen to the drunk man behind us "Boo!" every person that walked by in a non-A's outfit.  The only positive thing that came out of his mouth was when he yelled at the people around us to take their hats off during the National Anthem.

Bartolo Colon

Jerry Blevins & Pat Neshek

_____ & Grant Balfour

I think it was Blevins who was doing the Bernie Lean!

ATM & IMD performed "Bernie Lean" and Reddick seems to approve

Caught Stomper getting in on the action, too!

No words...

As soon as the game started, The Lime wanted to go home.  We had already been there for almost five hours and he was spent.  Thankfully he perked up when LaVor's parents arrived and started getting into the game.

Shouting, "Let's go Oakland!" and "Go, Coco!"

Waving to Stomper

The Lime's favorite thing to say, "Now batting, #52, Yoenis Cespedes!"

Josh Donaldson

Josh Reddick

Eric Sogard

Jerry Blevins

Pat Neshek - look at his arms!

The gentleman that sat next to me asked if we were able to get any bobbleheads.  I told him we got three, since we arrived at 8:30.  He was disappointed that his arrival time of 11:00 landed him nothing. We had already promised one of the heads to a friend, and we wanted to keep one for The Lime.  So we offered the third one to him and he couldn't believe it.  He offered us some beer and sunflower seeds in exchange but I told him we were covered in the snack department.  He made a comment about my camera compared to his camera phone.  He then asked if we were season ticket holders and I told him, "We wish!"  He kept asking me who certain players were, only to say, "Just making sure you knew!"  It was funny and it's always nice to sit next to normal people, even if they do stink.  

Things were going good up until Jarrod Parker got a cramp in his leg and had to leave the game.  Jesse Chavez was brought in and it all went downhill from there.  To avoid a sold out coliseum rush of people, we left at the top of the 7th inning, as did a number of folks.

Although we were all hot, tired, and slightly disappointed about the score of the game, we were excited for the bobblehead and had a fun adventure of getting them.